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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Hinduism
Originally published in 1997 "A wonderful balance of detail and
clarity with excellent introductory essays on the Indus Valley
civilization, the Vedic Period, the Upanishads, and devotional
Hinduism," Religious Studies Review; Choice Outstanding Academic
Book selling over 10,000 copies, and now revised and expanded to
two volumes (Volume I: Major Deities and Social Structures)
Herewith an outstanding introduction to the development of the
religion of Hinduism from earliest times. While historical
tradition is explored from as far back as pre-Aryan times in the
fascinating ancient civilization that existed in India a few
thousand years BCE, later expressions of religion and philosophy
that informed early Hindu tradition are gleaned from its sacred
texts. The author examines how present beliefs and practices have
been informed by past traditions, and the resulting accommodation
in Hinduism today. The book serves as an introduction to the two
strands of theism and philosophical thought that emerged from early
scriptures as they are expressed independently in Hinduism as well
as in those traditions where they are woven together to create new
religious movements. No prior knowledge of Hinduism is required.
Contents include: The Indus Valley Civilization; The Vedic Period;
Vedanta; The Advaita Vedanta of Sankara; Influential Theories
(Samkhya and Yoga); Devotional Hinduism; The Bhagavad Gita; Songs
of the Poets; The theistic philosophy of Ramanuja; The devotional
theism of Caitanya; Unity and diversity.
The Brahma-sutra, attributed to Badaraya (ca. 400 CE), is the
canonical book of Vedanta, the philosophical tradition which became
the doctrinal backbone of modern Hinduism. As an explanation of the
Upanishads, it is principally concerned with the ideas of Brahman,
the great ground of Being, and of the highest good. The Philosophy
of the Brahma-sutra is the first introduction to concentrate on the
text and its ideas, rather than its reception and interpretation in
the different schools of Vedanta. Covering the epistemology,
ontology, theory of causality and psychology of the Brahma-sutra,
and its characteristic theodicy, it also: * Provides a
comprehensive account of its doctrine of meditation * Elaborates on
its nature and attainment, while carefully considering the wider
religious context of Ancient India in which the work is situated *
Draws the contours of Brahma-sutra's intellectual biography and
reception history. By contextualizing the Brahma-sutra's teachings
against the background of its main collocutors, it elucidates how
the work gave rise to widely divergent ontologies and notions of
practice. For both the undergraduate student and the specialist
this is an illuminating and necessary introduction to one of Indian
philosophy's most important works.
One of the world's leading authorities on Hinduism gives us a work
of extraordinary scholarship on the religion. Through this
magisterial volume - which she calls 'the book of my books' - Wendy
Doniger, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest and most
original scholars of Hinduism, enlarges our understanding of an
ancient and complex religion. Comprising a series of connected
essays, On Hinduism examines many of the most crucial and contested
issues in Hinduism, from the time of the Vedas to the present day:
Are Hindus monotheists or polytheists? Is it possible to reconcile
images of god with qualities (saguna) and without qualities
(nirguna)? How can atheists be Hindu, and how can unrepentant Hindu
sinners obtain salvation? Why have Hindus devoted so much attention
to addictions, and why have they always been ambivalent about
non-injury (ahimsa)? How have Hindu ideas about death, rebirth and
karma changed in the course of history, and what do dogs and cows
tell us about Hinduism? How and under what conditions does a
pluralistic religion remarkable for its intellectual tolerance
foster intolerance? The book closes with short autobiographical
essays in which Doniger looks back upon her academic career -
complete with its Orientalist heritage, self-critiques and
controversies - and talks eloquently and movingly about the
influence of Hinduism on her own philosophy of life. Drawing upon
Doniger's writing over forty years, On Hinduism is scholarship of
the highest order, and a compelling analysis of one of the world's
great faiths.
Digital Religion does not simply refer to religion as it is carried
out online, but more broadly studies how digital media interrelate
with religious practice and belief. This collection explores
Digital Hinduism and consequentially studies how Hinduism is
expressed in the digital sphere and how Hindus utilise digital
media. Highlighting digital Hinduism and including case studies
with foci on India, Asia and the global Hindu diaspora, this book
features contributions from an interdisciplinary and international
panel of academics. The chapters focus on specific case studies,
which in summary exemplify the wide variety and diversity of what
constitutes Digital Hinduism today. Applying methods and research
questions from various disciplinary backgrounds appropriate to the
study of religion and digital culture, such as Religious Studies,
South Asian Studies, Anthropology and Media and Communication
Studies, this book is vital reading for any scholar interested in
the relationship between religion and the digital world.
