RLST/HIST 306 - Hinduism

Surveys important issues in Hinduism, from the ancient time of the Vedas to the present day. Contemplates the nature of Hinduism; Hindu concepts of divinity; attitudes concerning gender, control, and desire; the question of reality and illusion; and the impermanent and the eternal.

Critiques the way in which Eurocentric concepts--like monism and dualism, idealism and realism, theism and atheism, and orthodoxy and heterodoxy--have come to dominate modern discourse on Hinduism.

Elucidates the relationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds. In this account, debates about Hindu traditions become platforms to consider history as a whole.

This wide-ranging introduction to classical Indian philosophy is philosophically rigorous without being too technical for beginners.

Adds new material on the religion's origins, on its relations with rival traditions, and on Hindu science.

Examines Hindu religious ideas and narratives and shows how they have been deeply inscribed in the land itself.

Shows the different ways dharma was interpreted during its formative period and reveals the vital role it has played across political, religious and ethical domains.

Traces the transformation of India throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, particularly the 1980s and 90s.

Parpola's comprehensive assessment of the Indus language and religion is based on all available textual, linguistic and archaeological evidence, including West Asian sources and the Indus script. The results affirm cultural and religious continuity to the present day and, among many other things, shed new light on the prehistory of the key Hindu goddess Durga and her Tantric cult.

By relating what Gandhi said to what he did and by examining instances of satyagraha (holding to the truth) led by others, this book abstracts from the Indian experiments the essential elements that constitute the Gandhian technique. It explores, in terms familiar to the Western reader, its distinguishing characteristics and its far-reaching implications for social and political philosophy.