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Sita's Story
A classic series edited by Dr. Julius Lipner, Univ. of Cambridge; this volume, #1, by a noted UK scholar.
The ^AGoddess as Role Model
This book seeks to understand the major mythological role models that mark the moral landscape navigated by young Hindu women. Heidi Pauwels compares how these role models are portrayed in the most authoritative versions of the story. She traces the ancient Sanskrit sources, the medieval vernacular retellings, and the contemporary TV versions as well. By analyzing several popular recent and classical hit movies that use Sita and Radha tropes, Pauwels shows how these moral messages have developed and how they spill into the domain of popular culture for commercial consumption.
The Hidden Lives of Brahman
Finalist for the 2014 Best First Book in the History of Religions presented by the American Academy of Religion Śaṅkara's thought, advaita vedānta or non-dual vedānta, is a tradition focused on brahman, the ultimate reality transcending all particular manifestations, words, and ideas. It is generally considered that the transcendent brahman cannot be attained through any effort or activity. While this conception is technically correct, in The Hidden Lives of Brahman, Joël André-Michel Dubois contends that it is misleading. Hidden lives of brahman become visible when analysis of Śaṅkara's seminal commentaries is combined with ethnographic descriptions of contemporary Brāhmin students and teachers of vedānta, a group largely ignored in most studies of this tradition. Du bois demonstrates that for Śaṅkara, as for Brāhmin tradition in general, brahman is just as much an active force, fully connected to the dynamic power of words and imagination, as it is a transcendent ultimate.
Provincialising Pluralism
How have South Asian traditions responded to plurality and difference? The question lies at the centre of this collection, inviting us to challenge established conceptions of pluralism and understand South Asian ways of thinking about difference, diversity, and 'the other'. This diverse collection is the first in-depth treatment of the variety of ways that South Asian traditions theorise plurality. Bringing together case studies across South Asia's distinctive religious landscape, it marks a significant contribution to re-thinking pluralism in the 21st century.
Religion, Language, and Power
Religion, Language and Power shows that the language of ‘religion’ is far from neutral, and that the packaging and naming of what English speakers call ‘religious’ groups or identities is imbued with the play of power. Religious Studies has all too often served to amplify voices from other centers of power, whether scripturalist or otherwise normative and dominant. This book’s de-centering of English classifications goes beyond the remit of most postcolonial studies in that it explores the classifications used in a range of languages — including Arabic, Sanskrit, Chinese, Greek and English — to achieve a comparative survey of the roles of language and power in the making of ‘religion’ . In contextualizing these uses of language, the ten contributors explore how labels are either imposed or emerge interactively through discursive struggles between dominant and marginal groups. In dealing with the interplay of religion, language and power, there is no other book with the breadth of this volume.
Samkara's Advaita Vedānta
Samkara (c.700 CE) has been regarded by many as the most authoritative Hindu thinker of all time. A great Indian Vedantin brahmin, Samkara was primarily a commentator on the sacred texts of the Vedas and a teacher in the Advaitin teaching line. This book serves as an introduction to Samkara's thought which takes this as a central theme. The author develops an innovative approach based on Samkara's ways of interpreting sacred texts and creatively examines the profound interrelationship between sacred text, content and method in Samkara's thought. The main focus of the book is on Samkara's teaching method. This method is, for Samkara, based on the Upanishads' own; it is to be employed by Advaitin teachers to draw pupils skilfully towards that realisation which is beyond all words. Consequently, this book will be of interest not only to students and scholars of Indian philosophy, but to all those interested in the relation between language and that which is held to transcend it.
Myth and History
Considerable work has been done on the European exploration of myth, first in the Renaissance and then in the nineteenth century. This book covers an area that is new territory by looking at ways in which this work can contribute to an understanding of the primacy of myth in religious life. The authors examine the idea of 'mythistory' - the complex relationship in religions between myth and history - and explore the different ways in which religious storytelling is related to the particular enterprise of storytelling that is called history.
The Voice of Śaṅkara
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The Bhagavadgītā for Our Times
This Is A Collection Of Seven Essays Exploring The Meaning And Symbolism Of This Challenging Ancient Text To Reveal How It Is Still Relevant In Addressing The Problems Of The Modern World, In Terms Of Dharma (Duty), Kama (Desire), Artha (Wealth) And Moksa (Freedom).
