Skip to main content
Special symposium issue of the American Journal of Legal History 63(2): Legal systems past and present classify people in ways that entail particular rights, obligations, capacities, and incapacities. Historically, statuses have... more
Special symposium issue of the American Journal of Legal History 63(2):
Legal systems past and present classify people in ways that entail particular rights, obligations, capacities, and incapacities. Historically, statuses have distinguished free and unfree (and various intermediate statuses); citizen and alien (and often various intermediate statuses); membership in legally recognized religious, ethnic, tribal, or racial groups; marital and other family statuses (spouse, divorcee, dependent, heir, etc.); and many others. Henry Sumner Maine, the nineteenth-century comparative legal historian, proposed that ‘the movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract’.  He envisaged history, at least in the West, as a progressive detachment of individual rights and capacities from the involuntary, inherited statuses connected with family and tribe. Yet in spite of a trend towards liberal individualism in modern secular states, status distinctions still permeate law, though they are usually conceived of and discussed in narrowly circumscribed, compartmentalized forms: status of citizen, immigrant, or alien; minor, dependent, or adult; married or domestic partner; heir; corporate person; member of the military or the clergy; and ‘personal status’ under various colonial or postcolonial regimes. It is rare to see anyone address in broad terms the continuing salience of status in modern Anglo-American legal contexts, though there are rare exceptions.  This collection grew out of an interdisciplinary conference on the dynamics of juridical status, organized at Washington and Lee University in November 2019, bringing together scholars of legal history, religious history, legal theory, and political philosophy in the hope that a conversation on this topic that ranged across history and geography as well as various disciplines might yield new insights about the workings of status more generally in law.  The five articles included in this symposium issue focus on ancient and medieval historical phenomena involving status, with a geographical span reaching from Europe to India.
Symposium issue of the Journal of Law and Religion. The juridical status of persons nowadays tends to be discussed only in narrow contexts: civic status (citizen, alien, and various visa statuses), marital status, penal status,... more
Symposium issue of the Journal of Law and Religion.  The juridical status of persons nowadays tends to be discussed only in narrow contexts: civic status (citizen, alien, and various visa statuses), marital status, penal status, employment status, religious or ethnic status within colonial and post-colonial states, status of the fetus, corporate personal status, and so on.  In the century and a half since Maine’s treatise, Ancient Law (1861), in which he discerned general “movement from Status to Contract” in progressive societies, broad discussions of status as a general feature of law are few, so a renewed comprehensive approach to the issue remains a desideratum.  This Symposium, which has its origins in an interdisciplinary conference on held in November 2019 at Washington and Lee University School of Law, is a step in that direction.  The articles gathered here illuminate the multifarious ways in which juridical status of persons overlaps with religious conceptions of persona and status.  They provide grounds for seeing the religious component as distinctive: because of the uniquely privileged authority attributed to divinely mandated status distinctions, and the urgency of claims to religious rights.  They also show how a juridical status can straddle law and religion, and how legal institutions handle such hybrid forms of status.

◆ CONTENTS:
◆ Timothy LUBIN - Status between Law and Religion: Introduction
◆ Pratima GOPALAKRISHNAN - Wives’ Work: Gender and Status in a List from the Mishnah [Open Access]
◆ Kameliya ATANASOVA & Matthew CHALMERS - The Status of Samaritans in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Damascus [Open Access]
◆ Deepa DAS ACEVEDO - Deities’ Rights? [Open Access]
◆ Mona ORABY - Life at the Margins: Religious Minorities, Status, and the State
◆  An edited collection arising from the 2019 interdisciplinary conference "Status and Justice at the Intersection of Law, Religion, and Society" (https://status-and-justice2019.academic.wlu.edu/).
A Śaiva Utopia centers on the eleventh chapter of the Śivadharmaśāstra, known as the Chapter on Śiva’s Discipline (Śivāśramādhyāya). A critical edition and annotated English translation of the Sanskrit text of this chapter is preceded by... more
A Śaiva Utopia  centers on the eleventh chapter of the Śivadharmaśāstra, known as the Chapter on Śiva’s Discipline (Śivāśramādhyāya). A critical edition and annotated English translation of the Sanskrit text of this chapter is preceded by a comprehensive study of the Śivadharma’s revision of the Brahmanical ‘laws on class and discipline’ (varṇāśramadharma), tracing its utopian vision of a society bound by Śiva devotion. An edition and English translation of a Sanskrit commentary on the chapter, preserved on a unique palm leaf manuscript in Malayalam script, is included as well. The book concludes with an appendix, which addresses the revision of the Śivāśramādhyāya in the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa, where the Śivadharma has been turned into a Sauradharma ('religion of the Sun'). A Śaiva Utopia should be of interest to all historians of Indian religions.
Edited by Timothy Lubin, Donald R. Davis Jr., and Jayanth K. Krishnan. Covering the earliest Sanskrit rulebooks through to the codification of 'Hindu law' in modern times, this interdisciplinary volume examines the interactions between... more
Edited by Timothy Lubin, Donald R. Davis Jr., and Jayanth K. Krishnan. 
Covering the earliest Sanskrit rulebooks through to the codification of 'Hindu law' in modern times, this interdisciplinary volume examines the interactions between Hinduism and the law. The authors present the major transformations to India's legal system in both the colonial and post colonial periods and their relation to recent changes in Hinduism. Thematic studies show how law and Hinduism relate and interact in areas such as ritual, logic, politics, and literature, offering a broad coverage of South Asia's contributions to religion and law at the intersection of society, politics and culture. In doing so, the authors build on previous treatments of Hindu law as a purely text-based tradition, and in the process, provide a fascinating account of an often neglected social and political history.

Download: Front matter and introduction.
Giving to worthy recipients has been meritorious public piety in India at least since the Mauryan empire. Most consequential were grants in perpetuity of land or capital as a 'religious foundation' for monks or Brahmins, conferred by... more
Giving to worthy recipients has been meritorious public piety in India at least since the Mauryan empire. Most consequential were grants in perpetuity of land or capital as a 'religious foundation' for monks or Brahmins, conferred by means of a charter (śāsana). Grants to Brahmins typically created or supported an agrahāra, a residential enclave with attached farmland and villages, on terms analogous to those of grants to Buddhist or Jaina mendicants or monasteries. In these records (attested since the beginning of the Common Era), rulers cede their claims to certain normal obligations of subjects, such as tax revenue, compulsory labor, billeting or provisions for officers of the state, and often give the beneficiaries authority over internal legal administration. This article examines the implications of the fiscal and juridical autonomy conferred in such grants in providing state recognition and institutional support of Brahmins' sacred status as a religious profession and a privileged caste.
One of five articles for a symposium issue  of the AJLH on "Status in Ancient and Medieval Law," arising from the 2019 Conference on "Status and Justice in Law, Religion, and Society" at WLU.
I begin by analysing Mīmāṃsā hermeneutics as employed in Viśvarūpa's and Vijñāneśvara's commentaries on Yajñavalkya Dharmaśāstra 2.21, which proclaims principles for dealing with conflicts of smr̥ ti-rules, taking as an illustration the... more
I begin by analysing Mīmāṃsā hermeneutics as employed in Viśvarūpa's and Vijñāneśvara's commentaries on Yajñavalkya Dharmaśāstra 2.21, which proclaims principles for dealing with conflicts of smr̥ ti-rules, taking as an illustration the problem of self-defence against a Brahmin attacker (quoting Mānava Dharmaśāstra 8.348-51). I then examine Bhāruci's and Medhātithi's arguments on Mānava Dharmaśāstra 8.314-18 (the example of the 'wise thief ' who seeks the king's punishment as a penance). The commentators situate the legality of the king's interests and judicial authority in relation to Veda-based, otherworldly considerations such as sin and expiation. Punishments and penances serve different purposes, are prescribed by different authorities, and occupy distinct sections in textual sources. The case of the Brahmin felon strains the distinction: it asserts that even a Brahmin (otherwise exempt from capital punishment) may be killed if engaged in the worst crimes, but this conflicts with the rules requiring expiation for killing a Brahmin. The 'wise thief ' is the contrived exception that proves the rule that punishment and penance are distinct; the efficacy of the act hinges on the wrong-doer's initiative, so that the king-executioner is more instrument than agent of purification, and at his own spiritual peril. The commentators discuss these cases in terms of the relation between Dharmaśāstra and Arthaśāstra, subordinating the latter to the former.
Ancient and medieval India (prior to ca. 1600) produced a vast literature dealing with the nature of the human being, the proper ordering of society, and ethical and legal norms. Sanskrit sources tend to emphasize special dignities... more
Ancient and medieval India (prior to ca. 1600) produced a vast literature dealing with the nature of the human being, the proper ordering of society, and ethical and legal norms. Sanskrit sources tend to emphasize special dignities belonging tof particular statuses according to a divinely ordained class hierarchy (varṇa-dharma), but in some contexts we hear of universally shared aspects of the human condition. Ascetic and devotional movements found ways to call into question special dignities tied to ascriptive rank. Sanskrit texts on good governance and legal process formulate general standards of justice and equity that could cut across or by-pass rank. Thus, Hindu sources illustrate how ethical and legal orders find ways to compartmentalize: to recognize that all people can share basic capacities and aspirations does not automatically sweep the field clear of status dignity. This essay draws on Jeremy Waldron’s concept of human dignity as a status claim that “levels up” by attributing to all people a dignity once reserved for a privileged few. We note Hindu examples of a similar approach, as well as examples of “leveling down” by pointing out the hypocrisy of elites while extolling the virtues of which the lowly are capable.
The Gṛhyasūtras (rulebooks of household ritual) might be expected to use the word gṛhastha, since it becomes the standard label for a married householder responsible for performing such rites. But in fact, when that role is mentioned,... more
The Gṛhyasūtras (rulebooks of household ritual) might be expected to use the word gṛhastha, since it becomes the standard label for a married householder responsible for performing such rites.  But in fact, when that role is mentioned, they employ older terms, suggesting that gṛhastha came into use only after the core works of the genre were composed, or that the ritualist authors were slow to accept it.  The few occurrences we do find are in restricted contexts in supplementary chapters: in an appended list of penances (a penance for a gṛhastha vidyārthin, “a wisdom-seeker-who-stays-at-home,” BGS 4.12.1), and in two appendices that mention a gṛhastha alongside other individuals (including ascetics) worthy to be fed at rituals.  This suggests that domestic ritual authorities in the era when the term was coming into use saw it as most applicable for depicting the married ritualist as a home-based religious professional comparable to an ascetic.
Co-authored by Atin Basuchoudhary, Mario Ferrero, and Timothy Lubin. Abstract: While most ancient polytheistic religions died out under the impact of monotheism, Hinduism stands out as a lively exception. Why was the Indian variety of... more
Co-authored by Atin Basuchoudhary, Mario Ferrero, and Timothy Lubin.  Abstract: While most ancient polytheistic religions died out under the impact of monotheism, Hinduism stands out as a lively exception. Why was the Indian variety of polytheism more resilient than the Greek and Roman variety? This paper—the first to subject classical Hinduism to modern economic analysis—argues that the theological structure and the organization of priesthoods, which together determine the form of competition within the religious system, may help explain the different historical outcomes of these polytheistic systems.
Many Hindu deities as known from classical sources (i.e., from the epics, Purāṇas, and later religious literature and iconography) have a very slender profile in the Vedic texts, appearing in only a few passages and often represented in... more
Many Hindu deities as known from classical sources (i.e., from the epics, Purāṇas, and later religious literature and iconography) have a very slender profile in the Vedic texts, appearing in only a few passages and often represented in ways that seem peripheral to their full, classical personae. Ritualists and devotees steeped in that older literature took pains to connect those deities to Vedic mantras and rites, in order to validate them with the prestige of venerable orthodoxy as well as to provide a basis for Brahmin priestly roles in their worship. The case of the goddess Durgā is particularly striking in this respect, since her Vedic "footprint" is so small. This study provides a close textual analysis of the "Panca Durgāḥ" also known as the "Durgā Sūkta" (Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 10.1.16 ~ Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad 164-177 ~ Ṛgveda Khila 4.2 supplementing the "Rātri Sūkta," Ṛgveda 10.127), and its application in the durgākalpa rite according to the Baudhāyana Gṛhya Śeṣasūtra 3.3, to show how Taittirīya and Ṛgveda Brahmins went about supplying a Vedic liturgy for Durgā worship and invoking her protection. This account complements the one recently proposed to show how Atharvan priests in the service of rulers drew on Atharvavedic traditions to present Durgā as a patron goddess of arms and military strength.

