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A significant collection of essays by a renowned scholar of religious studies, the present volume contains ten essays that discuss the history of religious movements and religious ideologies in India. The volume begins with an essay which asks and seeks to answer the rather provocative question: who invented hinduism? Most of the essays included here attempt to uncover and criticize scholarly arguments that the author feels are based as much on ideology or conventional inherited opinions as on the evidence available in historical documents. For instance, in the lead essay about the supposed invention of Hinduism by the British, he argues that the concept of a Hindu religion was clearly recognized by Hindus themselves at least as far back as the beginning of the fifteenth century. Thought-provoking in style and lucid in composition, this volume will be of much interest to students and scholars of religious history, medieval Indian history, sociology, anthropology, and South Asian studies.
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Pages : 308
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