Legends of Alexander the Great

Stoneman, Richard

doi:10.5040/9780755625741

Cited by 33 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…By the 19th century, the Brahmin had long been viewed as the local Indian incarnation of a larger category: that of "the heathen priest." From the early Middle Ages onwards, the "Brachmanes" were known as a legendary nation of wise men, whose most eminent representative Dandamis had apparently met Alexander the Great and given him some spiritual counsels (Stoneman 2012). As new travel reports reached the home front in the 16th and 17th century, however, the Brahmins living in modern India were transformed into representatives of false religion and idolatry.…”

Section: The Heathen Priesthood Of Hindustanmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Brahmin, the Aryan, and the Powers of the Priestly Class: Puzzles in the Study of Indian Religion

Keppens

Roover

2020

Religions

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The classical account of the Brahmin priestly class and its role in Indian religion has seen remarkable continuity during the past two centuries. Its core claims appear to remain unaffected, despite the major shifts that occurred in the theorizing of Indian culture and in the study of religion. In this article, we first examine the issue of the power and status of the Brahmin and show how it generates explanatory puzzles today. We then turn to 18th- and 19th-century sources to identify the cognitive conditions which sustained the classical account of the Brahmin priest and allowed for its transmission. Three clusters of concepts were crucial here: Christian-theological ideas concerning heathen priesthood and idolatry; racial notions of biological and cultural superiority and inferiority; and anthropological speculations about ‘primitive man’ and his ‘magical thinking’. While all three clusters were rejected by 20th- and 21st-century scholarship, the related claims about Brahmanical ritual power continue to be presented as facts. What accounts for this peculiar combination of continuities and discontinuities in the study of (ancient) Indian religion? We turn to some insights from the philosophy of science to sketch a route toward answering this question.

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Section: The Heathen Priesthood Of Hindustanmentioning

confidence: 99%