against a hindu god: buddhist philosophy or religion in india – by parimal g. patil

gious messages and structured their organizations to reachout to different religious groups in both primary and generalelections. This comprehensive examination of a complexsubject yields cogent and clear conclusions. Central to theauthor’s research was an extensive national survey, whichincluded before-and-after election interviews of voters in the2008 election. For anyone interested not only in the historyand current role of religion in American politics, but also inelectoral history and presidential elections, this book is amust read.

Charles W. DunnRegent University

PRISON RELIGION: FAITH-BASED REFORM ANDTHE CONSTITUTION. By Winnifred Fallers Sullivan.Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009.Pp. 305 + x. $35.00.

An ambitious and successfully argued book addressingissues at the crossroads of US imprisonment and religion.Sullivan, professor of law and Director of the Law and Reli-gion Program at the University of Buffalo Law School, com-bines astute reflection on modernity, state punishment, andreligion with a meticulous “ethnographic reading” of oneIowa state court trial, Americans United for Separation ofChurch and State vs. Prison Fellowship Ministries (AU vs. PMF2006). The key case issue was whether Iowa authoritiesviolated first amendment strictures against establishing areligion when it contracted to run a faith-based, in-prison,Christian rehabilitation program. On the way to her book’sconclusion, Sullivan explores historical contexts of Ameri-can evangelical Christianity, religious and secular punish-ments in intercultural context, and the role of religion in theUnited States today. Her conclusion: While “religion” may bea helpful term outside legal contexts, it is no longer a helpfulterm for US law, “because there is no longer any generallyaccepted referent [for ‘religion’] that is relevant for defen-sible political reasons.” A necessary book, satisfyingdemands of empirical rigor while respecting the need toexplore larger theoretical questions about the nature ofsociety and religion.

Mark Lewis TaylorPrinceton Theological Seminary

South AsiaMIRACLE AS MODERN CONUNDRUM IN SOUTHASIAN RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS. Edited by Corinne G.Dempsey and Selva J. Raj. Albany: State University of NewYork Press, 2008. Pp. xiii + 218. $24.95.

This useful book risks the danger of overfocusing onphenomena at the expense of theorizing miracle. However,several of the authors, including the two editors, criticallyengage the notion of miracle, reaching back to David Humein the eighteenth century. Miracles can arise due to a specialrelationship between a deity, or God, and a privileged indi-

vidual (J. Flueckiger writing on the Islamic healer Amma, onwhom she has done considerable laudable work); as amarker of the success of ritual or spiritual practice(Dempsey on the Srividya temple in Rochester, NY, on whichshe has published extensively); as a response to a criticalneed (S. Goonasekara, writing affectingly on the tsunami inSri Lanka in December 2004); as a typological categorywhose usefulness is seriously questioned in mainstreamreligion (Raj on possession and healing at a church dedicatedto St. Anthony in southern Tamilnadu, for which now see themore thorough work by B. Sebastia [in French]); and as acategory of experience that was questioned as a result ofmodernity (C. Bauman). Regarding the modernist tendencyto disregard miracle in favor of rationalist agendas, R. Rine-hart quotes Swami Vivekananda, “I look upon miracles asthe greatest stumbling blocks in the way of truth.” Thisviewpoint has been widely dispersed in contemporary dis-courses, especially in neo-Vedanta. If there is anythinglacking in this volume, it is a near total absence of historicalperspectives prior to the late nineteenth century. Therecould easily have been an article or two theorizing miracle inantiquity; certainly the material is there in abundance. Nev-ertheless, this is an excellent collection that should find itsway into a large number of undergraduate and graduateclassrooms.

Frederick M. SmithUniversity of Iowa

KINGS OF THE FOREST: THE CULTURAL RESIL-IENCE OF HIMALAYAN HUNTER-GATHERERS. ByJana Fortier. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009.Pp. xiii + 215. Cloth, $60.00; paper, $24.00.

