000			02624cam a22003374i 4500
999			_c344548 _d344548
001			17743233
003			OSt
005			20210701122523.0
008			130517s2013 nyu b 001 0 eng
010			_a 2013012872
020			_a9780199896431
020			_a9780199917471 (cover)
040			_aDLC _beng _cDLC _erda _dDLC
042			_apcc
043			_aa-ii---
082	0	0	_a294.5388 _bSAY
100	1		_aSayers, Matthew R.
245	1	0	_aFeeding the dead : _bancestor worship in ancient India / _cMatthew R. Sayers.
264		1	_aNew York : _bOxford University Press, _c[2013]
300			_axiv, 187 pages ; _c24 cm.
336			_atext _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _2rdacarrier
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 169-183) and index.
505	0		_aAncestral rites in the early Vedas -- Solemn ancestral rites -- Domestic rice-ball sacrifice to the ancestors -- Sraddha-rite -- Ancestral rites in the Buddhist literature -- Soteriology -- Mediation.
520			_aFeeding the Dead outlines the early history of ancestor worship in South Asia, from the earliest sources available, the Vedas, up to the descriptions found in the Dharmshastra tradition. Most prior works on ancestor worship have done little to address the question of how shraddha, the paradigmatic ritual of ancestor worship up to the present day, came to be. Matthew R. Sayers argues that the development of shraddha is central to understanding the shift from Vedic to Classical Hindu modes of religious behavior. Central to this transition is the discursive construction of the role of the religious expert in mediating between the divine and the human actor. Both Hindu and Buddhist traditions draw upon popular religious practices to construct a new tradition. Sayers argues that the definition of a religious expert that informs religiosity in the Common Era is grounded in the redefinition of ancestral rites in the Grhyasutras. Beyond making more clear the much misunderstood history of ancestor worship in India, this book addressing the serious question about how and why religion in India changed so radically in the last half of the first millennium BCE. The redefinition of the role of religious expert is hugely significant for understanding that change. This book ties together the oldest ritual texts with the customs of ancestor worship that underlie and inform medieval and contemporary practice.
650		0	_aAncestor worship _zIndia _xHistory.
650		0	_aŚrāddha (Hindu rite) _xHistory.
906			_a7 _bcbc _corignew _d1 _eecip _f20 _gy-gencatlg
942			_2ddc _cB