Book III can be regarded as a kind of summary of the preceding opinions in the history of speculation on púruÞa-, bráhmaúand ātmán-. It is dramatized into a scene of the Brahmodya (theological disputation) held by King Janaka in which famous priest-scholars participate, among them Yājñavalkya and Śākalya. This framework as well as some parts of its contents (e.g. questions about the number of t...

The last two plays of Aristophanes show a world that for the first time in the development of Western civilization can reasonably be called secular. The secularity of Ecclesiazusae and Plutus lies in their presenting human individuality as containing in its activity the various aspects of the life of the polis, more thoroughly than the gods who presided over them. The gods do not thereby vanish...