[INDOLOGY] Alf Hiltebeitel 1942-2023

[Fitzgerald, James]

Very sad news indeed! The world is now a smaller place. Alf was an
extraordinary figure in the study of the Mahābharata and Indian epics more
generally, and he was a good friend for almost fifty years. We met in Pune
in 1974 and began a *saṃvāda* that continued for more than forty years. We
disagreed often enough, but we agreed even more often. I have missed him
since his last visit to Brown, after which communication became more
difficult, but I am indeed grateful for all the time we had to talk before
then. May he rest in peace.

Jim Fitzgerald

On Tue, Mar 14, 2023 at 5:48 PM Greg Bailey via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Brian,
>
> Thanks for notifying us about this.
>
> What a loss. Not just a dear friend, but a great scholar who brought the
> Mahābhārata to life and light in so many ways. His work has been an
> inspiration for us all.
>
> Condolences to Elena and his family.
>
> best,
>
> Greg Bailey
> ------------------------------
> *From:* INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of
> Collins, Brian via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 15, 2023 1:40 AM
> *To:* Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
> *Subject:* [INDOLOGY] Alf Hiltebeitel 1942-2023
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I am sorry to report that Alf Hiltebeitel passed away in the Republic of
> Colombia a few days ago. It doesn’t need saying, but he was a giant in the
> field and made important contributions as a historian of religions, an
> ethnographer, a philologist, and a scholar of intellectual history. He even
> continued producing scholarship well after his advanced Parkinson’s made it
> impossible to speak and very difficult to write.
>
>
> He was most well known for his work on the *Mahābhārata *epic. And over
> the course of his life, he practically produced an epic of his own.
>
>
> His first book, *The Ritual of Battle *(Cornell 1976), and his two most
> recent books, *Nonviolence in the Mahābhārata* (Routledge 2016) and *World
> of Wonders* (Oxford 2021) add up to about 800 pages combined. The two
> volumes of *The Cult of Draupadī,* Vol. 1, *Mythologies: From Gingee to
> Kurukṣetra* (Chicago 1988) and Vol. 2, *On Hindu Ritual and the Goddess* (Chicago
> 1991), are another 1000 pages or so.
>
>
> The two “rethinking” books, *Rethinking India’s Oral and Classical Epics:
> Draupadī among Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits* (Chicago 1999) and *Rethinking
> the Mahābhārata: A Reader’s Guide to the Education of the Dharma Kin*g
> (Chicago 2001), are about another 900 pages.
>
>
> *Reading the Fifth Veda: Studies on the Mahābhārata* and *When the
> Goddess Was a Woman: Mahābhārata Ethnographies *(Brill 2011), are about
> 1200 pages altogether. *Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and
> Narrative* (Oxford 2011) is about 700 pages. The two Freud books, *Freud’s
> India* and *Freud’s Mahābhārata* (Oxford 2018), are 600 combined pages.
>
>
> We get an estimated total of 5,200 pages (roughly the same size as Bibek
> Debroy’s ten-volume English translation of the *Mahābhārata*) if we stop
> this partial bibliography there. But Alf did not stop there, and was
> working on a book about Vyāsa as late as last year.
>
>
> There won’t be another like Alf. He will be sorely missed by his students
> and his colleagues, but will never be forgotten as long as English readers
> still want to grapple with the immensity of India’s Great Epic.
>
> With condolences to his friends and family especially,
>
> Brian
>
> Assoc. Prof. Brian Collins
> (He/Him/His)
> Department Chair and Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion
> and Philosophy
> Department of Classics and Religious Studies
> 234 Ellis Hall
> Ohio University
> Athens, Ohio
> 740-597-2103 (office)
>
>
>
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>
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