This book reviews the astronomical references in the Vedas and describes the geography of Sapta Saindhava, the original home of the Indo-

Aryans. This region lay roughly between the Indus and the Ganga rivers, although the periphery of the Aryan world stretched all the way to the steppes of Central Asia, to the Caspian sea and the Oxus river. The Rigvedic hymns were composed mostly on the banks of Sarasvati

and its tributary Drishadvati in the Aryan heartland called Brahmavarta.

Frawley has now written a series of books on different aspects of Vedic civilization. He is always equipoised and rational; his books are

very useful guides to understand the variegated complexity and yet the fundamental unity of Indian civilization. In view of the fact that the Vedic or Indo-European heritage lies at the basis of contemporary European and American as well as Far Eastern civilizations, these books are of universal relevance. FrawleyÍs deep knowledge of the various aspects of Vedic society gives him the ability to walk that narrow path of fidelity to the original where one is not using later categories to interpose imagined meanings. Frawley has made the Rig Veda accessible to the informed layman. Undoubtedly, these books will serve as torchlights to those who wish to chart their own ways in the dawning new age.

The Rig Veda is perhaps the oldest book in the world, dating back the dawn of history. It is the fountainhead of the spiritual traditions of India and the oldest text in any Indo-European language. It is a compendium of wisdom, poetry, mythology, riddles, and above all yogic and meditational insights which are relevant for all who wish to understand the deeper spiritual impulses behind human civilization.

This is the first translation of the Rig Veda available in the West by an author trained in the Vedic spiritual and yogic traditions. As such the book unlocks many of the mystical and esoteric keys to the Vedas not previously noted.