Text and Practice: Essays on South Asian History by Ronald Inden, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 372

This collection of eleven papers by Ronald Inden will have appeal to various readers in various ways. Two papers are grouped as “Critiques of the Studies of Ancient and Medieval India,” two as “Ancient to Medieval,” five as “Medieval” and two as “Medieval to Modern.”

The first paper on “Orientalist Constructions of India” lays out a lot of the material that appeared in Imagining India (Blackwell, 1990), Inden’s outstanding book. Kingship and caste play a large role in the papers, no surprise in light of Inden’s recognized interest and expertise in these matters.

The highpoint of the book that makes it an important read is Inden’s presentation of the transition from Vedic sacrifices to the later temple puja traditions, which is the two papers under “Ancient to Modern.” Inden states,

I should like to argue that the picture of a slow, evolutionary unfolding and transformation, sparked apparently by the internal requirements of a single tradition treated as more or less self-contained, becomes somewhat disturbed if we contextualize the tradition. (90)

There were, in Inden’s understanding, two significant jolts to the system that account for the demise of Vedic sacrifice. The theory of a smooth transition from animal sacrifice to temple puja just does not stand up under the evidence. The first jolt was Ashoka’s reign as Buddhist emperor, which changed the status of Vedic sacrifice. Central to Ashoka’s rituals of power were Buddhist gift giving ceremonies, as the horse sacrifice, like all sacrifices, was forbidden by Buddhist traditions. So lesser kings continued for some time to practice Vedic sacrifice, but an emperor (or pretended emperor) would move beyond this in emulation of the great Ashoka.

The loss of regal sacrificial ceremonies turned Vedic traditions toward household rituals rather than kingly public ceremonies. Hindu kings adopted gift giving;

Settlements of Brahman householders (agrahara)—answers to the Buddhist monasteries—took their place beside the ancient animal sacrifices—temporarily in abeyance—as the central cultic institutions of the Aryan states and the making of gifts to Brahmans in these settlements became as much the duty of the regional king as had been the performance of the calendrical [Vedic] Srauta rites. (93)

The ascension of Hinduism, which Inden clearly delineates from Vedic traditions, is the second jolt that was in fact a death blow to the Vedic sacrificial system.

Regional rulers and their ritualists began to append more fully articulated Hindu rites to their daily liturgy, first in their houses and then, starting with the Guptas in the fourth century [C.E.], in separate shrines made of permanent materials. Down through the seventh century, however, these temples continued to be considerably smaller and less lavish than the structures housing the monks and rites of the central, imperial cult of Buddhism. And, like the Great Gifts that accompanied the cosmo-regal form of the Vedic sacrifice, image worship was classed as a peripheral act taking place ‘outside the sacrificial enclosure.’ By the end of the next century, however, Hinduism had become established as the dominant religion of Indian imperial kingdoms, reversing and transforming its relationship to Buddhism and Vedism. (95)

This outline of Inden’s perspective on a crucial transition in Indian history gives a taste of his scholarship and style, and the entire argument related to this transition needs to be read carefully. Other readers will no doubt highlight other insights from these important essays.