[INDOLOGY] Book Announcement: The Power of Hate Speech in Ancient India

[Whitaker, Jarrod]

Dear Colleagues

It's a pleasure to share with you all the news of the publication of my new
monograph, *The Power of Hate Speech in Ancient India: Beasts, Demons, and
Scorched-Earth Poetry *(Bloomsbury Academic, 2026).

The Kindle version was available in August and the Hardcover is published
today, September 3rd, from Amazon
<https://www.amazon.com/Power-Hate-Speech-Ancient-India/dp/B0G2BSF6S8?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=AUTHOR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.sMzkS8QuM-zqwrH7natJeo0n-MF5KxV2tg_ZVdaHqPfGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.r-bg2ctHYVzClYXKmGUrcrbfTp6XSSzegXnLGztAPaM>or
Bloomsbury
<https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/power-of-hate-speech-in-ancient-india-9798216389606/>
.

https://tinyurl.com/3zt58kvs

https://tinyurl.com/4dc9wb5d

The book argues that early Vedic poet-priests deployed various forms of
hate speech to negotiate interpersonal conflict and social status. It
illuminates a lived reality in which ancient Indian ritualists had to
contend with serious threats to the staging of their ritual performances
from rival ritualists, members of the wider community, cultural outsiders,
and even wild animals. Consequently, this book offers an in-depth study of
how ancient Indian poet-priests construct and reproduce their identities
and sociopolitical expectations in ritual performances through the
ubiquitous use of ritualized hate speech. It provides hitherto unnoticed
insights into the complex discursive practices, ethical values, and
interpersonal relationships that ritual practitioners had to negotiate some
three thousand years ago in north India.

Table of Contents
Introduction
1: Ritual Order Vs Monstrous Chaos
2: Hate Speech
3: Bráhman-Haters and Brahmáns As Haters
4: “Discord-Sowers,” Pests, and the Animal-Other
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Translation Of RV.7.104.1-25
Appendix 2: Translation Of RV.10.87.1-25
Appendix 3: Rgvedic Appearances of “Hate” as a Subjective Quality
Bibliography


Cheers

Jarrod

--

Jarrod L. Whitaker, Ph.D.
Professor for the Study of Religions
Department Chair

Department for the Study of Religions
Wake Forest University
1834 Wake Forest Rd
Winston-Salem, NC, 27106

336.758.4162whitakjl at wfu.edu

ॐ मणिपद्मे हूँ
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