Abstract

In the essay "In Comparison a Magic Dwells" (1979/1982), J.Z. Smith discusses the problems of comparison and analyzes the limits of standard models applied in the study of religions: how to compare, what one can compare, and, above all, which comparison is adequate for the history of religions? Starting from these methodological questions, this article will deal with magic as an abstract notion for the interpretation of textual canons in the religious traditions of ancient India, especially as concerns the alleged exclusion and late inclusion of the "fourth Veda" in the mainstream of tradition. This article will redescribe the construction of the Vedic canon, adopting Smith’s proposal to consider "magic" as "just one possibility in any given culture's rich vocabulary of alterity" ("Trading Places", 1992/1995, 221) and "canon" as "one form of a basic cultural process of limitation and of overcoming that limitation through ingenuity" ("Sacred persistence: Toward a redescription of canon", 1977/1982, 52).