That Meso-America constitutes a legitimate linguistic area has been questioned. To address this question, concepts of 'areal linguistics' are here surveyed and refined. Proposed Meso-American areal traits are reconsidered against these findings, and are compared with those of other established linguistic areas. Meso-America proves to be a particularly strong linguistic area. These results contribute both to the study of MesoAmerican languages and to an understanding of areal linguistics generally.*

Meso-America as a linguistic area

This is the first study to systematically confront the question how Brahmanism, which was geographically limited and under threat during the final centuries BCE, transformed itself and spread all over South and Southeast Asia. Brahmanism spread over this vast area without the support of an empire, without the help of conquering armies, and without the intermediary of religious missionaries. This phenomenon has no parallel in world history, yet shaped a major portion of the surface of the earth for a number of centuries. This book focuses on the formative period of this phenomenon, roughly between Alexander and the Guptas.

How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas

Europe's place in history is re-assessed in this first comprehensive history of the ancient world, centering on the Indian Ocean and its role in pre-modern globalization. Philippe Beaujard presents an ambitious and comprehensive global history of the Indian Ocean world, from the earliest state formations to 1500 CE. Supported by a wealth of empirical data, full color maps, plates, and figures, he shows how Asia and Africa dominated the economic and cultural landscape and the flow of ideas in the pre-modern world. This led to a trans-regional division of labor and an Afro-Eurasian world economy. Beaujard questions the origins of capitalism and hints at how this world-system may evolve in the future. The result is a reorienting of world history, taking the Indian Ocean, rather than Europe, as the point of departure. Volume II provides in-depth coverage of the period from the seventh century CE to the fifteenth century CE.

The Worlds of the Indian Ocean: A Global History

List of Contributors. Preface.Introduction: Establishing the Boundaries: Gavin Flood.Part I: Theoretical Issues:1. Colonialism and the Construction of Hinduism: Gauri Visvanathan.2. Orientalism and Hinduism: David Smith.Part II: Text and Tradition:The Sanskrit Textual Traditions:3. Vedas and Upanisads: Michael Witzel.4. The Dharmauastras: Ludo Rocher.5. The Sanskrit Epics: John Brockington.6. The Puranas: Freda Matchett.Textual Traditions in Regional Languages:7. Tamil Hindu Literature: Norman Cutler.8. The Literature of Hinduism in Malayalam: Rich Freeman.9. North Indian Hindi Devotional Literature: Nancy M. Martin.Major Historical Developments:10. The Uaiva Traditions: Gavin Flood.11. History of Vaisnava Traditions: Gerard Colas.12. The Renouncer Tradition: Patrick Olivelle.13. The Householder Tradition in Hindu Society: T.N. Madan.Regional Traditions:14. The Teyyam Tradition of Kerala: Rich Freeman.15. The Month of Kartik And Women's Ritual Devotions to Krsna in Benares: Tracy Pinchman.Part III: Systematic Thought:The Indian Sciences: Introduction: Frits Staal.16. The Science of Language: Frits Staal. 17. Indian Mathematics: Takao Hayashi.18. Calendar, Astrology and Astronomy: Michio Yano.19. The Science of Medicine: Dominik Wujastyk.Philosophy and Theology:20. Hinduism and the Proper Work of Reason: Jonardon Ganeri.21. Restoring "Hindu Theology" as a Category in Indian Intellectual Discourse: Francis Clooney.22. Mantra: Andre Padoux.Part IV: Society, Politics, and Nation:23. On the Relationship between Caste and Hinduism: Declan Quigley.24. Modernity, Reform and Revival: Dermot Killingley.25. Contemporary Political Hinduism: C. Ram Prasad26. The Goddess and the Nation: Subterfuges of Antiquity, the Cunning of Modernity: Sumathi Ramaswamy.27. Gender in a Devotional Universe: Vasudha Narayanan.Index.

The Blackwell companion to Hinduism

The South Asian (Munda) and SouthEast Asian (Mon-Khmer) branches of the Austroasiatic language family2 are perhaps the most divergent in the world. They are opposite in structure at every level (Table 1): In Sora,4 a Koraput Munda language of Orissa, the sentencèHe doesn't want to give me the rice' is head-last and synthetic, as in (1), but in Khmer5 (Cambodian), it is head-®rst and analytic, as in (2): (1) Sora: Anin he/she dN-obj-øEn me dAr«j rice-«n-art «-inf-tiy give-ben-inf idsöm want-tE-3pr ted not (2) Khmer: ko(«t he/she /«t not cAN want /aoy give baay rice køom me Table 1. Polarizations in Munda vs Mon-Khmer discussed in this paper.3

Rhythm and the Synthetic Drift of Munda

1. There is a considerable difference of opinion nowadays about the social and cultural background of the Rigvedie poetry. In Geldner's Rigveda-translation and in Renou's recent studies which are based on it 1 there is a tendency to overemphasize the importance of literary contests, for which the poems are thought to be designed. Thieme, in a fundamental discussion of this trend in modern Vedic studies, not only noted "an unmistakable tendency to secularize the RV", but also stated to "hear in some renderings of Geldner's overtones of their own that call to mind unfortunate associations with the Nuremberg master-singers and the minnesingers' tournament of song on the Wartburg". ~ The following studies, devoted to a social as well as religious phenomenon, may contribute to correcting the perspective and to eliminating some views about the Vedic society that are still materially based on the theories of the Vedische Studien. The influence of these theories is indeed still perceptible in Geldner's latest interpretation of the Rigveda. In point of fact, the duels between poets may rather be regarded as a special instance of a more general type of contest, which included unpoetical verbal contests as well as chariot races, combats, etc. Here however a serious methodological difficulty faces us. The question naturally arises on which occasions these contests may have taken place. Thieme, who is disinclined to accept the theory of such contests at all, stresses the necessity of looking for a serious, genuinely religious content in the Rigvedic hymns? I quite agree with him but, while the contests

The ancient Aryan verbal contest

1. A German scholar of a former generation once remarked that there can be no more important task for the Sanskrit philologist than to describe the changes that have taken p1ace, in the course of the ages, in the mentality of the inhabitants of India. What he referred to was the slow but steady cultural process of Indianization of those Aryan tribes who had once, in a prehistoric period, invaded India from Iran. The same thing might be said of the Indic languages. Here, too, there has been a slow process of Indianization, which brought Indo-Aryan, the language of the invaders, more and more into harmony with the languages of the indigenous families, in particular Dravidian and Munda.

The Genesis of a Linguistic Area

Proto Munda Words In Sanskrit

Ancient Indian cosmogony

The basic concept of Vedic religion is no doubt an unusual object of study, as it implies at least three assumptions: first, that the time has come for a more general survey of this religion; second, that there actually does exist a basic concept; and third, that something sensible can be said about it. Each of these assumptions will perhaps be questioned. The following study will show how I think it has become possible in the present state of Vedic studies to discuss the underlying idea of Vedic theology.1

Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper

Papers

The ancient Aryan verbal contest

The Genesis of a Linguistic Area

Proto Munda Words In Sanskrit

Ancient Indian cosmogony

The Basic Concept of Vedic Religion