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