Religions of Early India - by Richard H Davis (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The extraordinary multiplicity of religions and religious cultures in India, chronicled over two thousand years."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

The extraordinary multiplicity of religions and religious cultures in India, chronicled over two thousand years

From its earliest recorded history, India was a place of remarkable and varied religious activity, ranging from elaborate sacrificial rituals and rigorous regimes of personal austerity to psycho-spiritual experimentation and utopian visions. In this ambitious and wide-ranging chronicle, Richard Davis offers a history of India's myriad religious cultures that spans two thousand years, from 1300 BCE to 700 CE. India, Davis writes, was not only the birthplace of the religions we now know as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It was also the home of other, often unnamed religions that can be classified as "folk" or "popular" religions. Tracing these intertwined practices, Davis shows that the ardent and heterogeneous religious cultures of early India came to define and redefine themselves in relation to one another.

Davis recounts this history through voices--voices recorded in hymns, poems, songs, didactic stories, epic narratives, scientific treatises, and theological discourses, as well as voices that speak through material remains, whether monumental sculptures or tiny terracotta figurines of nameless goddesses. He focuses on the long millennium often designated as "classical India," which stretches from the time of the founding figures of Buddhism and Jainism during the sixth century BCE through the seventh-century-CE dynasties of the Chalukyas and the Pallavas in southern India. Throughout, he emphasizes encounter, interaction, debate, critique, and borrowing among religious communities within a shared, changing social and political reality. The voices and visions of early India's religions, Davis shows us, are fascinating in their multiplicity.

Review Quotes

"Religions of Early India is a magisterial work. . . . [It] is an engaging, accessible, and informative book that will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the early religious and cultural history of India. . . . Essential."-- "Choice"

"Davis is a good storyteller. . . . [and] has written a rich and accessible introduction to a fascinating field of studies. . . . [H]e makes the past visibly present by his clear introductions to the location and setting of the various sites he has visited, whether it be the Garuḍa pillar of Heliodorus, the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, the Śiva cave temple complex at Elephanta, or the rock-shelter paintings of Bhimbetka, which brings us to the very start of the story."---Peter C. Bisschop, Indo-Iranian Journal

"[A] coherent, reader-friendly exposition that follows neatly the development of Indian culture from c.1300 BCE to 700 CE. . . . Davis's elegant exposition of the realities of ancient India offers marvels as arresting as the gold-digging ants of Herodotus. . . . Davis's account is based on a good balance of textual evidence, epigraphy and architectural and iconographic considerations. The last two are brought to life by a well-chosen set of illustrations."---Jan Westerhoff, Times Literary Supplement

"A sublime and first-rate examination of India's lengthy religious history."-- "Library Journal"

About the Author

Richard H. Davis is research professor in the interdisciplinary study of religion program at Bard College. He previously taught at Yale University. He is the author of The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography, Lives of Indian Images (both Princeton), and other books.