Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King (Yale UP, 2024) is the first biography of the great Emperor Ashoka relying solely on his own words. Ashoka sought not only to rule his territory but also to give it a unity of purpose and aspiration, to unify the people of his vastly heterogeneous empire not by a cult of personality but by the cult of an idea—“dharma”—which served as the linchpin of a new moral order. In this deeply researched book, Patrick Olivelle draws on Ashoka’s inscriptions and on the art and architecture he pioneered to craft a detailed picture of Ashoka as a ruler, a Buddhist, a moral philosopher, and an ecumenist who governed a vast multiethnic, multilinguistic, and multireligious empire.
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Manuela Ciotti, "Retro-modern India: Forging the Low Caste Self" (Routledge, 2020)
Michael S. Allen, "The Ocean of Inquiry: Niscaldas and the Premodern Origins of Modern Hinduism" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Silvia Schwarz Linder, "Goddess Traditions in India: Theological Poems and Philosophical Tales in the Tripurarahasya" (Routledge, 2022)
Aniket De, "The Boundary of Laughter: Popular Performances Across Borders in South Asia" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Vinayak Chaturvedi, "Hindutva and Violence: V. D. Savarkar and the Essentials of History" (SUNY Press, 2022)
Michael J. Altman, "Hinduism in America: An Introduction" (Routledge, 2022)
On Yoga, Cultural Appropriation, and Racism
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Meenal Shrivastava, "Amma’s Daughters: A Memoir" (Athabasca UP, 2018)
Koushiki Dasgupta, "Sadhus in Indian Politics: Dynamics of Hindutva" (Sage, 2021)
Marion (Mugs) McConnell, "Letters from the Yoga Masters" (North Atlantic Books, 2016)
Kajri Jain, "Gods in the Time of Democracy" (Duke UP, 2021)
Wendy Doniger, "After the War: The Last Books of the Mahabharata" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Suman Nath, "Democracy and Social Cleavage in India: Ethnography of Riots, Everyday Politics and Communalism in West Bengal (2012-2021)" (Routledge, 2022)
Naman P. Ahuja, "Marg Magazine: Readings on the Temple"
Simran Jeet Singh, "The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life" (Riverhead, 2022)
Evan Berry, "Climate Politics and the Power of Religion" (Indiana UP, 2022)
Antonio Rigopoulos, "The Hagiographer and the Avatar: The Life and Works of Narayan Kasturi" (SUNY Press, 2021)
Matthew Clark, "Botanical Ecstasies: Psychoactive Plant Formulas in India and Beyond" (Psychedelic Press, 2021)
Robin Dunbar, "How Religion Evolved: And Why It Endures" (Oxford UP, 2022)
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