This well-written book on the history of religions of India up to 700 CE, by Richard H. Davis, Professor Emeritus at Bard College in the United States, starts the narrative 200 million years ago, with the geological history of the Pangaea (All land) continent. This supercontinent started to break apart around 200 million years ago into two massive continents Laurasia and Gondwanaland and these further split into smaller landmasses and one of these drifted northwards to the Asian landmass and became the Indian subcontinent, reaching there forty million years ago. The book ends in 700 CE just before the beginning of the religious transformations caused by the entering of Islam into South Asia. The history is told in fourteen chapters. It is intended as an introduction volume that gives a broad and general account of the cultural history of South Asia comparable to A. L. Basham's famous The Wonder That Was India (1954), of which the author hopes his book will be a replacement. A. L. Basham's book ended before the entering of Islam, its subtitle was A survey of the history and culture of the Indian sub-continent before the coming of the Muslims. Davis' book covers several topics with detailed knowledge but is less broad than The Wonder That Was India that covered numerous topics such as society and everyday life, crime and punishment, slavery, food and drink, music and dance, and “Religion” was the title of one separate chapter (Chapter VII, pp. 234–347). In Religions of Early India the main subject is religions, not culture and society and the book is especially concerned with religious texts and narratives, religious art and political rulers and elites and history of conquests and dynasties. The book includes many quotations in translation from primary sources and retellings of religious texts, a significant number of excellent photo illustrations and many very useful political maps. The book presents mostly the views of elites such as rulers, Brahmans, Buddhist monks and normative and narrative fictional religious texts. The use of these textual sources can give deceptive impressions since normative texts do not describe what people actually do and narrative fictional religious texts are often based on religious fantasies and imaginary worlds and not on sociological observations. Chapter 1 introduces the physical environment and climate and the landscape as described in some pilgrimage texts and poetic creations. The chapters thereafter are in chronological order starting with 1300 BCE and ending with 700 CE. The difficulties related to dating ancient Indian texts and especially the problem of interpolations as well as the great plurality of cultures and the large geographical area of South Asia could make such a chronological treatment problematic, but the author bases the chronology on a sound understanding. Chapter 2 “Indo-Aryans and the Vision of the Rig Veda Poets (1300–1000 BCE)”, covers the Indus civilization, the Indo-Aryan migrations and the Ṛgveda. Chapter 3, “The World of Sacrifice (1000–600 BCE)” is concerned with Veda, sacrifice and society. Chapter 4, “A New Urban Culture and Renunciatory Religion (600–300 BCE),” presents the Upaniṣads, the Śramaṇa traditions and the renouncers' world. In this chapter, Davis starts the treatment of karma and rebirth with the Upaniṣads. In a few statements in the older Upaniṣads, karma and rebirth are introduced and a religious goal of liberation from rebirth is promoted. However, in the Śramaṇa traditions the dominant understanding of karma and rebirth is their association to suffering (duḥkha), and this focus on suffering seems to imply a strong condemnation also of society and its institutions. The condemnation, including ridicule of the efficacy of sacrifice found in the discourse of karma, rebirth and duḥkha seems also to be about power and social hierarchy and is perhaps a more rebellious critique than the impression given in the book. In Chapter 5, “The Mauryan Era: Religious Cultures of Empire (321–187 BCE),” is narrated the arrival of imperial politics of the Achaemenids, Alexander and the Mauryans. Discussions of the concept of dharma and its spreading make up an important part of the chapter. Notable, the concept was first used more widely in the Śramaṇa environment and was later taken over by Brahmans loyal to the Vedic tradition. Chapter 6, “Disciplinary Communities and Religious Quests,” focuses on Brahman ascetics and Buddhist communities and their organization. These chapters are informative. Chapter 7, “Popular Religious Cultures during the Shunga Era (200 BCE–0 CE),” is among the most interesting chapters and presents worship of Yakṣas, Yakṣīs and Nāgas, and veneration of stūpas. The topic of Chapter 8, “The Sanskrit Epics: Imagined Empires of the Hindus,” is Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. Chapter 9, “The