Rosalind O'Hanlon is Professor Emeritus of Indian History and Culture at the University of Oxford. Her previous books include Religious Cultures in Early Modern India: New Perspectives, coedited with David Washbrook, and At the Edges of Empire: Essays in the Social and Intellectual History of India.

• Preface AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Between Brahman and Sudra in Colonial Western IndiaBrahmin Families in Motion1. Speaking from Shiva's Temple: Banaras Scholar Households and the Brahman "Ecumene" of Mughal India2. Entrepreneurs in Diplomacy: Maratha Expansion in the Age of the VakilFamily, Gender, and the State3. Disciplining the Brahman Household: The Moral Mission of Empire in the Eighteenth-Century Maratha State4. Brahman Lineages Beyond the Mughal Court5. Gotmai's Suit: A Brahman Woman of Property in Seventeenth-Century Western IndiaCaste and the "Early Modern"6. What Makes People Who They Are? Pandit Networks and the Problem of Livelihoods in Early Modern Western India (with Christopher Minkowski)7. The Social Worth of Scribes: Brahmans, Kayasthas, and the Social Order in Early Modern India8. Discourses of Caste Over the Longue Durée: Gopinatha and Social Classification in India c. 1400–1900 (with Gergely Hidas and Csaba Kiss)Oral Traditions and Documentary Cultures9. Performance in a World of Paper: Puranic Histories and Social Communication in Early Modern India10. In the Presence of Witnesses: Petitioning and Judicial "Publics" in Western India, c. 1600–1820Index

"This book demonstrates O'Hanlon's mastery of both the sweeping macro-study and the lapidary micro-study. It contains large comparisons relevant to all scholars of South Asia and authenticates them through detailed analyses of particular texts and episodes. This book is indispensable for specialists in South Asia and valuable for historians everywhere." — Sumit Guha, University of Texas, Austin"Lineages of Brahman Power knits together observations on religion, politics, law, gender, literature, knowledge, and family to explore the deep influence of a heterogeneous Brahman ecumene in the early modern to modern periods. Centered in Maharashtra, this ecumene deeply influenced political and social worlds, from the formation of the Hindu Right to liberal and progressive critiques of caste and gender inequality. This book reveals the highly contentious and diverse construction of Brahmanness within the powerful sphere of caste patriarchy in India." — Christian Lee Novetzke, University of Washington