Elaine M. Fisher - Hindu Pluralism: Religion and the Public Sphere in Early Modern South India (South Asia Across the Disciplines)

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Hindu Pluralism

SOUTH ASIA ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES

Edited by Muzaffar Alam, Robert Goldman, and Gauri Viswanathan

Dipesh Chakrabarty, Sheldon Pollock, and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Founding Editors

Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and jointly published by the University of California Press, the University of Chicago Press, and Columbia University Press

South Asia Across the Disciplines is a series devoted to publishing first books across a wide range of South Asian studies, including art, history, philology or textual studies, philosophy, religion, and the interpretive social sciences. Series authors all share the goal of opening up new archives and suggesting new methods and approaches, while demonstrating that South Asian scholarship can be at once deep in expertise and broad in appeal.

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Polemics and Patronage in the City of Victory: Vyasatirtha, Hindu Sectarianism, and the Sixteenth-Century Vijayanagara Court, by Valerie Stoker (UC Press)

Hindu Pluralism: Religion and the Public Sphere in Early Modern South India, by Elaine M. Fisher (UC Press)

Hindu Pluralism

Religion and the Public Sphere in Early Modern South India

Elaine M. Fisher

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu .

University of California Press

Oakland, California

2017 by The Regents of the University of California

Suggested citation: Fisher, Elaine. Hindu Pluralism: Religion and the Public Sphere in Early Modern South India . Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.24

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Fisher, Elaine M., 1984- author.

Title: Hindu pluralism: religion and the public sphere in early modern South India / Elaine M. Fisher.

Other titles: South Asia across the disciplines.

Description: Oakland, California: University of California Press, [2017] | Series: South Asia across the disciplines | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016046548 (print) | LCCN 2016048637 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520293014 (pbk.: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520966291 (e-edition)

Subjects: LCSH: Hinduism India, South. | Re ligious pluralism India, South. | India, South--Religion.

Classification: LCC BL1153.7.S68 F57 2017 (print) | LCC BL1153.7.S68 (ebook) | DDC 294.50954/8--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046548

As was common wisdom in the classical genres of Sanskrit textuality, a book simply cannot be undertaken without a preliminary homage of reverence to the sources of inspiration to whom we owe our existence as scholars and human beings. Words cannot do justice to my gratitude for the unwavering support and the depth of enthusiasm I have encountered from advisors, colleagues, and companions alike. The first iteration of this book originated as a doctoral dissertation at Columbia University written under the mentorship of Sheldon Pollock, who first opened my eyes to the potential of philology to envision possible pasts both inside and outside of the text. What this book has become today would have been inconceivable without his unwavering confidence both in the project itself and in the intellectual freedom to take risks on new archives and archaeologies. My gratitude goes out to the members of my dissertation committee, Jack Hawley, Sudipta Kaviraj, Rachel McDermott, and Indira Peterson, for their generous feedback and encouragement on every draft at each step of the journey. I owe my introduction to the textual canons of aivism and the world of digital philology to the generous mentorship of Somadeva Vasudeva during his time at Columbia.