Dharma

Its Early History In Law, Religion, and Narrative

Price: 1895.00 INR

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ISBN:

9780198096252

Publication date:

01/09/2014

Hardback

772 pages

244.0x170.0mm

Price: 1895.00 INR

We sell our titles through other companies
Disclaimer :You will be redirected to a third party website.The sole responsibility of supplies, condition of the product, availability of stock, date of delivery, mode of payment will be as promised by the said third party only. Prices and specifications may vary from the OUP India site.

ISBN:

9780198096252

Publication date:

01/09/2014

Hardback

772 pages

244.0x170.0mm

Alf Hiltebeitel

Suitable for: Scholars and students of ancient Indian history, literature, Indian law, Indian political thought.

Rights:  SOUTH ASIA RIGHTS (RESTRICTED)

Alf Hiltebeitel

Description

Between 300 BCE and 200 CE, concepts and practices of dharma attained literary prominence throughout India. Both Buddhist and Brahmanical authors sought to clarify and classify their central concerns, and dharma proved a means of thinking through and articulating those concerns.    Alf Hiltebeitel shows the different ways in which dharma was interpreted during that formative period: from the grand cosmic chronometries of kalpas and yugas to narratives about divine plans, gendered nuances of genealogical time, royal biography (even autobiography, in the case of the emperor Asoka), and guidelines for daily life, including meditation. He reveals the vital role dharma has played across political, religious, legal, literary, ethical, and philosophical domains and discourses about what holds life together. Through dharma, these traditions have articulated their distinct visions of the good and well-rewarded life.    This insightful study explores the diverse and changing significance of dharma in classical India in nine major dharma texts, as well some shorter ones. Dharma proves to be a term by which to make a fresh cut through these texts, and to reconsider their own chronology, their import, and their relation to each other.

Alf Hiltebeitel

Table of contents

Preface to the South Asia Edition
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
 
1. Introduction
   A. Classical Dharma Texts and Their Relative Dating
   B. Three Critical Editions
   C. Paradigm Shifts on Dharma : The Case of the Mahabharata
   D. Chapter by Chapter
 
2. Asoka Maurya
   A. Asoka's Inscriptions
   B. A Comprehensive Dha?ma
 
3. A Vedic History of Dharma
   A. Dhárman in Early and Later R?gvedic Usages
   B. Dhárman as Enigma
   C. Dhárman and ?gvedic Kingship
   D. Mantra Period and Later Sa?hita Usages
   E. The Brahman?as
   F. The Upanis?ads
 
4. Early Buddhism: Three Baskets of Dharma
   A. Sutra Basket Dharma
   B. Abhidharma Basket Dharma
   C. Vinaya Basket Dharma
 
5. Post-Vedic Brahmanical Dharma
   A. Vedic Schools and the Dharmasutras
   B. Toward Consensus in Brahmanical Dharma Texts
   C. What's New with Manu
   D. Brahma in Manu's Frame Narrative
   E. Varn?a (Caste), Asrama (Life Pattern), the King, Sudras,
and Women
   F. Rajadharma: Establishing a King's Dharma
  G. A Day in a King's Life
 
6. Dharma over Time, I: Big Time Dharma
   A. Kalpas and Yugas
   B. Buddhist and Hindu Kalpas
   C. Originary Dharma in the Mahabharata
   D. Kalpas, Manvantaras, and Yugas in Manu and the Mahabharata
 
7. Dharma over Time, II: Prophesies of Disaster
   A. The Yuga Puran?a
   B. Variations on the Debacle at Kausambi
   C. The Yuga Puran?a and the Kausambi Myth
 
8. Women's Dharma : Sastric Norms and Epic Narratives
   A. Str?dharma
   B. The Law of the Mother
   C. Mother Ga?ga
   D. Mother Kali Satyavati
   E. The Transitional "Three Mothers"
   F. Mothers Kunti and Gandhari
   G. Kunti, Madri, and Pa?d?u among the Hundred Peak Mountain R?s?is
   H. Settling Mother Kunti and Her Sons Back at
Hastinapura
   I. Conclusions
 
9. Two Dharma Biographies? Rama and Yudhi??hira
   A. The Royal Life as Adventure
   B. Frames and Frontmatter on Rama, Yudhis?t?hira,
and Dharma
   C. Sidestories and Subtales, Foregrounding and
Legal Precedent
   D. Monstrous Encounters
   E. Questionable Killings: Valin and Dro?a
   F. Rama and Yudhi??hira: Some Comparative Points
 
10. Draupadi and Sita: Dharmapatnis of Two Different Kinds
   A. Family Background, Birth, and Childhood
   B. Marriage, Divine Plan, Early Signs of Trouble
   C. Sita and Draupadi on Their Svadharma
   D. Captivity and Exile
 
11. Dharma and the Bhagavad Gita
   A. Svadharma and Svakarma: Qualities, Merits, and Virtues
   B. Who Has Svadharma
   C. Manu and the Bhagavad Gita : Two Kinds of Karmayoga
   D. Where Kr?s?n?a Is There Is Dharma
   E. Dharma Rings in the Bhagavad Gita Proper
 
12. Dharma and Bhakti
   A. Mapping the Divine Plans
   B. The Placer and the Ordainer
   C. "Avatara"
   D. Friendship, Hospitality, and Separation
   E. R?s?idharma
   F. Rama and Kr?s?n?a as Guests, Hosts, and Friends
 
13. Asvagho?a's Buddhacarita: A Buddhist Reading of the Sanskrit Epics and Their Treatments of Dharma
   A. Asvaghos?a's Buddhacarita
   B. The Centrality of Dharma in Asvaghos?a's Buddhacarita
   C. Asvaghos?a the Brahmin, Buddhist Convert, and Scholar
   D. Asvaghos?a and Epic Precedents
   E. The Buddhacarita and the Ramayan?a
   F. The Buddhacarita and the Mahabharata
   G. Postscript on Asoka
 
