RLST/HIST 306 - Hinduism

The Bhagavad Gitais an epic poem that recounts the conversation between Arjuna the warrior and his charioteer Krishna, the manifestation of God.

Incorporates the most recent historical and philological scholarship on these central scriptures of Hinduism.

Provides a guide to the historical context, philosophical significance and literary power of these ancient texts. (In storage. Click the above title and request this book where it says "Get This". Pick up from Circulation Desk in 10 minutes.)

The Rigveda is the oldest Sanskrit text, consisting of over one thousand hymns dedicated to various divinities of the Vedic tradition. The Rigveda is crucial to the understanding both of Indo-European and Indo-Iranian cultural prehistory and of later Indian religious history and high literature.

The Dharmasutras are the four surviving written works of the ancient Indian tradition on the subject of dharma, or the rules of behavior a community recognizes as binding on its members. They record intense disputes and divergent views on such subjects as the education of the young, rites of passage, marriage and marital rights, the proper interaction between different social groups, sins and their expiations, institutions for the pursuit of holiness, crimes and punishments, death and ancestral rites.

Manu's Code of Law paints an astoundingly detailed picture of ancient Indian life -- covering everything from the constitution of the king's cabinet to the price of a ferry trip for a pregnant woman-and its doctrines have been central to Indian thought and practice for 2000 years.

Investigates the relationship between the various interpretations of the Bhagavad-Gita and the Hindu tradition.

A philosophical survey of the thirteen earliest Upanisads. The Upanisads are Vedanta, a book of knowledge in a higher degree than the Veda, but knowledge in the profounder sense.

Transcribed from talks given by Gandhi in 1926 at the Satyagraha Ashram in Ahmedabad, India. During this time—a period when Gandhi had withdrawn from mass political activity—he devoted much of his time and energy to translating the Gita from Sanskrit into his native Gujarati.