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‘The civilization of the Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas or ‘Forest Books’ … illustrates at the same time that forest continued to be contrasted with village’ : Malamoud 1976 treats forests and villages, Sprokhoff 1981 and Rau 1997 villages.

‘He (Agni) could not cross the Sadānīrā’ : Satapatha Brāhmaṇa 1.4.1.14.

‘We have seen that the term Brāhmaṇa is used in several senses … one of them: a Vedic composition in prose’ : Rau 1957, 1970 and 1976 examine the society that is depicted in these Brāhmaṇas. Since at least 1962, more than a hundred scholarly studies have been devoted to the society of the Brāhmaṇas and related topics, especially ritual, by Klaus Mylius. They are listed in Göhler, Lars (ed.), 2005. Indische Kultur im Kontext: Rituale, Texte und Ideen aud Indien unde der Welt. Festschrift Professor Klays Mylius, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz: 457–473. Mylius was the most well-known Vedic and Sanskrit scholar in what was formerly known as the German Democratic Republic. It explains some Marxist phrases, easily abstracted, and would fit in the wider historical perspective of India at the time of the Brāhmaṇas as studied by Basu 1969, outdated in parts.—‘That is what brahmins always remained, in India as elsewhere’: Skilling, Peter. 2007. ‘King, Sangha, and Brahmans: Ideology, Ritual and Power in Pre-Modern Siam’ in Harris, Ian, (ed.), 2007. Buddhism, Power and Political Order. London and New York: Routledge: 182–215, is much more detailed and specific.

‘Parokṣakāmā hi devā’ : Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 6.1.1.2 and elsewhere.

‘We can speak here of esotericism or the keeping of secret doctrines’ : # 173.

‘This was clearly explained by Āryabhaṭa’ : Clark, W.E. 1930. The Āryabhaṭīya of Āryabhaṭa. Chicago: The University of Chicago IV: 49.—‘Al-Bīrūnī, equally great as a scientist and also a student of Indic civilization’: Sachau, E. 1888, 1910, etc. Alberuni’s India. I-II. London. I: 25.

‘A similar statement, even more colorful, is due to Johannes Keppler’ : it is the first of three mottos from the Archive for History of Exact Sciences. Staal. 2000. ‘Vyākaraṇa and śulva in the light of Newton’s Lesson’ in Tsuchida, Ryutaro and Albrecht Wezler (eds.), Harānandalaharī. Volume in Honour of Professor Minoru Hara on his Seventieth Birthday. Reinbek: Dr. Inge Wezler: Verlag für Orientalistische Fachpublikationen: 349–74, puts it in more context.—‘The Rigvedic Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (AB) is the earliest source that is explicit about the Sarasvatī river ‘ending in the desert’: Arthur Berriedale Keith. 1920, 1971. Rigveda Brāhmaṇas: The Aitareya and Kauītaki Brāhmaṇas, Translated from the Original Sanskrit. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Oriental Series and Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas: 148, tells the somewhat confusing story: ‘The seers performed a sacrificial season on the Sarasvatī; they drove away Kavaa Ailūa from the Soma, “The child of a slave woman, a cheat, no Brahman; how has he been consecrated in our midst?” They sent him out to the desert, (saying) “There let thirst slay him; let him drink not the water of the Sarasvatī.” He sent away to the wilderness, afflicted by thirst, saw the “child of the waters” hymn (RV 5.75.9). “Forth among the gods let there be speeding for the Brahman.” Thereby he went to the dear abode of the water; him the waters welled out after; all around him Sarasvatī hastened.’—‘The same information is found in other Brāhmaṇas’: Caland, W. 1931. Paṇcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa: the Brāhmaṇa of Twenty-Five Chapters. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal: 25.10.1, p. 634, is more concise: ‘They (the participants of the sattra) undertake the consecration at the place (i.e., to the south of the place) where the (river) Sarasvatī is lost (in the sand of the desert).’

‘Other valid insights are hidden in the muddy contexts of the Aitareya Āraṇyaka’ : Deshpande 1997a. Introduction, Chapters. 4 and 5.