The Vedic tradition of the Samhitas enshrines the most ancient millenarian concepts, forms, doctrines and images of the living and of the divine of the Indian people in particular, and of the entire Western Indo-European thought and creativity through the common roots of linguistic expression. Vedic studies carried out by Western scholarship in the 19th century thus acquire a historic importance in our century when biospheres of our inheritance are being threatened by the techno spheres of our creation.

In 1931 Prof. Louis Renou brought out his Bibliographie Vedique to furnish a more or less complete list of all publications in the domain of Vedic studies. The term Vedic comprises Samhita, Brahmana, Upanisad, Sutra and all the dependent texts. He tried to make it relatively complete depending on the library resources of Paris, the researches of Prof. W. Wust of Munich, the Orientalische Bibliographie, and the catalogues of the British Museum which used to get most of the Indian publications under the Copyright law. He incorporated all the texts that discuss the facts directly relevant to the bibliography. He furnished brief indications of the contents of works whose title was not explicit.

This reprint of the Vedic Bibliography by Prof. Louis Renou gives us access to the detailed analysis of the religion, political thought, values of ideal humanity, divinity, cosmos, flowering of the gods and of cults, mythology, ritual, and natural sciences — all that was achieved through the constant creative efforts of Vedic man.

The work is divided into two parts: one on the group of texts, and the other of studies. He gives several appendices of works anterior to the memorable essay of Colebrooke "On the Vedas" (1805), which marks the introduction of these studies in Western academics. The bibliography is divided into 201 chapters. The abbreviations are mainly those of the Orientalische Bibliographie. The year of publication is indicated by the last two digits of the date, except for the years prior to 1831. To avoid confusion, the years before 1831 are transcribed whole. For periodicals and collections, the volume number is mentioned besides the year. The titles in square brackets are translated titles, whose original could not be given. This work would not have been possible without recourse to existing catalogues which have been listed in chapters 1 and 2.

The Bibliography is a rich source of information on the Samhitas of the Four Vedas, Brahmanas, Sutras, Aranyakas and Upanisads.

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