Hindu Myth, Hindu History - Religion, Art, and Politics
Heinrich von Stietencron
Price
695
ISBN
9788178242156
Language
English
Pages
336
Format
Paperback
Dimensions
140 x 216 mm
Year of Publishing
2007
Territorial Rights
World
Imprint
Permanent Black
Catalogues

Translated from the German, this is a major work of classical Indological scholarship. Drawing upon various sources and currents—folk, tribal, and the multilayered Sanskritic tradition—it offers major insights into the complex cultural history of Hindu religious traditions. Starting from the centuries preceding the Common Era and continuing through the Gupta period up to the eleventh century, it traces continuity and change in religion and art within the formative period of what we know today as Hinduism. The terrain it covers ranges from the grammatical treatises of Panini and Patanjali, to the Dharma Shastras as well as the epics and Puranas, to inscriptions and temple iconography. Deploying these many perspectives, it looks also at Akbar’s religious reforms, which gain yet other dimensions via such scrutiny.

Heinrich von Stietencron has been Professor of Indology and Comparative History of Religion (1973–98) at the University of Tuebingen. He has written widely, mostly in German, on the epics and the Puranas, on temple symbolism and iconography, and on religious practice and social structure. He has devoted many years to field research in Orissa, documenting the many temples and studying the manuscript traditions of the region. He is chief editor of the annotated Epic and Puranic Bibliography (1992). He was awarded the Padma Shree in 2004, the only foreign scholar to have received this honour.