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The Snake and the Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion
Author McGovern, Nathan (著)
Date2019
Pages313
PublisherOxford University Press
Publisher Url https://academic.oup.com/
LocationNew York, NY, US [紐約, 紐約州, 美國]
SeriesOxford Scholarship Online
Content type書籍=Book
Language英文=English
KeywordBrahmanism; Buddhism; Jainism; Hinduism; Brahman; śramaṇa; India; religion; identity
AbstractThis book turns the commonly accepted model of the origins of the early Indian religions on its head. Since the beginning of modern Indology in the 19th century, the relationship between the major early Indian religions of Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism has been based on an assumed dichotomy between two metahistorical identities: “the Brahmans” and the newer “non-Brahmanical” śramaṇa movements. Textbook and scholarly accounts typically purport an “opposition” between these two groups by citing the 2nd century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali, often stating erroneously that he compared their animosity for one another to that of the snake and the mongoose. This book seeks to de-center the Hindu Brahman from our understanding of Indian religion by “taming the snake and the mongoose”—that is, abandoning the anachronistic distinction between “Brahmanical” and “non-Brahmanical” and letting the earliest articulations of identity in Indian religion speak for themselves on their own terms. It accomplishes this goal through a comparative reading of texts preserved by the three major groups that emerged from the social, political, cultural, and religious foment of the late first millennium BCE: the Buddhists and Jains as they represented themselves in their earliest sūtras, and the Vedic Brahmans as they represented themselves in their Dharma Sūtras. The picture that emerges is not of a fundamental dichotomy between Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical, but rather of many different groups who all saw themselves as Brahmanical, and out of whose contestation with one another the distinction between Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical the snake and the mongoose emerged.
Table of contentsFront Matter
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

1 Introduction
2 The Snake and the Mongoose at the Horizon of Indian History
3 Taming the Snake and the Mongoose of Indian History
4 The Brahman as a Celibate Renunciant
5 The Brahman as the Head of a Household
6 The Emergence of the Snake and the Mongoose
7 Losing an Argument by Focusing on Being Right
8 Conclusion

End Matter
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ISBN9780190640798 (hbc); 0190640790 (hbc)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190640798.001.0001
Related reviews
  1. Book Review: The Snake and the Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion by Nathan McGovern / Nicholson, Andrew J. (評論)
  2. Book Review: The Snake and the Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion by Nathan McGovern / Maes, Claire (評論)
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Created date2023.06.19
Modified date2023.07.26



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