Lifestyles of the Ṛṣi and Famous: Proto-Biographical Narrative in Late Vedic Literature

This presentation examines the "proto-biographical roots" of Late-Vedic life stories in the brāhmaṇas and argues how these serve as a basis for narrative expansions into "life scenes" (i.e., stray references taking on greater and greater narrative context). The paper examines the references of several individuals named in these texts, where the references serve as kernels for expansion, both within these texts, but then into later literature where "life scene" may become "life story." Producers of such ritual manuals, of course, did not see their project as "biographical" or "hagiographical," but the paper suggests how a shifting model of textual and ritual authority produced a "biographical impulse" towards teacher-sage life stories in later literature.