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Alf Hiltebeitel

Features

  • Examines dharma as a means to deepen investigation of early interactions between Buddhism and classical Brahmanical Hinduism
  • Treats the relation between legal texts on dharma and the treatment of dharma in the literary (including but not limited to ''epic'') traditions as never before
  • Breaks new ground in study of dharma over time

Alf Hiltebeitel

Alf Hiltebeitel

Description

Between 300 BCE and 200 CE, concepts and practices of dharma attained literary prominence throughout India. Both Buddhist and Brahmanical authors sought to clarify and classify their central concerns, and dharma proved a means of thinking through and articulating those concerns.    Alf Hiltebeitel shows the different ways in which dharma was interpreted during that formative period: from the grand cosmic chronometries of kalpas and yugas to narratives about divine plans, gendered nuances of genealogical time, royal biography (even autobiography, in the case of the emperor Asoka), and guidelines for daily life, including meditation. He reveals the vital role dharma has played across political, religious, legal, literary, ethical, and philosophical domains and discourses about what holds life together. Through dharma, these traditions have articulated their distinct visions of the good and well-rewarded life.    This insightful study explores the diverse and changing significance of dharma in classical India in nine major dharma texts, as well some shorter ones. Dharma proves to be a term by which to make a fresh cut through these texts, and to reconsider their own chronology, their import, and their relation to each other.

Read More

Table of contents

Preface to the South Asia Edition
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
 
1. Introduction
   A. Classical Dharma Texts and Their Relative Dating
   B. Three Critical Editions
   C. Paradigm Shifts on Dharma : The Case of the Mahabharata
   D. Chapter by Chapter
 
2. Asoka Maurya
   A. Asoka's Inscriptions
   B. A Comprehensive Dha?ma
 
3. A Vedic History of Dharma
   A. Dhárman in Early and Later R?gvedic Usages
   B. Dhárman as Enigma
   C. Dhárman and ?gvedic Kingship
   D. Mantra Period and Later Sa?hita Usages
   E. The Brahman?as
   F. The Upanis?ads
 
4. Early Buddhism: Three Baskets of Dharma
   A. Sutra Basket Dharma
   B. Abhidharma Basket Dharma
   C. Vinaya Basket Dharma
 
5. Post-Vedic Brahmanical Dharma
   A. Vedic Schools and the Dharmasutras
   B. Toward Consensus in Brahmanical Dharma Texts
   C. What's New with Manu
   D. Brahma in Manu's Frame Narrative
   E. Varn?a (Caste), Asrama (Life Pattern), the King, Sudras,
and Women
   F. Rajadharma: Establishing a King's Dharma
  G. A Day in a King's Life
 
6. Dharma over Time, I: Big Time Dharma
   A. Kalpas and Yugas
   B. Buddhist and Hindu Kalpas
   C. Originary Dharma in the Mahabharata
   D. Kalpas, Manvantaras, and Yugas in Manu and the Mahabharata
 
7. Dharma over Time, II: Prophesies of Disaster
   A. The Yuga Puran?a
   B. Variations on the Debacle at Kausambi
   C. The Yuga Puran?a and the Kausambi Myth
 
8. Women's Dharma : Sastric Norms and Epic Narratives
   A. Str?dharma
   B. The Law of the Mother
   C. Mother Ga?ga
   D. Mother Kali Satyavati
   E. The Transitional "Three Mothers"
   F. Mothers Kunti and Gandhari
   G. Kunti, Madri, and Pa?d?u among the Hundred Peak Mountain R?s?is
   H. Settling Mother Kunti and Her Sons Back at
Hastinapura
   I. Conclusions
 
9. Two Dharma Biographies? Rama and Yudhi??hira
   A. The Royal Life as Adventure
   B. Frames and Frontmatter on Rama, Yudhis?t?hira,
and Dharma
   C. Sidestories and Subtales, Foregrounding and
Legal Precedent
   D. Monstrous Encounters
   E. Questionable Killings: Valin and Dro?a
   F. Rama and Yudhi??hira: Some Comparative Points
 
10. Draupadi and Sita: Dharmapatnis of Two Different Kinds
   A. Family Background, Birth, and Childhood
   B. Marriage, Divine Plan, Early Signs of Trouble
   C. Sita and Draupadi on Their Svadharma
   D. Captivity and Exile
 
11. Dharma and the Bhagavad Gita
   A. Svadharma and Svakarma: Qualities, Merits, and Virtues
   B. Who Has Svadharma
   C. Manu and the Bhagavad Gita : Two Kinds of Karmayoga
   D. Where Kr?s?n?a Is There Is Dharma
   E. Dharma Rings in the Bhagavad Gita Proper
 
12. Dharma and Bhakti
   A. Mapping the Divine Plans
   B. The Placer and the Ordainer
   C. "Avatara"
   D. Friendship, Hospitality, and Separation
   E. R?s?idharma
   F. Rama and Kr?s?n?a as Guests, Hosts, and Friends
 
13. Asvagho?a's Buddhacarita: A Buddhist Reading of the Sanskrit Epics and Their Treatments of Dharma
   A. Asvaghos?a's Buddhacarita
   B. The Centrality of Dharma in Asvaghos?a's Buddhacarita
   C. Asvaghos?a the Brahmin, Buddhist Convert, and Scholar
   D. Asvaghos?a and Epic Precedents
   E. The Buddhacarita and the Ramayan?a
   F. The Buddhacarita and the Mahabharata
   G. Postscript on Asoka
 
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Read More