In her Foreword, Professor Doniger describes, "(an [older] approach that foolishly limited discussions to theological, philosophical and mythological matters). [emphasis mine] Now scholars look at these old texts through new lenses, asking about the relationship between economic and social classes, about racism, classism and sexism and about the role that Sanskrit texts did or did not play in the development of vernacular literatures.”
It must be equally foolish to go to an opposite extreme and ignore “theological, philosophical and mythological matters.” I accuse no one of doing so. I merely reflect that, logically, to minimize philosohy and theology in Sanskrit narrative would be itself a philosophical, and indeed a metaphysical, claim, even if an unconscious one.
Best wishes,
Howard
On Nov 22, 2023, at 2:27 PM, McComas Taylor via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Colleagues
I am delighted to announce that our new open-access book, Visions and Revisions in Sanskrit Narrative: Studies in the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas, with a Foreword by Wendy Doniger, has just been published on the ANU Press website: http://doi.org/10.22459/VRSN.2023
Thanks to my co-editor Raj Balkaran and all our wonderful contributors!
McComas
McComas Taylor, Professor of Sanskrit
College of Asia and Pacific, Australian National University
Secretary-General, International Assoc. of Sanskrit Studies
McComas Taylor, Professor of Sanskrit