This volume develops a historically informed phenomenology of caste and untouchability. It explores the idea of 'Brahmin' and the practice of untouchability by offering a scholarly reading of ancient and medieval texts. By going beyond the notions of purity and pollution, it presents a new framework of understanding relationships between social groups and social categories. An important intervention in the study of caste and untouchability, this book will be an essential read for the scholars and researchers of political studies, political philosophy, cultural studies, Dalit studies, Indology, sociology, social anthropology and Ambedkar studies.

This book is a study of the changing relationship over time (1856-1994) between the Rishi, an ex-Untouchable jati of Bengal/South-West Bangladesh, and various groups of Catholic missionaries. The book's originality and importance lies in its multi-disciplinary approach, which combines anthropological fieldwork, historical research, philosophical enquiry and contemporary missiological debates. Moreover, it addresses issues of great current relevance in its discussions of Orientalism, Neo-colonialism and Otherness.

Contents:
List of illustrations. Introduction. 1. The Daughters of Hariti Today Geoffrey Samuel Part 1: South Asia. 2. "We Know How to Do These Things": Birth in a Newar Village 3. Knowing All the Gods: Grandmothers, God Families, and Women Healers in Nepal Linda Iltis 4. Contaminating States: Midwifery, Childbearing and the State in Rural North India Patricia Jeffrey, Roger Jeffrey and Andrew Lyon 5. Midwives and Other Women; Agency, Emotions and the Politics of Healing in Rajasthan, North West India Maya Unnithan-Kumar 6. The Healer on the Margins: The Dai in Rural Bangladesh Santi Rozario 7. Hawa, Gola and Mother-in-Law's Big Toe: On Understanding Dais' Imagery of the Female Body Janet Chawlan 8. "Baby-Friendly" Hospitals and Bad Mothers: Maneuvring Development in the Post-Partum Period in Tamilnadu, South India Cecilia Van Hollen 9. Tibetan and Indian Ideas of Birth Pollution: Similarities and Contrasts Santi Rozario and Geoffrey Samuel Part 2: Southeast Asia. 10. Birth Attendants in Northeast Thailand: Embodying Tradition in Modern Times Andrea Whitaker 11. Childbirth and Traditional Healing in an Iban Longhouse Amanda Harris 12. Of Paraji and Bidan: Hierarchies of Knowledge among Sudanese Midwives Lynda Newland 13. Adat and Modernity: Confinement in a Sasak Government Clinic Cynthia Hunter Index. About the Editors and Contributors

This is the first attempt to understand Ramanuja in the context of his religious and philosophical tradition. It is the only work which establishes his indebtedness to his immediate predecessor Yamuna and which identifies his actual opponents. It is accordingly a contribution to the wider history of classical Indian thought and not just a consideration of a single individual and his tradition.

This work, first published in 1968, presents the fabulous world of Hinduism in its entirety in two volumes. It is the first general encyclopedia of Hinduism covering every major aspect of Hindu life and thought, embodying the results of modern scholarship yet not ignoring the traditional point of view. It contains over 700 articles, each of which gives a comprehensive account of the subject, and by a system of cross references interlinks all topics related to it, so that a single theme may be traced in all its ramifications through the whole book. An index of over 8,000 items, which in itself forms a veritable treasury of Sanskrit terms and names, will further assist the researcher finding their way among the lesser topics treated in the work.

This collection comprises ten important volumes in the study of Hinduism. Written by leading authors, these works gather together Hindu religious practice, ethics and art to form an in-depth overview of the Hindu world. A Dictionary of Hinduism is a key work, as is the two-volume Hindu World. As a whole, they form an invaluable reference collection.

This is a subset of F. Max Mullers great collection The Sacred Books of the East which includes translations of all the most important works of the seven non-Christian religions which have exercised a profound influence on the civilizations of the continent of Asia. The works have been translated by leading authorities in their field.

