Hinduism: A Religion to Live By (Oxford India Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Nirad C. Chaudhuri (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 1997 | Series: Oxford India Paperbacks

This now-classic book provides a description and interpretation of Hinduism, focusing particularly on the religious psychology and behavior of Hindus. Rejecting familiar assumptions about early Hinduism, Chaudhuri provides illuminating insights into its formative influences and examines temple and image worship as well as the three major cults of Siva, Krishna, and the Mother Goddess.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nirad C. Chaudhuri is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Society.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195640136
• ISBN-13: 978-0195640137
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,208,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unusual book which makes one reexamine the Hindu religion, May 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hinduism: A Religion to Live By (Oxford India Paperbacks) (Paperback)

If Nirad Chaudhari did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. He is the most unforgiving and uncharitable critic of modern Indian civilization - a role he takes on in order to counterbalance the chauvinistic and jingoistic historical positions often assumed by his countrymen. In this book, he studies the Hindu religion from an unusual point of view - a positivist, objective description free from the myth mongering and spiritual mumbojumbo that often accompanies any account of this very complex human phenomenon. The subtitle "A religion to live by" indicates that he treats the religion purely in its practical aspects - as a set of rules devised by men to make life tolerable and enjoyable in an extremely hostile environment. He denies that there is anything called Hindu spirituality in the usual Western (Christian) use of that term. Hinduism, in his view is merely a way of getting along in the world with the help of metaphysical agencies. Other controversial ideas: that the Bhagavad Gita is only an Indian version of Christianity, that later religious eroticism is a degenerate version of Christian love of God, that Sanskrit is NOT an ancient language but dates only to the 1st century of the common era, and therefore all Indian scriptures other than the Vedas of relatively recent date, that the Vedas themselves originated outside India and hence their divine status etc etc. In spite of these simplistic and sometimes absurd views, the book is useful if only as an antidote to the cliche ridden accounts usually doled out to Western audiences.

10 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is DROSS!, August 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hinduism: A Religion to Live By (Oxford India Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Wonderful prose, fantastic hyperbole! This man manages to achieve in subliminal English, a level of superficiality that is more devoid of historical or practical fact than almost anyone writing about Hinduism seems to have managed.

A book for every "India Basher" to feel proud of. And no doubt, it will be often quoted amongst their equally illogical but pallid writings. Oh! How the myths multiply!

A pity that the late Mr. Chaudhuri could not do this immense subject the justice it deserves. Ah, well! Nirad's talent lay in other directions - he did, after all, SO VERY MUCH, want to be an Englishman. Let us hope that his wish has been granted and he is now incarnated as one. If there is any justice and Karma, then he must be living as an infant to a family of unemployed coal miners in County Durham. The reading public can, in years to come, look forward to an equally articulate antidote to this drivel from, what in the cycle of birth and death, will now be a reformed, incarnate soul.