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Divine and the Demonicby Graham Dwyer
RoutledgeCurzon 2002; US$ 188.00Focuses on supernatural affliction - illness and misfortune ascribed to demonic spirits or ghosts and to other mystical agents, such as sorcerers and witches. more...
Explaining Mantrasby Robert A. Yelle
Routledge 2003; US$ 116.00Explaining Mantras explores the intersection of poetry and magic in the mantras or verbal formulas of Hindu Tantra and combines the study of ancient Tantric rituals with the latest theories in the human sciences. more...
Yogaby Ian Whicher; David Carpenter
RoutledgeCurzon 2003; US$ 44.95The essays cover the historical emergence of the classical system, a careful examination of key elements, character and relevance of that system and a glimpse of some of the tradition's many effects in later Indian religious history. more...
Encountering Kaliby Rachel Fell McDermott; Jeffrey John Kripal
University of California Press 2003; US$ 15.95Encountering Kalő explores one of the most remarkable divinities the world has seen--the Hindu goddess Kalő. She is simultaneously understood as a blood-thirsty warrior, a goddess of ritual possession, a Tantric sexual partner, and an all-loving, compassionate Mother. more...
Bringing the Gods to Mindby Laurie L. Patton
University of California Press 2005; US$ 60.00This elegantly written book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. In Bringing the Gods to Mind, Laurie Patton takes a new look at mantra as "performed poetry" and in five case studies draws a portrait of early Indian sacrifice that moves beyond the well-worn categories of "magic" and "magico-religious" thought in Vedic sacrifice. Treating Vedic mantra as a sophisticated form of artistic composition, she develops the idea of metonymy, or associational thought, as a major motivator for the use of mantra in sacrificial performance. Filling a long-standing gap in our understanding, her book provides a history of the Indian interpretive imagination and a study of the mental creativity... more...
Religion Against the Selfby Isabelle Nabokov
Oxford University Press 2000; US$ 60.00This study, based on the author's fieldwork among rural Tamil villagers in South India, focuses on the ways in which people in this society interact with the supernatural beings who play such a large role in their personal and corporate lives. more...
The Asrama Systemby Patrick Olivelle
Oxford University Press 1993; US$ 135.00A study of the Asrama system, a Hindu construct consisting of four legitimate ways of leading a religious life. The author traces its early history and explains how Asrama gradually established connections with other Hindu religious institutions to emerge as a central tenet of the Hindu dharma. more...
Donors, Devotees, and Daughters of Godby Leslie C. Orr
Oxford University Press 2000; US$ 110.00Through the use of epigraphical evidence, Leslie C. Orr brings into focus the activities and identities of the temple women (devadasis) of medieval South India, and suggests new ways of understanding the character of the temple woman -- and of the role of women in Indian religion and society. more...
Offering Flowers, Feeding Skullsby June McDaniel
Oxford University Press 2004; US$ 40.00In 'Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls', June McDaniel provides an overview of Bengali goddess worship or Shakti. She identifies three major forms of goddess worship, and examines each through its myths, folklore, songs, rituals, sacred texts, and practitioners, tracing these strands through Bengali culture. more...
The Life of Hinduismby John Stratton Hawley; Vasudha Narayanan
University of California Press 2006; US$ 27.95The Life of Hinduism brings together a series of essays?many recognized as classics in the field?that present Hinduism as a vibrant, truly ?lived? religion. Celebrating the diversity for which Hinduism is known, this volume begins its journey in the ?new India? of Bangalore, India?s Silicon Valley, where global connections and local traditions rub shoulders daily. Readers are then offered a glimpse into the multifaceted world of Hindu worship, life-cycle rites, festivals, performances, gurus, and castes. The book?s final sections deal with the Hinduism that is emerging in diasporic North America and with issues of identity that face Hindus in India and around the world: militancy versus tolerance and the struggle between owning one?s own... more...









