Reading the Fifth Veda: Studies on the Mahbhrata. Essays by Alf
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Religious Studies Reviewrsr_1612 114..168 •VOLUME38•NUMBER2•JUNE2012 international conference on Tagore held at Peking Univer- WHEN THE GODDESS WAS A WOMAN: MAHA¯ B- sity in 2010 and contains contributions from the likes of HA¯ RATA ETHNOGRAPHIES. ESSAYS BY ALF Nobel laureate Amartya Sen; Tagore scholar, Uma Das HILTEBEITEL, VOLUME 2. Edited by Vishwa Adluri and Gupta; historian P. Duara; and T. Chung, a senior scholar of Joydeep Bagchee. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. xlvii + 624. Hard- Sino–Indian relations. This is a useful resource for research back, $247.00. libraries as well as general collections. The second volume of Hiltebeitel’s collected papers Brian A. Hatcher includes 20 of his many short (actually mid-length) writings Tufts University on the Hindu goddess (one paper is new for this volume). Most derive from his field studies on the goddess Draupadı¯, the heroine of the Tamil folk Maha¯bha¯rata, and the god- desses associated with the contiguous cult of Arava¯n- READING THE FIFTH VEDA: STUDIES ON THE ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ MAHABHARATA. ESSAYS BY ALF HILTEBEITEL, Kut·t·an· d· avar. He addresses issues pertaining to sacrifice, VOLUME 1. Edited by Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee. sexuality, festivals, healing, mythic identities, the nature of Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. xlviii + 646. Hardback, $255.00. the retelling of a presumptive “original” Sanskrit epic in Hiltebeitel is among the world’s best known vernacular and folk culture, and much more. The signifi- Maha¯bha¯rata scholars and unquestionably the most pro- cance of the title lies in the historical, literary, and ethno- lific. He has written five books directly on the great Indian graphic turn of divinity toward humanity, exemplified by epic (in addition to several other books, edited volumes, both the Sanskrit and the folk Draupadı¯. Some of his most and translations of other scholars’ works from French, influential articles are included here, including his early notably Biardeau, Eliade, and Dumézil, his primary “The Indus Valley Proto-S´ iva” (1978) and “Draupadı¯’s Hair” mentors), and nearly a hundred articles (and at least ten in (1980). The editors’ important introduction pushes the ante press or forthcoming). His output is equaled only by his on Hiltebeitel’s break from a Eurocentric classical Indology thoughtfulness and insight. Most of his work has been and Indo-European comparative mythology to a more bal- textual, in which he theorizes the epic while addressing anced Indocentric view, due to his mid-career engagement vedic and epic ritual and comparative mythology. Much with the South Indian Draupadı¯ cult and his commitment has also been ethnographic, growing out of his fieldwork in to thinking through the insights of the late Madeleine northern Tamilnadu, on the Draupadı¯ cult. He has never Biardeau, to whom these two volumes are dedicated. Future sequestered these areas of interest, however, consistently scholarship will better judge the extent to which Hiltebeitel weaving observations from text, fieldwork, and mythology. has actually forged new methodological ground, but Adluri’s Mild criticisms of his oeuvre are that he has not attended and Bagchee’s assertions must be taken seriously. Surely, proportionally to the local (largely Tamil) archives in his Hiltebeitel’s efforts have been furthered by increased oppor- work on the epic in modernity; he depended too heavily (in tunities for more sophisticated and even-handed anthropo- his earlier work) on then-fashionable psychoanalytic logical and other ethnographic fieldwork in India, and to theory; and he has occasionally construed support for his advances in anthropology and other humanistic endeavors. theories where it was perhaps unwarranted. These criti- Hiltebeitel effectively demonstrates that the complex of cisms, however, are minor and are mentioned at all goddess worship in India has a solid basis in the greater because of the extraordinary thoroughness of his research, Maha¯bha¯rata, including the classical, vernacular, and folk breadth of his erudition, and prodigious output. Nor do versions, which must be viewed as part of an evolving, mul- these criticisms diminish the importance of his work, tifaceted, and equally construed whole. which will stand as a testament to sound scholarship in the Frederick M. Smith best sense: deep engagement (although never contentious) University of Iowa with the texts, the performative contexts, and his scholarly predecessors and peers. Not all of the 21 articles in this DHARMA AND ECOLOGY OF HINDU COMMUNI- volume have been previously published. One, on the TIES: SUSTENANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY. By mythology of the horse sacrifice (as´vamedha) in the San- Pankaj Jain. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, skrit epics, is new. As the editors point out, Hiltebeitel’s 2011. Pp. x + 213. $89.95. fieldwork in the 1980s forced him to rethink the presump- In Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities, Pankaj tive invulnerability of the European philological tradition. Jain offers a critical new directive for approaching religious Hiltebeitel sees the Maha¯bha¯rata as a work carefully environmentalism in Indic traditions. This important book designed from the outset, a view that has colored much of explores the question “How do Indian villagers understand his writing and theorizing. His sophisticated and accom- and live with their natural resources?” by investigating the plished work linking epic text, history, performance, worldviews of three environmentally friendly religious com- mythology, and well-constructed argument is essential for munities. Through a combination of archival research and anyone with an interest in the Indian epics. ethnographic research, Jain brings scholarly attention to the Frederick M. Smith Swadhyayis of Gujarat and Maharashtra, and the Bhils and University of Iowa Bishnoi, both of Rajasthan, important communities whom 114.