  (forthcoming in the Journal of the American Oriental Society)
This article reviews the main scholastic norms relevant to property and land rights in ancient and medieval India, and then surveys a range of inscriptions that illustrate the contours of land law in practice. The evidence suggests that... more
This article reviews the main scholastic norms relevant to property and land rights in ancient and medieval India, and then surveys a range of inscriptions that illustrate the contours of land law in practice.  The evidence suggests that India developed a sophisticated concept of landed property from earliest history, with conceptual tools and legal instruments to define the rights of owners vis-à-vis rulers, rival claimants, and holders of subordinate interests (such as tenants, cultivators, mortgagees, etc.).  It further shows that although earlier inscriptions deployed those tools and instruments in a narrow range of transfers between rulers and Brahmins or other religious groups, subsequent periods provide evidence of an increasingly wider application, including gifts by non-elite donors, ordinary contractual land transfers, and resolution of property disputes.  In some cases, the implication seems to be that the legal framework was more widespread in practice but generated durable records (in metal or stone) only for elite actors; in many cases, it seems likely that elite legal resources became more widely available over time.  Moreover, documents sometimes bring to the fore aspects of property law — the role of councils and arbitrators in administering the law (rather than the king or his officers), or the use of documents to carve out special rights — that are less prominent in scholastic treatments such as Dharmaśāstra.
South Asia has since the third century BCE been the center of a distinctive diplomatic culture. Despite the twists and turns of history, and the extreme ethnic and linguistic diversity of the Subcontinent and its peripheries, this culture... more
South Asia has since the third century BCE been the center of a distinctive diplomatic culture. Despite the twists and turns of history, and the extreme ethnic and linguistic diversity of the Subcontinent and its peripheries, this culture (as I will argue) exhibits a demonstrable set of family resemblances that appear with great continuity over many centuries. These features include both formal structural patterns and distinctive phraseology. This article represents a preliminary reconnaissance to identify some of the oldest distinctive features as they appear in the early records, beginning already in the edicts of Aśoka and in the Niya documents, developing in land grants of the Sātavāhana, Gupta, and Pallava eras, and being elaborated in wider cultural spheres thereafter. As will be evident, the results will be limited by the eclectic character of the sparse sources surviving from the first millennium CE and before, but is should also become clear that these sources illustrate the emergence over time of a norms for the production of official documents, norms that grew more formalized and more elaborate as they were adapted to serve other and more specialized legal or administrative purposes. My aim here was not to attempt a comprehensive survey of formulary protocol in the South Asian cultural sphere but simply to demonstrate that such a thing exists, that it was built up progressively out of quite ancient features, and that some of the earliest attested features continued to be employed in one form or another around the widening peripheries of north India (even including calques in various regional languages, including Tamil, Javanese, and Newari, as I show). Certain elements of these can be found in use even in late-medieval times. This phenomenon may be compared with the role of structural elements and phrases from Roman law and medieval French law that survive in modern Anglo-American legal and administrative documents to the present day.
In his edicts, the emperor Aśoka Maurya extols brāhmaṇas, usually alongside ascetics (śramaṇas), as deserving honor and generosity, though he never alludes to their connection with ritual, the central theme of early Brahmanical... more
In his edicts, the emperor Aśoka Maurya extols brāhmaṇas, usually alongside ascetics (śramaṇas), as deserving honor and generosity, though he never alludes to their connection with ritual, the central theme of early Brahmanical literature. On the other hand, in Rock Edicts I and IX, he disparages sacrifices, and ceremonies performed by women, advocating instead the practice of ethical virtues. Close attention to the wording of Rock Edict IX shows that Aśoka and the Brahmanical Gṛhyasūtras talk about domestic rites in very similar terms, even describing them with the same adjective (uccāvaca). Both of them note the special role of women as a source of knowledge of such ceremonies, and differ only in how they evalute the value of such ceremonial: Aśoka disparages women’s rites, while some Gṛhyasūtras explicitly validate women as authorities in such matters. A comparison of these sources highlights the distinctive role of the term dhamma in Aśoka’s usage in contrast to maṅgala (auspicious folk rites), and may provide some guidance for dating the Gṛhyasūtras. The fact that Aśoka does not explicitly connect such rites with the brāhmaṇas suggests that in his experience at least (i.e., in Magadha) Brahmins’ religious authority had nothing to do with domestic ritual. We may conclude that the Vedic canonization of Gṛhya ritual norms was not yet recognized outside of priestly circles, if it had developed yet at all.
This article proposes to analyze the socio-linguistic practices documented in inscriptions from South and Southeast Asia between the fourth and sixteenth centuries as a type of “functional diglossia” characteristic of legal discourse in... more
This article proposes to analyze the socio-linguistic practices documented in inscriptions from South and Southeast Asia between the fourth and sixteenth centuries as a type of “functional diglossia” characteristic of legal discourse in states influenced by the transregional Dharmaśāstra tradition in Sanskrit.  This diglossia can take two forms. Sanskrit itself may be used as an acrolect, either alone or in bilingual records, where it has primarily expressive or ceremonial functions. But the focus in this article is on the other form: the use of a highly Sanskritized, formal and formulaic register of the local vernaculars. Starting with some observations about the impact of Sanskrit legal discourse on Old Khmer and Old Javanese legal records, comparable inscriptions in Old Tamil are examined in detail, noting the influence of first Prakrit and then Sanskrit on legal idiom. It is concluded that use of this Sanskritized register reflects not simply the prestige of Brahmanical high culture but also the perceived value and utility of an imported specialized conceptual system of law and administration. This study further suggests that the introduction of written legal documentation, simultaneous with the spread of Brahmanical legal ideas, led in turn to the formal recognition of local customary norms as law, in keeping with the Dharmaśāstric principle that customary norms constitute Dharma.
Explaining what made ancient Greek law unusual, Michael Gagarin observes that most premodern legal cultures "wrote extensive sets (or codes) of laws for academic purposes or propaganda but these were not intended to be accessible to most... more
Explaining what made ancient Greek law unusual, Michael Gagarin observes that most premodern legal cultures "wrote extensive sets (or codes) of laws for academic purposes or propaganda but these were not intended to be accessible to most members of the community and had relatively little effect on the actual operation of the legal system."  This article addresses the implications of writing for customary or regional law in South and Southeast Asia.  The textual tradition of Dharmaśāstra ("Hindu law"), which canonizes a particular model of Brahmin customary norms,  can certainly be called a "scholarly" exercise, and it was also intended as propaganda for the Brahmanical cosmopolitan world order. But it also formulated a procedural principle to recognize the general validity of other, even divergent, customary norms, though for the most part such rules remained lex non scripta.  On the other hand, inscriptions provide evidence that writing was used for diverse legal purposes and offers glimpses of actual legal practice.  In these records, customary laws are sometimes laid down as statutes by decree of a ruler or community body, or are simply invoked as long-established customary rules.  But even when Dharmaśāstra texts are not directly cited, their influence over the longue durée is discernable in the persistence of śāstric legal categories and terms of art.  This influence is even more evident in Java, where legal codes on the Dharmaśāstra model were composed in Javanese, and where the inscriptions came to exhibit a closer connection with śāstric discourse than is found in India.
Journal of the American Oriental Society 136.4 (Oct.–Dec. 2016): 669–687. The degree to which the early Dharma literature was an extrapolation from the earlier ritual codes can be seen from a number of shared features of form and... more
Journal of the American Oriental Society 136.4 (Oct.–Dec. 2016): 669–687.

