Dharma: The Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh Traditions of India
Veena R. Howard
Aug 2017 · Bloomsbury Publishing
Ebook
304
Pages
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About this ebook
Dharma is central to all the major religious traditions which originated on the Indian subcontinent. Such is its importance that these traditions cannot adequately be understood apart from it. Often translated as “ethics,” “religion,” “law,” or “social order,” dharma possesses elements of each of these but is not confined to any single category familiar to Western thought. Neither is it the straightforward equivalent of what many in the West might usually consider to be “a philosophy”. This much-needed analysis of the history and heritage of dharma shows that it is instead a multi-faceted religious force, or paradigm, that has defined and that continues to shape the different cultures and civilizations of South Asia in a whole multitude of forms, organizing many aspects of life. Experts in the fields of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh studies here bring fresh insights to dharma in terms both of its distinctiveness and its commonality as these are expressed across, and between, the several religions of the subcontinent. Exploring ethics, practice, history and social and gender issues, the contributors engage critically with some prevalent and often problematic interpretations of dharma, and point to new ways of appreciating these traditions in a manner that is appropriate to and thoroughly consistent with their varied internal debates, practices and self-representations.
About the author
Veena R. Howard is Professor of Asian Religious Traditions in the Department of Philosophy at California State University, Fresno, USA. She holds the Endowed Chair in Jain and Hindu Dharma, and currently serves as the Director of M. K. Gandhi Center: Inner Peace and Sarvodaya.
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