Are the richness and diversity of rituals and celebrations in South
Asia unique? Can we speak of a homo ritualis when it comes to India
or Hinduism? Are Indians or Hindus more involved in rituals than
other people? If so, what makes them special? Homo Ritualis is the
first book to present a Hindu theory of rituals. Based on extensive
textual studies and field-work in Nepal and India, Axel Michaels
argues that ritual is a distinctive way of acting, which, as in the
theater, can be distinguished from other forms of action. The book
analyzes ritual in these cultural-specific and religious contexts,
taking into account how indigenous terms and theories affect and
contribute to current ritual theory. It describes and investigates
various forms of Hindu rituals and festivals, such as life-cycle
rituals, the Vedic sacrifice, vows processions, and the worship of
deities (puja). It also examines conceptual components of (Hindu)
rituals such as framing, formality, modality, and theories of
meaning.
This book investigates women's ritual authority and the common
boundaries between religion and notions of gender, ethnicity, and
identity. Nanette R. Spina situates her study within the
transnational Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi movement established by
the Tamil Indian guru, Bangaru Adigalar. One of the most prominent,
defining elements of this tradition is that women are privileged
with positions of leadership and ritual authority. This represents
an extraordinary shift from orthodox tradition in which religious
authority has been the exclusive domain of male Brahmin priests.
Presenting historical and contemporary perspectives on the
transnational Adhiparasakthi organization, Spina analyzes women's
roles and means of expression within the tradition. The book takes
a close look at the Adhiparasakthi society in Toronto, Canada (a
Hindu community in both its transnational and diasporic
dimensions), and how this Canadian temple has both shaped and
demonstrated their own diasporic Hindu identity. The Toronto
Adhiparasakthi society illustrates how Goddess theology, women's
ritual authority, and "inclusivity" ethics have dynamically shaped
the identity of this prominent movement overseas. Based on years of
ethnographic fieldwork, the volume draws the reader into the rich
textures of culture, community, and ritual life with the Goddess.
Standard works on Christology seldom give much consideration to the
way Christ is perceived outside the Western tradition. The Other
Jesus is an in depth study of understandings of the person of Jesus
Christ by major Asian Christian theologians of the 20th century.
Taking examples mainly from India and Japan, the author shows how
the religious and social contexts of these countries have shaped
the way in which Jesus has been understood. The final chapters
examine how new approaches to Jesus have emerged from people
movements in Asia in Dalit, Minjung, and feminist perceptions.
Throughout the author seeks to relate Asian perspectives to Western
Christologies, and to suggest ways in which they present challenges
to the world wide church.
This book about the missing Divine Feminine in Christianity and
Judaism chronicles a personal as well as an academic quest of an
Indian woman who grew up with Kali and myriad other goddesses. It
is born out of a women's studies course created and taught by the
author called The Goddess in World Religions. The book examines how
the Divine Feminine was erased from the western consciousness and
how it led to an exclusive spiritually patriarchal monotheism with
serious consequences for both women's and men's psychological and
spiritual identity. While colonial, proselytizing and patriarchal
ways have denied the divinity inherent in the female of the
species, a recent upsurge of body-centric practices like Yoga and
innumerable books about old and new goddesses reveal a deep seated
mother hunger in the western consciousness. Written from a
practicing Hindu/Buddhist perspective, this book looks at the
curious phenomenon called the Black Madonna that appears in Europe
and also examines mystical figures like Shekhinah in Jewish
mysticism. People interested in symbols of the goddess, feminist
theologians, and scholars interested in the absence of goddesses in
monotheisms may find this book's perspective and insights
provocative.
In 1026, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni raided the Hindu temple of
Somanatha (Somnath in textbooks of the colonial period). The story
of the raid has reverberated in Indian history, but largely during
the raj. It was first depicted as a trauma for the Hindu population
not in India, but in the House of Commons. The triumphalist
accounts of the event in Turko-Persian chronicles became the main
source for most eighteenth-century historians. It suited everyone
and helped the British to divide and rule a multi-millioned
subcontinent. In her new book, Romila Thapar, the doyenne of Indian
historians, reconstructs what took place by studying other sources,
including local Sanskrit inscriptions, biographies of kings and
merchants of the period, court epics and popular narratives that
have survived. The result is astounding and undermines the
traditional version of what took place. These findings also contest
the current Hindu religious nationalism that constantly utilises
the conventional version of this history.
This book explores the rise of the Great Goddess by focusing on the
development of sakti (creative energy), maya (objective illusion),
and prakrti (materiality) from Vedic times to the late Puranic
period, clarifying how these principles became central to her
theology.