Fortier, a specialist of Nepalese culture, has provided asophisticated and empathetic insight into a unique hunter-gatherer community called the Raute. After a brief introduc-tion and first encounters in the first two chapters, shelocates the Rautes in wider Nepalese history and politics.According to Fortier, the Rautes employ an “impressionmanagement” strategy for their survival, and claim to be liketheir neighboring farming communities largely consisting ofHindus. But one might ask, who can decide whether to callRautes Hindus or not, especially when definition of Hindu-ism is unresolved. In the next chapter, she presents theRaute perception of the forest, which has similarities withthe larger Hindu perception of nature. The next two chaptersfocus on the hunting and gathering practices of the Rautes.Monkeys, which Rautes treat as “little brothers,” are theirprime food in addition to the fruits and greens from theforests. The next chapter is a look at Raute economic rela-tions among themselves and with outside farming commu-nities. The next chapter provides a deep look into thereligious practices of the Rautes. Here again Fortier viewsthem as “radically different” from Hindus. One might arguethat the dichotomy of “little traditions” and “great traditions”needs to be reconsidered in light of the works by M. Marriott,F. Smith, S. Vertovec, G.-D. Sontheimer, M. Biardeau, and

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others. In the final chapter, she makes a passionate appealfor understanding and preserving the Raute culture in theface of globalization and modernity. This book will be usefulfor undergraduate courses on cultural and environmentalanthropology, as well as graduate courses on South Asiananthropology.

Pankaj JainUniversity of North Texas

PARSVACARITRAM: THE LIFE OF PARSVA. ByAcarya Gunabhadra

�. Critically edited with English transla-

tion by Willem Bollée. Pandit Nathuram Premi ResearchSeries Volume 26. Mumbai: Hindi Granth Karyalay, 2008.Pp. 46. Rs. 60.00.

Hindi Granth Ratnakar Karyalay was founded in 1912by Pandit Nathuram Premi, one of the great Digambara intel-lectuals of the twentieth century. Under his guidance, thefirm for many decades published works of inestimable valueto scholars of Jainism. Over the past decade, Premi’s descen-dants, who continue to run the store and the publishing firm,have revived his tradition of active promotion of scholarshipon the Jains. The Premi Research Series has published morethan thirty short and reasonably priced monographs thatpresent the very best of Jainological scholarship. Many ofthese are technical studies, and so not suitable for a generalor undergraduate audience, but they are also the sorts ofscholarship that academic publishers in Europe and NorthAmerica increasingly are turning away from. Bollée’s mono-graph presents a study and translation of chapter 73 of theUttarapurana

�¯ by the ninth-century south Indian Digambara

monk Gunabhadra�

. In 170 Sanskrit verses, Gunabhadra�gives a brief biography of Parsvanatha, the twenty-third Jina.

Bollée includes detailed philological notes, an appendix ofrare and new words, a subject index, and a thorough bibli-ography for anyone who chooses to pursue a study of the lifeof this most popular of the twenty-four Jinas of this timecycle. As Bollée notes, Gunabhadra

�“presupposes a thorough

familiarity with the subject”; so anyone interested in a fullertreatment of Parsva’s lives will want to turn to either thetwelfth-century Svetambara biography of Hemacandra inhis Trisast isalakapurusacaritra

� � � �� ¯ ¯ , the English translation of

which has recently been republished (RSR 36:168-69); or toMaurice Bloomfield’s 1919 classic, The Life and Stories of theJaina Savior Parçvanatha, also recently republished in 2007,by Hindi Granth Karyalay.

John E. CortDenison University

DHARMA: STUDIES IN ITS SEMANTIC, CUL-TURAL AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY. Edited by PatrickOlivelle. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2009. Pp. viii + 492.Hardback, Rs. 1195.00.