This is a subset of the Sacred Books of the East Series which includes translations of all the most important works of the seven non-Christian religions which have exercised a profound influence on the civilizations of the continent of Asia. The works have been translated by leading authorities in their field.

Every year, the Indian pilgrimage town of Pushkar sees its population of 20,000 swell by two million visitors. Since the 1970s, Pushkar, which is located about 250 miles southwest of the capital of New Delhi, has received considerable attention from international tourists. Originally hippies and backpackers, today's visitors now come from a wide range of social positions. To locals, though, Pushkar is more than just a gathering place for pilgrims and tourists: it is where Brahma, the creator god, made his home; it is where Hindus should feel blessed to stay, if only for a short time; and it is where locals would feel lucky to be reborn, if only as a pigeon. In short, it is their paradise. But even paradise needs upkeep. In Guest is God, Drew Thomases uses ethnographic fieldwork to explore the massive enterprise of building heaven on earth. The articulation of sacred space necessarily works alongside economic changes brought on by tourism and globalization. Here the contours of what actually constitutes paradise are redrawn by developments in, and the agents of, tourism. And as paradise is made and remade, people in Pushkar help to create a brand of Hindu religion that is tailored to its local surroundings while also engaging global ideas. The goal, then, becomes to show how religion and tourism can be mutually constitutive.

The aim of this book is to discover in what light the religious and literary tradition of India appears where caste is concerned; including discussions on the present system, the past, and its origins.

'This is a deep and intense book, written with empathy for everything involved, and is of vital global, social significance.' - Revd Mary Sellers, Church Times

'Gosling's work is clearly and passionately written, betraying careful scholarship in science and religious studies. It should help to clarify the role of religious traditions in increasing ecological awareness, and, it is to be hoped, in promoting some resolution of the social and environmental problems our world faces' - THES

'The book is a must in any serious library dealing with ecology in India and Southeast Asia' - G. Gispert-Sauch, VJTR

'... a book which should allow Hinduism and Buddhism, and activists from India and Thailand, to challenge those of us from "religions of the book".' - Andrew Wingate, Theology

A detailed case study of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Britain. The book studies the particular development of a new religious movement within the context of Britain, and issues relating to minority religions' place within a multicultural but still hegemonically Christian society.

Series Information:
RoutledgeCurzon Studies in Asian Religion

Hinduism outside the Indian subcontinent represents a divergent diaspora. From Britain to the Caribbean, diasporic Hindus have substantially reformed their beliefs and practiced in accordance with their historical and social circumstances. In this analysis Steven Vertovec looks at why Hindu indentities have developed in such different ways in different contexts and in doing so questions the assumption that subcontinent Hinduism represents the authentic articulation of Hindu identity. Amongst the case studies Vertovec examines are: the historical construction of the category "Hinduism in India", the formation of a distinctive Caribbean Hindu culture during the nineteenth century, the role of youth groups in forging new identities during Trinidad's Hindu Renaissance, the reproduction of regionally based identities and frictions in Britain's Hindu communities and the differences in temple use across the diaspora. This book provides a detailed view of the Hindu diaspora in the past, present and its possible future.

Hinduism outside the Indian subcontinent represents a contrasting and scattered community. From Britain to the Caribbean, diasporic Hindus have substantially reformed their beliefs and practices in accordance with their historical and social circumstances. In this theoretically innovative analysis Steven Vertovec examines:
* the historical construction of the category 'Hinduism in India'
* the formation of a distinctive Caribbean Hindu culture during the nineteenth century
* the role of youth groups in forging new identities during Trinidad's Hindu Renaissance
* the reproduction of regionally based identities and frictions in Britain's Hindu communities
* the differences in temple use across the diaspora.
This book provides a rich and fascinating view of the Hindu diaspora in the past, present and its possible futures.

Anantadas is the first "biographer" who, around 1600, wrote about the most popular bhakti poets of the 15th and 16th centuries in Northern India. This study of these manuscripts yields a broad spectrum of the linguistic and morphological variants. It also reveals the processes of oral and scribal transmission during this time when sectarian interests appropriated certain poets and changed their "biographies" accordingly. The main bulk of the book consists of a critical edition of the manuscripts (in Hindi), with an English translation of each of the "biographies", preceded by an analytical introduction in which the main ideas of the biographies are highlighted.

