Richard King teaches Religious Studies at the University of Stirling. He is the author of Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism.

'Its restained and well-mannered passion and its balance of scholarly consideration and intellectual concern, make this book well worth reading.' - World Faith Encounters`It represents an erudite and important contribution to debate on the relationship between colonialism and the Academy' - Clinton Bennett, Modern Believing`for those of us who concentrate on India, on her history, culture, religions and on her contemporay search for post-colonial identity, King's religious studies contribution may actually displace Said'

• Introduction; Chapter 1 The power of definition; Chapter 2 Disciplining religion; Chapter 3 Sacred texts, hermenetics and world religions; Chapter 4 Orientalism and Indian religions; Chapter 5 The modern myth of ‘Hinduism’; Chapter 6 ‘Mystic Hinduism’; Chapter 7 Orientalism and the discovery of ‘Buddhism’; Chapter 8 The politics of privatization; Chapter 9 Beyond Orientalism? Notes Bibliography Index;