Humans, animals and plants

[N. Ganesan]

 Re: Humans, animals and plants

At 04:19 PM 4/3/98 -0500, Alok Kumar wrote:
>I am interested in knowing ancient views (Vedic and Upanishads period) on
>1.       Status of women with respect to men in family and society.  In
>Hindu religion, goddesses are worshiped, indicating an influential status
>for females.  Were they also equal in status for their roles in family and
>society.

Luis Gonzalez-Reimann wrote:
*You should take a look at Stephanie W. Jamison's book "Sacrificed Wife,
*Sacrificer's Wife."  New York: Oxford University press, 1996.

See also,
Tracy Pintchman, The rise of the Goddess in the Hindu
tradition, SUNY, 1994.

N. Ganesan

Aside: Briefly saw this book. Thoroughly impressed.
A similar work on Siva will fill a large gap.

A minimam two-volume work on the "The Rise of Siva in the Hindu tradition"
will be very good. The Rise of Siva in Sanskrit tradition;
Vedic Rudra, then Siva, etc., How are the
agama tradition handed down by Adhisaiva Sivacharyars and printed
by French Institute of Pondichery, by Prof. J. Filliozat,
Dr. N. R. Bhatt, etc., Veerasaiva agamas of Karnataka and the
Vedic, Epic, Puranic literatures of Siva related. How
the Southern Sanskrit Saiva Siddhanta literature (eg., Aghora
Sivacharyar of Tiruveezhimizhalai) and Kashmir Saivism relate
to each other? Their historical developments.
Adi Sankara, Kashmir Saivism works from SUNY press.,
Certain aspects of Siva is found in Indra earlier.
I think Ramana Maharishi's disciple wrote a book
on this aspect.

The second volume must be from Tamil Saivism and other Dravidian
languages., Tevaram etc., I know Gonda, Sivaramamurti, Kramrisch,
Wendy Doniger, Nagaswamy, R. Davis, Indira Peterson (on Tevaram), &c.,
have done work on Siva.


Still, this major task, can we call it "Unified theory of Siva"
is not yet done. It is not a small job. Is Siva Dravidian or
Pre-Aryan or Aryan or a good synthesis of Aryan/Dravian??
Siva is very complex, as we all know.

Any references on Siva in a historical perspective
that I must read. Suggestions welcome.

Regards,
N. Ganesan