'Defining Hinduism' focuses on what Hinduism is, what it has been, and what some have argued it should be. The oldest of the world religions, Hinduism presents a complex pantheon and system of beliefs. Far from being unchanging, Hinduism has, like any faith of duration, evolved in response to changing cultural, political and ideological demands. The book brings together some of the leading scholars working on South Asian religions today.

Within the broad Hindu religious tradition, there have been for millennia many subtraditions generically called Vaisnava, who insist that the most appropriate mode of religious faith and experience is bhakti, or devotion, to the supreme personal deity, Visnu. Caitanya Vaisnavas are a community of Vaisnava devotees who coalesced around Krsna Caitanya (1486-1533), who taught devotion to the name and form of Krsna, especially in conjunction with his divine consort Radha and who also came to be looked upon by many as Krsna himself who had graciously chosen to be born in Bengal to exemplify the ideal mode of loving devotion (prema-bhakti). This book focusses on the relationship between the 'transcendent' intentionality of religious faith of human beings and their 'mundane' socio-cultural ways of living, through a detailed study of the social implications of the Caitanya Vaisnava devotional Hindu tradition in pre-colonial and colonial Bengal. Structured in two parts, the first analyzes the articulation of Krsna-bhakti within the broad Hindu sector of Bengali society. The second section examines Hindu-Muslim relationships in Bengal from the particular vantage point of the Caitanya Vaisnava tradition, and in which the subtle influence of Krsna-bhakti, it is argued, may be detected. In both sections, the bulk of attention is given to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when Bengal was under independent Sultanate or emergent Mughal rule and thus free of the impact of British and European colonial influence. Arguing that the Caitanya Vaisnava devotion contributed to the softening of the potentially alienating socio-cultural divisions of class, caste, sect and religio-political community in Bengal, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Asian Religion and Hinduism, in particular devotional Hinduism, both premodern and modern, as well as to scholars and students of South Asian social history, Hindu-Muslim relations, and Bengali religious culture.

Mystical Science and Practical Religion examines the religious discourse employed by Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh applied science professionals and students, mainly engineers and Information Technology (IT) workers. Although applied scientists, especially immigrants to the United States, have shown high rates of religiosity, there have been few studies of this subject. Based on interviews with forty-five professionals and students, Cimino finds that although they are from different faiths, these applied scientists share a common discourse that blends religion and science. They each view their religions as the "most scientific." Their work and study reshapes how they practice and conceptualize their faiths, though not in the expected directions of secularization and fundamentalism. This book provides a unique look at how the much contested fields of science and religion interact in real life.

Judaism's Promise, Meeting The Challenge Of Modernity follows Seymour W. Itzkoff's well-received three-book series, Who Are the Jews? Judaism's Promise, confronts the many revolutions that have reshaped Judaism over the centuries allowing it and its people a path of leadership into the modern world. It takes the writings of the Torah, Holy Scriptures, and Talmud seriously as exemplars of the human search for civilizational and moral intellectuality. The book's basic concern is with the withering of Judaism as a force in contemporary Western civilization. Sadly millions of Jews have left the faith. Others venture forth only hesitantly into a synagogue, now a bastion of fossilized ritual and conspicuous consumption. These millions needed more from the orthodoxy, and this book attempts to show them the way back by giving renewed life to the heritages of Judaism, and, consequently, to its meaning for the modern world. Judaism's Promise argues for a return to the synagogue's originating Hellenistic commitment "to come together" in intellectual and moral study. As Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan argued, Judaism must once more become in the 20-21st century the civilization that it once represented to the wider world, and not a fossilized ceremonialism.

