All Episodes
Episodes
Caterina Guenzi, "Words of Destiny: Practicing Astrology in North India" (SUNY Press, 2021)
Astrologers play an important role in Indian society, but there are very few studies on their social identity and professional practices. Based on extensive fieldwork carried out in the city of Banaras, Words of...
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Ionut Moise and Ganesh U. Thite, "Vaiśeṣikasūtra: A Translation" (Routledge, 2021)
This book introduces readers to Indian philosophy by presenting the first integral English translation of Vaiśeṣikasūtra with the earliest extant commentary of Candrānanda on the old aphorisms of Vaiśeṣika school of...
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E. H. Rick Jarow, "The Cloud of Longing: A New Translation and Eco-Aesthetic Study of Kalidasa's Meghaduta" (Oxford UP, 2021)
The Cloud of Longing: A New Translation and Eco-Aesthetic Study of Kalidasa's Meghaduta (Oxford UP, 2021) is a translation and full-length study of the great Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa's famed Meghadūta (literally: "The...
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A Conversation with Vasudha Narayanan about Hindu Studies
Raj Balkaran has a candid conversation with seasoned scholar Dr. Vasudha Narayanan about her academic journey, the current state of Hindu Studies and her ground-breaking work on Hindu temples and traditions in...
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Gloria Maité Hernández, "Savoring God: Comparative Theopoetics" (Oxford UP, 2021)
Gloria Maité Hernández's Savoring God: Comparative Theopoetics (Oxford UP, 2021) compares two mystical works central to the Christian Discalced Carmelite and the Hindu Bhakti traditions: the sixteenth-century Spanish...
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Pankaj Jain, "Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability" (Ashgate, 2011)
In Indic religious traditions, a number of rituals and myths exist in which the environment is revered. Despite this nature worship in India, its natural resources are under heavy pressure with its growing economy and...
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Ute Hüsken et al., "Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs" (SUNY Press, 2021)
The autumnal Navarātri festival—also called Durgā Pūjā, Dassehra, or Dasain—is the most important Hindu festival in South Asia and wherever Hindus settle. A nine-night-long celebration in honor of the goddess Durgā,...
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Anustup Basu, "Hindutva as Political Monotheism" (Duke UP, 2020)
In Hindutva as Political Monotheism (Duke University Press, 2020), Professor Anustup Basu provides a genealogical study of Hindutva. The interview is a discussion upon the connection drawn by the author between the...
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Sabrina D. MisirHiralall, "Devotional Hindu Dance: A Return to the Sacred" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)
Devotional Hindu Dance: A Return to the Sacred (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) sheds light on the purpose of Hindu dance as devotional. Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall explains the history of Hindu dance and how colonization...
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Jyotirmaya Sharma, "Elusive Nonviolence: The Making and Unmaking of Gandhi’s Religion of Ahimsa" (Westland, 2021)
In Elusive Nonviolence: The Making and Unmaking of Gandhi’s Religion of Ahimsa (Westland, 2021), Jyotirmaya Sharma argues that Gandhi acknowledged the absence of any serious tradition of non-violence in India. His...
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Nishant Shahani, "Pink Revolutions: Globalization, Hindutva, and Queer Triangles in Contemporary India" (Northwestern UP, 2021)
Pink Revolutions: Globalization, Hindutva, and Queer Triangles in Contemporary India (Northwestern UP, 2021) describes how queer politics in India occupies an uneasy position between the forces of neoliberal...
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Atmadarshan Laura Santoro, "Song of Your Soul," a New Translation of the Bhagavad Gita
Raj Balkaran interviews Atmadarshan Laura Santoro co-owner of Dharma Kshetra Yoga and author of forthcoming book The Song of Your Soul (an original new translation of the Bhagavad Gita) on the role of yoga and Indian...
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