With apologies for cross-posting, I would like to bring to your attention a new edited volume on the householder in ancient India: Gṛhastha: The Householder in Ancient Indian Religious Culture, OUP, 2019. The volume argues that the term gṛhastha, the most common word for householder in later Sanskrit literature, is a neologism first encountered in the Aśokan inscriptions and absent in the entire Vedic corpus. It investigates the use of the term in a spectrum of ancient Indian literary genres and how this new discovery affects our knowledge of ancient Indian religions.

Here is the URL:

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ghastha-9780190696153?q=g%E1%B9%9Bhastha&lang=en&cc=us#

With best wishes,

Patrick

The TOC:

Introduction Patrick Olivelle, University of Texas at Austin

Prologue Whitney Cox, University of Chicago

PART ONE: VEDIC AND PRAKRIT SOURCES

Chapter One
The Term Gṛhastha and the (Pre)history of the Householder
Stephanie Jamison, UCLA
Chapter Two
Pasanda: Religious Communities in the Asokan Inscriptions and Early Literature
Joel Brereton, University of Texas at Austin
Chapter Three
Gṛhastha in Asoka's Classification of Religious People
Patrick Olivelle, University of Texas at Austin
Chapter Four
Gṛhastha in the Sramanic Discourse: A Lexical Survey of House Residents in Early Pali Texts
Oliver Freiberger, University of Texas at Austin
Chapter Five
Gahavai and Gihattha: The Householder in the Early Jaina Sources
Claire Maes, University of Texas at Austin

PART TWO: THE SANSKRIT SASTRAS

Chapter Six
The Late Appearance of the Gṛhastha in the Vedic Domestic Ritual Codes as a Married Religious Professional
Timothy Lubin, Washington and Lee University
Chapter Seven
Gṛhastha, Asrama, and the Origin of Dharmasastra
Patrick Olivelle, University of Texas at Austin
Chapter Eight
The Householder in Early Dharmasastra Literature
David Brick, Yale University
Chapter Nine
Householders, Holy and Otherwise, in the Niti and Kama Literature
Mark McClish, Northwestern University

PART THREE: EPIC AND KAVYA LITERATURE

Chapter Ten
The Gṛhastha in the Mahabharata
Adam Bowles, University of Queensland, Australia
Chapter Eleven
Gṛhasthas Don't Belong in the Ramayana
Aaron Sherraden, University of Texas at Austin
Chapter Twelve
Householders and Housewives in Early Kavya Literature
Csaba Dezso, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary