Table of Contents

• Hindu Iconoclasts: Rammohun Roy, Dayananda Sarasvati, and Nineteenth-Century Polemins against Idolatry by Noel Salmond
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Note on Orthography
• Introduction: Hindu Iconoclasts: An Anomaly?
• The Terminology of Images and Image-Rejection
• Theoretical Considerations
• One: History of Image-Worship in India
• History of Images in India: Pre-Vedic, Vedic, and Post-Vedic
• The Great Medieval Theologians: Sankara and Ramanuja on Devotion and Image-Worship
• Precedents for Aniconism in Indian History
• Conclusion
• Two: Rammohun Roy
• The Life of Rammohun Roy
• The Writings of Rammohun Roy
• The Legacy
• Three: Dayananda Sarasvati
• The Life of Dayananda Sarasvati
• The Writings: Satyarth Prakash
• Dayananda on Non-Arya Religions
• Aniconism and the Nation
• Four: Rammohun and Dayananda
• Possible Psychological Factors
• Historical and Social Influences on Rammohun and Dayananda
• Rammohun and Dayananda Compared
• Five: Hindu Iconoclasm: Cross-Cultural Dimensions?
• Universal Aspects of the Refusal of Images
• Image-Rejection, Religious Rationalization, and Modernization
• The Impact of Rammohun and Dayananda's Iconoclastic Call
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

About the Author

Noel Salmond was born in Toronto and has lived in Montreal, London, and Delhi, India. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Humanities and Religion at Carleton University, Canada.

Reviews

"Hindu Iconoclasts stretches further beyond the initial scope of its premise, contemplating a link between religious image-rejection and the unification and modernization of society in a process Max Weber has termed 'disenchantment of the world', in a seminal discourse highly recommended for religious history and studies shelves." -- Margaret Lane -- The Midwest Book Review, 200502

"Graduate students and advanced undergraduate students will find considerable food for thought in Salmond's book....Salmond covers with admirable concision a range of topics critical to the study of modern India as well as to the history of religions in general." -- Herman Tull, Princeton University -- Religious Studies Review, Vol 35, no 1, 200601

"[Salmond] engages in a nuanced analysis...paying detailed attention to social, historical, and political contexts....Insightful and engaging work." -- Chandrima Chakraborty -- University of Toronto Quarterly, Letters in Canada, 200610