THE PARADIGMS OF AMBIVALENCE: DECONSTRUCTING THE BOARDERLINE BETWEEN SPIRITUALISM AND MATERIALISM IN RIG VEDA

Abstract This dissertation aims to deconstruct the borderline between spiritualism and materialism in the Rig Veda which are binary oppositions. These binaries offer a rigidity of discursive categorization. Putting objects and concepts in watertight compartments often subverts the fluidity of in-between’s and allows the privileging of one over the other. In the landmark paper, “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences”, Jacques Derrida undertook a caustic critique of the binaries, nature/culture and bricoleur/engineer as used in the works of Levi-Strauss. Here the fault is not with the notion, but with the categories. Deconstruction thus extends the significance to this recalcitrance to the entire conceptual system of philosophy. Similarly rereading the Rig Veda, perhaps the oldest text in the world on the basis of the canons set of western metaphysics can be viewed as a movement towards some kind of a reductionism. The very notion of ‘material/spiritual’ itself is part of a western legacy that reduces a holistic and all comprehensive vision of life to be categorized under two labels. In this paper, first chapter deals with the materialistic religion in Rig Veda. The second chapter is the blending of Magic, Religion and Science in Vedic thoughts. The third chapter is Materialistic cosmogony in Rig Veda. In the fourth chapter we can see the confrontation between the agents of materialism and the forces of spiritualism in Rig Veda. Finally, we conclude by attempting to deconstruct the borderline betwee