Hinduism

This book, compiled from basic Hindu writings, is an exploration of the essential meaning of the Hindu tradition, the way of thinking and acting that has dominated life in India for the last three thousand years. Selections from religious, literary and philosophic works are preceded by introductory material that summarizes historical developments and cultural movements.

The Dharmasutras are the four surviving works of the ancient Indian expert tradition on the subject of dharma, or the rules of behaviour a community recognizes as binding on its members. Written in a pithy and aphoristic style and representing the culmination of a long tradition of scholarship, these unique documents give us a glimpse of how people, especially Brahmin males, were ideally expected to live their lives within an ordered and hierarchically arranged society.

In the West Krishna is primarily known as the speaker of the Bhagavad Gita. But it is the stories of Krishna's childhood and his later exploits that have provided some of the most important and widespread sources of religious narrative in the Hindu religious landscape. This volume bringstogether new translations of representative samples of Krishna religious literature from a variety of genres -- classical, popular, regional, sectarian, poetic, literary, and philosophical.

Hanuman, the Hindu monkey-god, is best known in the west for his role in the epic Ramayana, in which, as the devoted servant of Rama, the tale's hero, he leads a ferocious monkey army to help defeat the evil Ravana and rescue Rama's wife Sita. Philip Lutgendorf examines Hindu popularliterature, art, and ritual, and shows that Hanuman is perhaps the most beloved deity in the Hindu pantheon. Drawing on an enormous treasure trove of previously untapped sources that he has gathered through years of fieldwork, as well as on interviews with devotees, he traces the history ofHanuman's character, teases out the many variations on the story, and examines the sources of his enormous appeal.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Prince Arjuna asks direct, uncompromising questions of his spiritual guide on the eve of a great battle. In this expanded edition of the most famous —and popular — of Indian scriptures, Eknath Easwaran contextualizes the book culturally and historically and explains the key concepts of Hindu religious thought and the technical vocabulary of yoga.

Grand in its sweep, this survey of the sacred writings of the major religions of the world offers a thoughtful introduction to the ideas and beliefs upon which great faiths are built. Under the expert guidance of John Bowker, a religious scholar and author of international stature, readers explore the key texts of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Confucian, Daoist, and Shinto traditions. The author discusses some 400 books, among them such well-known sacred texts as the Bible and the Quran, but also spiritual writings by theologians, philosophers, poets, and others.