Product Description

From one of the world’s foremost scholars on Hinduism, a vivid reinterpretation of its history

An engrossing and definitive narrative account of history and myth that offers a new way of understanding one of the world’s oldest major religions, The Hindus elucidates the relationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds.

Hinduism does not lend itself easily to a strictly chronological account: many of its central texts cannot be reliably dated even within a century; its central tenets—karma, dharma, to name just two—arise at particular moments in Indian history and differ in each era, between genders, and caste to caste; and what is shared among Hindus is overwhelmingly outnumbered by the things that are unique to one group or another. Yet the greatness of Hinduism—its vitality, its earthiness, its vividness—lies precisely in many of those idiosyncratic qualities that continue to inspire debate today.

Wendy Doniger is one of the foremost scholars of Hinduism in the world. With her inimitable insight and expertise Doniger illuminates those moments within the tradition that resist forces that would standardize or establish a canon. Without reversing or misrepresenting the historical hierarchies, she reveals how Sanskrit and vernacular sources are rich in knowledge of and compassion toward women and lower castes; how they debate tensions surrounding religion, violence, and tolerance; and how animals are the key to important shifts in attitudes toward different social classes.

The Hindus brings a fascinating multiplicity of actors and stories to the stage to show how brilliant and creative thinkers—many of them far removed from Brahmin authors of Sanskrit texts—have kept Hinduism alive in ways that other scholars have not fully explored. In this unique and authoritative account, debates about Hindu traditions become platforms from which to consider the ironies, and overlooked epiphanies, of history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22792 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 800 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781594202056
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
Note that Doniger is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of Religions at the University of Chicago and the author of many books. Note that alternative neatly defines her. Learned, fluent, and entertaining in spite of the complexity of this ambitious undertaking, Doniger is also controversial, a role she embraces, confident that fresh viewpoints are essential to understanding the worlds that shaped the Hindu tradition, and the ways Hindus shaped society. While Doniger delves deeply into the Vedas and the “two great poems,” Ramayana and Mahabharata, she searches other spheres for clues to the lives of women and the lower castes. She also analyzes depictions of animals, which are central to Hindu tales and the “cultural ideal” of nonviolence. As she energetically parses the relationships between gods and humans, karma and renunciation, asceticism and sensuality, priests and kings, men and women, she is also seeking glimpses into everyday Hindu life during each of India’s empires. Lavishly detailed, dynamic, and encompassing, Doniger’s multidimensional history celebrates Hindu wisdom, diversity, and pluralism with knowledge, insight, and passion. --Donna Seaman

About the Author
Wendy Doniger holds two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and Oxford. She is the author of several translations of Sanskrit texts and many books about Hinduism and has taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and at the University of California at Berkeley. She is currently the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago.

Customer Reviews

Abundance of pettiness
As someone who has grown up in an academic environment, I would like to think of myself as catholic in my outlook; but this book by Wendy Doniger was just off.

To start with I maintain two gold standards of writers from the west
writing on India. The first is Heinrich Zimmer who wrote 'Myths and
Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization' which I have gone back to
repeatedly over the past 20 years. The other is the works of William
Dalrymple and the work of his that I cherish the most is one titled
'White Mughals'.

The former is a scholar who has sought to deeply understand Indian culture and the myths it has evolved and the latter is a fine writer first and foremost with a keen eye and love for all things Indian.

But what really makes their writings classic that wants me to go back
to them repeatedly is their generosity of spirit and largeness of
heart. They do not shy away from the warts, but you know what is
driving them to research and write their material is a genuine desire
to understand and the joy of discovery.

That brings me to Ms Doniger. When I came upon the book after reading a review of it in the NY Times, I rubbed my hands in glee. Ah, here is a book I thought to myself, that is going to present new and important insights, from a seasoned philologist, that is going to enhance
one's knowledge of Indian culture in new and important ways (good or bad - no matter).

What Wendy Doniger does do is that she applies all the tools and techniques and filters of 20th and 21st century social and cultural analysis to bear upon circa 500 BC India and then proceeds to sit in judgment. But it turns out that no wart is unworthy of examination and it is warts that are examined!

As an example, I opened the chapter on the Upanishads with a degree of anticipation hoping that a sociological context to the content of the Upanishads is going to present new insights. To one's great disappointment there is nothing on the sheer poetry of the verse or the metaphysics therein. Rather the good professor takes one or two of the Upanishads and
proceeds to see male chauvinism and cruelty at every turn.

Really, that's what she got out of the Upanishads? For example how about the Ananda Valli Kanda of the Taittiriya Upanishad - which defines
happiness. Not a word on that. How about the psychological complexity unveiled in the Mandukya Upanishad? Not a word on that. As someone who has lapped up all sorts of commentaries on the Upanishads for many years now (all takes welcome), this one was astonishing primarily for its wholly missing the point!

Doniger's pettiness contrasts with the generosity of spirit I have
mentioned above. Two examples here. She has comments to make on the
Ramayana and the Mahabharatha. She writes, introducing them,
'considered by some as epics'. Really? Only some people consider these epics? I am all open and eager for scholarly analysis of any subject matter - but throw us a bone here (more on dogs later...!) - give the Indians their epics!

