Literary Life of Yājñavalkya

Steven E. Lindquist is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Director of Asian Studies at Southern Methodist University. He is the editor of Religion and Identity in South Asia: Essays in Honor of Patrick Olivelle.

• AcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsIntroduction: Narrative and Method 1. The Origins of a Sage2. The Mature Yājñavalkya and the BrO hadāraṇyaka3. An Ancient Sage and the Paradox of the New4. Yājñavalkya beyond the VedaConclusion: Yājñavalkya and Ancient Indian Literary MemoryAppendix: Text and Translation of BrO hadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (Kāṇva) Chapters 3 and 4NotesReferencesIndex

"The Literary Life of Yañavalkya is a welcome addition to the scholarship on the Upaniads and the study of ancient Indian literature and offers many new insights and avenues for further scholarship." — Journal of Religion"I cannot emphasize enough how much of a welcome and important study this is. Yājñavalkya is arguably one of the most important historical figures in early Indian religion, and although Lindquist makes no attempt to uncover a 'historical' Yājñavalkya, this meticulous study of Yājñavalkya as a literary character fills a serious lacuna in scholarship and will be invaluable for years to come in unravelling how Yājñavalkya's influence was received into Hindu and (arguably) Buddhist and Jain tradition." — Nathan McGovern, International Journal of Hindu Studies"…an exciting new addition to this body of scholarship … [it] will be of great interest to not just students and scholars of Hindu traditions, but students and scholars of Sanskrit literature, students and scholars of mythology, and students and scholars of gender and religion as well." — Religious Studies Review"The Literary Life of Yājñavalkya sets new standards in the examination of religious literary figures in South Asian textual traditions and is an exemplar of how philological and literary analysis should evolve to better accommodate the cultural investments of original literary communities. This study comes as a pertinent and much-needed reminder that even as historical facticity may not be a primary concern of literary characterizations, literary characterizations are indeed a historical fact in themselves." — Religions of South Asia "…a valuable resource for readers of the Upaniṣads, post-Vedic Brahminical mythology, and Sanskrit literature more broadly … this title will no doubt become a benchmark work within Vedic studies, and will additionally inspire with its example a much wider audience of scholars engaging Hindu mythology." — Reading Religion"Lindquist traces the textual references to Yājñavalkya from their pre-Buddhist beginnings to their classical and postclassical contexts, all while avoiding the pitfalls of mostly pointless inquiries into the 'historicity' of Yājñavalkya. As such, the book is unique within the field of Indology because it goes beyond the usual dismissive descriptions of such personalities as mere eponyms or arbitrary placeholders for sagely authority. In contrast, Lindquist shows how coherent features of thought and rhetorical style provided a solid core text-persona called Yājñavalkya, around whom a host of distinctive ideas and styles of debate and expression were carried through several genres of Vedic and classical Hindu sacred writing." — Donald R. Davis Jr., University of Texas at Austin