New Books in Indian Religions

Interviews with Scholars of Indian Religions with their New Books

Religion & Spirituality
Hinduism
526
Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, "Reciting the Godd...
This book represents the very first study of a fascinating Hindu phenomenon: the Svasthanivratakatha (SVK), a sixteenth-century narrative textual tradition native to Nepal surrounding the Goddess, Svasthānī...
58 min
527
John Stratton Hawley, "Bhakti and Power: Debati...
What is the relationship between religion and power?
47 min
528
Marko Geslani, "Rites of the God-King: Śānti an...
Is “Vedic” fire sacrifice at odds with “Hindu” image worship?
56 min
529
Patton E. Burchett, "A Genealogy of Devotion: B...
Burchett re-examines what we assume about the rise of devotionalism in North India, tracing its flowering since India’s early medieval “Tantric Age” to present day...
59 min
530
Deonnie Moodie, "The Making of a Modern Temple ...
Moodie examines the history of the Kalighat temple of Kolkata...
57 min
531
Anway Mukhopadhyay, "The Goddess in Hindu-Tantr...
Why is the Indian Goddess sometimes figured as a corpse in Tantric Traditions?
75 min
532
A. M. Ruppell, "The Cambridge Introduction to S...
Why would anyone want to study Sanskrit, an ancient complex tongue? What’s the best way to go about doing so?
74 min
533
Raj Balkaran, "The Goddess and The King in Indi...
Why are myths of the Indian Great Goddess couched in a conversation between a deposed king and forest-dwelling ascetic?
43 min
534
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, "In Dialogue with Clas...
Why does the narrative motif of ‘dialogue’ pervade Hindu texts?
51 min
535
David V. Mason, "The Performative Ground of Rel...
To what extent may we say that religion is a theatrical phenomenon, and that theatre is a religious experience?
51 min
536
Brad Stoddard and Craig Martin, “Stereotyping R...
Our culture is full of popular stereotypes about religion, both positive and negative...
42 min
537
Borayin Larios, "Embodying the Vedas: Tradition...
Larios probes the backbone of what makes Hinduism the world’s oldest living tradition: the unbroken chain of transmission of Vedic texts composed over 3,000 years ago, originating circa 1750-1200 BCE...
64 min
538
Nathan McGovern, "The Snake and The Mongoose: T...
Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans.
51 min
539
Discussion of Massive Online Peer Review and Op...
In the information age, knowledge is power. Hence, facilitating the access to knowledge to wider publics empowers citizens and makes societies more democratic...
29 min
540
Prakash Shah, "Western Foundations of the Caste...
The Indian caste system is an ancient, pervasive institution of social organization within the subcontinent – or is it?
58 min
541
Gil Ben-Herut, "Śiva’s Saints: The Origins of D...
Studies of Hindu saints tend to focus primarily on the saints themselves—their words, teachings, and practices—rather than tending to the often complex and complicated world of texts and traditions about those saints...
68 min
542
Caleb Simmons, "Nine Nights of the Goddess: The...
This work maps manifestations of the festival across historical periods and local celebrations over the regions of West Bengal, Odish...
39 min
543
B.R. Ambedkar, "Annihilation of Caste: The Anno...
This landmark speech by Dr. B.R. Ambedakar is the pinnacle of his scholarly work and cements his legacy alongside Mahatma Gandhi in Indian politics...
67 min
544
Mani Rao, "Living Mantra: Mantra, Deity, and Vi...
What role does mantra play in the lives of Hindu practitioners?
61 min
545
McKenzie Wark, "General Intellects: Twenty-One ...
McKenzie Wark’s new book offers 21 focused studies of thinkers working in a wide range of fields who are worth your attention...
61 min
546
Sumantra Bose, "Secular States, Religious Polit...
Sumantra Bose's new book Secular States, Religious Politics, India, Turkey and the Future of Secularism (Cambridge University Press, 2018) is a fascinating comparison of the rise of religious parties...
55 min
547
Danna Agmon, "A Colonial Affair: Commerce, Conv...
People sometimes forget—if they are even aware—that France’s empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries included a colonial presence in South Asia, a presence that at one time rivaled that of the British.
54 min
548
Philip Lutgendorf, “The Epic of Ram” (Harvard U...
Dr. Philip Lutgendorf is Retired Professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies at the University of Iowa. He is currently working on a seven-volume translation of the Hindi devotional text, the Rāmcaritmānas written by the sixteenth-century North Indian...
62 min
549
Anand Taneja, “Jinnealogy: Time, Islam, and Eco...
Anand Taneja’s Jinnealogy: Time, Islam, and Ecological Thought in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi (Stanford University Press, 2017) is a landmark publication that interrogates modes of religious practice and imaginaries of time that disrupt dominant claims...
54 min
550
Shyam Ranganathan, “Hinduism: A Contemporary Ph...
In Hinduism: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation (Routledge, 2018), Shyam Ranganathan argues that a careful philosophical study reveals telling philosophical disagreements across topics such as: ethics, logic, epistemology, moral standing,
50 min