The degree to which the early Dharma literature was an extrapolation from the earlier ritual codes can be seen from a number of shared features of form and content.  One of these that has not received more than passing notice is the fact that the Dharmaśāstric principle of regarding customary norms as a valid basis of dharma, both in general (sadācāra, śiṣṭācāra) and in limited spheres (deśācāra, grāmadharma, kuladharma, etc.), has its origins in ritual rules in the Śrautasūtras and Gṛhyasūtras.  Passages from the Baudhāyanaśrautasūtra and numerous Gṛhyasūtras show that already in these rulebooks established practices of particular social groups were accepted as a valid authority in certain contexts where explicit textual warrant was lacking, and that a further distinction was there made between the general norms of experts and the valid particular norms of locality or social group.
It has long been debated whether it is possible to distinguish between secular and religious elements in 'Hindu law'. At present, the general view is that law cannot be separated from religion in the Indic context, not least because,... more
It has long been debated whether it is possible to distinguish between secular and religious elements in 'Hindu law'. At present, the general view is that law cannot be separated from religion in the Indic context, not least because, according to the Shastras, Veda is the chief source of Dharma. Nevertheless, it is recognized that the Dharmashastra incorporates diverse elements: (a) explicitly stated norms of two types: (1) rules derived from priestly ritual codes, and (2) precepts drawn from the Arthashastra (political science) tradition; as well as (b) recognition of the authority of customs specific to region, caste, or profession. Although all these are subsumed within the Brahmanical system, we can discern different conceptions of the relative authority of brahmins and the ruler. This distinction of overlapping spheres of authority is reflected in the treatment of misconduct: the same act may entail punishment by the king as well as distant but automatic consequences due to the operation of karma, consequences that can be averted only by expiatory ritual performances. The ritual impurity of a sin also can have social consequences such as stigma or ostracism, which is likewise removed though expiation. Despite the interlinking of these spheres, their fundamental distinctness is acknowledged in the legal process prescribed in the codes as well as in the glimpses we have of actual legal practice in pre-modern India. Although the Dharmashastra overall represents a system of natural law based on the Brahmanical religious cosmology, it contains within it elements derived from a seemingly positive legal system based on the supreme authority of the king in settling disputes. Further, the distinction between brahmin and royal authority corresponds to a distinction, not between religion and law, but between two parallel and complementary legal subsystems, each with its own set of standards, procedures, and sanctions.
"Our oldest sources for ascetical practices in India are embedded in the Vedic ritual literature. There we can identify a cluster of basic practices and attitudes aimed at maximizing control over oneself, with the assumption that such... more
"Our oldest sources for ascetical practices in India are embedded in the Vedic ritual literature.  There we can identify a cluster of basic practices and attitudes aimed at maximizing control over oneself, with the assumption that such self-control gives rise or provide access to extraordinary power.  A distinction should be made between temporary ascetic practice and professional asceticism.  The earliest clear examples of ascesis were the regimens, called vrata or dīkṣā, associated with Vedic study and worship.  Lasting for a fixed term, they began with a formal rite of consecration (e.g., the upanayana, or the dīkṣā for a soma-offerer), and ended with a ceremony of release (avabhṛtha, uddīkṣā).  These regimens all included restrictions on eating, sleeping, sexual activity, and other activities; such restrictions might be mild or severe, depending on the ritual purpose that occasioned the regimen.  Yet they all constituted temporary deviations from everyday life; there is no unambiguous allusion to a permanent state of ascetic practice, that is, asceticism as a profession, at least until the upaniṣads.  These fixed-term vratas were explicitly used as a model for professional ascetical modes, both Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical.  This well-attested progression belies the common assumption that professional ascetics define the practices that are secondarily adopted in mild or partial forms by people otherwise living ‘in the world’.  Finally, I will point out how the powers to which these ascetical techniques lead are interpreted very differently according to the respective anthropologies and theologies of the various Indian traditions that employed them."
It is possible to trace in the Vedic codes of domestic ritual to process by which diverse food offerings called bali were elaborated into the pūjā-type image-worship of later Hinduism though assimilation to the domestic fire ritual... more
It is possible to trace in the Vedic codes of domestic ritual to process by which diverse food offerings called bali were elaborated into the pūjā-type image-worship of later Hinduism though assimilation to the domestic fire ritual (homa).  The authors of the codes took pains to give such fireless offerings a Vedic character, and to connect the deities thus honored with those familiar to the Vedic pantheon.  At no point is it ever directly acknowledged that either the deity or the ceremony is non-Vedic, but oblique indications have been preserved.  Whether the impulse for such rites came from outside the tradition or was innovated from within, their inclusion was accomplished by superimposing well-established Vedic ritual structures (such as that of the homa, madhuparka, vrata, or śānti) over them, while inserting into them Vedic (or Vedic-style) mantras, the DNA of Vedic ritual.  These adaptations served dual purposes: to appropriate borrowed ritual forms so that they would not seem alien from the Brahmanical point of view, and to ensure a role for the expert services of the Brahmin priesthood in religious milieux in which they had previously been absent.  This analysis is shown to have implications for theories of ritual.
This essay examines the mechanisms by which Brahmanical tradition reproduced itself, especially the regimens of discipline(vratas) undertaken in tandem with text-study, and their role in establishing the knowledge of Sanskrit religious... more
This essay examines the mechanisms by which Brahmanical tradition reproduced itself, especially the regimens of discipline(vratas) undertaken in tandem with text-study, and their role in establishing the knowledge of Sanskrit religious texts (and the use of Sanskrit more broadly) as an important criterion of piety and high social status. I argue that such regimens functioned as markers of belonging to the Brahmanical religion and ‘pure’ Årya society, while also offering the ordinary householder a form of personal piety that promised all the rewards of the old priestly ‘high cult. At the same time, disciplinary regimens provided a traditionally recognized framework for mendicant movements and new deity cults, which helped carry Brahmanical texts, ideals, and practices, via royal patronage, into new regions in India beyond the Ganges Valley and on into Southeast Asia. The second part of this essay will consider what early inscriptions can show us about how Brahmanical doctrine and practice were projected in the public sphere, noting instances in which particular subjects, texts, and especially disciplinary practices are cited, and observing that the grants and foundations recorded in these inscriptions helped spread the tradition and enhance its prestige. My remarks, intended only as a point of departure, will focus mainly on early grants from Orissa.
One of the most striking features of Indian social history is the success of the Brahmin castes in promoting the ideal of Brahmins as model candidates for appointment to ministerial or administrative office. The Sanskrit literature on... more
One of the most striking features of Indian social history is the success of the Brahmin castes in promoting the ideal of Brahmins as model candidates for appointment to ministerial or administrative office. The Sanskrit literature on personal virtue and social norms (dharmaśāstra) offers a systematic argument for the notion that Brahmanically defined virtues are inculcated and exhibited through observance of particular ritual norms, and ideally embodied in virtuous Brahmins. Scholastic discussions of political science (arthaśāstra, nītiśāstra) and kingly virtue (rājadharma) further suggest that Brahmins, and by extension other “twice-born” castes, viz. those eligible to observe Brahmanical ritual norms, and shaped by them) are best suited to high office, a policy often reflected in inscriptional records. Beginning from the conceit that the Brahmanical tradition offers an interesting contrast to the Platonic ideal of the “philosopher-king,” this article analyzes a selection of data drawn from Indian inscriptions, read in light of (or against) the scholastic literature, to show the ways in which Brahmanical norms are reflected in actual records of public administration and statecraft in medieval India. It is observed that in inscriptions, Brahmins in public service were not explicitly identified as such, as were Brahmins who were recipients of endowments (where such caste and religious qualifications justified the grant). However there are indications that the virtues and ideals associated with Brahmin settlements, as well as the writing practices inculcated in them, made them a prime field for recruiting officials.
The fact that the earliest expository prose compositions in Sanskrit came to be treated as Vedic revelation (śruti) — and thus as “primary text” rather than “secondary text” — should not obscure the fact that in form and original purpose... more
The fact that the earliest expository prose compositions in Sanskrit came to be treated as Vedic revelation (śruti) — and thus as “primary text” rather than “secondary text” — should not obscure the fact that in form and original purpose they are (at least to a large extent) commentaries on the mantras of the Vedic cult. This paper considers the Vedic brāhmaṇa genre as a species of commentary, outlining its particular purposes (clarification of the meaning and purpose of the mantras, and of their ritual functions), its methods (e.g., simple glossing, paraphrase, the use of illustrative narratives, symbological interpretation), and its conception of the object of analysis. Comparison will be made with later forms of commentary, suggesting some ways in which brāhmaṇa provided an influential first model of arthavāda, introducing techniques that continued to be used in later forms of commentary.
Chapter 7 in: Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmaśāstra, edited by Patrick Olivelle and Donald R. Davis Jr. Oxford History of Hinduism. Oxford University Press, 2018 [in print Dec. 2017], pp. 98–112.
Research Interests:
Chapter 8 in:
Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmaśāstra, edited by Patrick Olivelle and Donald R. Davis Jr. Oxford History of Hinduism. Oxford University Press, 2018 [in print Dec. 2017], pp. 113–124
Research Interests:
Chapter 13 in:
Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmaśāstra, edited by Patrick Olivelle and Donald R. Davis Jr. Oxford History of Hinduism. Oxford University Press, 2018 [in print Dec. 2017], pp. 179–188.
Research Interests:
Nearly two decades ago, Patrick Olivelle drew attention to the fact that, with the emergence and general acceptance of the classical `āśrama system’, the status of the snātaka (one who has taken the ritual bath that concludes... more
Nearly two decades ago, Patrick Olivelle drew attention to the fact that, with the emergence and general acceptance of the classical `āśrama system’, the status of the snātaka (one who has taken the ritual bath that concludes studentship), was eclipsed. Although in Vedic times he was held up as an object of reverence, he ran the risk in later times of being condemned as an anāśramin (one without an āśrama; hence, a sinner) (Olivelle 1993: 220–221). This paper will examine the ritual and social roles of the snātaka, with special attention to later works of the Gṛhya ritual literature, including the Baudhāyanagṛhyaparibhāṣāsūtra.
Smārta Hinduism, the religious tradition defined by adherence to the precepts of the Vedic ritual codes and the Dharmaśāstras, began to take shape with the composition of the Gṛhyasūtras and Dharmasūtras, normative codes rooted in the... more
Smārta Hinduism, the religious tradition defined by adherence to the precepts of the Vedic ritual codes and the Dharmaśāstras, began to take shape with the composition of the Gṛhyasūtras and Dharmasūtras, normative codes rooted in the separate priestly traditions but showing an increasing tendency to mutual influence and cross-reference.  This article identifies some of the Baudhāyana tradition’s contributions to defining the distinctive features of the later Smārta tradition, including (1) the standardization of domestic ceremony (eventually including image worship) through the liberal application of Vedic mantras, the use of the homa as a ritual framing device, and the adaptation of  Śrauta procedural rules and patterns; and (2) its formal recognition of the authority of customary norms (ācāra) as an extracanonical basis for right practice, and in particular the validity of folk practices.
This article reviews the current state of research on the Baudhāyanagṛhyasūtra (BGS) in preparation for a new critical edition and translation. One of the longest and most important, yet most neglected, of the codes (sūtra) of domestic... more
This article reviews the current state of research on the Baudhāyanagṛhyasūtra (BGS) in preparation for a new critical edition and translation. One of the longest and most important, yet most neglected, of the codes (sūtra) of domestic ritual, its text poses complex problems that can only be answered through a new collation of a much wider range of manuscripts than have been used in earlier editions. First, the BGS and its appendices, the Baudhāyanagṛhyaparibhāṣāsūtra (BGPS) and the Baudhāyanagṛhyaśeṣasūtra (BGŚS), are situated in relation to the rest of the Baudhāyana ritual codes. The question is raised whether its prolixity and its inclusion of mantras in full should automatically be taken to indicate the BGS’s greater antiquity relative to the Gṛhyasūtras of other schools. The fact that the Baudhāyanaśrautasūtra (BŚS) is also known for being less concise, even to the point of containing Brāhmaṇa-type passages, has generally been treated as proof of its being one of the first Sūtras to be composed. Yet if the Gṛhyasūtras as a class came into being as a secondary development, even the oldest of them could have adopted a more mature Sūtra style. Various possible explanations are considered: (a) the BGS was composed in tandem with, or only shortly after, the BŚS; or (b) the BGS is in fact much younger that the BŚS, but was deliberately made to resemble its śrauta prototype, which remains one of the earliest Śrautasūtras; or (c) prolixity and full citation of mantras were a stylistic preference of the Baudhāyana school, and so cannot inform us about relative chronology. Some observations about the form and content of the Sūtra are adduced to support the view that even if the BGS were one of the first Gṛhyasūtras to be composed, the form in which it is attested today shows many signs of relative lateness. Finally, a survey is offered of the manuscript and other source material available for collation, including some new manuscripts photographed by the author.
This essay examines the ways in which Indic legal traditions conceived of what in the West is called "authority." The materials examined range from scholastic definitions (such as the classical Dharmaśāstra notion of Vedic authority) to... more
This essay examines the ways in which Indic legal traditions conceived of what in the West is called "authority." The materials examined range from scholastic definitions (such as the classical Dharmaśāstra notion of Vedic authority) to formulations more closely attuned to the practice of the law as found in legal formularies and inscriptions. It is suggested that two influential Indic concepts – pramāna and adhikāra – largely cover the same ground as "epistemic authority" and "practical authority" in Euro-American jurisprudence, although in practice pramāna can do double duty, that is, as "proof" and as "authorization."
The legal dimension of India’s cultural heritage, especially the scholastic dharma tradition in Sanskrit commonly known as, “Hindu law,” has, after a long hiatus, begun to attract attention, thanks largely to a series of major... more
The legal dimension of India’s cultural heritage, especially the scholastic dharma tradition in Sanskrit commonly known as, “Hindu law,” has, after a long hiatus, begun to attract attention, thanks largely to a series of major publications by Patrick Olivelle, which have made the primary sources more widely accessible and better understood. Now Don Davis has written a book on Hindu law ("The Spirit of Hindu Law," Cambridge University Press, 2010) that will interest readers of many backgrounds and interests. Specialists on dharmaśāstra will appreciate his very original views of the scope and aims of the tradition, as well as his judgments on vexed points. Those interested in South Asian religions, or Hindu traditions in particular, will be challenged to wrestle with his deliberately provocative assertions of the definitive role of dharmaśāstra in constituting what is, “Hindu.” Legal philosophers are urged to take instruction from Hindus on the nature and ends of law itself, and dharmaśāstra’s canonization of authority of customary norms (ācāra) extends the horizons of legal pluralism and legal realism. Denizens of the study of religion more broadly can look to this volume as a case study of law as “the theology of everyday life.”
Ancient India produced three of the world’s oldest religions (known today as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism) and a vast literary heritage in several languages, but her early history is arguably one of the most difficult to reconstruct.... more
Ancient India produced three of the world’s oldest religions (known today as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism) and a vast literary heritage in several languages, but her early history is arguably one of the most difficult to reconstruct. The intricacies of the evidence and the complexities of the arguments have conspired to generate publications on the period that are either hopelessly esoteric for all but specialists or dispiritingly oversimplified. Bronkhorst, of the University of Lausanne, has over the last several years built on the best scholarship across a wide range of topics to produce a narrative that is both sensitive to the important nuances as well as original, clear, and crisply presented. Bronkhorst already had a reputation in the field for bold yet careful argumentation on many vexed issues in Indian cultural history. He does not hesitate to challenge consensus, or to propose a hypothesis on matters for which hard proof may always be lacking. Not all of these arguments shift the consensus. But even if one does not accept all aspects of his argument, his approach offers many new insights and advances the field.
This paper proposes to explain the first-order significance of certain widespread ascetical practices relating to ubiquitous features of bodily existence: the needs and urges of the body (for food, sleep, sex) and the phenomena of birth... more
This paper proposes to explain the first-order significance of certain widespread ascetical practices relating to ubiquitous features of bodily existence: the needs and urges of the body (for food, sleep, sex) and the phenomena of birth and death. Rule-governed restrictions on the fulfillment of such urges are features of the ritual practice of professional ascetics and lay votaries alike, across many cultures. Analyzing examples from the Vedic ritual literature, it is argued that underlying the hermeneutically grounded interpretations of Vedic exegesis are units of meaning that “suggest themselves” in the very nature of the practices. These elements are explained in terms of “natural symbols” (Mary Douglas’s phrase) or “indexical signs” (in C. S. Peirce’s semiotics)—signs associated with or affected by their objects as a matter of fact. Such signs may be “legible,” at least at a basic level, independently of any merely conventional association. The common features of bodily existence might be said to provide all necessary context This can explain the appearance in widely disparate cultures of very similar ritual signs and even the more complex ritual gestures built upon them. The rites discussed here (Vedic ablution, fasting, vigil, sexual continence, ritual rebirth) deploy indexical signs “pointing” to renewal and effacement of decay and to a defiance of human limitations. The resulting complex ritual becomes a gestural assertion of control over what is otherwise beyond normal human power—of resistance to helplessness before the laws of nature.
Over two decades, a holy man from eastern Maharashtra (Marathwada) has made it his mission to reestablish the archaic, multi-fire Vedic sacrificial system as an important element in public religious life in India. Drawing his inspiration... more
Over two decades, a holy man from eastern Maharashtra (Marathwada) has made it his mission to reestablish the archaic, multi-fire Vedic sacrificial system as an important element in public religious life in India. Drawing his inspiration from Dayananda Saraswati’s idealized and abstract vision of Veda as the original and pure piety, this “saint,” Ranganath Selukar Maharaj, innovates in his attempt to revive the full Vedic shrauta sacrificial cult (minus the animal victims) as a vehicle for unifying and re-empowering Hindus — religiously, socially, and politically — whose culture and society has been weakened by centuries of “foreign” rule. Simultaneously evoking Vedantic renunciant ideals, Maharashtrian regional bhakti traditions, and nationalist heroism (citing Selukar's participation in the movement to liberate Marathwada from the Muslim state of Hyderabad in the late ‘forties), his movement has been effective in attracting support from a range of social groups through the annual multi-week Vedic festivals he organizes. While his revival of priestly ritual vividly affirms the value of traditional piety, he argues that the ritual is essentially scientific and rational, and will have salutary effects on Hindu society, the Indian state, and the natural environment. This combined appeal to prestigious, pan-Indian traditional authority, regional sympathies, and scientistic rationalism, all articulated both in preaching and in print, and dramatized by spectacular public acts of piety, seems calculated to persuade the educated and professional middle castes (a sort of middle class) while repackaging archaic Brahmanical ritual in a way that appeals also to an illiterate, rural clientele.
An analysis is presented of a month-long Vedic ritual performance undertaken in 1992 by holy man Ranganath Selukar Maharaj in rural Maharashtra, examining its ritual structure, the rhetoric of religious reform and national welfare... more
An analysis is presented of a month-long Vedic ritual performance undertaken in 1992 by holy man Ranganath Selukar Maharaj in rural Maharashtra, examining its ritual structure, the rhetoric of religious reform and national welfare (including the influence of Arya Samaj doctrine, Hindu nationalism, and Marathi Vaishnava bhakti on him), and the appeal made by both the ritual's organizers and its opponents to the authority of science and "modern rationalism." The analysis of the event's ritual structure introduces the concept of "spectacle," which is defined as a form of public, ceremonial action that frames the ritual actions and thus endows these fixed, "classical" elements with a local and contemporary significance. The spectacle, besides arousing public interest, makes explicit the ideology implied in the present ritual performance and dramatizes the social alignments between the ritual agents and the other participants.
Despite the vast spatial and theological gulfs separating the Rabbinic and Brahmanic communities, their respective intellectual projects have a number of analogous features. My discussion will (1) outline for each tradition a set of... more
Despite the vast spatial and theological gulfs separating the Rabbinic and Brahmanic communities, their respective intellectual projects have a number of analogous features. My discussion will (1) outline for each tradition a set of interpretive strategies, showing how these two sets are strikingly similar in approach and logic. Then I will (2) propose that these resemblances are not entirely coincidental. They largely stem from a similar view of the object of study—Torah and the biblical text for the Rabbis, the sacrifice and its verbal articulation for the Brahmins—as eternal, not of human authorship, perfect in form, rich in hidden meanings, the criterion of right action and true knowledge. The exegete aims to fully internalize the sacred word, to perceive the world through it, and to uncover what is hidden in it. This much of my analysis might also be applicable to other traditions that regard themselves as possessing revelation, but (3) I argue that there are further parallels here in the direction these traditions carried their interpretive enterprise. In each tradition, the interpreters continued to build an edifice of ritual knowledge and interpretation even as the central rites were eclipsed by other forms of piety: whether because the cult became inaccessible (in the Diaspora) or unperformable (when the Temple was destroyed), or because it lost patronage (as appears to have happened in India). In tandem with the shift away from priestly sacrifice, each tradition promotes the ideal of study for its own sake, and the transfer of priestly functions to the learned householder.
The relationship between Rigvedic and post-Rigvedic usages of the word vrata has not been adequately explained, despite several studies of the concept. This paper distinguishes three aspects of the word's meaning in the Rig Veda and in... more
The relationship between Rigvedic and post-Rigvedic usages of the word vrata has not been adequately explained, despite several studies of the concept. This paper distinguishes three aspects of the word's meaning in the Rig Veda and in the "mantra-period" texts: (1) 'rule' in the general sense of a fixed articulation of will or authority; (2) as the attribute of a god, it denotes the distinctive natural and social laws that the god ordains and maintains; (3) in verses in which the god's vrata is closely linked with specific rites (the morning and evening offerings, the three soma pressings) it acquires the sense of 'rule of ritual observance'. In these contexts, this rule of ritual performance is an obligation to be fulfilled by "descendants of Manu," who may be called vratyas of the god. RV 7.103.1 and AV 4.11 foreshadow the narrower, technical application of the word in the prose yajus texts, the brahmaṇas, and the ritual sūtras, viz., an ascetical regimen undertaken by a yajamāna or student, under the superintendence of Agni Vratapati.
A conference at Washington and Lee University, 1–3 November 2019 https://status-and-justice2019.academic.wlu.edu Legal systems classify individuals in ways that entail particular rights, duties, capacities, and incapacities. In... more
A conference at Washington and Lee University, 1–3 November 2019
https://status-and-justice2019.academic.wlu.edu

