Search results

Cover -- Contents -- Series Note -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 - Historical Evolutionary Approach in the Sociology of G.S. Ghurye -- 2 - G.S. Ghurye on Culture and Nation-Building -- 3 - The Hindu Nationalist Sociology of G.S. Ghurye -- 4 - Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the Nation: Situating G.S. Ghurye -- 5 - Radha Kamal Mukerjee -A Note -- 6 - Radhakamal Mukerjee and His Contemporaries: Founding Fathers of Sociology in India -- 7 - Radhakamal Mukerjee and the Quest for an Indian Sociology -- 8 - Lucknow School of Economics and Sociology and Its Relevance To-Day: Some Reflections -- 9 - Dialectic of Tradition and Modernity in the Sociology of D.P. Mukerji -- 10 - D.P. Mukerji 1894-1961: A Centenary Tribute -- 11 - D.P. Mukerji and the Middle Class in India -- 12 - On Srinivas's 'Sociology' -- 13 - The Sociology of Hinduism: Reading 'Backwards' from Srinivas to Weber -- 14 - M.N. Srinivas, Max Weber, and Functionalism -- 15 - Disjunctions between Field, Method and Concept: An Appraisal of M.N. Srinivas -- 16 - On M.N. Srinivas and Indian Sociology: The Challeng eof Understanding Indian Society-Critique, Generosity and Transformations -- Index -- About the Editor and Contributors -- Appendix of Sources.

The focus of the present research is to reconstruct the original meaning of the culturally dense term Ved. dákṣiṇā / Pa. dakkhiṇā, which, in the late Vedic language, specifically means the gift due to the priest who officiates the rite in favour of a patron. The discussed data make it possible to postulate a com- pletely different meaning for this term in the early Vedic texts, where it is used to evoke an 'auspicious condition' prototypically proper to a successful leader, both as an effect of previous glorious deeds and as a possible cause of further prosperity. We propose that in the Vedic context this term should be translated as 'magnificence', in which we distinguish two facets, namely: a more abstract one, that is magnificence in potency, as a result of past merits and often associated to the gods' favour, and magnificence in action, i.e. the (sometimes material) outcome of such a condition. The latter may become the crucial ingredient of a simple devotional act of offering. Albeit with the expected differences, we find also in Pali sources a comparable emphasis on such an act of offering, in particular when addressed to a worthy recipient. Indeed, retrofitting the late meaning of dakṣiṇā/dakkhiṇā to the earlier cul- tural and linguistic stages leads to a miscomprehension of many relevant pas- sages and pivotal features of both Vedic and early Buddhist ancient religious and political ideology. This is why we dedicate the last part of the paper to investigating how this assumed notion of 'magnificence' matches with what we know about the most ancient Indo-Aryan societal forms and with what is assumed about the evolution of these forms. We hope in this way to be able to add a crucial element to the interpretation of the cultural dynamic at work between the Buddhist and Vedic cultures, a dynamic characterised by some unresolved tensions such as preservation versus innovation and identity con- struction versus syncretic strategies.

Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1: The Case for Inclusiveness -- Chapter 2: Primacy of Action -- Chapter 3: Economic Action -- Chapter 4: Methodological Outposts -- Chapter 5: Departure from Convention -- Chapter 6: In Practice -- Chapter 7: In Conclusion -- Select Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author.