This important volume on the topic of dharma, withnineteen articles, is reprinted from the Journal of IndianPhilosophy (JIP) 32.5-6 (2004). Two of the articles—the first,

by P. Horsch, and the last, by P. Hacker—were published inGerman in 1967 and 1965, respectively. The remaining sev-enteen were written for the JIP. The articles trace the historyof the uses and significations of the term dharma in variousbranches of Indic discourse. Some of the authors address thetopic as it is found in specific philosophical texts, includingBuddhist (R. Gethin, C. Cox), Jain (O. Qvarnström), andorthodox schools (J. Bronkhorst, S. Pollock, F. Clooney, J.Taber). Others investigate dharma from its presence in philo-sophical contexts within the Sanskrit epics (J. Brockington, J.Fitzgerald), in Vedic literature (Horsch, J. Brereton, Olivelle),in grammatical literature (A. Aklujkar), in medical literature(D. Wujastyk), in Bengali narrative literature (F. Korom), andin designated dharma literature (R. Lariviere, A. Wezler, D.Davis). Hacker’s influential early article on dharma in Hin-duism is translated here for the first time. The range of theuses of dharma, from socioreligious legalism to a mechanismfor cosmic regularity, to a substance or property of an itemwithin a system, to a determinant in the quest for goodhealth, and much more, are addressed here. What isdharma? Where does it reside? What are its components?How can it be determined in situations of conflict or doubt?How can it be best exploited for personal and spiritual gain?This indispensable volume is recommended for scholars andgraduate students who grapple with these recurring ques-tions in Indian thought and discourse.


AGAINST A HINDU GOD: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHYOR RELIGION IN INDIA. By Parimal G. Patil. New York:Columbia University Press, 2010. Pp. ix + 406. Hardback,$50.00.

While South Asian cultures and religions have providedmuch material for the field of cultural studies, these analy-ses have hardly challenged the colonial framework. Broadlyignoring the epistemic and hermeneutic frameworks thatunderpin cultural presuppositions, most studies continue totreat South Asia as a field that lacks its own reflective aware-ness. Patil’s groundbreaking research challenges thesepresuppositions: he demonstrates the closely linked rela-tionship of religion and philosophy in classical India, andprovides compelling arguments to link epistemology as aframework for soteriological issues. The text thus promisesto shift the paradigm, and the arguments that evolvethroughout are convincing in this regard. In meeting thischallenge, the text is neatly organized, with the first part ofthe study examining epistemological issues (chapter 1),Nyaya epistemology (chapter 2), and the Buddhist critiqueagainst Isvara (chapter 3). The second part of the text, “Lan-guage, Mind, and Ontology,” introduces the Buddhist theoryof linguistic comprehension in light of wider epistemologicalissues (chapter 4), examines the central tenets of Ratnakır-ti’s philosophy (chapter 5), and explores the significance ofBuddhist epistemology (chapter 6). Patil’s transdisciplinarywork helps us unravel the nature of interreligious debate


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between Hindu and Buddhist philosophers in classical India,allowing the reader to enter the minds of great Buddhistthinkers, such as Dinnaga� ¯ and Dharmakırti, along with acentral focus on Ratnakırti’s thoughts. Patil points out theepistemic link between the process of refining intraschoolposition and critiquing the presuppositions of the rivalschools, demonstrating a process of developing multilayeredresponse to issues such as the creator God and omniscientbeing. This work is thus a compelling example of what clas-sical India has to offer to contemporary discursive practice.

Sthaneshwar TimalsinaSan Diego State University

SHARED IDIOMS, SACRED SYMBOLS, AND THEARTICULATION OF IDENTITIES IN SOUTH ASIA.Edited by Kelly Pemberton and Michael Nijhawan. NewYork: Routledge, 2009. Pp. 253. $103.00.

The angle of this slim volume is on how performativepractices, texts, and rhetoric (both oral and written) simul-taneously challenge and reify ideas concerning distinctsocial configurations and religious identities. The individualchapters therefore revolve around the concept of “sharedidioms” that exist within larger frameworks of communalviolence, religious nationalisms, and the production and dis-semination of a variety of textual forms. Collectively, thecontributors, most of whom are younger scholars just begin-ning their careers, make the well-taken, though not surpris-ing point, that identities are not exclusive, since they existand are manipulated through and within complicated his-torical and existential relationships. The individual contri-butions focus on such subjects as Urdu laments in BrajBhasha, modern Sikh theology, nationalism and poetry,ritual and reform, shrine visitation, and gendered perfor-mance of religious identity, all theoretically framed by abrief introduction provided by the editors. Like most editedvolumes, the contributions are somewhat uneven, but theyall provide valuable data to contribute to the study of discur-sive domains in South Asia. Unfortunately, the cost of thevolume will discourage many libraries from purchasing it,which means the book will not receive the readership itdeserves.

