Thomas Oberlies – författare

This comprehensive new presentation of the religion of the Rigveda is the result of a thorough-going endeavour to extrapolate historical circumstances from that literary text and present them chiefly from the perspective of the adherents to this religion. For them society, social life, and religion were inextricably bound. This helps to explain the meanings of rights and rituals. Which rituals are to be performed at what times is influenced by the way of life of these Vedic tribes which alternates between peaceful settling and predatory raids. The 'priests' who carry out the rituals embody the gods of the Rigvedic pantheon. In telling the story of these rituals, Thomas Oberlies highlights particular connections -- such as the association of the war god Indra with the priest who recites the hymns which invite the gods -- that help us solve many of the riddles which the text of the Rigveda still poses to this day. The Religion of the Rigveda includes a wealth of quotations from primary sources which form the basis of this approach to a religion that would later become Hinduism. A comprehensive index of subjects makes the book eminently accessible for use in further studies.

The two great epics of (old) India, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, are written in a language, which differs from so-called classical Sanskrit in many details. Both texts still are of an enormous importance in India and other countries. Because of this, a grammar describing all the different characteristics of epic Sanskrit has been missed until now. The Grammar of Epic Sanskrit will now close this gap.

The grammar presents a full decription of Pali, the language used in the Theravada Buddhist canon, which is still alive in Ceylon and South-East Asia. The development of its phonological and morphological systems is traced in detail from Old Indic. Comprehensive references to comparable features and phenomena from other Middle Indic languages mean that this grammar can also be used to study the literature of Jainism.

Das Einhorn, das Salomonische Urteil oder die Rahmenerzählung von 1001 Nacht sind nur wenige Beispiele für zahlreiche Themen und Motive, die seit dem 12. Jahrhundert aus dem indischen Raum, oft veredelt durch die persisch-arabische Erzählkunst, gen Westen wanderten und dort in europäischen Märchen und Geschichten wieder auftauchten. Dieses Buch verfolgt ihren Weg zurück zu den Quellen. Umfangreiche Übersetzungen und ausführliche Einführungen zu den Texten fügen sich zusammen zu einer umfassenden Gesamtdarstellung der indischen Erzählliteratur und ihrer Bedeutung für die Literatur Europas.