On Hinduism.

In this magisterial volume of essays, Wendy Doniger enhances our understanding of the ancient and complex religion to which she has devoted herself for half a century. This series of interconnected essays and lectures surveys the most critically important and hotly contested issues in Hinduism over...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Doniger, Wendy
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Oxford : Oxford University Press, USA, 2014.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Cover; ON HINDUISM; Copyright; CONTENTS; INTRODUCTION FOREWORD INTO THE PAST; HOW I CAME TO STUDY HINDUISM; WHAT THIS BOOK IS NOT; HOW THIS BOOK DIFFERS FROM THE ESSAYS FROM WHICH IT WAS CONSTRUCTED; WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT; ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO FRIENDS LIVING AND DEAD; CHRONOLOGY OF HINDUISM; ON BEING HINDU; HINDUISM BY ANY OTHER NAME; ARE HINDUS MONOTHEISTS OR POLYTHEISTS?; KATHENOTHEISM IN THE RIG VEDA; VEDANTIC MONISM; PURANIC POLYTHEISM; MONISM AND UNIVERSALISM UNDER THE MUSLIMS AND THE BRITISH; NEO-VEDANTA IN AMERICA; FUNDAMENTALISM AND DIVERSITY IN INDIA.
  • Three (or more) forms of the three (or more)-fold path in hinduismthe history of triads in indi; the triads of matter in manu; the transcendent fourth; the fourth social class; three against four; hierarchy; the four ages; tension and interaction; the concept of heresy in hinduism; the hindu definition of heresy; the two levels of heresy; materialists and atheists; heresy based upon the vedas; the hypocritical ascetic; the assimilation of heresy and the myth of the fall; explicit heresy within hinduism; heresy created by the gods; tantric heresies in the kali age.
  • The buddha avatar of vishnu in the gupta ageconclusion: heresy before, during and after the gupta age; eating karma; you are from whom you do not eat; you are whom you eat; you will be whom you eat; you eat what you have done; you are what you do not eat; medical and mythical constructions of the body in sanskrit texts; the medical texts; the body in the laws of manu; the puranas; death and rebirth in hinduism; death in the rig veda; re-death and rebirth in the brahman; karma and rebirth; heaven and hell in the mahabharata; rebirth in the puranas.
  • HINDU GODS AS DRAMATIS PERSONAE IN THE DRAMAS OF DEATHVishnu; Shiva; REINCARNATION FOR NON-HINDU; FORGETTING AND RE-AWAKENING TO INCARNATION; THE LINGERING SCENTS OF MEMORY; THE CYCLE; THE MAN WHO FORGOT HE WAS GOD: THE MONK'S DREAM; THE GOD WHO FORGOT HE WAS GOD; ASSUME THE POSITION: THE FIGHT OVER THE BODY OF YOGA; THE TOLERATION OF INTOLERANCEIN HINDUISM; THE VEDIC BACKGROUND; CATEGORIZING THE ONE AND THE MANY; MONISM, HIERARCHY AND INTOLERANCE; THE RIDDLE OF NONVIOLENCE; THE POLITICS OF HINDUISM TOMORROW; HINDU DIVERSITY AND POLITICAL CHAUVINISM; HINDUTVA AND HISTORY; MYTH AND HISTORY.
  • The hinduism of the futuregods, humans and anti-gods; saguna and nirguna images of the deity; you can't get here from there: the logical paradox of hindu creation myths; introduction; the origins of the universe; the creation of the human race; the battle between the gods and the anti-gods; together apart: changing ethical implications of hindu cosmologies; cosmogonies-or theories of the origin of life and the universe-of the rig veda; cosmogonies of the jaiminiya brahmana (c. 600 bce); cosmogonies of the puranas (c. 350-750 ce).