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Index
Contents
Preface
List of illustrations and maps
Illustrations
Maps
1 On Wearing Good Lenses
Lenses used through the years
Pejorative putdown
Romanticism
“Noble savage”
Interpretation by imposition
“Benign neglect”
On understanding the “nature” of religion
Recommended reading
On the study or interpretation of India
For a general history or overview of South Asia
General introductions to Indian religion
2 Sources of Indian Religion
Hunting communities
Agricultural communities
The “Indo-European” influence
The Vedic period
The ritual system
Hymns and commentaries
Recommended reading
On Indian prehistory
On Vedic culture and religion
3 The Early Urban Period
The
The “heterodoxies”
Jainism
Early Buddhism
Recommended reading
On the , et al.
On Jainism
On Buddhism
Timeline of Chapters 2 and 3
4 The Urban Period
The context
Kingship and artha
Theism: Buddhist and vaidika
Devotionalism
Articulation of an “urban” ethic
The household
The role of women
Jāti or “caste”
The symbolism of food
Yoga
Summary
The epics
Aesthetics and the arts
Religious life at the popular level
Developments in Buddhism
Kingship
Ethics
Attitude toward city-state
Pantheon
Iconography
Sacred spaces
Recommended reading
On history, culture, ethics
Some important textual translations and commentaries
Aesthetics and the arts of India
Timeline of Chapter 4
5 The Post-classical Period
South India
Bhakti
The emergence of temples
The
Deities as reflections of cultural history
Philosophical developments
Śaiva Siddhānta
Vedānta
North India
Temple construction
Tantrism
The rise of the goddesses to “high deity” status
Buddhism and Jainism
Recommended reading
History, culture, literature of the post-classical period
South India
North India
Philosophical developments
On temple and iconography
On tantrism
On deities, ritual, and devotionalism
Timeline of Chapter 5
6 The Coming of Islam
The origins of Islam
Sunnīs and Shī’īs
Islam in India
The political context
Diversity of Islam in India
Sunnīs
Shī’īs
Sūfīsm
Recommended reading
Islam in India
7 Developments in the Late Medieval Period
Orthopraxy
Hindu polities
Devotionalism
Marāthī
Bengālī
Hindī
Accommodation and appropriation
Conversion
Syncretism
Sikhism
Recommended reading
Pre-modern history, literature, and arts
Post-medieval bhakti
On Sikhism
Timeline of Chapters 6 and 7
8 Streams from the “West” and their Aftermath
Religious minorities
Jewish communities
“Cochin Jews”
Bene Israel
Syrian Christians
Zoroastrians or Pārsīs
The “colonial impact”
The Portuguese, British and other Europeans
The Indian response
Stage one
Stage two
Neo-bhakti
Muslim responses to coloniality
Inter-religious relations: conciliation and confrontation
Pre-independence India
Recommended reading
On religious minorities in India
The colonial period
The Indian experience (pre-independence)
9 Religion in Contemporary India
The context
The practice of religion
Pilgrimages and festivals
, Tamil Nadu
Festivals
Makara Vilakku, Sabaramala, Kerala
Bonalu, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Festivals in other religious communities
The shrine or temple as the focus of religious expression
Ritual in other religious communities
Religious innovation, hybridization, and reinterpretation
The changing faces of deities
Conversions of another kind
Gurus and their movements
The Brahmākumarīs
The Satya Sai Baba movement
The resurgent right
Recommended reading
On Contemporary Indian Society
Religion in contemporary India
10 India’s Global Reach
Greater India in Asia
The westward impetus
Early contacts
The colonial period
The modern era
The emigration of South Asians
Recommended reading
On the global dispersal of South Asian culture and people
Religion and the Indian diaspora
Glossary
Notes
Index
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