The third edition of this well-regarded introduction to Hinduism adds new material on the religion’s origins; on its relations with rival traditions; and on Hindu science.This third edition of the classic text updates the information contained in the earlier editions; and includes new chapters on the origins of Hinduism; its history of relations with Buddhism; Christianity; and Islam; Hindu science; and Hindu measures of time. The chronology and the bibliography have been updated as well.A comprehensive survey of the Hindu tradition; the book deals with the history of Hinduism; the sacred writings of the Hindus; the Hindu worldview; and the specifics of the major branches of Hinduism—Vaisnavism; Saivism; and Saktism. It also focuses on the geographical ties of Hinduism with the land of India; the social order created by Hinduism; and the various systems of Hindu thought. Klaus K. Klostermaier describes the development of Hinduism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; including present-day political Hinduism and the efforts to turn Hinduism into a modern world religion. A unique feature of the book is its treatment of Hinduism in a topical fashion; rather than by chronological description of the development of Hinduism or by summary of the literature. The complexities of Hindu life and thought are thus made real to the reader; and Hindus will recognize it as their own tradition.“Klostermaier has now made a great book even better.†— CHOICE
#13441414 in Books 1993-11Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 .95 x 5.06 x 9.22l; #File Name: 0791417735329 pages
Review
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Contained herein this tome are the documents that would offer you the manumission from the I know better elite. I urge all to trBy Saiko-komonI found the book enlightening; somewhat mimicking the semantic coloratura of some the reviewers; but far more edifying than tgheir resort to the near available lexicon. . You will find me elsewhere in reviews. All I have to say; you all have dictionaries; and brains; the sure antidote to stuck on constipation from the take it from me constipations who may require a need to sit on that elevation a little higher than you. Scholars disabuse the pre Gutenberg crowd of the sanctimonious. Buy the book; read it for yourself. I would welcome questions; not buying them under my pretentious robes. Recall; we in the west have Gutenberg as our original Zen Master. Contained herein this tome are the documents that would offer you the manumission from the I know better elite. I urge all to tread the way with knowledge not the subservience of the enslaved mind. A GED in zen knowledge will put a lot of zen masters out of work. Good luck.17 of 24 people found the following review helpful. Cosmic ConstipationBy HakuyuIf the price reflected the value of the book; I'd have to give it five stars. Otherwise; I'd hesitate to give it half a star. I am not disapproving when it comes to educated English; but this book is atrocious to read. Its style seems less like academic prose; and more like academic pose. It seems like murdering Dogen; to me. There is surely a limit to the degree of academic jargon you can bring to the task of surveying a tradition; for which it was axiomatic "not to speak too plainly" (pu shuo pu). P.S. Heine's contributions elsewhere(not least 'The Koan:Texts and Contexts. The Zen Canon etc.) are meaningful and valuable. I didn't find those laboured. Alas; the present work left me feeling that I was lifting dumbells with my eyeballs. In short; as regards the hermeneutical horizons of the two textual properties or modules under current evaluation; there were certainly infrastructural resemblances to the literary proclivities of the Japanese cenobite; productive of the key Buddhological source materials at hand. However; the excruciatingly didactic; pedagogical patterns and profusion of multi-complex; multivalenced academic jargon; made me somewhat catatonic; and in an irrational upsurge of neuromuscular exertion; mediated through the biceps and triceps; the said tome ullulated through the ambient ether; and thus found itself laying; functionally redundant; in a circular waste receptacle; pending further functional assignments; morphologically modified in the phenomenological sense; as waste paper.
