[INDOLOGY] Exchange, Gifting, and Sacrificing

[Harald Wiese]

Dear list members,


with my apology for any cross postings, I like to point to a recently
published book of mine:



*Harald Wiese: Exchange, Gifting, and Sacrificing: Premodern Indian
perspectives. **Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, 2023. *

ISBN 978-3-948791-73-5 (PDF), ISBN 978-3-948791-74-2 (Softcover), DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1232



Content:

In both the Vedic and the classical periods, a special elite class of
people existed that were called Brahmins. In a rough manner, one might say
that their material wellbeing depended on *dakṣiṇā* in the Vedic period and
on dāna in the classical one. Broadening the perspective beyond *dakṣiṇā*
and *dāna*, the book is on all sorts of giving and receiving in the context
of pre-modern India, using Vedic, Sanskrit, Buddhist and, to a much lesser
extent, Roman and Christian sources. The Brahmanical theory of the gift
(i.e., the theory of dutiful gifting, *dharmadāna*) is a major focus of,
and has provided a major motivation for, this study. The book is a dialogue
between emic and etic perspectives. With respect to the latter, I apply
modern economic, sociological, ethnological, and marketing theories to
premodern givings and takings.



The book has been published by Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing (HASP).
It is available by free download from the publisher's website (
https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/1232) and can also be bought
as a softcover through the usual channels.



Information page in English:

https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/1232?lang=en

Direct download link:

https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/reader/download/1232/1232-42-105384-1-10-20230815.pdf



All the best,

Harald Wiese
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