Transposing tirtha: Understanding religious reforms and locative piety in early modern Hinduism

Orientalism and the Modern Myth of "Hinduism"

a meaningful nitary notion of Hinduism from the Indian phenomena, unless it is done by exclusion..." (Frits Staal [1989], Ritual Without Meaning, p. 397). Orientalism and the Modem Myth of "Hinduism" 165 The work of integrating a vast collection of myths, beliefs, rituals, and laws into a coherent religion, and of shaping an amorphous heritage into a rational faith known now as "Hinduism" were ...

Filial Piety in Early Buddhism

Buddhist scholars like Kenneth Ch’en thought that filial piety was a special feature of Chinese Buddhism. Later, John Strong employed “popular Buddhist stories” to show that filial piety was also important in Indian Buddhism, but he asserted that it was “a Buddhist compromise with the Brāhmanical ethics of filiality operating at the popular level.” On the other hand, Gregory Schopen, who mainly...

Pre-Modern and Early Modern Persian Literature: Written while Travelling?

In literary histories written in both Iran and the West it has generally be assumed that early modern Persian literary works are (technically inferior) copies of Western literary works. This has been and is still a claim. Almost no academically and scientifically sound works has substantiated this claim. While there is no point in denying a European influence on early modern Persian literature,...

Holy springs and Protestantism in early modern Denmark: a medical rationale for a religious practice.

We know of some 650 holy springs in Denmark. Their abundance seems to be the reason why a decade ago one of Denmark's leading authorities on late-medieval archaeology wrote that the popular worship of saints in that country appeared to be more closely connected to the cult of holy springs than anywhere else in Europe.' This statement was apparently based largely on post-Reformation sources. A v...

Suicide in Early Modern and Modern Europe