Authority, Anxiety, and Canon

Laurie L. Patton is Assistant Professor of Asian Religions at Bard College.

"What a feast these essays provide! Together they constitute the most sophisticated yet accessible volume I have come across in years. There are moments in reading when I simply had to pause to write the word 'stunning' and to ponder the implications of what the author had just said." — Thomas B. Coburn, St. Lawrence University"This anthology assembles a series of superbly researched and written articles around the theme of authority and anxiety as it displays itself in the Hindu tradition. The authors are the best of the generation of young scholars now establishing or having established their names in the field. There is a very good level of conversation among the articles, and the editor's introduction does an exceptionally clear and compelling job of setting forth the issues of canon and authority with respect to the place of the Vedas in traditional Hindu culture and modern Western scholarly and Hindu traditions. The volume is well crafted, coherent, and well written." — Paul B. Courtright, Emory University

• PrefaceWendy Doniger IntroductionLaurie L. Patton Part One: The Vedas Reflect on Themselves 1. The Mastery of SpeechCanonicity and Control in the VedasDavid Carpenter 2. Veda in the BrahmanasCosmogonic Paradigms and the Delimitation of CanonBarbara A. Holdrege 3. The Veda and the Authority of ClassReduplicating Structures of Veda and Varna in Ancient Indian TextsBrian K. Smith Part Two: The Vedas in Classical Discourse 4. PuranavedaFrederick M. Smith 5. From Anxiety to Bliss Argument, Care, and Responsibility in the Vedanta Reading of Taittiriya 2.1-6aFrancis X. Clooney, S.J. 6. "Whither the Thick Sweetness of Their Passion?"The Search for Vedic Origins of Sanskrit DramaDavid L. Gitomer Part Three: The Vedas in Modernity and Beyond 7. The Authority of an Absent TextThe Veda, Upangas, Upavedas, and Upnekhata in European ThoughtDorothy M. Figueira 8. From Interpretation to ReformDayanand's Reading of the VedasJohn E. Llewellyn 9. Redefining the Authority of ScriptureThe Rejection of Vedic Infallibility by the Brahmo SamajAnantanand Rambachan 10. Poets and FishesModern Indian Interpretations of the Vedic RishiLaurie L. Patton AfterwordLaurie L. Patron Contributors Index