BASIC TEXTBOOKS AND SURVEY WORKS

· Bhattacharyya, Haridas, (ed.) The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. IV, The Religions, The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta 1956.

A fairly thorough piece, this book is comprised of a collection of over forty articles written by Indian scholars and religious leaders. It has essays on various Hindu sects and contains information on both Hindu and Buddhist Tantra. There is also discussion of the life and teaching of various saints. Essays on rituals, festivals, and popular practices are also contained within this volume.

· Biardeau, Madeleine Hinduism: The Anthropology of a Civilization, trans. Richard Nice, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1989.

Presented from an anthropological perspective Biardeau's work is an extremely sensitive and careful representation of the tradition (her definition of Tantra is the best I have seen) . Sometimes overly erudite, but overall an insightful piece. It seems to add a dimension not represented by any of the other introductory texts.

· Chaitanya, Krishna, A New History of Sanskrit Literature, Greenwood Press, Westport , Conn. 1975.

A fairly thorough introduction to the textual tradition. Probably the best introduction to the Sanskrit literature tradition included in this bibliography. The sections devoted to the epics are fairly good; however, the text devoted to the Puranas is extremely weak given the size and influence of this textual canon.

· Dasgupta, Surendra, Nath, A History of Indian Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Vol.1 1922, Vol.2 1932, Vol.3 1940, Vol.4 1949, Vol.5 1955.

This is a huge collection of the Indian philosophical traditions in many of its forms. Moving from the Vedic tradition, these texts include discussion of many of the classic schools in the Hindu tradition as well as thought from the Buddhist and Jain canon. This is a classic work. Although the focus here is not specifically religious issues, there are many descriptions and translations of significant religious texts.

· Doniger-O'Flaherty, Wendy Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, Barnes and Noble Books, Totowa, New Jersey, 1988.

In this temporally and linguistically broad text Doniger translates various scriptural fragments from the Rig Veda, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, and the Tantras. In addition Daniel Gold has contributed a section on Hindi sources which includes work from Kabir, Sur Das and Tulsi Das. David Habberman has translated scriptures from Bengali: primarily poetry and songs. Finally, David Shulman has translated some work from the Tamil literature which includes, among other things the literature of Cuntaramutti and the work of Kampan. Each of these sections also includes an informative introduction to the literature of each of these linguistic traditions.

· Faraquhar, J.N., An Outline of the Religious Literature of India Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1967.

An introduction to the Religious literature arranged chronologically, beginning with the Vedas. A useful guide to not only Hindu literature, but also Jain and Buddhist works.

Flood, Gavin, An Introduction to HinduismCambridge University Press, New York, 1996.

This is an excellent introduction to Hinduism which is organized primarily thematically, although it does follow a rough historical outline. Interestingly, Dr. Flood has chosen to emphasize the role of the Tantric tradition, ritual and Dravidian Influences as he feels these issues have been particularly important histroically.

· Koller, John, The Indian Way Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1982.

This text is a general, yet lucid introduction to the autochthonous religious traditions of India. The majority of the book focuses upon Hinduism. There is particular reference to the Vedic beginnings, the Upanishads and devotional Hinduism. The overall slant of the text is largely, perhaps overly philosophic in nature. In addition, there are sections on the Jainism , Islam, Buddhism and the Sikhs.

· Hopkins, Thomas J., The Hindu Religious Tradition, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, 1971.

A short introduction to the tradition focusing primarily upon the classical period. Hopkins has sections on the Veda, the Upanisads, non-Vedic challenges to orthodoxy and two large and informative sections on the Epics and the Puranas. I can appreciate Hopkins emphasis upon the Puranic tradition, a tradition which I feel has been largely overlooked by the scholarly enterprise and which nevertheless remains extremely influential in the living tradition today. There is also a very useful annotated bibliography at the end of the text.

· Hein, Norvin "Part II, Hinduism" in Religions of the World St. Martin Press, New York, 1988.

Hein's Text, embedded within a larger survey text is an excellent introduction to study of Hinduism. Organized primarily upon a historical model, Hein begins his elucidation with the traditional roots in Indus valley civilization, working through the Vedic period, moving on to a three fold description of the classical period. These three sections include the way of action, knowledge and devotion. They include descriptions of fundamental ideas and figures including karma, dharma, artha and moksa, Sankara, concepts of Atman and Brahman, the caste system, Saivaite and Vaisnavaite thought and much more. Following these three sections Hein gives a brief, perhaps superficial rendering of modern Hinduism focusing on primary figures such as Ramakrishna, Gandhi, Svami Vivekananda and the Bengali poet Tagore.

· Klostermaier, Klaus, K. A Survey of Hinduism, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1989.

Klostermaier has compiled in this text, the most thorough introduction to the tradition that I have been able to find. Six hundred and fifty pages of content filled text, Klostermaier begins with some contexting and essentialist claims followed by a three-fold division of the remained of his text (Organized in terms of how he conceives the Trimarga or three paths to liberation) There is a very useful sixty page bibliography which has proven useful in the course of the construction of this text.

· Knipe, David, M., Hinduism: Experiments in the Sacred, Harper, San Francisco, 1991.

A basic introductory text to the academic study of Hinduism. The work begins with a discussion the Indus Civilization and continues up through a the contemporary practice of Hinduism. The text contains a fairly thorough section on the epics and their role in the worship over time. A useful yet not extremely thorough text.

· Macdonell, A.A., India's Past: A Survey of her Literatures, Religions, Languages and Antiquities, Oxford University Press, England, 1927.

An old yet classic survey of Indian language and Literature. There are sections of course on the Vedic period, the Post-Vedic period, the epics and lyrical poetry; however, Macdonell also includes sections on the grammarians, astronomy, the Kamasutra and Vernacular languages.

· Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli and Charles A. Moore, A Source Book in Indian Philosophy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1957.

THE classic work on Indian philosophical traditions, Radhakrishnan provides an accessible and lucid introduction to the majority of guiding philosophical ideas present in the sub-continent since the Vedic period. I have found his discussion of the six main orthodox systems of thought particularly illuminating (Nyasa, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga Purva Mimamsa and Vedanta)

· Renou, Louis, Hinduism, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1961.

A short introduction to the tradition which provides a very brief introduction to some of the main philosophical ideas, but which spends the majority of the time quoting from translations of the Sanskrit and vernacular sources. While none of these sections are very long, Renou has chosen selections from a wide gamete of materials.

· ------------ Indian Literature, Walker and Company, New York, 1964.

A fairly brief, perhaps overly so, introduction to the languages and literature of the Indian sub-continent. Renou includes sections on Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrits, the Dravidian literatures, (Tamil, Malayalam, Kannari and Telugu) and the modern Indo-Aryan languages (Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Singhalese etc.)