General works
Among the many overviews of Hinduism are Sitansu S. Chakravarti, Hinduism: A Way of Life (1991); Gavin Flood, An Introduction to Hinduism (1996); C.J. Fuller, The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism in India (1996); David R. Kinsley, Hinduism: A Cultural Perspective (1982); Klaus K. Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism, 2nd ed. (1994); and R.C. Zaehner, Hinduism, 2nd ed. (1966, revised 1985). Jan Gonda, Vedic Literature (Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas) (1975), and Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit (1977). For historical overviews, consult Vincent A. Smith, The Oxford History of India, 4th ed. (1981); and Romila Thapar and Percival Spear, A History of India, 2 vol. (1965–66).
Sacred texts
Original sources of the principal texts of Hinduism in English translation are collected in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (ed. and trans.), Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism (1988); and R.C. Zaehner (ed. and trans.), Hindu Scriptures (1966). A useful compendium of Hindu mythology in translation is Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (ed. and trans), Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook (1975).
Some of the individual textual classics of Hinduism have been translated and published in the series Sacred Books of the East: F. Max Müller and Hermann Oldenberg (trans.), Vedic Hymns, 2 vol. (1891–97, reprinted 1979), selections from the Rigveda; Maurice Bloomfield (trans.), Hymns of the Atharva-Veda: Together with Extracts from the Ritual Books and the Commentaries (1897, reissued 1973); Julius Eggeling (trans.), The Śatapatha-Brāhmana, According to the Text of the Mâdhyandina School, 5 vol. (1882–1900, reprinted 1978); Julius Jolly (trans.), The Institutes of Vishnu (1880, reprinted 1965), and The Minor Law-Books (1889, reprinted 1965); George Thibaut (trans.), The Vedānta-Sūtras, with the Commentary by Rāmānuja, 3 vol. (1890–1904, reprinted 1977); and Hermann Oldenberg (trans.), The Grihya-Sutras: Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies, 2 vol. (1886–92, reissued 1973). Also of interest are Wendy Doniger and Brian K. Smith (trans.), The Laws of Manu: With an Introduction and Notes (1991); and Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (ed. and trans.), The Rig Veda: An Anthology (1981), a collection of 108 hymns. Patrick Olivelle (trans.), Upanishads (1989); and Barbara Stoler Miller (trans.), The Bhagavad-Gita (1986, reissued 1991), are excellent translations. Translations of the epics include J.A.B. van Buitenen (ed. and trans.), The Mahābhārata (1973– ); and Hari Prasad Shastri (trans.), The Ramayana, 3rd ed., 3 vol. (1976). Translations of several Puranas are available in the Purāṇas, series ed. by Anand Swarup Gupta (1968– ).
Although many of the vast sources for the vernacular literatures have not been translated, there are some available in English translation, including: W. Douglas P. Hill (trans.), The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rāma (1952), a translation of the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas; Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh (trans.), The Bījak of Kabir (1983); Kenneth E. Bryant, Poems to the Child-God: Structures and Strategies in the Poetry of Sūrdās (1978); John Stratton Hawley, Sūr Dās: Poet, Singer, Saint (1984); and A.K. Ramanujan (trans.), Speaking of Śiva (1973), Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Viṣṇu (1981), and Poems of Love and War: From the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Long Poems of Classical Tamil (1985).
Early history and religion
A good introduction to tribal and Hindu folklore is provided by Verrier Elwin (trans.), Tribal Myths of Orissa (1954, reprinted 1980), Myths of Middle India (1949, reprinted 1977), and Myths of the North-East Frontier of India (1958, reissued 1968).
Studies of the prehistoric period, the Indo-European background of Indian civilization, and the Indus valley civilization include Georges Dumézil, Gods of the Ancient Northmen, trans. from French (1973); Bruce Lincoln, Myth, Cosmos, and Society: Indo-European Themes of Creation and Destruction (1986); Jaan Puhvel (ed.), Myth and Law Among the Indo-Europeans: Studies in Indo-European Comparative Mythology (1970); and John Marshall (ed.), Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization, 3 vol. (1931, reprinted 1973).
The best works on the Vedic religion include the essays found in J.C. Heesterman, The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual (1985); Frits Staal, C.V. Somayajipad, and M. Itti Ravi Nambudiri, Agni, the Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar, 2 vol. (1983). Still useful is Louis Renou, Vedic India, trans. from French (1957, reissued 1971). Brian K. Smith, Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion (1989), is an examination of the relations between Vedic religion and later Hinduism.
Dharma and karma
The literature and teachings on dharma are presented in Pandurang Vaman Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religions and Civil Law in India), 2nd ed., 5 vol. in 8 (1968–77), an indispensable work. A summary of dharma is found in Robert Lingat, The Classical Law of India (1973; originally published in French, 1967). The best study on Yoga is Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, 2nd ed. (1969; originally published in French, 1954). The doctrine of karma and rebirth as it is presented in the texts is examined in the essays collected in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (ed.), Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions (1980). Of the many works on the theoretical underpinnings of the caste system, the most influential has been the magnum opus by Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications, rev. ed. (1980; originally published in French, 1966). Also noteworthy is Veena Das, Structure and Cognition: Aspects of Hindu Caste and Ritual, 2nd ed. (1982).
