Jan E. M. Houben Books

The present volume is the outcome of a seminar on the Ideology and Status of Sanskrit held in Leiden under the auspices of the International Institute for Asian Studies. The book contains studies of crucial periods and important areas in the history of the Sanskrit language, from the earliest, Vedic and pre-Vedic periods, through the period in which the (restricted) use of Sanskrit spread over practically all of South (including part of Central) and Southeast Asia (sometimes referred to as the period of "Greater India"), up to the recent history of Sanskrit in India.The contributions of this volume are divided into three (1) Origins and Creation of the "Eternal Language"; (2) Transculturation, Vernacularization, Sanskritization; (3) The Sanskrit Continuity from the past or Construction from the present?

The treatments of violence in the history of the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) range from Jain ascetics wearing face masks and sweeping the ground in front of them to avoid killing any manner of life to Krishna's advice (while revealing himself as Vishnu in the Bhagavad Gita ) to his cousin Arjuna that the killing of his other cousins in war was a just part of his karma. Yet the Jain tradition has resulted in conqueror kings and Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi has argued that the Bhagavad is the strongest statement for nonviolence that exists. Twelve essays explore these and other tensions about the use of violence in the Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu traditions on the Indian subcontinent. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)