Kushana Era and Pan-Asian Buddhism (0 CE–300 CE),” describes the pluralistic religious environment of the Kushanas and the expansion of Buddhism. Chapter 10, “Visual Religion: Icons, Worship, and Devotion,” presents images of Yakṣas and Yakṣīs, Jain images of Tīrthaṅkaras, development of Buddhist images, and images of early Hindu theism, especially of Kṛṣṇa. Chapter 11, “The Four Human Aims: Guides for the Good Life,” deals with dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa. Indian philosophy is not much included in the category of religion in the book, perhaps influenced by the modern Western idea of religion and philosophy as separate, but is mentioned briefly in this chapter. Nāstika is translated as “atheist,” which is misleading. Nāstikas were those who expressed opposition to the Veda as authority or means of knowledge. Non-theists such as supporters of Sāṃkhya and Mīmāṃsā were considered āstikas. Traditions of atheism and critiques of religion are less present in the text. Chapter 12, “The Gupta Era: Religious Cultures of Court and Beyond (300–500 CE)” focuses especially on politics, art, courtly life, Sanskrit and the author Kālidāsa, and the continuous expansion of Buddhism. Chapter 13, “The Puranas: Varities of Hindu Theism,” presents the content of some important Purāṇas (Viṣṇu, Kūrma, Mārkaṇḍeya and the Jain Ādi Purāṇa), and the final Chapter 14, “Homes of Gods (460–700 CE)” focuses on temples including the famous cave temples. Several chapters end with a couple of pages showing contemporary relevance of the subject of the chapter. The book attains its goal of presenting the religions of India up to 700 CE and is a masterful and learned exposition. However, a religious history from below could also have been imagined or paying more attention to the culture and everyday life of non-elite groups. One of the interesting issues of this period in Indian history that is less understood is how the “Vedic/Hindu” traditions spread from their early presence in the north-western corner of India to the rest of the subcontinent. Interestingly, Davis suggests this to be the result of the work of Brahman missionaries. He thinks Brahmans migrated to establish āśramas for Vedic recitation and instruction and proposes that this constituted a form of settler colonialism. He also suggests that when these Brahman cultural missionaries were threatened, they would call for the protection of distant warriors or kings, which would then lead to incorporations of these territories in existing kingdoms (p. 289). But motives of these Brahman missionaries for establishing these āśramas far away are not stated, and given the size of South Asia, it is perhaps difficult to accept migration of Brahmans to establish āśramas for Vedic recitation and instruction as a main explanation for the Hinduization of the whole subcontinent. Other explanations related to social and economic changes and the need for ritual patrons and clients and competition for economic ritual resources are perhaps more plausible. Davis' presentations and analysis depend to a large degree on religious texts, and this raises questions on how Indian narrative religious texts function as sources of historical and sociological knowledge of Indian society and culture. Are they purely imaginary fairy tales, or do they provide knowledge of real historical events and encounters? They are certainly not direct transcriptions of reality, as Davis accepts, but he nevertheless depends much on narrative fictional texts for social analysis. A critical discussion of the state of philological research on Indian religious texts, the issue of interpolations and evaluation of them as sources could have been included. The book is of high quality, but I noted a couple of mistakes that can be corrected for the second edition. On page 66, the author writes that over two billion, roughly half of the world population, speak an Indo-European language. However, the current world population is double that size, around eight billion (and around 42% of these eight billion speak an Indo-European language, i.e. 3,4 billion). On page 143, the book states the Buddha was born to a family in Kushinagara instead of Kapilavastu. On pages 185–187 is discussed Ashoka and the Indian flag design, stating that the dharmacakra was proposed by Jawaharlal Nehru. However, Bhimrao Ambedkar was a member of the flag committee, and it was apparently him who suggested this symbol for the flag to the committee. Ambedkar had by that time already become favourable towards Buddhism. He could anyway have been mentioned in connection with the issue of re-evaluation of Buddhism in modern India. In conclusion, this is an excellent volume. It is written in a polite and learned language and makes an excellent introduction text to religions of early India.
Knut A. Jacobsen (Tue,) studied this question.