The Hindus: An Alternative History Hardcover - 2009

by Wendy Doniger

From one of the world's foremost scholars on Hinduism, a vividreinterpretation of its history

An engrossing and definitive narrative account ofhistory and myth that offers a new way of understanding oneof the world's oldest major religions, The Hindus elucidates therelationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds.

Hinduism does not lend itself easily to a strictlychronological account: many of its central texts cannot be reliablydated even within a century; its central tenets karma,dharma, to name just two arise at particular moments inIndian history and differ in each era, between genders, and casteto caste; and what is shared among Hindus is overwhelminglyoutnumbered by the things that are unique to one group oranother. Yet the greatness of Hinduism its vitality, its earthiness,its vividness lies precisely in many of those idiosyncraticqualities that continue to inspire debate today.

Wendy Doniger is one of the foremost scholars ofHinduism in the world. With her inimitable insight and expertiseDoniger illuminates those moments within the traditionthat resist forces that would standardize or establish a canon.Without reversing or misrepresenting the historical hierarchies,she reveals how Sanskrit and vernacular sources are rich inknowledge of and compassion toward women and lower castes;how they debate tensions surrounding religion, violence, andtolerance; and how animals are the key to important shifts inattitudes toward different social classes.

The Hindus brings a fascinating multiplicity ofactors and stories to the stage to show how brilliant and creativethinkers many of them far removed from Brahmin authors ofSanskrit texts have kept Hinduism alive in ways that otherscholars have not fully explored. In this unique and authoritativeaccount, debates about Hindu traditions become platformsfrom which to consider the ironies, and overlooked epiphanies,of history.