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Contributed articles orginally presented at symposia in 1990 and 1997.
An authoritative collection on the history of Hindu religious practices. Hindu Practice considers traditions of asceticism, yoga, and devotion, including dance and music, developed in Hinduism over long periods of time.
The Oxford History of Hinduism: Modern Hinduism focuses on developments resulting from movements within the tradition as well as contact between India and the outside world through both colonialism and globalization. Divided into three parts, part one considers the historical background to modern conceptualizations of Hinduism. Moving away from the reforms of the 19th and early 20th century, part two includes five chapters each presenting key developments and changes in religious practice in modern Hinduism. Part three moves to issues of politics, ethics, and law. This section maps and explains the powerful legal and political contexts created by the modern state--first the colonial government and then the Indian Republic--which have shaped Hinduism in new ways. The last two chapters look at Hinduism outside India focusing on Hinduism in Nepal and the modern Hindu diaspora.
Hinduism is practised by about 80% of India's population, and by about 30,000,000 people outside India. But how is Hinduism defined, and what basis does the religion have? This work gives concise insights into the central preoccupations of Hinduism.
"The foundation of Hindu law is the voluminous textual tradition called Dharmaśāstra, the expert tradition on dharma. This book seeks to delineate the historical development of Dharmaśāstra, even though the tradition presented dharma as timeless and ahistorical. The volume establishes the importance of law for the history and study of Hinduism by providing interpretive descriptions of all the major topics of Hindu dharma according to this tradition. First, two broad introductions to the historical development of the textual sources of Hindu law suggest new ways to understand both the original texts (smṛti) and the later commentaries and digests. Next, groundbreaking research into the origin of the householder (gṛhastha), who is at the center of the Dharmaśāstric enterprise, provides new insights into both the origin of this genre and many of its topics, such as the āśrama system and married household life. The book devotes its central chapters to each of the major topics of Dharmaśāstra: epistemology of dharma, caste and social class, orders of life, rites of passage, Vedic student and graduate, marriage, children, inheritance, women, daily duties, food, gifting, funeral and ancestral offerings, impurity and purification, ascetic modes of life, dharma during emergencies, king, punishment, legal procedure, titles of law, penances, vows, pilgrimage, images, and temples. The final chapters then explore both the reception of Dharmaśāstra in other religious traditions, both Hindu and Buddhist, and the relevance of Dharmaśāstra to studies of critical concepts in religious studies—the body, emotions, material culture, subjectivity, animal studies, and vernacular culture."--
Hindu nationalism came to world attention in 1998, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won national elections in India. Although the BJP was defeated nationally in 2004, it continues to govern large Indian states, and the movement it represents remains a major force in the world's largest democracy. This book presents the thought of the founding fathers and key intellectual leaders of Hindu nationalism from the time of the British Raj, through the independence period, to the present. Spanning more than 130 years of Indian history and including the writings of both famous and unknown ideologues, this reader reveals how the "Hindutuva" movement approaches key issues of Indian politics. Covering such important topics as secularism, religious conversion, relations with Muslims, education, and Hindu identity in the growing diaspora, this reader will be indispensable for anyone wishing to understand contemporary Indian politics, society, culture, or history.
We live in an era of unprecedented growth in knowledge. Never before has there been so great an availability of and access to information in both print and online. Yet as opportunities to educate ourselves have greatly increased, our time for reading has significantly diminished. And when we do read, we rarely have the patience to read in the slow, sustained fashion that great books require if we are to be truly transformed by them. In Reading the Hindu and Christian Classics, renowned Harvard Divinity School professor Francis Clooney argues that our increasing inability to read in a concerted manner is particularly notable in the realm of religion, where the proliferation of information detracts from the learning of practices that require slow and patient reading. Although awareness of the world’s many religions is at an all-time high, deep knowledge of the various traditions has suffered. Clooney challenges this trend by considering six classic Hindu and Christian texts dealing with ritual and law, catechesis and doctrine, and devotion and religious participation, showing how, in distinctive ways, such texts instruct, teach truth, and draw willing readers to participate in the realities they are learning. Through readings of these seminal scriptural and theological texts, he reveals the rewards of a more spiritually transformative mode of reading—and how individuals and communities can achieve it.
In a tightly woven narrative, historian of modern India Amiya P. Sen traces the shifting self-understanding of Hindus in the light of the many challenges posed by the British colonial encounter, offering an accessible yet analytically rich book on the birth and development of modern Hinduism, which will be of interest to students and the interested general reader alike. Change has been endemic to Hindu cultural life from its inception. It was nevertheless in the modern era, with the advent of British colonial rule in India, that this change had its most far-reaching consequences, profoundly shaping the landscape of Hinduism as we encounter it today. In Colonial Hinduism: An Introduction, Amiya P. Sen charts this many-layered historical process in a refreshingly accessible narrative. Over seven chapters, this book traces the shifting self-understanding of the Hindus in the light of new challenges posed by the West. This encounter brought forth a new Hindu consciousness that was prepared to critique India’s perceived past irrationalities and superstitions but also reject what it took to be the excesses of the materialistic West. Over the years, a surging Hindu nationalism and anti-colonial sentiment sought to counter the material advances of the West with the self-acclaimed spiritual excellence of India in order to to secure for India a rightful place within global civilisation. In time, however, Hindu nationalism produced its own excesses, the ramifications of which India is still contending. Colonial Hinduism: An Introduction fulfils the long standing need for an accessible yet analytically rich book on the birth and development of modern Hinduism, which will be of interest to students and the interested general reader alike. OXFORD CENTRE SERIES: Colonial Hinduism: An Introduction is part of The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies Mandala Publishing Series. This book joins other accessible texts on Hindu Studies authored by expert scholars, including The Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation and Study Guide; The Hindu Temple and Its Sacred Landscape; and Women in the Hindu World. EXPERT AUTHOR: Amiya P. Sen, PhD, is a historian with an interest in the intellectual and cultural history of modern India. Sen has been Agatha Harrison Fellow at the University of Oxford, Shivdasani Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Heinrich Zimmer Chair at the University of Heidelberg, and Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, and the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi, He has served the Universities of Delhi, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. EDUCATION AID: With the integration of discussion questions, suggested further reading, glossary of terms, and images throughout, this book serves as a comprehensive resource for both classwork and independent study of modern Hinduism.
Heathen, Hindoo, Hindu is a groundbreaking analysis of American representations of religion in India before the turn of the twentieth century. Before Americans wrote about "Hinduism," they wrote about "heathenism," "the religion of the Hindoos," and "Brahmanism." Americans used the heathen, Hindoo, and Hindu as an other against which they represented themselves. The questions of American identity, classification, representation and the definition of "religion" that animated descriptions of heathens, Hindoos, and Hindus in the past still animate American debates today.
Bringing together texts from a variety of sectarian traditions, this reader provides the broadest selection of primary source Hindu literature available to date. The volume is divided into two major parts. The first section presents selections that explore major themes in classical Sanskrit traditions, including those in the Vedic, Upanisadic, and Dharma literatures, as well as the classical philosophical-religious schools. The second part includes selections that highlight the sectarian and devotional movements related to major deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Sant, Tantra, and the goddess figures. In addition to a general introductory chapter on Indian literature, each major section is introduced by an essay that places the selections within the context of Hindu history. This comprehensive reader stands on its own as an indispensable anthology of original textual sources for courses in Hinduism, while also serving as a companion volume to the text The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-Historical Introduction.