Frank J. KoromBoston University

RECIPES FOR IMMORTALITY: MEDICINE, RELI-GION, AND COMMUNITY IN SOUTH INDIA. ByRichard S. Weiss. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Pp.ix + 260. Hardback, $74.00.

The extraordinary tale that Weiss tells here is of anindigenous medical system in the state of Tamilnadu inSouth India called siddha medicine. Quite likely, this was anearly spinoff of Ayurveda, with a greater attunement tomineral-based medicines (rather than simply a plant andanimal based pharmacopoeia), but it presents itself as autopian medical theology with imagined origins in earlyTamil literature and stretching farther back into the

imagined past to the Indus Valley civilization and the mythi-cal civilization of Lemuria. For at least a century, it has takenup the cudgels of Tamil nationalism and the religiosity thathas accompanied it. Indeed, in India, there has been practi-cally no separation between the forces of nationalism aslocally configured and claims to the superiority of local reli-gion (e.g., Maratha nationalism and the religio-politicalculture of Shivaji; for Tamilnadu see the work of SumathiRamaswamy). The mythology of siddha medicine is steepedin the culture of the Tirukkura l , the Periya Puranam, andother Tamil texts, including allegedly missing works of theancient siddhar Agastya. Its advocates loudly assert that it isa natural medicine superior to Ayurveda, containing secretsso deep that those who are privy to the tradition will be ableto heal people even if a nuclear bomb drops. Although thepresentation of siddha medicine is wrapped in the all-toodistracting trappings of universality and xenophobia thatadd nothing to its scientific value, it is in fact a legitimatesystem of medicine in Tamilnadu, even if it has been largelyeclipsed by allopathy and standard Ayurveda. This lucid andengaging volume will be of value for those who study thehistory and religion of South India, and for those with a moregeneral interest in religion and healing.


TRANSCENDENT IN AMERICA: HINDU-INSPIREDMEDITATION MOVEMENTS AS NEW RELIGION. ByLola Williamson. New York: New York University Press,2010. Pp. xii + 261. $23.00.

The author explores the hybrid forms of spiritual prac-tice that emerged in the West, especially in the UnitedStates, over the last century as a result of the encounterwith Hinduism in its myriad forms. Hence, she refers tothese as “Hindu-inspired,” not Hinduism per se. Beforeexploring practices and concepts, such as yoga, meditation,karma, and guru, she historically contextualizes the emer-gence and incorporation of these terms into the Englishlexicon by looking at the thinking of such intellectualfigures as Jefferson and Emerson to suggest that Protestanttraditions of “inner experience” positively conditioned theAmerican psychic landscape for the coming of Hinduism.Her focus is on Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship,Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation, and Muktanan-da’s Siddha Yoga to suggest that such Hindu-inspired medi-tation movements are distinct from other forms of AsianNew Age practices, as well as from immigrant Hinduism.The study is a sympathetic portrayal from someone wholooks at these traditions from the inside without necessar-ily shying away from sociological controversies. Thevolume would be good for introductory courses on NewReligious Movements, as well as on religions of the UnitedStates.

Frank J. KoromBoston University


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NEW HOMELANDS: HINDU COMMUNITIES INMAURITIUS, GUYANA, TRINIDAD, SOUTHAFRICA, FIJI, AND EAST AFRICA. By Paul Younger.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. 296; illustrations,maps. Hardback, $74.00.

