Dharma / Alf Hiltebeitel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hiltebeitel, Alf, author.

Series:

Dimensions of Asian spirituality.

Dimensions of Asian Spirituality ; 15

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dharma.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (209 p.)

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, [2010]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This introductory work proposes a fresh take on the ancient Indian concept dharma. By unfolding how, even in its developments as "law" and custom, dharma participates in nuanced and multifarious understandings of the term that play out in India's great spiritual traditions, the book offers insights into the innovative character of both Hindu and Buddhist usages of the concept. Alf Hiltebeitel, in an original approach to early Buddhist usages, explores how the Buddhist canon brought out different meanings of dharma. This is followed by an exposition of the hypothesis that most, if not all, of the Hindu law books flowered after the third-century BC emperor Asoka, a Buddhist, made dharma the guiding principle of an entire realm and culture. A discussion built around the author's expertise on the Sanskrit epics shows how their narratives amplified the new Brahmanical norms and brought out the ethical dilemmas and spiritual teachings that arose from inquiry into dharma.A chapter on the tale of the Life of the Buddha considers the relation between dharma, moksa/nirvana (salvation), and bhakti (devotion). Here, Hiltebeitel ties together a thread that runs through the entire story, which is the Buddha's tendency to present dharma as a kind of civil discourse. In this sense, dharma challenges people to think critically or at least more creatively about their ethical principles and the foundations of their own spiritual values. A closing chapter on dharma in the twenty-first century explores its new cachet in an era of globalization, its diasporic implications, its openings into American popular culture, some implications for women, and the questions it is still raising for modern India.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Editor's Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. Dharma and South Asian Spirituality

Chapter 2. King Aśoka's Dhaṃma

Chapter 3. Vedic Dhárman and Dharma

Chapter 4. Early Buddhism: Three Baskets of Dharma

Chapter 5. Classical Brahmanical Dharma

Chapter 6. Two Dharma Biographies? Rāma and Yudhiṣṭhira

Chapter 7. Two Dharma Biographies? Sītā and Draupadī

Chapter 8. Dharma in the Bhagavad Gītā

Chapter 9. Dharma and Bhakti

Chapter 10. Reimagining the Dharma Hero: The Adventure of the Buddha

Chapter 11. Dharma for the Twenty-first Century

Glossary

Further Reading

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [177]-181) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Aug 2019)

ISBN:

9780824870713

0824870719

9780824860639

0824860632

OCLC:

794925338