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Revision as of 01:56, 9 October 2005 by 134.139.105.118 (talk) (→Works by Wendy Doniger)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Wendy Doniger (born November 20, 1940) is a controversial scholar of Hinduism.
Since her first critically lauded book, Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva in 1973, Wendy Doniger has been active in international religious studies.
Doniger holds two doctorates, from Harvard and Oxford, in Sanskrit and Indian Studies. Doniger is the author, translator, and editor of almost thirty books in as many years.
From 1978, Doniger has taught at the University of Chicago, where she currently is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions in the Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee of Social Thought.
Wendy Doniger has translated many Sanskrit texts including the Rig Veda, Laws of Manu, and Kamasutra. Erotic spirituality and the Kamasutra is one of her most famous books. She is a member of the editorial board of Encyclopædia Britannica.
Doniger's current works in progress include a novel, Horses for Lovers, Dogs for Husbands, and an interpretive work, The Mythology of Horses in India. Her latest book, The Woman Who Pretended To Be Who She Was (due to be published later this year), is about the mythology of self-imitation in ancient India, Shakespeare, medieval Celtic, German, and French romances, and Hollywood films. It forms the basis for her lecture, which is entitled, “Self-Imitation in Ancient India, Shakespeare, and Hollywood.”
Controversy
It is significant to note that, as she is the most influential person on Hinduism Studies in the US academe, many in the Hindu community have spoken out against Doniger's writings. They argue that Doniger's knowledge of the Sanskrit language is basic (at best), and accuse her of only re-translating/paraphrasing already translated works while ignoring the large body of work that remains untranslated. Specifically, Doniger has been critiqued for exclusively focusing on and presenting subjects such as sex and gender in the Hindu scriptures while ignoring philosophical aspects and most major concepts. Doniger's explicit analysis on these two subjects, and the usage of Freudian psycoanalysis, has been offensive to certain Hindu sensibilities.
In 2003, Microsoft Encarta removed an entry on Hinduism by Doniger. This content was removed after protesters argued that its contents were prejudiced, deprecating, and reveal an unsympathetic tone. Sankrant Sanu, who initiated the dialogue, notes that the article focussed on external, and mostly fringe elements of myth, ritual, blood and gore, giving little space to either the highly developed systems of Hindu theology and philosophy or its most commonplace practices in comparison to the other articles on religion. In contrast to those on other religions, the article on Hinduism was sprinkled with unfavorable editorial asides that strive to negate any potential favourable perceptions the reader may entertain.
Her comment that the Gita, comparable to the Bible in Christianity, is a book of lies, has also provoked scholarly analysis of the deep-seated prejudice against Hinduism in US academe.
Another layer of this controversy has to do with one of her most popular students, Jeffery Kripal, who wrote the controversial book Kali's Child. This book alleges a homoerotic nature to Ramakrishna's personality and spiritual life, and has led some of Ramakrishna's followers to reply with both academic reviews and scholarly responses. Of the numerous protests/internet responses/email they received, a few have chosen to attack the personal integrity and character of Doniger and Kripal.
Doniger and Kripal argue that though there are translation errors in their work, they are minor ones and don't change the broad scope of their work.
Works by Wendy Doniger
1. The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty
2. The Oresteia A New Translation for the Theater by Aeschylus, Translated by Wendy Doniger and David Greene
3. Mythologies (2 vols.) Edited by Yves Bonnefoy, Translated by Wendy Doniger
4. The Place of the Hidden Moon Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisnava-Sahajiya Cult of Bengal by Edward C. Dimock and Wendy Doniger
5. The Bedtrick Tales of Sex and Masquerade by Wendy Doniger
6. Greek and Egyptian Mythologies Translated by Wendy Doniger
7. The Implied Spider Politics and Theology in Myth by Wendy Doniger
8. Kamasutra The Acclaimed New Translation Translated by Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar
9. The Laws of Manu Translated by Wendy Doniger, by Brian K. Smith
10. PUARANA PERENNIS Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts Edited by Wendy Doniger
11. Roman and European Mythologies Translated by Wendy Doniger
12. Splitting the Difference Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India by Wendy Doniger
13. The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was Myths of Self-Imitation by Wendy Doniger
14. A Dog's Head by Jean Dutourd, Translated by Robin Chancellor, Foreword by Wendy Doniger
15. Shamanism Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Mircea Eliade, Translated by Willard Trask, Foreword by Wendy Doniger
16. Beyond Hindu and Muslim Multiple Indentity in Narratives from Rural India by Peter Gottschalk and Wendy Doniger
17. The Ritual of Battle Krishna in the Mahabharata by Alf Hiltebeitel and Wendy Doniger
18. Kali's Child The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna by Jeffrey John John Kripal and Wendy Doniger
20. Myth and Meaning Cracking the Code of Culture by Claude Levi-Strauss and Wendy Doniger
21. Death, War, and Sacrifice Studies in Ideology and Practice by Bruce Lincoln and Wendy Doniger
22. Hindu Myths A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty and Thomas Wyatt, Translated by Wendy Doniger
23. Other People's Myths The Cave of Echoes by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty and Wendy Doniger
24. Siva The Erotic Ascetic by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty and Wendy Doniger
25. Myth and Method Edited by Laurie L. Patton and Wendy Doniger
26. Bed as Autobiography A Visual Exploration of John Ransom Philips by John Ransom Philips, Introduction by Wendy Doniger, Interview by Ariel Orr Jordan
27. Other Men's Daughters by Richard Stern, Foreword by Wendy Doniger
28. Kamasutra by Mallanaga Vatsyana, Translated by Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar
Additional Biographical Source: Wendy Doniger. "From Great Neck to Swift Hall: Confessions of a Reluctant Historian of Religions." Pp. 36-51 in The Craft of Religious Studies, edited by Jon R. Stone. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
External Links
- Wendy Doniger's homepage at the University of Chicago
- Encyclopædia Britannica editorial board members
- Are Hinduism studies prejudiced? A look at Microsoft Encarta
- U.S. Hinduism Studies: A Question of Shoddy Scholarship
- Biases in Hinduism Studies
- Sample errors from Wendy's Rgveda Translations
- Sample errors from Wendy's Translations on The Laws of Manu
- Wendy Doniger is one of the foremost scholars of Hindu mythology
- Politically correct' Hindu scriptures?
- "Didn't Anyone Check the Documentation ?" - a critique of Kripal's scholarship by Swami Tyagananda
- Textuality, Sexuality, and the Future of the Past: A Response to Swami Tyagananda
- Response to Jeffery Kripal
- Do leading religious scholars err in their analysis of Hindu texts
- Right-wing Hindu groups, in India and the diaspora, have increasingly asserted their wish, indeed their right, to control scholarship about Hinduism
- Scholars of Hinduism Under Attack