Younger’s new book provides much-needed data and auseful analysis of some of the oldest Indian-origin Hinducommunities living outside of India. He bases his narrativeon historical documents, oral histories, and personal obser-vations from the six sites studied. All six case studiescenter on communities for whom indentured Indian labor-ers played an integral role in their formation. The author’sexamination of the unique contexts of each of these com-munities’ histories in one monograph allows readers tounderstand how several variables impacted cultural andreligious development. These variables include: the demo-graphics of Indian emigrants, work conditions in receivingsites, shifting political contexts from the colonial period topostcolonial independence, social systems in receivingsites, the level of interaction between Indian and non-Indian communities in each of these sites, local geogra-phies, and opportunities for community leadership.Younger explores a few common themes despite the dis-tinctiveness of each case. Most significantly, he finds thateach community articulates that it established a new Hindutradition that reflects the unique context in which it devel-oped. Community members are aware and proud of thehuman involvement in shaping their new religious tradi-tions. In contrast, the author explains, Hindus in India andin newer immigrant destinations tend to emphasize thetimelessness and continuities of their religious practices.With these findings, this study of what Younger calls the“new homeland” cultural pattern makes a significant con-tribution to understanding the dynamics of Hinduismoutside of India. The book is well organized, and, in addi-tion to being of interest to researchers, is accessible toadvanced undergraduates and graduate students who areinterested in the development and contours of diasporareligion.

Jennifer B. SaundersDelaware, Ohio

DIVINS REMÈDES: MEDICINE ET RELIGION ENASIE DU SUD. Ed. Ines G. Zupanov and Caterina Guenzi.Collection Purusartha

�¯ 27. Paris: Éditions de l’École des

Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 2008. Pp. 359. Paper,NP.

This collection of eleven articles (four in English, sevenin French) demonstrates the progress in the field of healingand religion that is currently one of the outstanding andinnovative areas of research in South Asian studies. Thevolume is divided into four topical areas: 1) religion withinmedicine; 2) learned traditions and local practice; 3) ritualsof removal; and 4) healing strategies. All the articles deal inone way or another with dissonances between theory and

practice or conflicts between different areas of religious andmedical systems. After a lengthy introduction by theeditors, M. Selby leads off with an attempt to fill in the gapbetween cosmogonies and discourses of conception, andfinds that Samkhya

�¯ fills this gap. L. Pordie investigates the

relationship between Islam and Buddhism in Ladakh,where Islamic healers (converted from Buddhism) stillmaintain Tibetan Buddhist healing practices. M. Carrinexamines the different registers of healing for members ofdifferent communities in Tulu

�healing ritual. D. W. White

examines protective rituals drawn from tantric practice andfinds that there is little gap between elite enlightened reli-gion and the so-called “superstitions” of the masses. F. Spe-ziale interestingly deals with healing dreams inspired byworship at Muslim dargahs in the Deccan. C. Guenzi exam-ines religious and therapeutic elements of astrological prac-tice in Banaras. I. Clark-Deces argues that the mechanics ofrituals that alleviate drought or remove sorcery are actuallyintend to encourage self-consciousness so that the perform-ers know themselves. W. Sax unpacks some of his materialfrom Garhwal, ritual that helps resolve intra-family conflictand helps the people resolve their differences. I. Zupanovexamines the history of possession among Catholic mis-sionaries in premodern South India, while B. Sebastia pre-sents a detailed ethnography of possession among certainimpoverished people at a St. Anthony of Padua church inTirunelveli district in Tamilnadu. M. Frenz examines thecontradictions in the discourse of healing in Marian Chris-tianity in South India. Altogether, a most worthwhile andlearned collection.


East AsiaFATHERING YOUR FATHER: THE ZEN OF FABRI-CATION IN TANG BUDDHISM. By Alan Cole. Berkeley:University of California Press, 2009. $65.00.

For a generation, Chan/Zen scholars trained from theperspective of Yanagida Seizan have been publishing toovercome the inaccurate twentieth-century paradigms soldto Westerners by D. T. Suzuki. Some (e.g., Welter andAdamek) have done so through a historical approach; others(e.g., Faure) by employing postmodern “Theory”; others (e.g.,McRae) simply by explaining the hermeneutics and facts.Cole acknowledges his debt to them all, and his contributionis somewhere between the last two. He argues that thecritical study of religion, including Chan/Zen, derives fromNietzsche’s awakening of Westerners to the need to focus on“macro-level issues regarding the structural reproduction ofmeaning.” Specialists will not be surprised to see Chan’sdevelopment explained in terms of “works formatted by theauthors’ sense for what the Other wanted to hear abouttruth,” despite Cole’s contention that “the intersubjectivenature of these texts” is “a crucial dynamic that has been


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against a hindu god: buddhist philosophy or religion in india – by parimal g. patil

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