Ascetics and Brahmins: Studies in Ideologies and Institutions (Anthem South Asian Studies,Cultural, Historical and Textual Studies of South Asian Religions) - Hardcover

Olivelle, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0857284320 ISBN 13: 9780857284327

Publisher: Anthem Press, 2011

Synopsis

This volume brings together papers on Indian ascetical institutions and ideologies published by Patrick Olivelle over a span of about thirty years. Asceticism represents a major strand in the religious and cultural history of India, providing some of the most creative elements within Indian religions and philosophies. Most of the major religions, such as Buddhism and Jainism, and religious philosophies both within these new religions and in the Brahmanical tradition, were created by world-renouncing ascetics. Yet ascetical institutions and ideologies developed in a creative tension with other religious institutions that stressed the centrality of family, procreation and society. It is this tension that has articulated many of the central features of Indian religion and culture. The papers collected in this volume seek to locate Indian ascetical traditions within their historical, political and ideological contexts.

About this title

Book Description:

A collection of Patrick Olivelle’s papers on Indian ascetical institutions and ideologies.

About the Author:

Patrick Olivelle is Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions at the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as Chair of the Department of Asian Studies from 1994 to 2007. He previously taught in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington from 1974 to 1991, where he was the Department Chair from 1984 to 1990.

About this edition

• Publisher: Anthem Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0857284320
• ISBN 13: 9780857284327
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328