Chronological Analysis of Rigvedic Mandalas using Social Networks

TL;DR

This paper employs social network analysis and clustering techniques on Rigvedic Mandalas to infer their internal chronology based on deity worship patterns and river references.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining text analysis, clustering, and social network analysis to study the chronological order of Rigvedic Mandalas.

Findings

Deity associations reveal potential chronological sequences.

River references correlate with Mandala groupings.

Social network analysis enhances understanding of Vedic chronology.

Abstract

Establishing the chronology of the Vedas has interested scholars for the last two centuries. The oldest among them is Rig-Veda which has ten Mandalas, each composed separately. In this paper, we look at deciphering plausible pointers to the internal chronology of the Mandalas, by focusing on Gods and Goddesses worshiped in different Mandalas. We apply text analysis to the Mandalas using Clustering Techniques based on Cosine Similarity. Then we represent the association of deities with Mandalas using a grid-based Social Network that is amenable to chronological analysis and demonstrates the benefits of using Social Network Analysis for the problem at hand. Further, we analyze references to rivers to arrive at additional correlations. The approach used can be deployed generically to analyze other kinds of references and mentions and arrive at more substantive inferences.