Table of Contents

Introduction ; Chapter 1:The Dig and the Temple ; Chapter 2:Sacred Knowledge and Indian Origins ; Chapter 3:A City Where the Rivers Meet ; Chapter 4:King Janaka's Contest ; Chapter 5:Vedic Science: The Grammar of Reality ; Chapter 6:Kanishka and Krishna ; Chapter 7:Performing Arts and Sacred Models ; Chapter 8:The Second Rationality ; Chapter 9:Maps and Myths in the Matsya Purana ; Chapter 10:Shankara and Kumarila: Between Brahman and Dharma ; Chapter 11:Devotion and Knowledge: ; Chapter 12:The Eternal Dharma ; Conclusion ; Bibliography

About the Author

Ariel Glucklich is Professor of Theology at Georgetown University. He is the author of many books, including Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul (OUP 2003) and Climbing Chamundi Hill.

Reviews

"As predicted by the metaphor encoded in the title, this book has a wonderful span -- and the terrain is not what everyone else has already seen." --John Stratton Hawley, Professor of Religion, Barnard College, Columbia University, and author of Three Bhakti Voices and, forthcoming, The Memory of Love
"Ariel Glucklich here tackles the enormous question of the interface between the physical world and what he calls ultimate reality in India, balancing the solid data of archeology and other evidence of material culture with the speculations of texts about the meaning behind physical reality. Engaging and provocative, written in a clear, high- spirited style, this book is simultaneously a good read and a good education." --Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade
Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago Divinity School, and author of The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology
"Ariel Glucklich has given us a rich and compelling introduction for those who long, like we all do, for a richer narrative of Hindu culture. This beautifully written book connects the philosophical, historical, scientific, and aesthetic dimensions of Hindu worlds. Its elegant syntheses are indeed contemporary bandhus in their own right. When we have absorbed its pages, we will stand at the crossroads of the many ideas of what Hinduism has been and what
Hinduism is now. And through our expert guide, we will be better able to mark out our own pathways of understanding." --Laurie L. Patton, Howard O. Candler Chair in the Study of Religion and Professor of
Early Indian Religions, Emory University
"Glucklich's refusal to contain his commentary within the realm of objectivity provides an example for non-Hindu students of a meaningful interaction with the tradition, intentionally encouraging them to raise questions about Hinduism that they may typically only raise with respect to their own traditions." --Journal of Hindu Studies
"The book has an engaging, easygoing style and is readable for undergrads and informative for those beyond."--David M. Knipe, University of Wisconsin-Madison