Bringing together the study of the Greek classics and Indology,
Arjuna-Odysseus provides a comparative analysis of the shared
heritage of the Mahabharata and early Greek traditions presented in
the texts of Homer and Hesiod. Building on the ethnographic
theories of Durkheim, Mauss, and Dumont, the volume explores the
convergences and rapprochements between the Mahabharata and the
Greek texts. In exploring the networks of similarities between the
two epic traditions, it also reformulates the theory of Georges
Dumezil regarding Indo-European cultural comparativism. It includes
a detailed comparison between journeys undertaken by the two epic
heroes - Odysseus and Arjuna - and more generally, it ranges across
the philosophical ideas of these cultures, and the epic traditions,
metaphors, and archetypes that define the cultural ideology of
ancient Greece and India. This book will be useful to scholars and
researchers of Indo-European comparativism, social and cultural
anthropology, classical literature, Indology, cultural and
post-colonial studies, philosophy and religion, as well as to those
who love the Indian and Greek epics.
The field of Hindu-Christian studies revives theology as a
particularly useful interreligious discipline. Though a
sub-division of the broader Hindu-Christian dialogue, it is also a
distinct field of study, proper to a smaller group of religious
intellectuals. At its best it envisions a two-sided, mutual
conversation, grounded in scholars' knowledge of their own
tradition and of the other. Based on the Westcott-Teape Lectures
given in India and at the University of Cambridge, this book
explores the possibilities and problems attendant upon the field of
Hindu-Christian Studies, the reasons for occasional flourishing and
decline in such studies, and the fragile conditions under which the
field can flourish in the 21st century. The chapters examine key
instances of Christian-Hindu learning, highlighting the Jesuit
engagement with Hinduism, the modern Hindu reception of Western
thought, and certain advances in the study of religion that enhance
intellectual cooperation. This book is a significant contribution
to a sophisticated understanding of Christianity and Hinduism in
relation. It presents a robust defense of comparative theology and
of Hindu-Christian Studies as a necessarily theological discipline.
It will be of wide interest in the fields of Religious Studies,
Theology, Christianity and Hindu Studies.
This book offers a close-up view of the religious world of one of
the most influential families in Vrinbadan, India's premier place
of pilgrimage for worshipers of Krishna. This priestly family has
arguably been the most creative force in this important town. Their
influence also radiates well beyond India's borders both because of
their tireless work in fostering scholarship and performance about
Krishna and because the scion of the family, Shrivatsa Goswami, has
become an international spokesman for Hindu ways and concerns.
Case, who has been an occasional resident in the family ashram,
gives the reader a real sense of the atmosphere of daily life
there, and the complete devotion of the residents to the service
and worship of Krishna.
This book explores the representation of Hinduism through myth and
discourse in urban Hindi theatre in the period 1880-1960. It
discusses representative works of seven influential playwrights and
looks into the ways they have imagined and re-imagined Hindu
traditions. Diana Dimitrova examines the intersections of Hinduism
and Hindi theatre, emphasizing the important role that both myth
and discourse play in the representation of Hindu traditions in the
works of Bharatendu Harishcandra, Jayshankar Prasad, Lakshminarayan
Mishra, Jagdishcandra Mathur, Bhuvaneshvar, Upendranath Ashk, and
Mohan Rakesh. Dimitrova'a analysis suggests either a traditionalist
or a more modernist stance toward religious issues. She emphasizes
the absence of Hindi-speaking authors who deal with issues implicit
to the Muslim or Sikh or Jain, etc. traditions. This prompts her to
suggest that Hindi theatre of the period 1880-1960, as represented
in the works of the seven dramatists discussed, should be seen as
truly 'Hindu-Hindi' theatre.
About two hundred kilometers west of the city of Karachi, in the
desert of Baluchistan, Pakistan, sits the shrine of the Hindu
Goddess Hinglaj. Despite the temple's ancient Hindu and Muslim
history, an annual festival at Hinglaj has only been established
within the last three decades, in part because of the construction
of the Makran Coastal Highway, which connects the distant rural
shrine with urban Pakistan. Now, an increasingly confident minority
Hindu community has claimed Hinglaj as their main religious center,
a site for undisturbed religious performance and expression. In
Hinglaj Devi, Jurgen Schaflechner studies literary sources in
Hindi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, and Urdu alongside extensive
ethnographical research at the shrine, examining the political and
cultural influences at work at the temple and tracking the remote
desert shrine's rapid ascent to its current status as the most
influential Hindu pilgrimage site in Pakistan. Schaflechner
introduces the unique character of this place of pilgrimage and
shows its modern importance not only for Hindus, but also for
Muslims and Sindhi nationalists. Ultimately, this is an
investigation of the Pakistani Hindu community's beliefs and
practices at their largest place of worship in the Islamic Republic
today-a topic of increasing importance to Pakistan's contemporary
society.
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