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Zusatztext For centuries the figure who evoked India to the West has been the ascetic, the yogi, the religious loner, the person who renounced home and family. Yet through all those years it has actually been householders who set most of the tone and terms of Hindu life. This book gets at the roots of the concept "householder," and we are guided, appropriately enough, not by a lone scholar but by a team -- members of the distinguished academic family gathered around Stephanie Jamison and Patrick Olivelle. Informationen zum Autor Patrick Olivelle is Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin. He was President of the American Oriental Society. The author of over 30 books and 50 articles, his books have won awards from American Academy of Religion and Association of Asian Studies. His major publications include: Yajñavalkya: A Treatise on Dharma; Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmasastra; Reader on Dharma: Classical Indian Law; King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India; Visnu's Code of Law; The Life of the Buddha; Manu's Code of Law; Upanisads; and Asrama System. Klappentext The contrast between a married householder and a celibate ascetic who has left home and family has been highlighted in scholarship on ancient Indian religion and culture. But this is the first volume dedicated exclusively to the study of the neglected member of this pair! the householder. Through detailed study of inscriptions and texts! it shows that the ancient Indian householder was viewed as someone dedicated to holiness! just like an ascetic. The history of thecommon Sanskrit term used for householder! g?hastha! shows its sharp contrast to the ascetic who has left home and also points to the essential religious nature of the householder. Zusammenfassung For scholars of ancient Indian religions, the wandering mendicants who left home and family for a celibate life and the search for liberation represent an enigma. The Vedic religion, centered on the married household, had no place for such a figure. Much has been written about the Indian ascetic but hardly any scholarly attention has been paid to the married householder with wife and children, generally referred to in Sanskrit as g?hastha: "the stay-at-home." The institution of the householder is viewed implicitly as posing little historical problems with regard to its origin or meaning. This volume problematizes the figure of the householder within ancient Indian culture and religion. It shows that the term g?hastha is a neologism and is understandable only in its opposition to the ascetic who goes away from home (pravrajita). Through a thorough and comprehensive analysis of a wide range of inscriptions and texts, ranging from the Vedas, Dharmasastras, Epics, and belle lettres to Buddhist and Jain texts and texts on governance and erotics, this volume analyses the meanings, functions, and roles of the householder from the earliest times unti about the fifth century CE. The central finding of these studies is that the householder bearing the name g?hastha is not simply a married man with a family but someone dedicated to the same or similar goals as an ascetic while remaining at home and performing the economic and ritual duties incumbent on him. The g?hastha is thus not a generic householder, for whom there are many other Sanskrit terms, but a religiously charged concept that is intended as a full-fledged and even superior alternative to the concept of a religious renouncer. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface Abbreviations Contributors Introduction Patrick Olivelle, University of Texas at Austin Prologue Whitney Cox, University of Chicago PART ONE: VEDIC AND PRAKRIT SOURCES Chapter One The Term G¿hastha and the (Pre)history of the Householder Stephanie Jamison, UCLA Chapter Two Pasanda: Religious Communities in the Asokan Inscriptions and Early Literature Joel Brereton, University of Texas at Austin
