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This collection brings together a series of Patrick Olivelle’s research papers, published over a period of about ten years, whose unifying theme is the search for hidden historical context and developments within words and texts. Words (and cultural histories represented by words) that scholars often take for granted as having a continuous and long history are often new – sometimes even being neologisms. They can thus provide important indications of cultural and religious innovations. Olivelle’s book on the asramas, as well as the short pieces included in this volume, such as those on ananda and dharma, seek to see cultural innovation and historical changes within the changing semantic fields of key terms. Closer examination of numerous Sanskrit terms taken for granted as central to ‘Hinduism’ provide similar results. Indian texts have often been studied in the past as disincarnate realities providing information on an ahistorical and unchanging culture. ‘Language, Texts, and Society’ is a small contribution towards correcting this method of textual study.
Preface; Abbreviations; I. Young Svetaketu: A Literary Study of an Upanisadic Story; II. dharmaskandhah and brahmasamsthah: A Study of Chandogya Upanisad 2.23.1; III. Orgasmic Rapture and Divine Ecstasy: The Semantic History of ananda; IV. Amrta: Women and Indian Technologies of Immortality; V. Power of Words: The Ascetic Appropriation and the Semantic Evolution of dharma; VI. Semantic History of Dharma: The Middle and Late Vedic Periods; VII. Explorations in the Early History of Dharmasastra; VIII. Structure and Composition of the Manava Dharmasastra; IX. Caste and Purity: A Study in the Language of the Dharma Literature; X. Rhetoric and Reality: Women’s Agency in the Dharmasastras; XI. Manu and Gautama: A Study in Sastric Intertextuality; XII. Manu and the Arthasastra: A Study in Sastric Intertextuality; XIII. Unfaithful Transmitters: Philological Criticism and Critical Editions of the Upanisads; XIV. Sanskrit Commentators and the Transmission of Texts: Haradatta on Apastamba-Dharmasutra; XV. Hair and Society: Social Significance of Hair in South Asian Traditions; XVI. Abhaksya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language; XVII. Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India; References; Index