Reviews for The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective

The average rating for The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-07 00:00:00 David Gardner This was such a fascinating and intriguing read. I must say that I've never read any work that explores the history of Hinduism in the way Glucklich goes about doing it. For me, Hinduism has always been a vague, post Harappan religion that began with the Vedic texts and then evolved with the Upanishads and Puranas. More importantly, all of this also happened during the turbulent period of the ascent of Buddhism and the Mauryan apogee. Glucklich has no answers to any of these questions. But he frames the possibilities through textual analysis, historical eevnts and archaeological finds. I cant say I'm better informed but somewhere in my head, I'm now able to 'feel' how Hinduism evolved from the Vedic period to the present day India of the right-wing BJP.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-09-09 00:00:00 Sebastien Laporte A very different perspective on history of India. The problem with conventional historiography is that it gets very selective on texts. Glucklich devises mythological elements from texts in a very efficient way. The mythological motifs are employed as prisms to read Indian history without conflating it with mythology. I enjoyed it.