Legal systems classify individuals in ways that entail particular rights, duties, capacities, and incapacities. In religious law as well as in earlier legal systems, basic status distinctions include those between free and unfree (and intermediate statuses), various religious or ethnic statuses that often were associated with social hierarchy, citizen and foreigner, and statuses within kin-group or family (head of household, spouse, divorcé, legitimate heir, etc.), besides a range of ascriptive statuses relating to gender, age, and physical or mental capacity. Henry Sumner Maine, the nineteenth-century comparative legal historian, proposed that “the movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract.” In particular, he envisaged an increasing detachment of individual rights and capacities from status-based classifications such as family and tribe.

In spite of this trend towards liberal individualism in secular states, status differences remain consequential. Today, law continues to define status in relation to marital status, legal disability, citizenship and immigration, discrimination, and affirmative action, but it also arises in connection with religious and customary “personal law” codes in many countries, tribal jurisdiction, statelessness, asylum, and human rights.  Even where the law of the state does not formally recognize a distinction, differences of social status may affect access to legal protections and remedies.  Status factors set up expectations of justice capable of generating both conflict and cohesion.

This interdisciplinary conference aims to bring together historians of religious, ancient, and medieval law systems from around the world with scholars of modern legal systems, on the hypothesis that comparative discussion can throw new light on the role of status-considerations in shaping how individuals experience and use the law, in defining what counts as a fair or just outcome, and in changes to the legal landscape in times of social change.  It may be that the role of statuses (both legal and societal) in premodern and religious legal orders may hold lessons for understanding the role of statuses in the law of republican polities, despite their aspiration to ensure equality of individuals before the law.
Journal of the Economic and Social History  of the Orient,  Vol. 61, No. 5-6 (2018)
Research Interests:
This volume is the outcome of the conference “Studying Documents in Premodern South Asia and Beyond: Problems and Perspective”, held in October 2015 in Heidelberg. In bringing together experts from different fields—including Indology,... more
This volume is the outcome of the conference “Studying Documents in Premodern South Asia and Beyond: Problems and Perspective”, held in October 2015 in Heidelberg. In bringing together experts from different fields—including Indology, Tibetology, History, Anthropology, Religious Studies, and Digital Humanties—it aims at exploring and rethinking issues of diplomatics and typology, the place of documents in relation to other texts and literary genres, methods of archiving and editing documents, as well as their “social life”, i.e. the role they play in social, religious and political constellations, the agents and practices of their use, and the norms and institutions they embody and constitute.

