Gavin Flood is Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Stirling. Among his publications are Beyond Phenomonology: Rethinking the Study of Religion (1999), An Introduction to Hinduism (1996), and Body and Cosmology in Kashmir Œaivism (1993).

“This collection offers a new way to parse the multiple entryways into the vast arena of Hinduism. Using the general divisional categories of theoretical issues, text and tradition, systematic thought, and society, politics and nation, Flood has achieved significant breadth in disciplines, subjects and historical perspectives.” Choice “This is a most welcome, timely, and authoritative assessment of the entire field of study, a most commendable response to an enormous challenge.” Journal of Contemporary Religion “It effectively serves to condense the proliferation of scholarship on Hinduism... The approach is interdisciplinary and places Hinduism not within a sphere of its own, but within a larger context, reading it as a dynamic product of historical global exchange. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism also has an important section devoted to the Indian Sciences (language, mathematics, astrology, astronomy and medicine) which collectively destabilize colonialism’s claim that Hinduism was arbitrary and irrational. … A handsome addition to academic and personal libraries.” Asian Studies Review

• Contributors xPreface and Acknowledgments xiiIntroduction: Establishing the Boundaries 1Gavin FloodPart I Theoretical Issues 211 Colonialism and the Construction of Hinduism 23Gauri Viswanathan2 Orientalism and Hinduism 45David SmithPart II Text and Tradition 65The Sanskrit Textual Traditions 67 3 Vedas and Upanisads 68Michael Witzel4 The Dharmaúâstras 102Ludo Rocher5 The Sanskrit Epics 116John Brockington6 The Purânas 129Freda MatchettTextual Traditions in Regional Languages 1447 Tamil Hindu Literature 145Norman Cutler8 The Literature of Hinduism in Malayalam 159Rich Freeman9 North Indian Hindi Devotional Literature 182Nancy M MartinMajor Historical Developments 19910 The Saiva Traditions 200Gavin Flood11 History of Vaisnava Traditions: An Esquisse 229Gérard Colas12 The Renouncer Tradition 271Patrick Olivelle13 The Householder Tradition in Hindu Society 288TN MadanRegional Traditions 30614 The Teyyam Tradition of Kerala 307Rich Freeman15 The Month of Kârtik and Women's Ritual Devotions to Krishna in Benares 327Tracy PinchmanPart III Systematic Thought 343The Indian Sciences 345Introduction 346Frits Staal16 The Science of Language 348Frits Staal 17 Indian Mathematics 360Takao Hayashi18 Calendar, Astrology and Astronomy 376Michio Yano19 The Science of Medicine 393Dominik WujastykPhilosophy and Theology 41020 Hinduism and the Proper Work of Reason 411Jonardon Ganeri21 Restoring "Hindu Theology" as a Category in Indian Intellectual Discourse 447Francis Cloone. SJ22 Mantra 478André PadouxPart IV Society, Politics, and Nation 49323 On the Relationship between Caste and Hinduism 495Declan Quigley24 Modernity, Reform and Revival 509Dermot Killingley25 Contemporary Political Hinduism 526C Ram Prasad26 The Goddess and the Nation Subterfuges of Antiquity, the Cunning of Modernity 551Sumathi Ramaswamy27 Gender in a Devotional Universe 569Vasudha NarayananIndex 588