Another example in the same vein. She reference Shankara later in the
book and while describing him as the founder of the Shankara Matts
/Schools. She in paretheses writes 'is said to have founded'. Again,
really? If the Professor doubts that Shankara founded the Matts, I am
very interested in knowing about this! Even if it is vague conjecture, tell me more - I fully agree that Indian history can be vague, so please throw some light. But instead of exploring the justifiable debate or controversy that exists, she just has a throw away line, for apparently no reason.

The attitude that comes through is one of hostility, contempt and
shoddy writing. And the dogs. There are several hundred references to Indian
view of dogs. Whats with that? I am a pet owner myself and
love my dog. But this was so discordant that I was just not getting it.

There is also a chapter on Hindus in America. This section is so superficial that it is laughable. It feels like the author has browsed a couple of websites and found that enough to channel her points of view.

A final note on sex. A three thousand year old mature civilization has seen a lot in its ebbs and flows and the land of the Kama Sutra is
going to have its share of views. But Doniger sees hostile,
vituperative sexual mores at every turn, even when such an
interpretation is not warranted.

A metaphor I want to use for Wendy Doniger is the following. When I
was a kid, visiting my grandmother in Hyderabad, India, I would love
going to the 'sugar cane stand'. There the sugar cane wallah would
take the sugar cane stems and crush them through two rollers and
collect the juice into a cup. On a sunny summer day it was the best
drink ever. Then all the crushed pith would go into a rubbish pile on
the ground.

Heinrich Zimmer and William Dalrymple get to the sugar cane juice.
Wendy Doniger rakes about in the sugar cane pith with no concept of
what the juice is all about.

Does this mean that I do not recommend you read this book. Not at all. I am not one to shy away from a variety of perspectives or debate. So please do pick it up from the library and give it a glance. Just don't expect to walk away from it with new insights other than the fact that the author has an agenda and Indian culture happens to serve it in this case.

A book as delectable as a half-baked potato
Bound with a colorful and magnificent cover, "The Hindus: An Alternative History", is an impressive looking book indeed. But the adage: Do not judge a book by its cover is most apt in this case.

This book is presented to the world by Penguin, the publisher, as scholarly opinion on Hinduism from a prolific scholar. It is quite likely that it is written mainly for readers in the West, and it's certainly not for the novice. And if the reader has a lot more than mere rudimentary knowledge about Hinduism, it certainly helps. However, if one is not endowed with sufficient knowledge about Hinduism, often it would be impossible to comprehend what the author has written:
"The marginalized people in the lowest social levels of the Veda--Dasas, Shudras--may have included people who were Other not, or not only, in their social class but in their religious practices, such as the wandering bands of warrior ascetics the Vedas refer to as the Vratyas ("People Who Have Taken Vows"), who practiced flagellation and other forms of self-mortification and traveled from place to place in bullock carts."

Parts of the book are well written, but there are many parts that I found quite troubling also. I was impressed, too, with the occasional display of her wit and word-play; but, alas, a streak of bias flows through her witticisms, too. Her interpretations and opinions about some events depicted in Hindu scriptures and epics remain as distorted, askew, and perverted as ever (as in her other books about Hindus); and she sees things that simply do not exist. For example, she states that Sita, the heroine of Ramayana, was more sexual than she appears to be and insinuates that Sita's feelings for her brother-in-law, Lakshmana, might well be more than sisterly. Doniger often sees a hidden sexual meaning behind every episode.

This book wonderfully illustrates the fact that merely possessing two Ph.D. degrees, from prestigious universities though they may be, doesn't necessarily free one's mind from deep rooted biases and prejudices. I am not the only one who has ventured to criticize Dr. Doniger's views on Hinduism; she has been criticized by scholars from academia, scholars such as Nicholas Kazanas, Antonio De Nicolas, and Michael Witzel, and several others, for her negative portrayals of Hinduism. It is not out of place to mention here that her article on Hinduism for Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia was criticized and shown to be so biased that Microsoft removed it and replaced it with an article by Aravind Sharma, Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University.

The publisher has stated that this book "offers a new way of understanding one of the world's oldest major religions." I beg to differ; in this book Dr. Doniger has offered her same old jaundiced view of Hinduism, but much more elaborately than ever before. I gave this book two and a half stars (rounded off to three), because I found it as delectable as a half-baked potato.

did Penguin fire all of its editors?
This book is 800 pages long. That seems reasonable given the length and complexity of Hindu history. At least half of the words are irrelevant, redundant, or unnecessary, however. Let's take the first page of Chapter I. One third of the page is recounting a Sufi (Muslim) parable about a mullah who looks for his house key somewhere other than where he dropped it, because the light is better where he is looking. She then talks about "what photographers call available light" (misusing the term says this reviewer, who happens to have been a camera nerd since 1973). An entire page is thus spent to say what could be said in one sentence: previous scholars (with inferior educations to the author's own, presumably) have spent too much time looking at the most readily available sources. Doniger never gives a specific example of a scholar who came up short in this manner and the entire point could be dropped. If she is doing a better job than previous authors, could she not simply do her job and let the reader compare her towering intellectual achievement with the flawed narrow views of the mediocrities who went before her?

The average Facebook page is much more tightly edited than this $35 book. Exactly what value did Penguin add to justify abusing readers first with the cover price and then with wasting several days of their time?

It is books like these that make television so popular.