RELIGION AND IDENTITY IN SOUTH ASIA AND BEYOND: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF PATRICK OLIVELLE

Edited by Steven Lindquist

New York/London: Anthem Press, 2011

392 pp.

ISBN 9780857287908

This volume brings together sixteen articles on the religions, literatures and histories of South and Central Asia in tribute to Patrick Olivelle, one of North America's leading Sanskritists and historians of early India. An exceptionally prolific scholar, Olivelle's best-known works include Manu's Code of Law (2005), The Early Upanisads (1998) and The Srama System (1993). Over the last four decades, the focus of his scholarship has been on the ascetic and legal traditions of India, but his work as both a researcher and a teacher extends beyond early Indian religion and literature. Religion and Identity and South Asia and Beyond is a testament to that influence.

The contributions in this volume, many by former students of Olivelle, are committed to linguistic and historical rigor, combined with sensitivity to how the study of Asia has been changing over the last several decades. Several of the essays examine the construction of religious and cultural identity (whether among Brahmins, Buddhists, Dalits or Muslims), while others are concerned particularly with problems of historical reconstruction and textual interpretation.

CONTENTS

STEVEN E. LINDQUIST: Introduction: Patrick Olivelle and Indology 9
Major Publications of Patrick Olivelle 15

I. WORD, TEXT, CONTEXT

TIMOTHY LUBIN: The Elusive Snataka 23
JARROD L. WHITAKER: Who Gets to Live Forever in Ancient India? Rethinking ayus (life) in the Rgveda 41
STEVEN E. LINDQUIST: One Yjavalkya... Two On the (Questionable) Historicity of a Literary Figure 69
ROBERT A. GOODDING: A Theologian in a South Indian Kingdom: The Historical Context of the Jvanmuktiviveka of    Vidyraya 83
BRIAN BLACK: The Rhetoric of Secrecy in the Upanisads 101

II. CUSTOM AND LAW

ROBERT A. YELLE: Punishing Puns: Etymology as Linguistic Ideology in Hindu and British Traditions 129
DONALD R. DAVIS, JR.: Matrilineal Adoption, Inheritance Law, and Rites for the Dead among Hindus in Medieval Kerala
FEDERICO SQUARCINI: Punishing in Public: Imposing Moral Self-Dominance in Normative Sanskrit Sources 165

III. BUDDHISTS AND JAINS AS SELVES AND OTHERS

OLIVER FREIBERGER: How the Buddha Dealt with Non-Buddhists 185
DANIEL BOUCHER: Sacrifice and Asceticism in Early Mah?y?na Buddhism 197
LISA N. OWEN: Text and Image: Identifying Ellora?s Jain Deities 225

IV. (RE)CONSIDERING GEOGRAPHICAL AND CONCEPTUAL BOUNDARIES

DEVIN DEWEESE: Spiritual Practice and Corporate Identity in Medieval Sufi Communities of Iran, Central Asia, and India:     The Khalvat/Ishq/ Shar? Continuum 251
JASON BEDUHN: Digesting the Sacrifices: Ritual Internalization in Jewish, Hindu, and Manichaean Traditions 301
MANU BHAGAVAN: The Hindutva Underground: Hindu Nationalism and the Indian National Congress in Late Colonial and  

     Early Postcolonial India 321
LAURA R. BRUECK: Marking the Boundaries of a New Literary Identity: The  Assertion of ?Dalit Consciousness? in Dalit

     Literary Criticism 347
KARLINE MCLAIN: Young ?vetaketu in America: Learning to be Hindu in the Diaspora 369

List of Contributors 391

For further information go to: http://tinyurl.com/682omgy

Very shortly, several other volumes in this same series, including Patrick's collected essays, will be available from Anthem. See:http://tinyurl.com/5wyk5gx