Preface
This is the first of the five volumes of Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. The goal of the Encyclopedia is to
present the latest scholarship on all aspects of the Hindu religious traditions. The Encyclopedia makes
available in-depth critical scholarship, and the depth and breadth of information provided in this work
are unmatched by any reference work on Hinduism. I hope it will appeal to a wide range of readers. At
the foundation of the Encyclopedia is a fascination with a phenomenon that we as humans share, and
in the examination of this phenomenon, the emphasis is on critical knowledge. Hinduism as a religious tradition functions on a number of different levels, from the most complex architecture, philosophy, and linguistic activity to the performance of short ritual acts: a woman connecting for a brief
moment to a statue of the god Gaṇeśa in a wayside shrine on her way to work, a Hindu holy man performing his morning rituals in the Himalaya, a young boy learning to recite Sanskrit ritual texts at a
school for priest education in South India, a dance performance in a temple, an astrologer giving
advice to a client, the tying of a short thread to a tree by a pilgrim at a Hindu sacred place, a meeting of
the organizational committee of a Hindu temple anywhere in the world, a philosophical discussion at
an assembly of learned persons in Benares, artisans making stone sculptures for temples, Vedic sacred
formulas and texts recited daily, and manuscripts of Hinduism being preserved in facilities and libraries worldwide. In these and many other ways, the Hindu traditions are performed by hundreds of millions of people every day. The goal of the Encyclopedia is to present the Hindu traditions as they take
place on all these levels. Hinduism, it is often observed, has no common church and no common
creed, and it is not based on a holy book or a single founder. That may be so, but Hinduism has many
organizations, many creeds, many sacred texts, and founders of a number of organizations and knowledge traditions. The vision of this work is to approach the mosaic and network of Hindu traditions in
all their multiplicity, and as both historical and contemporary institutions from different angles and in
a variety of contexts, and to document a number of connections and networks.
For many scholars whose work is dedicated to understanding the history, structure, and pluralism
of Hindu traditions, Hinduism is definitely the world’s most exciting religion. This enthusiasm for the
subject is displayed in the articles of the Encyclopedia. The articles are clear, comprehensive, interesting
and exciting, and they do justice to the Hindu traditions both in the context of ancient civilizations
and as global living traditions.
This is a collaborative work. I want to thank the associate editors, Helene Basu, Angelika Malinar,
and Vasudha Narayanan, for their great commitment and contributions to the Encyclopedia. I have
often sought their advice, which has always been readily given. I am thankful to the many authors who
shared their great knowledge of the Hindu traditions and contributed the articles. They represent the
best of scholarship on Hinduism in Indology, religious studies, history, anthropology, sociology, art
history, and other academic disciplines. I also want to thank Hans Bakker, Richard Fox, John Stratton
Hawley, Gerald James Larson, David N. Lorenzen, W. Hew McLeod, and William S. Sax for their
advice and suggestions.
And finally, many thanks to Albert Hoffstädt, the publisher, and to the highly qualified project team
at Brill, made up of Jean-Louis Ruijters and Rebecca Cain. Thanks to Jean-Louis Ruijters, the project
manager, for coordinating the project, developing and applying a uniform style to the Encyclopedia,
and achieving consistency in the use of diacritics. And a special thanks to the copy editor, Rebecca
Cain, for assisting in the development and application of style, copyediting to achieve consistency in
the style and use of English in the work of our many contributors, and providing input to the authors
to make the specialized scholarship of the Encyclopedia accessible to a broad audience. Also thanks to
Roger Orleans for lending a helping hand to the team. They are responsible for numerous improvements, and I want to express my deepest thanks for their invaluable assistance.
Knut A. Jacobsen
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009
Also available online – www.brill.nl
BEH, vol. I