This text examines the role of the Hindu tradition in the ideology and methodology of the Indian Women's Movement. The book analyzes the relationship between the Hindu tradition and the Indian Women's Movement in order to demonstrate that members of the movement have advanced different interpretations of the tradition, and hence that they have had different reasons for and against appeal to Hindu beliefs and values. Through a review of speeches and writings of leading 19th- and 20th-century figures of the movement, the work identifies positive as well as negative representations of the tradition and its implications for women. Acordingly, it shows when and why the movement has chosen either to offer a traditional justification for its aims and activities or to eschew such a justification in favour of an alternative rationale. The study integrates an awareness of modern discourse about the position of women in the Hindu tradition with an account of the Indian Women's Movement. In so doing, it considers both how the Indian Women's Movement has conceptualized the position of women in the Hindu tradition and how the movement has challenged this position, concentrating on reference to t

This book studies the phenomenon of altruistic suicide which was a form of political protest. The authors investigate the self-immolation of German pastor Oskar Brusewitz and compare it with other politically motivated suicides. They portray both life and pastoral activity of Brusewitz and analyse the motives of his suicide. Furthermore, they evaluate the judgement of this tragic event by confreres in faith and other witnesses. Besides the thorough analysis of Oskar Brusewitz's case, the book inspects the genesis of self-immolation and locates it in the tradition of Buddhism and Hinduism. It depicts cases of self-immolations in Vietnam, the USA, India, Tibet, China, Iran, and particularly in Middle-Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia, Poland and Lithuania). The analysis also covers cases of self-immolations that occurred during the Arab Spring (2011-2012) and in Bulgaria in 2013.

Hinduism is a concise and readable survey of the history of Hinduism, from its origins in the Indus Valley to its increasing popularity in today's Western world. Focusing particularly on the modern period, it provides a valuable introduction to contemporary Hindu beliefs and practices and looks at the ways in which this religion is meeting the challenges of the modern world.

Religious identity constitutes a key element in the formation, development and sustenance of South Asian diasporic communities. Through studies of South Asian communities situated in multiple locales, this book explores the role of religious identity in the social and political organization of the diaspora. It accounts for the factors that underlie the modification of ritual practice in the process of resettlement, and considers how multicultural policies in the adopted state, trans-generational changes and the proliferation of transnational media has impacted the development of these identities in the diaspora. Also crucial is the gender dimension, in terms of how religion and caste affect women's roles in the South Asian diaspora. What emerges then from the way separate communities in the diaspora negotiate religion are diverse patterns that are strategic and contingent. Yet, paradoxically, the dynamic and evolving relationship between religion and diaspora becomes necessary, even imperative, for sustaining a cohesive collective identity in these communities. This bookw as published as a special issue of South Asian Diaspora.

Sri Aurobindo was an Indian nationalist, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. This book is an enquiry into the integral philosophy of Aurobindo and its contemporary relevance. It offers a reading of Aurobindo's key texts by bringing them into conversation with religious studies and the hermeneutical traditions. The central argument is that Aurobindo's integral philosophy is best understood as a hermeneutical philosophy of religion. Such an understanding of Aurobindo's philosophy, offering both substantive and methodological insights for the academic study of religion, subdivides into three interrelated aims. The first is to demonstrate that the power of the Aurobindonian vision lies in its self-conception as a traditionary-hermeneutical enquiry into religion; the second, to draw substantive insights from Aurobindo's enquiry to envision a way beyond the impasse within the current religious-secular debate in the academic study of religion. Working out of the condition of secularism, the dominant secularists demand the abandonment of the category 'religion' and the dismantling of the academic discipline of religious studies. Aurobindo's integral work on 'religion', arising out of the Vedanta tradition, critiques the condition of secularity that undergirds the religious-secular debate. Finally, informed by the hermeneutical tradition and building on the methodological insights from Aurobindo's integral method, the book explores a hermeneutical approach for the study of religion which is dialogical in nature. This book will be of interest to academics studying Religious Studies, Philosophy of Religion, Continental Hermeneutics, Modern India, Modern Hinduism as well as South Asian Studies.