The book is the first volume of the Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, published by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in collaboration with the National Archives, Nepal.
Research Interests:
The religious endowment charters for Buddhist and Brahmin beneficiaries that “suddenly” began to appear in western India in the first century CE by Indian and Indo-Scythian kings have tended to be seen as a wholly novel development,... more
The religious endowment charters for Buddhist and Brahmin beneficiaries that “suddenly” began to appear in western India in the first century CE by Indian and Indo-Scythian kings have tended to be seen as a wholly novel development, though I have argued that the fiscal privileges mentioned in the Emperor Aśoka’s inscription at Lumbini constitutes a forerunner three centuries earlier.  No one has noted the parallels with immunities granted to temples (and the surrounding city in the case of urban temples) by Greek and Hellenistic rulers.  The terms of used differ of course, but the telltale clue is the fact that, across all these regions, the granted privileges frequently combine jurisdictional privilege, immunities to taxation and compulsory provision of labor, goods, and services, and/or other privileges of autonomy — in Greek, hikesia, asylia, ateleia, and autonomia.  I hypothesize that, besides developing an Indic epigraphic practice initially inspired by Achaemenid and Hellenistic models, Indian rulers may also have adapted some of the conventions of religious grants from the same sources.  Interestingly, Indian and later European grant charters seem subsequently to have followed a wholly independent but partly parallel development from this shared basis.  Although one aspect of juridical immunity — the right to provide asylum or refuge — is hard to identify in the South Asian records, I have found traces of it in some Buddhist grants, and a seeming revival (or local analogue) in Old Javanese charters.  I close by reflecting on the implications of such charters for religion-and-state relations.
Giving to worthy recipients has been meritorious public piety in India at least since the Mauryan empire. Most consequential were gifts in perpetuity of land or capital as a ‘religious foundation’ (deyadharma, dharmadāna, brahmadeya,... more
Giving to worthy recipients has been meritorious public piety in India at least since the Mauryan empire. Most consequential were gifts in perpetuity of land or capital as a ‘religious foundation’ (deyadharma, dharmadāna, brahmadeya, agrahāra, devadāna) for monks or Brahmins, conferred by means of a decree or charter (śāsana, sthiti). In these records (attested since the beginning of the Common Era), rulers cede their claims to certain normal obligations of subjects, e.g., to pay taxes and levies, to provide compulsory labor, or to provide access or provisions to officers of the state; some even gave beneficiaries authority over internal legal affairs. This article examines the implications of the fiscal and juridical autonomy conferred in such grants in providing state recognition and institutional support of Brahmin’s sacred status as a religious profession and a privileged caste. It hypothesizes that this institutionalization of Brahmin caste status imposed on varied local caste structures a formal, religiously charged teleology and scale of values that gave rise to South Asia’s distinctive ‘caste system’.
Endowment grants beginning in the early centuries CE conferred upon religious professionals (Buddhist, Jain, Brahmin) exemption from tax-payments and other obligations to the king, along with stipulated rights of internal legal... more
Endowment grants beginning in the early centuries CE conferred upon religious professionals (Buddhist, Jain, Brahmin) exemption from tax-payments and other obligations to the king, along with stipulated rights of internal legal self-governance.  Similar grants of foundation appeared more widely in South and Southeast Asia throughout the following millennium, embodying regional variations on a general principle that religious institutions have a justifiable claim to be insulated from the fiscal regime of the state, even if they participate in the economy in other ways, not least by contributing to the welfare of the polity that supports them financially.  Such support is an intangible asset of the state, one even quantified as proportionate to the tax revenue foregone.  This status was also deemed to confer jural autonomy over the territory covered by the grant.  Grants of this type implied that there was a sacral sphere of authority conceptually distinguishable from worldly affairs, however intertwined they were.  Civil religion in ancient India and Java, then as today, was a balancing act of signaling the distinctness of religion (i.e., its transcendence) while implicating it in the public or private welfare of the patron (i.e., its immanence).  This talk surveys developments in this practice in India and subsequently in Java and Bali, including Old Javanese textual reflections on the relationship between religious and royal authority.
This article begins with an analysis of Mīmāṃsā hermeneutics as employed in Viśvarūpa's and Vijñāneśvara's commentaries on Yajñavalkya Dharmaśāstra 2.21, which proclaims principles for dealing with conflicts of smṛti-rules, taking as an... more
This article begins with an analysis of Mīmāṃsā hermeneutics as employed in Viśvarūpa's and Vijñāneśvara's commentaries on Yajñavalkya Dharmaśāstra 2.21, which proclaims principles for dealing with conflicts of smṛti-rules, taking as an illustration the problem of self-defense against a Brahmin attacker (quoting Mānava Dharmaśāstra 8.348-351). This is followed by an examination Bhāruci's and Medhātithi's arguments on Mānava Dharmaśāstra 8.314-318 (the famous example of the "wise thief" who seeks the king's punishment as a form of penance). In the course of reconciling the legality of the king's court with Veda-based, otherworldly considerations such as sin and expiation, these passages show that punishments and penances constitute distinct forms of legal remedy serving different purposes and prescribed by different authorities. The case of the "wise thief" is but the contrived exception that proves the rule; the efficacy of the act is show to hinge on the wrong-doer's initiative, so that the king-executioner is more instrument than agent of purification, and is so at his own spiritual peril. This issue is shown to reflect the more thorough-going distinction between worldly obligations (social compacts, royal commands) and sacred obligations conveyed by Vedic injunctions. This distinction is further linked by the commentators to that between Dharmaśāstra (teachings on Brahmanical sacred law) and Arthaśāstra (teachings on polity and worldly affairs), subordinating the latter to the former.
The conquest of "Nepal" (i.e., the Newar-ruled Kathmandu valley) during 1767-68 by the Gorkha king Pr̥thvīnārāyaṇ Śāha (hereafter PNS) has been described as ushering in a period of major social changes and political realignments as... more
The conquest of "Nepal" (i.e., the Newar-ruled Kathmandu valley) during 1767-68 by the Gorkha king Pr̥thvīnārāyaṇ Śāha (hereafter PNS) has been described as ushering in a period of major social changes and political realignments as power came to be concentrated in Gorkhali hands, to the detriment of the Newar kings of the three cities. With support from "Tibeto-Nepali" ethnic groups of the lower hills-Magars and Gurungs-PNS captured Nuwakot in 1744 and Kantipur (Kathmandu) in 1768. For the next 45 years, the Gorkhali rulers brought more and more of the Himalaya and adjacent plains under their control until they were checked by the British in the "Gurkha war" and the Treaty of Sugauli 1815/16. New and expanding regimes often seek to legitimize themselves by embracing what they take to be a compelling ideology of law and religion, one that sets the ruler up as law-giver or reformer, and promises a new horizon of public order and prosperity for the newly reconfigured polity. In South and Southeast Asia, this has usually involved the embrace and tailored adaptation of sacred law, especially framed as Brahmanical Dharma. The Gorkhali regime adopted such a program from the outset, using it to participate in a prestigious Indian cosmpolitanism imprinted with Brahmanical religious ideals of piety and kingship, and to provide a template for inter-group relations in a culturally, linguistically, and religiously diverse realm.
  This paper begins with an analysis of the ideological features of the "Divya Upadeśa" attributed to PNS, and then examines a number of royal decrees preserved as copper-plate inscriptions or documents on paper (lāl mohar) issued by PNS and next few Gorkhali kings who followed him (prior to the Rāna coup).  These provide indications of how the Gorkhali regime dealt with various social groups as they consolidated their governance.  These documents provide glimpses into how top-down attempts at putting a “sacred law” ideology into practice actually proceeded, responsive to the diverse interests and agency of the subject groups themselves.
Johannes Bronkhorst's "Greater Magadha" hypothesis calls attention to the decisive role of the urbanizing eastern Ganges valley in the religious history of ancient India. We find there the encounter of two distinct cultures: the Vedic... more
Johannes Bronkhorst's "Greater Magadha" hypothesis calls attention to the decisive role of the urbanizing eastern Ganges valley in the religious history of ancient India. We find there the encounter of two distinct cultures: the Vedic (with its focus on worldly success and rewards in the afterlife) and the Magadhan (with its ideas of karma and rebirth, and its ascetic orders). The Brahmins' response to this encounter was to adapt and appropriate new ideas and practices. Here, I clarify certain key aspects of how this adaptation proceeded, giving rise in fact to something one can call 'Brahmanism', and I offer a fuller explanation of what made that adaptation so successful and durable over time.
Though the term asceticism is conventionally reserved for the practice of those who have adopted a permanent religious profession divorced from worldly affairs, their distinctive techniques of discipline could be practiced in modified... more
Though the term asceticism is conventionally reserved for the practice of those who have adopted a permanent religious profession divorced from worldly affairs, their distinctive techniques of discipline could be practiced in modified forms or for limited periods by laypeople. Beginning around the period of the emperor Aśoka (3rd c. BCE), Brahmins proposed a novel conception of dharma (religious discipline) in which the ritually observant householder was presented as analogous, and equal or even superior, to the religious professions (āśrama) of the hermit or homeless mendicant. This conception of the householder as a religious professional "who stays at home" (gṛhastha), in contrast to those "who have departed" (pravrajita), asserts that a domestic life, if properly disciplined, can constitute a religious profession. The analogy between learned, ritually disciplined Brahmins and the mendicants of other orders (Buddhist, Jaina, Ājīvika) was reinforced by the novel principle, taught in the Sanskrit ritual and dharma codes, and in the Mahābhārata epic, that learned Brahmins are worthy recipients of ceremonial feeding at ancestor offering rites, in the guest-reception rite, and ultimately after offerings of many sorts. Evidence that this self-representation of disciplined and learned householder Brahmins as "holy men" was persuasive can be found in the fact that from the earliest records onwards, Brahmins received patronage from kings and other elites in forms analogous to that bestowed upon celibate monastics, e.g., in permanently endowed land grants to establish tax-free properties set aside for and supporting Brahmin households. The institutions thus created enjoyed notable degree of insulation from the jurisdiction and fiscal demands of the royal state. Moreover, surviving records show that, in comparison with celibate professionals, householder Brahmins were able to play a wider range of worldly (laukika) roles, including holding government office.
In the latter half of the first millennium of the Common Era, Indonesian rulers and elites sought to appropriate and emulate India’s religious and cultural traditions. This involved the import and study of Sanskrit works on Dharma... more
In the latter half of the first millennium of the Common Era, Indonesian rulers and elites sought to appropriate and emulate India’s religious and cultural traditions. This involved the import and study of Sanskrit works on Dharma (religious law), and the composition of juristic works in Old Javanese. This presentation will distinguish two quite different Old Javanese juristic genres: (1) scholastic commentarial paraphrase, exemplified by the Svayambhu, on the eighth chapter of Manu’s Code of Law (Mānavadharmaśāstra), a Sanskrit classic; and (2) partly Sanskritised codification of what appears mainly to be Javanese customary law, e.g., the work commonly referred to as Kuṭāra-Mānava. The connections and differences between these genres will be discussed.
This paper presents a preliminary analysis of an unpublished Old Javanese commentary on the eighth chapter of the Sanskrit Mānava-Dharmaśāstra. “Swarajambhu,” the name given to this work in the scholarly literature (e.g., Jonker 1885,... more
This paper presents a preliminary analysis of an unpublished Old Javanese commentary on the eighth chapter of the Sanskrit Mānava-Dharmaśāstra.  “Swarajambhu,” the name given to this work in the scholarly literature (e.g., Jonker 1885, van Naerssen 1941, Boechari 1978), is a corruption of the epithet svayambhu applied therein to the legendary dharma authority Manu.  The commentary consists primarily of a paraphrase of the Sanskrit original, with occasional explanatory comments.  Van Naerssen’s 1941 article, “De aṣṭadaçawyawahāra in het Oudjavaansch,” is the only detailed discussion to date.  Noting that this work “has received less attention that it deserves,” van Naerssen observed that the author’s Sanskrit root text included several interpolated stanzas recorded by Mandalik (and now also Olivelle, in the critical apparatus to his edition).  He also found what he thought were indications that the Javanese author had consulted a commentary by either Sarvajña Nārāyaṇa or Nandana, or something similar.  Besides identifying more interpolated verses paraphrased in the Old Javanese text and showing why its author was not consulting a Sanskrit commentary after all, and I offer other observations on the Old Javanese text which, along with other Old Javanese commentaries on Sanskrit verse texts such as the Ślokāntara and Pūrvādhigama, seems to have contributed to the formation of distinctive Javanese-Sanskritic categories, e.g. aṣṭaduṣṭa, aṣṭacora, and pañcabhaya, which were then deployed in a quasi-śāstric code of Javanese customary law, generally known under the title Kuṭāra-Mānava, the extant text of which has been thought to go back to the Majapahit era, ca. 1350.
Jeremy Waldron (2009: 12–29) argued that the modern notion of ‘human dignity’ is a generalization of a previously particular sort of high social rank. In classical Rome, certain individuals enjoyed the Roman notion of dignitas respect,... more
Jeremy Waldron (2009: 12–29) argued that the modern notion of ‘human dignity’ is a generalization of a previously particular sort of high social rank.  In classical Rome, certain individuals enjoyed the Roman notion of dignitas respect, protections, and rights unavailable to others—a norm expounded especially by Cicero (e.g., De republica 1.43).  Later, by a “leveling-up process,” the notion of a dignity shared by all humans by virtue merely of their being human replaced the older ethos in which dignity was the privilege only of certain ranks.  One way to look at this is that “human dignity” puts forward the status of humanity itself as a generic status associated intrinsically endowed with or having a just claim to a certain basic dignity.  It it is a dignity shared by rank, the rank is no longer a rank in society but in nature.  Humans share a general dignity among themselves without distinction, but particular to them all in contrast to other living things.  In a sense, this generalized used of the term is (or begins with) a metaphorical or figurative extension of the older notion of dignity.

Ancient India has left us a huge literature that deals in various ways with the nature of the human being, the aims of life, the proper ordering of society, the legal, religious, and ethical norms that ought to be observed, including special sorts of dignity associated with particular statuses.  The strands of Hindu religious discourse reviewed here show that, in some contexts, universally shared aspects of the human condition — susceptability to suffering, subjection to law of karma, the desire for a fair hearing in court — come to the surface, but the theme of ranked ascriptive status by birth is rarely far from sight.  This has usually been taken as evidence that caste obligations (jāti-dharma), together with the theological and religious legal doctine that justifies and reinforces them (varṇāśrama-dharma), are definitive of or at least typical of Hindu religion.  Actually, what it proves is the tremendous influence that Brahmin apologists of caste doctrine and their elite patrons have had, over two or three millennia, in shaping public discourse and real social practices.  Those discourses and practices have caused or sanctioned grave harms over the centuries even up to the present, especially to those accorded low status (including women as a class), and they have come in for severe critique and efforts at reform over the last century and a half.

At the same time, other strands of Hindu discourse have diverged from the theme of varṇāśrama-dharma, though, perhaps inevitably, they have often done so still within the terms set by caste or birth-class.  Ascetic discourse asserts that the soul itself has no caste, which belongs only to things of this passing, karma-generated world of woe that afflicts all people (albeit in varying degrees).  Some ascetic movements (though by no means all) have been open to members of all castes.  Bhakti discourse, particularly in its vernacular forms, asserts that true devotion or divine grace can invert the scale, elevating the saint above the self-righteous priest, or showing that all are equally lowly before God.  These two ways of thinking have tended to recognize a shared human dignity mainly within a personal, even interior sphere of experience, or anyway within the bounds of a sect or religious community.  These modes of discourse, especially the bhakti discourse, can provide an idiom for a social, political, or legal articulation of human dignity, and have in modern times done so.  But this potential has only occasionally been realized.

