Description

This study is partly substantive — it explores the major contours of the history of religions in ancient India — and partly methodological — it argues for a particular way to study this period of Indian history. It argues against the common tendency to essentialize such modern categories as “Hinduism” and for a view of history that is dynamic, exploring the influence of political, economic, and cultural changes on the history of religious beliefs, practices, and institutions. Broadly, the ancient Indian religious culture was formed by the intersection of Brahmanical ideology and self-interest, the emerging new religions such as Buddhism and Jainism, and the political formations, such as the Maurya empire in the 3rd century BCE and repeated foreign incursions beginning with Alexander the Great in late 4th century BCE. As a case study, the paper focuses on the central concept of Dharma, showing how its semantic history is deeply intertwined with both the rise of new ascetic religions and the formulation of an imperial ideology based on Dharma by the Maurya emperor Asoka (269-231 BCE).

Patrick Olivelle is Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions, Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was the Chair of the Department 1994-2007. He was previously at the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he was the Chair 1984-1990. Olivelle did his graduate studies at Oxford University and at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his publications are The Asrama System: History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution (Oxford, 1993), Rules and Regulations of Brahmanical Asceticism (State University of New York Press, 1994), Upanishads (Oxford, 1996), Pancatantra (1997), The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation (Oxford, 1998), The Dharmasutras of Apastamba, Gautama, Baudhyana, and Vasistha (Delhi, 2000), Manu’s Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Manava-Dharmasastra (Oxford, 2005), Language, Texts, and Society: Explorations in Ancient Indian Culture and Religion (2006), Ascetics and Brahmins: Studies in Ideologies and Institutions (2007), and Life of the Buddha: Buddhacarita by Asvaghosa (2008).