Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction
A History of German Indology
The History of German Indology as a History of Method
The Origins of the Historical-Critical Method in the
Neo-Protestantism of the Eighteenth Century
Defining the Scope of Inquiry
Plan of Study
1. The Search for an Urepos
Introduction
The First Phase of German Gita Reception
The Birth of German Mahabharata Studies
Ideas of Heroic Epic
The Indo-Germanic Epic
The Birth of Modern Mahabharata Studies
Holtzmann's Legacy to Gita Studies
2. The Search for German Identity
Introduction
The Genesis of Holtzmann's Mahabharata
Polemics against the Brahmans
Ideas of Critical Reconstruction
Ideas of Epic Composition
Ideas of Religious Conflict
Ideas of Textual Corruption
Ideas of Historical Distortion
Ideas of Enlightened Religion
Ideas of Religious Persecution
Ideas of Religious Corruption
Ideas of Racial Contamination
Evaluating Holtzmann's Textual Project
Mahabharata Criticism after Holtzmann
A Problem of Reception
3. The Search for the Original Gita
Introduction
The Gita Reemerges
The Pantheistic Gita of Adolf Holtzmann
Pantheism and the Bhagavadgita
The Theistic Gita of Richard Garbe
Ideas of Bhagavata Religion
The Epic Gita of Hermann Jacobi
Defending Philosophical Pantheism
The Krsna Gita of Hermann Oldenberg
Resistances to Modernity
A Revelation and a Mystery
The Trinitarian Gita of Rudolf Otto
God Reveals Himself
An Auto-Didact among Auto-Didacts
The Aryan Gita of Jakob Wilhelm Hauer
By Reason of Race
The Method Becomes Autonomous
The Prejudices Are Institutionalized
An Essay in Understanding?
4. The Search for a Universal Method
Introduction
The Scientization of Protestant Theology in the Critical Method
The Secularization of Protestant Theology in the Study of the
History of Religions
The Institutionalization of Protestant Theology in Indology
5. Problems with the Critical Method
Introduction
Steps toward a Scientific Indology
Steps toward a Positivist Philology
Construing the (Natural) Scientific Character of Philology
Historicism and the Seductions of Positive Sociology
Empiricism and the Search for General Propositions
Criticisms of the Positivistic Notion of Truth
Kant's Critical Turn and the Significance of Apriorism
Rethinking the Scientific Character of the Human Sciences
Conclusion: Gandhi on the Gita
Bibliography
Index
Vishwa Adluri has a PhD in Philosophy from the New School and a PhD
in Indology from Philipps-Universität Marburg. He is Adjunct
Associate Professor of Religion at Hunter College.
Joydeep Bagchee has a PhD in Philosophy from the New School and is
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at Freie Universität Berlin.
"The Nay Science is an important work of hermeneutic analysis
"--Religion Compass
"An extraordinary work [and] brilliant in-depth investigation If
ever there is a fine specimen of how to do the in-depth history of
ideas as it pertains to an academic discipline, this study by
Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee ranks very, very highly This is a
monumental piece of work, and scholars wanting to think through
their own presuppositions and conditionings will ignore it at their
peril All hail to two veritable Indian masters of both German
and
English."--History of Religions
"The Nay Science is arguably one of most comprehensive
historiographies of Indology, assessing the field's philosophical
roots and the implications it has had on both academic and
practical discourses about Hinduism and other Indian classical
traditions....The Nay Science (a clever play on nescience, or
ignorance) speaks to the institutional antagonism of 19th and early
20th century German Indologists towards ancient Indian
scriptures,
subsequently shaping a paradigm from which many Indologists
continue to draw. Their assertion, backed by correspondences
between Indologists and their own published works, is not so much a
critique of Orientalism as it is a
surgical evisceration of the scholarly field that has developed
over nearly two centuries."--OPEN Magazine
"The Nay Science concludes with some exciting and discomforting
questions: How should we navigate and negotiate apparent
antitheses: 'modern' and 'traditional,' 'reason' and 'faith'? What
pragmatic concerns and consequences should inform our scholarship,
such that the humanities can truly humanize us? These questions are
key to a critical reorientation, toward thinking about India 'after
Indology.'"--American Historical Review
"Adluri and Bagchee eschew the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel exercise
of excoriating nineteenth-century European scholars for their sins
and instead conclude by drawing some lessons from Gadamer and
Gandhi on the benefits of an alternative philosophical philology.
The points the authors make are relevant to historians of religion
no matter what discipline they study."--Religious Studies
Review
"[The Nay Science] adds significantly to the many recent studies of
Orientalism...Highly recommended."--CHOICE
"This book begins at a point where Edward Said left off. Rather
than replicate the 'Orientalist' critique as so many have done,
Adluri and Bagchee offer a diagnosis of German Indology as a form
of 'Occidentalism': rather than accomplishing its stated goal of
defining the other (which would be 'Orientalism'), it represents
the other so as to define itself. The Nay Science challenges
scholars to recognize that the 'Brahmanic hypothesis' was not
and
probably no longer can be an innocuous thesis. The 'corrupting'
impact of Brahmanical 'priestcraft' served German Indology as a
cover by which to talk about Catholics, Jews, and other 'Semites.'"
-- Alf Hiltebeitel,
Professor of Religion and Human Sciences, George Washington
University
"The Nay Science is more than a history of German Indology. Besides
offering a highly nuanced critique of scientific positivism and
historicism, it makes important interventions in broader debates on
the development of the social and human sciences in nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Germany, and has much to say regarding the role
of race and religion in the formation of German national identity.
Last but not least, The Nay Science
contributes greatly to our understanding of the origins, nature,
and consequences of German orientalism. While the non specialist
reader might find this ambitious work daunting in its depth,
breadth, and complexity, the authors
have produced a remarkable work of scholarship." --Central European
History
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