Least noted by earlier scholars, but quite interesting, is an undercurrent in Brahmanical Sanskrit works on the subject of the dharma of the king, wise policy, and jurisprudence that suggests an overarching ideal of equity, general standards of right and wrong, and even hints that even the lowest of society should not be subjected to wanton degradation.  This line of thought seems to be particularly associated with depictions of the principles of good governance.  Most of the sources in which these traces have been preserved, and in other passages, Brahmanical norms of social hierarchy are clearly endorsed.  But it is worth noting that, even in an intellectual tradition famed for its endorsement of strict inegalitarianism and protection of the special dignity of the highly ranked, there was room for a notion of equity and common dignity that cut across or by-passed rank.  This apparent dissonance may be an artifact of the convergence of two distinct streams of thought in early India: the priestly social model promoted by the Brahmins who wrote the first Dharma codes, and the political philosophy espoused by rulers and their ministers (some but certainly not all of them Brahmins of a different orientation from the priestly authors).  These two streams flowed together in the classical Sanskrit literature to the point that their distinct origins have been obscured. 

The fact that such different views of human worth and status could coexist and could be cited in different contexts suggests that, in practice, ethical and legal orders find ways to “compartmentalize”; recognition of a notion of human dignity does not automatically sweep the field clear of other, more ancient conceptions of special dignity associated with ascriptive status.  When one attempts to make room in a culture for the modern notion of universal human dignity, it is not enough to find an “indigenous” analogue on which to anchor it; one must also come to terms with the capacity of dissonant ethical norms to persist in tensions.  Promoting human dignity then becomes a matter of expanding the range of contexts in which human dignity is accepted as the proper standard to apply.  In classical Hinduism, the proponents of varṇāśrama-dharma seem to have succeeded in setting the agenda for most purposes; the vernacular Bhakti movement pushed back against it, and in modern times helped win more recognition for human dignity.
Lecture presented to the Department of Indology, Kyoto University, 23 June 2018. Revised version of a lecture, “Pluralism, Patronage, and Documentary Protocol” for the Seminar on Politics, Pluralism, and Patronage in Ancient... more
Lecture presented to the Department of Indology, Kyoto University, 23 June 2018. 
 
Revised version of a lecture, “Pluralism, Patronage, and Documentary Protocol”
for the Seminar on Politics, Pluralism, and Patronage in Ancient India,
University of Texas, Austin, 3 November 2017
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/asianstudies/events/event.php?id=45165 ;
     
  Abstract:
Aśoka’s edicts (3rd-century BCE) expressed an ideal of civil religion that recognized that is realm was religiously plural, that all sects animated by a set of common concerns that his called dharma, that members of all sects sects were worthy of gifts (dāna), and that despite his particular attachment to the Buddhist order he himself offered patronage to all groups.  One particular act of patronage took the form of visiting the Buddha’s birthplace, building or improving cultic facilities there, and exempting the village from paying tax.  The latter enactments provided a model for religious patronage down through the ages in South and Southeast Asia.  Although later rulers have not promoted ecumenism so vigorously, many did adopt a policy of offering patronage to more than just their own preferred religious group.  This can be traced in the record of religious land-grant endowments and other gifts in later centuries that stipulate an expanding set of exemptions from tax-payments and other obligations to the king (along with other privileges conferring on the beneficiaries greater autonomy).  Property grants with such exemptions — for Buddhist and well as Brahmin beneficiaries — have survived from the beginning of the Common Era (in Sātavahana cave inscriptions, early Pallava copper-plates, etc.).  In broad terms, such grants embody a principle that religious aims and institutions have a justifiable claim to stand outside (or to be insulated from) the economic regime of the state.  This is furthermore justified by the principle, sometimes tacit, sometimes express, that religious undertakings contribute to the welfare of the society and the polity that supports them financially, that this support is an intangible asset of the state or of the donor.  When explicit justification is needed, sources point to the spiritual merit conferred upon donors, and more generally the maintenance of public virtue and order, and the continued security of the realm.  Sometimes it is even quantified, as when the king is said to derive 1/6 of the merit of approving a religious endowment because he thereby foregoes receipt of the normal tax, 1/6 of the revenue of the property.  In any case, the dissemination of a distinctively Indian model of patronage, in the form of legal mechanisms expressed in standardized diplomatic formulas (supported by scholastic textual models), provided an enduring basis for acknowledging religious pluralism (including an implicit notion of the analogousness of different religions).  Furthermore, such patronage implied that there was religious sphere conceptually distinguishable from secular affairs (in spite of the manifold ways in which religious individuals and institutions could and did participate in financial or commercial transactions).  Civic religion in ancient India, then, as in the modern world, was balancing act of granting the separateness of religion (i.e., its trancendence) while implicating it in the public welfare or the private welfare of the donor (i.e., its immanence).
Research Interests:
Abstract for a conference on 'RITUALS FOR POWER, RITUALS FOR PROSPERITY' Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 23–25 March 2018 Against Geertz's concept of the theatre state, I propose that royal and other elite patronage of... more
Abstract for a conference on 'RITUALS FOR POWER, RITUALS FOR PROSPERITY'
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 23–25 March 2018

Against Geertz's concept of the theatre state, I propose that royal and other elite patronage of religious institutions, at first mostly Buddhist and Jaina, and later most prominently of Brahmins and Brahmanical institutions, was intended for and likely fulfilled pragmatic purposes, both political and economic, beyond the merely symbolic. Beyond that, it may be demonstrable that the ritual services provided by these institutions had perlocutionary effects in the wider socio-political order, and that the expertise underlying those performances constituted an intangible asset comparable to other types of social and cultural capital.

This study analyzes epigraphical evidence from the Sātavāhanas to the Śilāhāras, roughly spanning the first millennium CE, recording endowments and other patronage of religious professionals, the criteria stated for to justify the grants, and (in the later records) indications of the functions served by such individuals and the institutions thereby supported. These data are considered against the background of the production of new genres of Sanskrit ritual and legal treatises that canonize and further propagate expertise in those fields. My conclusions will show that the purposes and demonstrable effects of such patronage include but are by no means limited to legitimation of political power and authority. Ritual (and other related forms of) expertise was considered to have pragmatic applications in state security, administration, social regulation, and legal process. It can further be shown that Brahmins proved more adept than their Buddhist and Jaina peers at leveraging their particular brand of ritual expertise in these domains, thanks to their distinctive conception of varṇāśramadharma, which made the worldly (laukika) sphere the focus of the religious discipline to a degree unmatched by their rival traditions.
Research Interests:
In the last decade, several scholars (e.g., Olivelle, Bronkhorst, Hiltebeitel, Seyfort Ruegg, McGovern) have called into question some of the received wisdom about the social, religious, and political environment that saw the emergence of... more
In the last decade, several scholars (e.g., Olivelle, Bronkhorst, Hiltebeitel, Seyfort Ruegg, McGovern) have called into question some of the received wisdom about the social, religious, and political environment that saw the emergence of what we today call classical Hinduism and Buddhism. This paper contributes to this project by proposing that the feeding of Brahmins was promoted as Brahmanism's answer to giving alms to celibate monks. The relationship between world-renouncers and householders in ancient India was framed in a semiotics of food and eating: those who have "gone forth" cease to provide for themselves and are sustained by being fed by lay patrons, a relationship symbolized by the mendicant's begging bowl. The Brahmanical tradition, however, between the Maurya and Gupta eras, promoted an image of Brahmins as home-based holy men worthy of feeding by the same logic: their observance of self-discipline and dedication to sacred knowledge.
This paper collects and analyzes the earliest textual evidence for rites of guest-guest reception and the collective feeding of Brahmins as these are presented in Brahmanical ritual and dharma codes (śāstras), in the Mahābhārata epic, and in other early literary sources, considered in light also of Buddhist depictions of Brahmanical norms. Such rites of feeding, combined with the strict disciplinary norms of purity and piety enjoined upon those fed, were put to the purpose of institutionalizing the notion that Brahmins — especially markedly "holy" Brahmins (snātaka, śrotriya, ācārya, etc.), whether married or celibate — were religious professionals comparable in sanctity to śramaṇa­type mendicants. This ideal of the rule-observant householder came to form the basis of the household life as an āśrama. The semiotic correspondence between feeding Brahmins and feeding monks extended to other forms of patronage, notably, endowing Brahmins with land on the analogy of gifts to the Buddhist Sangha.
Now published in the Introduction to A Śaiva Utopia (Napoli, 2021), available here: https://www.academia.edu/67886226/A_%C5%9Aaiva_Utopia_The_%C5%9Aivadharma_s_Revision_of_Brahmanical_Var%E1%B9%87%C4%81%C5%9Bramadharma -- The spread of... more
Now published in the Introduction to A Śaiva Utopia (Napoli, 2021), available here:
https://www.academia.edu/67886226/A_%C5%9Aaiva_Utopia_The_%C5%9Aivadharma_s_Revision_of_Brahmanical_Var%E1%B9%87%C4%81%C5%9Bramadharma  --

The spread of Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava theism in Brahmin circles led to efforts among converts who were also observant Smārtas to adapt traditional Dharmaśāstra to accommodate the social framework of Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava piety.  The results were works reframing “mainstream” Dharmaśāstra (i.e., as codified in the Mānava Dharmaśāstra) in accordance with Śaiva or Vaiṣṇava theology and social ideals.

Vaiṣṇava examples of such reformulations are well-known: the Vaikhānasasmārtasūtra, Vaiṣṇavadharmaśāstra, the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa.  The Śaiva side has received less attention, largely because the oldest primary sources have mostly remained unpublished.  This paper examines the Śivadharmaśāstra.  This work, which appears to have been written in north India in ca. 6th c. CE, canonizes a dharma for lay Śaivas, adapting Dharmaśāstra principles to a Pāśupata-influenced bhakti theology.

Here I focus particularly on its conception of dharma, and its delineation of a śivāśrama analogous to the āśramas of classical Dharmaśāstra, but open to women and Śūdras.  I rely on a transcript of a Nepalese manuscript (typed by R. Gruenendahl), which I have partially corrected on the basis of readings from three other 12th–century Nepalese mss. (NAK A 11-3, NAK B 7-3, and Camb. Add. 1645) as well as from mss. of a somewhat longer south Indian recension (using IFP mss. T. 32, 72, 514, 779, 860, 887).  I propose conclusions about the aims and the social matrix of these works, based on internal evidence and testimonia.
Paper for the panel: The Viṣṇudharma and the Śivadharma: points of influence and divergence, 33. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Jena, Germany, 18–22 September 2017 * Published now in the Introduction to the book "A Śaiva Utopia" on... more
Paper for the panel: The Viṣṇudharma and the Śivadharma: points of influence and divergence, 33. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Jena, Germany, 18–22 September 2017 

* Published now in the Introduction to the book "A Śaiva Utopia" on Academia * :
https://www.academia.edu/67886226/A_%C5%9Aaiva_Utopia_The_%C5%9Aivadharma_s_Revision_of_Brahmanical_Var%E1%B9%87%C4%81%C5%9Bramadharma 

