Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History FROM THE PUBLISHER
Open Boundaries provides a new perspective on Jainism, one of the oldest yet least-studied of the world's living religions. Ten closely-focused studies investigate the interactions between Jains and non-Jains in South Asian society, with detailed studies of yoga, tantra, aesthetic theory, erotic poetry, theories of kingship, goddess worship, temple ritual, polemical poetry, religious women, and historiography. Viewing the Jains within a South Asian context results in a strikingly different portrait from the standard models represented in both traditional Western and Indian scholarship.
FROM THE CRITICS
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Ten chaptersoriginally workshop presentations (Amherst College, 1993)provide a new perspective on one of the oldest yet least studied of the world's living religions. The editor notes that contributors were asked to provide "thick description" (in ethnographic parlance) studies of this group in the Hindu/Buddhist cultural context of South Asia. The Jain philosophy of itself predicates a multilayered perspective in relation to such themes explored here as: Tantric yoga, Sanskrit poetics, eroticism, kingship, community, ritual culture, and religious women. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
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