Religions of India in Practice

by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

The inaugural volume of Princeton Readings in Religions brings together the work of thirty scholars of the religions of India in a new anthology designed to reshape the ways in which the religious traditions of India are understood. The book contains translations of forty-five works, most of which have never before been available in a Western language. Many of these highlight types of discourse (especially ritual manuals, folktales, and oral narratives) and voices (vernacular, esoteric, domestic, and female) that have not been sufficiently represented in previous anthologies and standard accounts of Indian religions.


The selections are drawn from ancient texts, medieval manuscripts, modern pamphlets, and contemporary fieldwork in rural and urban India. They represent every region in South Asia and include Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, and Muslim materials. Some are written texts reflecting elite concerns, while others are transcriptions of oral narratives told by nonliterate peasants. Some texts are addressed to a public and pan-Indian audience, others to a limited coterie of initiates in an esoteric sect, and still others are intended for a few women gathered in the courtyard for a household ceremony. The editor has reinforced this diversity by arranging the selections within several overarching themes and categories of discourse (hymns, rituals, narratives, and religious interactions), and encourages us to make our own connections.

Genres: India, Religion, Nonfiction, Buddhism

Paperback

First published April 3, 1995

About the author

Donald Sewell Lopez, Jr. (born 1952) is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.

Son of the deputy director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Donald S. Lopez.

Reviews

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A survey of texts about practices. From documents and also recorded oral information. Buddhism gets brushed on, because the series has another volume about it, but there is a wide diversity of the other religions -- Hinduism, Jainism, Islam, a few Christian.

There are inscriptions for the dedication of temples, and stories told at the women's gathering for the honoring of the sacred basil plant (an oral tradition, such that many daughters-in-law have to relearn it when they marry, because their mother-in-law does it differently than in their natal household). Writings about the disputes over whether being a householder or a ascetic is better. Hymn. Personal poems of devotion. Directions on how to act in a temple (without a hint of the significance of the actions). Tales of peoples' lives where this god or that one did something -- I was personally particularly taken to recognize two of them as fairy tale types.