In a recent papers examining the Śivadharma[śāstra], I analyzed that way the author of this work has recast several of the distinctive categories of Smārta Brahmanical dharma, particularly the four-āśrama model, affirming the varṇa (social class) categories but extending the range of ritual agency available to Śūdras and women through devotional observances (and in one verse, even to foreigners, 1.26), and generalizing acts of generosity and hospitality prescribed in Dharmaśāstra only for high-status recipients so as to benefit the needy regardless of status. In general terms, the Viṣṇudharma, apparently dating to roughly the same period, likewise adapts the varṇāśrama-dharma of early Dharmaśāstra to a sectarian religious orientation — in this case, Bhāgavata rather than Māheśvara — but with notably different results. First, where the Śivadharmaśāstra evidently presupposes the older non-sequential āśrama model of the Dharmasūtras, the Viṣṇudharma adopts the sequential model introduced in Manu's code (ca. 200 CE). Whereas the Śivadharma redirects the Smārta guest-reception rite and madhuparka meal for the benefit of Śiva-bhaktas (lay Śaivas adhering to a formal vow), no comparable rite appears in the Viṣṇudharma (where the elements of guest reception appear only as part of the ceremony of worshiping deities or ancient sages). Most notably, the Viṣṇudharma (especially in chapters 24–25, 66, and 105) enters into sectarian polemic against the threat posed in this decadent Kali age by " heretics " (pāṣaṇḍas) of many stripes, including Buddhists, Jains, Sāṃkhyas, skeptics, and false ascetics. Arguments framed in foreign languages (hetuvādair … mlecchabhāṣānibandhaiḥ) are singled out for condemnation (105.44), and Śūdras who become ascetics and go about without caste-markers provoke serious concern. The Śivadharmaśāstra makes no reference to " heretics " (and only the most circumspect allusion to other religious groups), and adopts a more inclusive social policy. In short, the Viṣṇudharma's conception of Viṣṇu-bhakti pointedly defends classical Smārta status hierarchy and its prerogatives, foregoing the Śivadharma's modest moves toward social inclusion. This paper concludes by setting these observations in the context of later trends in the two traditions.
Research Interests:
Section on the Śivadharmaśāstra now published in the Introduction to "A Śaiva Utopia" (Bisschop/Kafle/Lubin, Napoli, 2021), available here:... more
Section on the Śivadharmaśāstra now published in the Introduction to "A Śaiva Utopia" (Bisschop/Kafle/Lubin, Napoli, 2021), available here:
https://www.academia.edu/67886226/A_%C5%9Aaiva_Utopia_The_%C5%9Aivadharma_s_Revision_of_Brahmanical_Var%E1%B9%87%C4%81%C5%9Bramadharma |

Dharmaśāstra codes prescribed rules for other strata of society, including Śūdras and mixed-caste groups, circumscribing their legitimate social and religious agency. Later religious traditions, under the influence of more egalitarian devotional sentiments, modified Smārta caste policies. This paper focuses on three neglected examples, the Śivadharmaśāstra, the “Varṇāśramakāṇḍa” of the unpublished Kāśyapottarasaṃhitā, and the Varṇāśramacandrikā. These works are considered in light of their socio-historical context, and in relation to the late-medieval Śmārta works on Śūdradharma (examined in recent dissertations by Benke and Vajpeyi). These three works exemplify efforts by devotional movements to extend and adapt older Brahmanical categories in such a way that putatively Śūdra castes can partake of the ritual entitlements otherwise identified with Brahmanical status. Thus the Brahmanical birth-based status is subordinated to a ritually mediated spiritual kinship, which implies a conceptual reconfiguration of the Dharmaśāstric genre itself
The Śivadharmaśāstra (ca. 6th c.), the oldest part of the “Śivadharma corpus,” which teaches a Pāśupata-influenced bhakti religion for married householders steeped in Smārta religious practice, redefines varṇa and āśrama categories in light of an emergent lay Śaivism. Based on my provisional edition of adhyāya 11, I present its delineation of a śiva-āśrama analogous to the āśramas of classical Dharmaśāstra, but open to women and Śūdras. This is compared to the “Varṇāśramakāṇḍa” of the Kāśyapottarasaṃhitā, an unpublished late-medieval work outlining a Śrīvaiṣṇava version of varṇāśramadharma, with rules for performing the “purification of Śūdras” (śūdra-śuddhi) and special saṃskāras for Śūdras. Finally, I offer observations on the ultimate subversion of Brahmin prerogative: a Dharmaśāstra by a Śūdra. The Varṇāśramacandrikā (late 17th c.), composed by a member of the Dharmapuram maṭam, a non-Brahmin (Vēḷāḷa) Śaivasiddhānta institution in Tamil Nadu, argues that traditional Smārta literature in fact supports the notion that certain Śūdras are eligible for all levels of dīkṣā and abhiṣeka in Śaivasiddhānta.
Symposium on the Gṛhastha: New Approaches to the Householder in Ancient India
Saturday, February 20, 2016 | Meyerson Conference Room, University of Texas, Austin.
Research Interests:
Premodern India yields a range of sources in which ideals comparable to the Western notions of justice and equity appear. These largely fall into two very different type of source: scholastic works in Sanskrit, which are strongly... more
Premodern India yields a range of sources in which ideals comparable to the Western notions of justice and equity appear.  These largely fall into two very different type of source: scholastic works in Sanskrit, which are strongly oriented toward the perspectives and interests of Brahmins and other high-status groups; and inscriptions, which though also often associated with socially dominant groups nevertheless provide a window onto a much wider swath of society, and also are much more directly indicative of actual social and legal practice.  In this paper, I review a selection of inscriptional records, primarily from 14th–17th c. south India, that raise questions of justice and fairness, and to show how they can be read inductively as pointing to norms of equity that generally remained unstated.  I will further argue that although these inscriptions often situate the ethical and legal questions in relation to customary local and caste norms, they sometimes articulate them in a way that suggests the influence of scholastic discourse.  Since Sanskrit works are cited only in a limited set of contexts, it seems that the influence of that discourse is indirect, with royal officialdom providing the vector.
Although Sanskrit Śāstras urge the recognition of customary norms observed in particular regions (deśa) and within particular castes (jāti), guilds (śreṇi), and families (kula), particular examples are rarely mentioned (with just a couple... more
Although Sanskrit Śāstras urge the recognition of customary norms observed in particular regions (deśa) and within particular castes (jāti), guilds (śreṇi), and families (kula), particular examples are rarely mentioned (with just a couple of exceptions).  Inscriptions on metal and stone, and (later) palm-leaf documents, offer a large (if idiosyncratic) body of source material that often provides a glimpse of the operation of law “on the ground.”  The records, coming from all over India (especially numerous in the South) and much of Southeast Asia, are some of our best chances to customary norms being applied, especially where the record concerns non-Brahmin groups.  On the other hand, even in non-Sanskrit records, categories and concepts seemingly derived from Śāstric discourse are apt to get invoked.  This presentation will begin by briefly reviewing the Śāstric views on property, and will then turn to a range of documentary records arising from grants or decisions, with the aim of indicating the diversity of property law across time and space, as well as the persistent if selective appeal to jurisprudential concepts that were developed in Dharmaśāstra.  The final section will assess the feasibility of inferring customary principles of land rights from the sparse surviving records.
Research Interests:
An attempt to reconstruct the means by which Brahmins formulated their own sacral authority and found ways to extend it into other realms of social and political life. Beginning with a couple of Vedic theological statements, including... more
An attempt to reconstruct the means by which Brahmins formulated  their own sacral authority and found ways to extend it into other realms of social and political life.  Beginning with a couple of Vedic theological statements, including Yājñavalkya's enumeration of divine forms quoting a Vedic ritual invocation, "[33,] 303, 3003" (often wrongly understood to total 3306!), I suggest that the same rationale undergirded Brahmins' view of their own special status, which they demonstrated to themselves and to others through disciplinary practices.  I argue that emergent "brahminhood" was not just an ideal or a set of claims but a physical condition created ritually and displayed theatrically so as to leave a durable imprint on society.  The crucial initial invention was a function of the Vedic priesthood's institutionalization of system for preserving and transmitting their knowledge, through disciplinary regimens of study.  Drawing on Vedic ritual principles of extension and modification (ūha, vikṛti), these regimens were multiplied horizontally to producer other forms of Brahminhood (jurist, astrologer, purohita, royal official, temple priest, professional and sectarian ascetics).  By a corresponding vertical differentiation, Brahmanical norms were calibrated and diluted to provide a template for the rest of society according to varṇa-dharma.  These variants retained common features that pointed back to a relatively stable ideal that provided a plausible fulcrum for a broader cultural ethos.  I situate my model in relation to some of the ideas of Weber, Durkheim, Bourdieu, Geertz, and Milner, among others.
Disciplinary regimens (vratas) are prescribed in Brahmanical Hindu religious law (Dharma) both to confer qualification for ritual and legal agency of various types, including kingship, and as punitive and penitential legal remedies in the... more
Disciplinary regimens (vratas) are prescribed in Brahmanical Hindu religious law (Dharma) both to confer qualification for ritual and legal agency of various types, including kingship, and as punitive and penitential legal remedies in the case of wrong-doing.  Such regimens involve ascetical or restrictions, physical purifications, and rites and observances, whereby the body is transformed, serves as an indicator of social status, and constitutes an emblem for the legal order itself.  In this sense, those who undergo such regimens embody, exhibit, and enact Dharma, the divinely ordained moral order.
Explaining what made ancient Greek law unusual, Michael Gagarin observes that most premodern legal cultures “wrote extensive sets (or codes) of laws for academic purposes or propaganda but these were not intended to be accessible to most... more
Explaining what made ancient Greek law unusual, Michael Gagarin observes that most premodern legal cultures “wrote extensive sets (or codes) of laws for academic purposes or propaganda but these were not intended to be accessible to most members of the community and had relatively little effect on the actual operation of the legal system.” Dharmaśāstra certainly can be called a “scholarly” exercise, and it was also intended as propaganda for the Brahmanical cosmopolitan world order. However, this written, scholastic tradition came to provide a model for articulating law “in principle” and “on the ground” in diverse settings even beyond India.
This presentation addresses the implications of writing for customary or regional law in South and Southeast Asia. Dharmaśāstra (“Hindu law”) canonizes a particular model of Brahmin ācāra, and as a procedural principle recognizes the general validity of other, even divergent, customary norms, but does not actually promulgate them as justiciable statutes. From the point of view of Śāstra, such rules remain lex non scripta. However, there are a couple of modes in which writing came to play a role in the “recognition” (in Hart’s terms) of customary norms as legal rules: (1) in documents and inscriptions (lekha, pattra, vyavasthā); and (2) in regional adaptations of the Dharmaśāstra genre. The functions of these two broad modes differed but also overlapped, especially in Southeast Asia. I argue that the interplay between them fostered the emergence of formal legal institutions tied simultaneously to the administrative and judicial apparatus of a state and an overarching, transregional conception of legitimate authority.
The earliest texts of what would come to be known as Dharmaśāstra — the dharmasūtras — are demonstrably a further development of the normative literature that produced the Vedic ritual codes, though the dharmasūtras also integrate some... more
The earliest texts of what would come to be known as Dharmaśāstra — the dharmasūtras — are demonstrably a further development of the normative literature that produced the Vedic ritual codes, though the dharmasūtras also integrate some material on kingship from the proto-Arthaśāstra as well. Although Dharmaśāstra’s religious and ritual prescriptions’ debt to the Vedic tradition is well recognized, the special role of the gṛhyasūtras in the intellectual and institutional process that led to the production of dharmasūtras has been overlooked, largely because of a traditional notion that the various types of kalpasūtra were complementary parts of preconceived system, rather than way posts marking stages in the gradual repackaging of Vedic religion and Brahmin authority. This presentation will point out certain concepts and principles crucial to the later Dharmaśāstra were introduced or greatly developed in the gṛhyasūtras. These include: taking Brahmin practice as the default norm, with modifications for other social classes; the creation of the sequence of saṃskāras, and the acceptance of upanayana as the first and as definitive of Ārya status; formal recognition of the validity of extracanonical customary practices (e.g., those of women); broader application of prāyaścittas and special vratas as ethical practices and legal remedies; (re)definition of the role of Brahmin family priest; and the moral valence assigned to the fulfillment of ritual duties.
"The Javanese Way of Law" seeks to show that traditional legal practice on Java at the beginning of the colonial period relied not on juridical texts or codes but on Javanese maxims called sloka or saloka (Sanskrit śloka, ‘stanza,... more
"The Javanese Way of Law" seeks to show that traditional legal practice on Java at the beginning of the colonial period relied not on juridical texts or codes but on Javanese maxims called sloka or saloka (Sanskrit śloka, ‘stanza, maxim’). These ‘pithy expressions’, often involving vivid if sometimes cryptic similes, were a form of customary legal lore that was invoked in texts and cited in reaching judgments. As such, these maxims provide a fertile but largely untilled field for legal history and for comparative studies of customary and premodern law. The author is a leading authority on Indonesian legal history, and has published on Javanese legal texts before. However, although he has identified a fascinating and important topic in legal history, the book has several serious flaws and limitations, and should be consulted with caution.

