Religion in India: A Historical Introduction

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17 Ibid.: 15.
18 Ibid.: 26ff.
19 These rituals are described at length in the scholarly literature. See, especially,
J. C. Heesterman, The Ancient Indian Royal Consecration(The Hague: Mouton,
1987) for discussion of the ra ̄ jasu ̄yaand S. Jamison, op. cit., pp. 65–88 for
description of the horse sacrifice.
20 See David Knipe, In the Image of Fire(Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975).
21 P. Olivelle, Tr., The Upanis.ads(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. xlvi.
22 D. Knipe, “Sapin.d.ikarana: The Hindu Rite of Entry into Heaven” in Reynolds
and Waugh, eds, Religious Encounters with Death: Insights from the History and
Anthropology of Religion(University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1976),
pp. 111–24.
23 R.g Veda10.90 as cited by Ainslee Embree, ed., Sources of Indian Tradition(New
York: Columbia University Press, 1988), pp. 89–90.
24 For the dating of these texts, I follow the suggestions of R. S. Sharma, History of
Pancala(New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1983) pp. 3–4; Romila Thapar,
Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations(New Delhi: Orient Longman,
1978), pp. 42–55; and Aloka Parasher Sen, Mlecchas in Early India. A Study in
Attitudes towards Outsiders up to AD 600(New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal,
1991), p. 287.
25 Basham, op. cit., p. 28.


3 The Early Urban Period


1 P. Olivelle, Tr., Sam.na ̄ yasa Upanis.ads(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992),
pp. 29–32, citing A. Ghosh, The City in Early Historical India(Simla: Indian
Institute of Advanced Study, 1973) and R. Gombrich, Therava ̄ da Buddhism
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988).
2 Cited by R. S. Sharma, Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India
(Delhi: Macmillan, 1983), p. 76.
3 That the term bandhu, “connections” or secret doctrine, is the core meaning of
the term Upanis.adis the conclusion of Patrick Olivelle, following Renou (Louis
Renou, “Connexion et Védique, ‘cause’ en Bouddhique” in Dr. C. Kunhan Raja,
Presentation Volume(Madras: Adyar Library, 1946), Falk (H. Falk, “Vedisch
Upanis.ad” in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morganländischen Gesselschaft. Vol. 136
(1986), pp. 80–97), Jaroslav Vacek, and others. This connotation has come to
replace an earlier notion posited by Deutsch and others that Upanis.adhad to do
with “sitting at the feet of perfection” (P. Olivelle, Tr., The Upanis.ads(Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 1iii.
4 Olivelle, 1996, pp. xxxix, 41.
5 Ibid.: 1.
6 Ibid.: xxix.
7 Patrick Olivelle, 1998. The Upanis.ads(Oxford World’s Classics reissue of 1996
edn), translating Cha ̄ ndogya Upanis.adVI. 14. 11–13, pp. 154–55. Reprinted by
permission of Oxford University Press.
8 Ibid.: 274, Olivelle translating Mun.d.aka Upanis.ad, 3.1. 1, 2. Reprinted by
permission of Oxford University Press.

262 Notes

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