Art and architecture
For a convenient summary of the Hindu practice and ideology of image worship, consult the excellent Richard H. Davis, Lives of Indian Images (1997); Diana L. Eck, Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India, 2nd rev. and enlarged ed. (1985); Susan L. Huntington and John C. Huntington, The Art of Ancient India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (1985); and the essays in Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Norman Cutler, and Vasudha Narayanan (eds.), Gods of Flesh/Gods of Stone: The Embodiment of Divinity in India (1985). The best work on Hindu temples is Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple, 2 vol. (1946, reprinted 1976). Michael W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky, Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture (1983– ), is a comprehensive work.
Deities and their sects
An overview of the sects worshipping Vishnu or one of his forms can be found in Suvira Jaiswal, The Origin and Development of Vaiṣṇavism: Vaiṣṇavism from 200 B.C. to A.D. 500, 2nd rev. and enlarged ed. (1981); and Milton Singer (ed.), Krishna: Myths, Rites, and Attitudes (1966, reprinted 1981). An excellent study on Krishna is Alf Hiltebeitel, The Ritual of Battle: Krishna in the Mahābhārata (1976). Other important works include John Stratton Hawley, Krishna, the Butter Thief (1983); and David R. Kinsley, The Divine Player: A Study of Kṛṣṇa līlā (1979).
The history of Shaivism is surveyed in C.V. Narayana Ayyar (sadananda), Origin and Early History of Śaivism in South India (1936, reprinted 1974). The mythology of Shiva is discussed in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Śiva (1973, reprinted as Śiva, the Erotic Ascetic, 1981).
For the worship of the goddess in her many forms, consult the essays in John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff (eds.), The Divine Consort: Rādhā and the Goddesses of India (1982); Kathleen M. Erndl, Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddesses of Northwest India in Myth, Ritual, and Symbol (1993); John Stratton Hawley and Donna M. Wulff (eds.), Devī: Goddesses of India (1996); Alf Hiltebeitel, The Cult of Draupadī (1988– ); David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition (1986, reissued 1997); and Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts (1980). An interesting and accessible comparison of certain themes in the worship of Krishna and the goddess Kali is David Kinsley, The Sword and the Flute: Kālī and Kṛṣṇa, Dark Visions of the Terrible and the Sublime in Hindu Mythology (1975).
Religious and philosophical traditions
The Indian ascetic and monastic traditions are examined in Johannes Bronkhorst, The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism (1993); Robert Lewis Grosse, The Sādhus of India: A Study of Hindu Asceticism (1992); T.N. Madan, Non-Renunciation: Themes and Interpretations of Hindu Culture (1987, reissued 1996); David W. Miller and Dorothy C. Wertz, Hindu Monastic Life, rev. ed. (1996); Patrick Olivelle, Saṃnyāsa Upanishads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation (1992); and Wendy Sinclair-Brull, Female Ascetics: Hierarchy and Purity in an Indian Religious Movement (1997).
The various devotional traditions of Hinduism are examined in David L. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation: A Study of the Rāgānugā Bhakti Sādhana (1988); Friedheim Hardy, Viraha-Bhakti: The Early History of Kṛṣṇa Devotion in South India (1983); Jeffrey J. Kripal, Kali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna, 2nd ed. (1998); David N. Lorenzen (ed.), Bhakti Religion in North India (1995); Paula Richman (compiler), Extraordinary Child: Poems from a South Indian Devotional Genre (1997); and Karine Schomer and W.H. McLeod (eds.), The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India (1987).
The standard work on the philosophical and theological aspects of various Hindu traditions is Surendranath Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy, 5 vol. (1922–55, reprinted 1975). A fine series of volumes on Indian philosophy is Karl H. Potter (compiler), Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies (1977– ). The best overviews of Tantrism are Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition (1965, reprinted 1977); David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India (1996); and Edward C. Dimock, Jr., The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaiṣṇavasahajiyā Cult of Bengal (1966).
Practical Hinduism
Emphasizing the anthropology of popular Hinduism are the works by Lawrence A. Babb, The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India (1975); McKim Marriott (ed.), Village India: Studies in the Little Community (1955, reprinted 1986); and Milton Singer (ed.), Traditional India: Structure and Change (1958, reissued 1976). A classic case history of the process known as Sanskritization is M.N. Srinivas, Religion and Society Among the Coorgs of South India (1952, reissued 1978).
Valuable studies of pilgrimage include A.W. Entwistle, Braj: Center of Krishna Pilgrimage (1987); Ann Grodzins Gold, Fruitful Journeys: The Ways of the Rajasthani Pilgrims (1988); and William S. Sax, Mountain Goddess: Gender and Politics in a Himalayan Pilgrimage (1991).
Hinduism and other traditions
Developments in the Hindu tradition as it confronted other religions and modernity are covered in D.S. Sarma, Studies in the Renaissance of Hinduism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1944); Wilhelm Halbfass, India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding (1988; originally published in German, 1981); and Peter van der Veer, Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (1994). Of special interest are the texts collected and translated by Richard Fox Young, Resistant Hinduism: Sanskrit Sources on Anti-Christian Apologetics in Early Nineteenth-Century India (1981).