Full text available to first 50 readers:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/PUUPJBGDJR5Y9SUNAKXW/full?target=10.1080/0967828X.2022.2027634
In spite of efforts by the later Hindu tradition to define and emphasize a continuity between the archaic religion of the Veda and multifarious modes of religion of the “classical” age (the Gupta-Pallava era), the changes that intervened... more
In spite of efforts by the later Hindu tradition to define and emphasize a continuity between the archaic religion of the Veda and multifarious modes of religion of the “classical” age (the Gupta-Pallava era), the changes that intervened were profound.  At the same time, the sources on which to reconstruct the sequence of events and ideas are so isolated and refractory that the basic dynamics of the process remain poorly understood.  Marko Geslani tackles such issues from an original and unexpected direction: by focusing attention on the increasing salience of rites of “appeasement” (śānti) to counteract omens and pacify divine powers as developed particularly in the Atharvaveda, and services of experts in astrology.
A Dharma Reader makes Indian sources accessible not just to readers of classical India but to those interested in the comparative study of law and legal history, or in the intersection of religion and law. The Brahmanical Sanskrit... more
A Dharma Reader makes Indian sources accessible not just to readers of classical India but to those interested in the comparative study of law and legal history, or in the intersection of religion and law. The Brahmanical Sanskrit literature on dharma (dharmaśāstra) was long bedeviled by mostly ahistorical treatment, and where interpreters attempted to write its history, they were hobbled by the paucity of properly critical editions of the texts and the difficulty of situating the works and their authors in place and time with any confidence. The largest scholarly landmark in this field through much of the twentieth century, P.V. Kane's multi-volume History of Dharmaśāstra, along with careful studies by Robert Lingat, J.D.M. Derrett, Ludo Rocher, and Richard Lariviere, clarified many points and established some historical benchmarks, but the dates offered, especially for the early works, were stabs in the dark, and did not solve the problem of the state of the sources themselves, especially the "classical" works. This situation has changed dramatically with new critical editions by Lariviere (Nārada-Smṛti), Rocher (Vyavahāra-Cintāmaṇi, Dāyabhāga), and most especially Olivelle himself, who has almost single-handedly re-edited and re-translated the major works (the four Dharmasūtras, the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra (the so-called "Laws of Manu"), the Vaiṣṇava-Dharmaśāstra (alias Viṣṇu-Smṛti), and the Yājñavalkya-Dharmaśāstra (forthcoming). The other major scholastic work relevant to India's legal history, Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra (a unique treatise on political science, a topic that was subsequently swallowed up by Dharmaśāstra), has been provided with a new textual study by Olivelle's student Mark McClish, and a new translation by Olivelle himself. All of this work has permitted a tremendous clarification of the development of Dharmaśāstra and, by analysing those works in light of other Sanskrit literature and early Indian epigraphy, of the historical development of law in India. This volume provides an attractive point of entry for students of Indian history, religion, and culture, as well as comparativists. This volume should go a long way towards integrating Indian material into curricula of comparative legal history and legal theory. Olivelle begins by citing (and explaining for non-lawyers) H.L.A. Hart's distinction between primary rules and secondary rules, announces that his book will deal only with the second sort, and goes on to consider Hart's three types of secondary rules: rules of recognition, rules of change, and rules of adjudication. This provides the organizing rubric for the book, with rules of recognition forming the focus of Part I (on "the nature and epistemology of dharma"), and Part II devoted to rules of adjudication (on "courts of law and legal procedure", i.e., vyavahāra). (Ancient India did not have a systematic framework for rules of change; changes occurred either through royal decrees or tweaking the rules of recognition to allow new options, regional customs, or the like, a topic addressed in Part I.) This organization of the material will help those outside of classical Indian studies to make sense of what the Indian authors were up to. ...
The study of religion as a field distinct from the sorts of training and inquiry traditionally conducted in seminaries, yeshivas, madrasas, and monasteries is intrinsically comparative. The very category of religion as something spanning... more
The study of religion as a field distinct from the sorts of training and inquiry traditionally conducted in seminaries, yeshivas, madrasas, and monasteries is intrinsically comparative. The very category of religion as something spanning cultures and periods, along with most of the terminology and corresponding concepts employed in the field, implies that the various "parochial" phenomena that form the object of study share many features and follow patterns that are discernable only when viewed from the analytical distance of comparison. The founding figures of the field (notably, E. B. Tylor, J. G. Frazer, Gerardus van der Leeuw, Emile Durkheim, and Mircea Eliade) embraced this principle with gusto, taking an encyclopedic approach often aimed at providing a single, global explanation or rationale for religion in all its forms. From the middle of the twentieth century, a distaste for the overreaching or overhomogenizing excesses of such projects, along with the broader academic trend toward narrow specialization and an emphasis on the uniqueness of individual cultures, led to a widespread retreat from explicit comparison and indeed a good deal of skepticism for those who persisted with comparative studies. The present volume, based on Philippe Bornet's doctoral dissertation at the University of Lausanne, provides a model of comparative study of religion based on several factors.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Syllabus for fall 2022 (law and undergraduate), Washington and Lee University (last version) We are used to thinking of the law only as something laid down by the state, but that is only one sort of law. Society is made up of multiple... more
Syllabus for fall 2022 (law and undergraduate), Washington and Lee University (last version)

We are used to thinking of the law only as something laid down by the state, but that is only one sort of law.  Society is made up of multiple groupings — schools, corporations, religions, guilds, associations, tribes, international alliances, etc. — each defined by a set of customary norms and more or less formal rules, which apply in various ways depending on the individual status of each member. Individuals (and groups) are thus subject to overlapping obligations and claims, and authorities often come into conflict.  This is legal pluralism.  Even through the law of the state usually claims supremacy within it bounds, it must still deal with, and often recognize, accommodate, or even enforce aspects of other legal orders. 

This seminar explores the various ways in which such interactions can play out in a range of social, religious, and political environments, and the ways in which they can affect individuals of different statuses differently. Examples are drawn from a range of periods and places: the Roman empire, the Middle East and South Asia past and present, the United States, and modern Europe.  In each context, we examine the ways in which the legal status of individuals is defined in relation to the state, religious community, ethnicity or race, and social class.  At each step, we ask: Given a complex environment with different, overlapping, often conflicting claims to authority (secular as well as sacred), rights, and obligations, how is justice to be defined, and how can it be served?
Research Interests:
e-text of the Ślokāntara, input by Timothy Lubin and Arlo Griffiths: http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/5_var/oldjav/slokant_u.htm Text as in: Ślokāntara, an Old Javanese Didactic Text, critically edited and annotated by... more
e-text of the Ślokāntara, input by Timothy Lubin and Arlo Griffiths:
http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/5_var/oldjav/slokant_u.htm

Text as in: Ślokāntara, an Old Javanese Didactic Text, critically edited and annotated by Sharada Rani, New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1957.

Employing Acri and Griffiths’ modification of the transliteration system used in Zoetmulder’s OJED (with ə = ĕ, ə̄ = ö, ṅ = ŋ, v = w; ṛ retained); see Andrea Acri and Arlo Griffiths (2014), “The Romanisation of Indic Script Used in Ancient Indonesia,” Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia 170.2–3: 365–78.
Syllabus for a four-week interdisciplinary course designed by Timothy Lubin and Shikha Silwal taught in Kathmandu/Lalitpur in 2017 and again in 2019. (It was first offered on campus at Washington and Lee University after the 2015... more
Syllabus for a four-week interdisciplinary course designed by Timothy Lubin and Shikha Silwal taught in Kathmandu/Lalitpur in 2017 and again in 2019.  (It was first offered on campus at Washington and Lee University after the 2015 earthquake prevented travel to Nepal.)

Course Theme:
Social stratification touches every aspect of life, and South Asia’s traditional caste structure is a special case: this highly complex, strictly adhered to system has been religiously legitimized and criticized over a 3000-year history, and is nowadays seen as being at odds with the modern world.  Yet it remains a crucial factor in social identity, economic roles, legal status, and religious practice.  These four interlocking factors, considered both historically and in practice today in Nepal, will each be the subject of a unit in this 360º survey of caste.  Guest speakers and experience “on the ground” will enhance the program. 

A largely rural country with a population mostly of Hindus and Buddhists (including many Tibetan refugees), Nepal has undergone some major changes in its recent history.  After emerging from a decade of civil war in 2006, the country abolished its 239-year-old monarchy in 2008, and a new constitution is currently being formulated.  Amidst all these changes, issues related to caste are central and timely.
Research Interests:
Development Economics, Political Economy, Indian studies, South Asian Studies, Law and Religion, and 33 more
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
A customized version of Toshiyo Unebe's "EasyUnicode" keymap for Indic transliteration. My updated version includes characters for transliterating Sanskrit (including Vedic), Prakrit, Dravidian languages, and Old Javanese. The keylayout... more
A customized version of Toshiyo Unebe's "EasyUnicode" keymap for Indic transliteration.  My updated version includes characters for transliterating Sanskrit (including Vedic), Prakrit, Dravidian languages, and Old Javanese.  The keylayout file can be downloaded from the second link provided (https://tinyurl.com/lubineasyunicode).
(Updated 18 January 2023.)
Research Interests:
Interview included in a student-made documentary on a Tibetan Buddhist meditation center in Rockbridge County, Virginia.  Written and filmed by Megan Fricke, Alice Matthai, and Mary Elizabeth Shutley at Washington and Lee University.
Research Interests:
“Big picture” history is vulnerable to the distortion of the wide-angle lens and the grandiosity of the panorama. Microhistory has become the norm on account of offering fine-grained fidelity to “lived experience,” yet it can suffer from... more
“Big picture” history is vulnerable to the distortion of the wide-angle lens and the grandiosity of the panorama. Microhistory has become the norm on account of offering fine-grained fidelity to “lived experience,” yet it can suffer from myopia and make a fetish of uniqueness, or overreach in attempts to generalize from parochial particulars.

South Asian history, especially for periods prior to the modern, has faced more difficulties than those of (for instance) Europe or China: a relative dearth of sources of detailed biographical and circumstantial information, for instance, and a corresponding superabundance of “elite discourses.” This disparity, combined with the 19th century’s preoccupation with earliest antiquity, resulted in a wider than usual rift between textualists and epigraphists, and an unduly “Sanskritic” grand narrative. Scorning the grand narratives of earlier eras, political and especially social historians have since gravitated toward studies bounded by narrower spatial and temporal limits, and toward Subaltern Studies, with salutary effects. More recently, however, some (e.g., Pollock, Bronkhorst) have sought to have another go at the longue durée. Outside of the South Asian sphere, Guldi and Armitage have issued an (open access) “History Manifesto” calling for a return to long-term history, arguing that the wealth of accessible and digitally manipulable data makes possible much richer wide-angle views than were possible before. The problem with this wealth, however, is that it exceeds the competence of any individual. Hence the need for adaptive methods, and especially for collaborative work between complementary specialties.

This special collection seeks articles (1) that synthesize findings from more geographically or temporally restricted studies to offer a picture of large-scale processes, or (2) that offer an example of collaborative research toward the same end. Topics may include but are not limited to:

    Indian Ocean trade and travel reflected in microhistorical data from port cities
    Longterm trends in land tenure rights and transactions
    Changing patterns of patronage for religious institutions
    Literary and scholastic practices showing up across linguistic areas
    Comparison of classical depictions of social structure with data from epigraphy and material culture
    Institutional factors supporting particular modes of scientific or scholastic discourse

The special collection, edited by Timothy Lubin (Washington and Lee University) is to be published in the Open Library of Humanities (ISSN 2056-6700). The OLH is an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded open-access journal with a strong emphasis on quality peer review and a prestigious academic steering board. Unlike some open-access publications, the OLH has no author-facing charges and is instead financially supported by an international consortium of libraries.

Submissions (around 8000 words) should be made online at: https://submit.openlibhums.org in accordance with the author guidelines and clearly marking the entry as “Multifocal and Collaborative Approaches to South Asian History”. Submissions will then undergo a double-blind peer-review process. Authors will be notified of the outcome as soon as reports are received.

To learn more about the OLH, visit: https://www.openlibhums.org
Research Interests: