Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 35 • NUMBER 3
have been clarified by utilizing more recent religious classi-
fication schemes and his report enhanced through critical
comparison. Otherwise, Evangelical vs Liberal offers a non-
conventional analysis of the “open religious market” where
Evangelicals and Liberals “compete with each other.”
Timothy Lim T. N.
Regent University School of Divinity
South Asia
JAINISM: THE CREED FOR ALL TIMES. Dalpat Singh
Baya. Jaipur: Prakrit Bharati Academy, 2006. xxv, 376, xiv
pp. N.p.
This summary handbook of Jaina tradition provides a
glimpse into the new self-conceptualization that has arisen
in contemporary Jainism. Relying on primary sources and
selective secondary materials published in India, Baya
attempts an overall approach to Jainism, favoring neither
Śvetāmabara or Digambara sectarian perspectives. The
author presents a lightly referenced summary of Tattvārtha
Sūtra teachings; a list of vows for monks, nuns, and layper-
sons; synopses of four well-known Jaina legends; and specu-
lations about how Jaina teachings can be applied in the fields
of “personal happiness, social harmony, international rela-
tions, world peace, leadership and management, personality
development and environment.” Though little attention is
paid to the history and development of Jainism and virtually
no references are included to the significant scholarship on
Jainism published outside India in the past thirty years, this
books presents an accurate though essentialized view of the
tradition.
Christopher Key Chapple
Loyola Marymount University
DHARMA, DISORDER AND THE POLITICAL IN
ANCIENT INDIA: THE ĀPADDHARMAPARVAN OF
THE MAHĀBHĀRATA. By Adam Bowles. Leiden: Brill,
2007. Pp. xvi + 430. HB. $156.00.
This volume presents a thorough analysis of the section
from the Śāntiparvan of the Mahābhārata on behavior in
times of crisis (āpad-dharma, MBh 12.129-167 [crit. ed.]). It
is presented in a mixture of fable and didactic verse, and is
directly germane to the action of kings; indeed, it can be
viewed as an appendix to the preceding section on the
dharma of kings (rājadharmaparvan). The volume is very
well written and organized, and Bowles has done a very good
job of summarizing and bringing out the import of the
various episodes. He states that the texts that compose this
section address “political conduct, different conceptions of
dharma, social disorder and social cohesion, the status of
brāhmans, the participation of the socially marginalized in
civil life, the responsibilities of the king and the king’s right
attitude to scriptural codes and the oral order they entail.” In
a series of long introductory chapters, Bowles discusses the
place of didactic passages such as these in their narrative
• SEPTEMBER 2009
frame, concluding with J. Fitzgerald and a few others that
these are integral parts of an early text of the MBh. In these
chapters, he discusses the nature of dharma, of “distress”
(āpat), how it plays out in roughly the contemporary
Arthaśāstra of Kaut ilya, and the necessity of āpaddharma in
the troubled life ofYudhist hira (with lessons, of course, for

the rest of us). This very good book is for research scholars
and libraries (note the unfortunate cost). We look forward to
hearing more from Bowles in the future.
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa
YOGA AND THE LUMINOUS: PATANJALI’S SPIRI-
TUAL PATH TO FREEDOM. By Christopher Key
Chapple. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008.
Pp. xv + 301. Cloth: $74.50 Paper: $21.95
A valuable group of Chapple’s essays (old and new)
about Yoga, with a translation (based on one first published
in 1990) and grammatical explication of Patañjali’s
Yogasūtras (YS). Chapple is both a scholar and practitioner of
Yoga, and one can see elements of both trainings in this
book. His goal is both to demonstrate scholarly soundness
and attract a broader sympathetic audience. While largely
focused on Yoga practices, and their relation to Samkhya
thought, the author situates this tradition within, and com-
pares it to, other Indian traditions (particularly Jain and
Buddhist), and ends by describing some contemporary
expressions of Yoga. Chapters consider a variety of aspects
of Yoga including liberation while living (jivanmukti), lumi-
nosity, non-violence (ahimsa¯ ), and feminine-gendered terms.

Chapple also well illustrates that there are a diversity of
practices in the YS. The translation is clear and dependable,
though a number of terms without real English equivalents
remain untranslated (purusa, prakrti, samādhi) and some
 
translations might be deemed idiosyncratic (pratyaya as
intention or visaya as condition). Many, especially scholars,

will find the grammatical analysis helpful. One should note
that Chapple plays the roles of reporter and interpreter to
differing degrees at different points (indicated for example
by the extent to which Patañjali himself is quoted). He
emphasizes meditation and ethical practices in Yoga, while
at times downplaying (or underplaying) its (often implicit)
philosophical underpinnings and historical context, to high-
light his view that “essentially, Yoga is technique,” and Yoga
has “universal applicability.” Could be used in upper-level
undergraduate or graduate seminars and should be part of
all library collections.
Andrew O. Fort
Texas Christian University
PLANT LIVES: BORDERLINE BEINGS IN INDIAN
TRADITIONS. By Ellison Banks Findly. Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 2008. Pp. xxxii + 617. Rs. 1095.
In this massive, meticulous study, Findly painstakingly
scours Sanskrit literature of the Brahmanical, Jaina, and
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 Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 35
Buddhist traditions for passages that include mention and
description of plants. She examines traditional attitudes
toward the plant realm, noting how the Jaina faith ascribes
to plants sentience and particularly the ability to feel
through the sense of touch. She discusses the ethical issues
that arise with the treatment of plants, citing materials as
early as the Acaran ga Sūtra and the Edicts of Aśoka (ca. 300
BCE) that advocate plant protection. The second part of the
book addresses contemporary issues of environmental
ethics in South Asia through a botanical prism. Findly docu-
ments various plant-related forms of activism in all three
traditions including Vandana Shiva’s seed restoration work,
Balbir Mathur’s tree planting initiative, the Jain “Declara-
tion on Nature,” and the Buddhist practice of ordaining
trees in Thailand. Though the book would benefit from a
fuller conclusion, it presents a comprehensive view of how
nature matters in the civilizations of South Asia.
Christopher Key Chapple
Loyola Marymount University
GENEALOGY OF THE SOUTH INDIAN DEITIES: AN
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF BARTHOLOMAEUS
ZIEGENBALG’S ORIGINAL GERMAN MANU-
SCRIPT WITH A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS AND GLOS-
SARY. By Daniel Jeyaraj. London: Routledge, 2005. Pp. 368.
N.p.
In this volume Jeyaraj provides a translation of the
eighteenth-century German Lutheran missionary B. Ziegen-
balg’s Genealogy of the South Indian Deities (1713). Several
supplementary chapters detail the historical background of
the text and its author. Ziegenbalg’s Genealogy, the fruit of
Ziegenbalg’s intensive encounter with the language and
culture of Tamil people, provides an invaluable first-hand,
ethnographic account of the beliefs and practices of South
Indian Bhakti traditions at the dawn of the Colonial period,
thanks in large part to Ziegenbalg’s practice of quoting
directly—and extensively—from the letters he solicited from
his Tamil informants. At the same time, it represents an
important document in the development of Europe’s concep-
tualization of what would later be called “Hinduism.”
Jeyaraj’s translation is the product of careful textual schol-
arship, revealing a command not only of Ziegenbalg’s
German, but also, and almost as importantly, of the Tamil of
Ziegenbalg’s sources. Apart from a curious tendency to
bowdlerize the text of the Genealogy by softening its author’s
strong apologetic language (e.g., Jeyaraj translates Ziegen-
balg’s tendentious “heathens” as “non-Christians”; “Tamil
heathendom” as “South Indian society”; “idolatry” as “reli-
gious practices”), the translation is both accurate (as far as
this reviewer can judge) and readable. Although many
readers will question Jeyaraj’s assessment of the Genealogy,
a text intended to demonstrate “the darkness and idolatry
of the South Indians,” as a model for cross-cultural encoun-
ter, nevertheless few would deny that, at the very least,
Ziegenbalg’s Genealogy represents an important historical
205
• NUMBER 3 • SEPTEMBER 2009
document whose appearance in a reliable English transla-
tion is long overdue.
Hugh Nicholson
Loyola University
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHIES : VOL.
XII: YOGA: INDIA’S PHILOSOPHY OF MEDITA-
TION. Edited by Gerald James Larson and Ram Shankar
Bhattacharya. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2008. Pp. 784.
Rs. 1395.
The volume has had a long history: it opens with an “in
memoriam” for Bhattacharya (1927-1996), but Larson’s
preface does not explain what happened since 1987 (publi-
cation of their volume on Sāmkhya in this same series) in

terms of scholarly and editorial decisions. The “Introduction
to the Philosophy of Yoga” is a substantial and original con-
tribution to the interpretation of yoga (note the singulars in
the title), summarizing Larson’s sustained concentration on
Pātañjala Yoga. His paraphrasing translations and philo-
sophical interpretations might well open a new chapter of
the history of Yoga philosophy. In part II, 28 texts from the
Pātañjala Yoga traditions are summarized (including eight
written in the 20th century), and 25 from the Hat ha Yoga

system (including six from the 20th century; sixteen of
these by Bhattacharya). The Appendix, “Some Additional
Texts”, briefly addresses the Yogavāsist ha and 20 Yoga

Upani sads. Only Sanskrit texts are summarized. The order is

chronological. This outline results from the editors’ claim
that “Yoga as a philosophical tradition is a particular form of
Sāmkhya, namely Pātañjala-Sāmkhya.” A section address-
 
ing the “Varieties of Yoga” that have become popular
throughout the world is included “for no other reason than
providing a summary overview” (ibid). A book with “yoga”
and “meditation” in the title is likely to be picked up not only
by philosophers (and specialists in the philosophy of mind in
particular), but by a larger public. We are not told whose
initiative it was to include Hat ha Yoga and thus an Indian
philosophy of body, so to speak,  and its contemporary appli-
cations, but this inclusion changes everything—the perspec-
tive on Pātañjali tradition and the concept of Yoga (if it is to
be maintained as a single concept). The unity and stringency
of the volume has suffered from this strategy. Nevertheless,
this book is luxuriously rich in content and generously
invites discussion, argument, contradiction, and expansion.
Peter Schreiner
University of Zürich
TAMIL GEOGRAPHIES: CULTURAL CONSTRUC-
TIONS OF SPACE AND PLACE IN SOUTH INDIA.
Edited by Martha Ann Selby and Indira Viswanathan Peter-
son. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008.
Pp. x + 326. $24.95.
A valuable collection of essays examining, as the sub-
title indicates, “cultural constructions of space and place in
South India,” that is, how descriptions of land and space
create various Tamil social and conceptual realities. The
 Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 35
essays are written by major figures in Tamil scholarship
(including I. Clark-Deces, N. Cutler, D. Hudson, I. Peterson,
M. Selby). They cumulatively look at many angles of the
relations between geography (cosmology to landscape to
village to home) and culture, particularly boundaries and
continuities of diverse kinds, within city and home, temple
and stage, family and gender, and caste and class. All show
negotiation and modification, with ongoing alteration of
margins and centers. Writings discussed include Puranas,
śāstras, poetry, and drama (both classical and modern). 
Numerous authors naturally refer to the cankam  literature
with its conventions of akam and puram and their land-
scapes and moods. Other topics include how house and
temple homologize cosmos and body in Kanchipuram, how
demon possession expresses attempts to control women’s
marital sexuality, purity and privacy boundaries in homes as
revealed through domestic service, and how use of stage
space in popular Tamil theatre resembles that of social
reality. While the authors are skilled ethnographers and
interpreters, the writing is sufficiently technical and Tamil-
inflected, with often dense descriptive information and theo-
retical perspectives, that this is a work primarily for scholars
and graduate students. For research libraries.
Andrew Fort
Texas Christian University
East Asia
RITUAL OPERA & MERCANTILE LINEAGE: THE
CONFUCIAN TRANSFORMATION OF POPULAR
CULTURE IN LATE IMPERIAL HUIZHOU. By Qitao
Guo. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005. Pp. 366;
illustrations, maps. $72.00.
In this path-breaking work, Guo addresses the over-
whelmingly important but neglected question of how
Chinese society became Confucian. He does so by examining
the infiltration of Confucian values into opera, the most
popular form of entertainment in Huizhou, one of late impe-
rial China’s most economically advanced areas. In 1582, a
failed examination candidate from this area, Zheng Zhishen,
wrote the first full-length script of a ritual opera about the
Buddhist filial son Mulian; in so doing, though, he trans-
formed the story into one that championed a popular form of
Confucianism: one in which gods and ghosts watch over
people’s behavior and enforce Confucian norms. All subse-
quent versions of this beloved opera continued to promote
this same ethical discourse. Guo argues that this transfor-
mation took place in Huizhou because Confucianism
appealed to the region’s gentrifying merchants. On the one
hand, Huizhou’s businessmen wanted to enhance their
social standing by embracing the upper-class ideology of
Confucianism; on the other hand, they viewed the Confucian
emphasis on female chastity as a means to keep their wives
well behaved during their long sojourns away from home.
Guo deftly notes that the merchants employed Confucianism
206
• NUMBER 3 • SEPTEMBER 2009
to preserve their families, yet their own materialism and
hedonism often undercut the social order they were trying to
establish. Even though Guo fails to produce “the smoking
gun” evidence that Huizhou merchants actually sponsored
Mulian operas, he has marshaled so much circumstantial
evidence to make his case extremely convincing.
Keith N. Knapp
The Citadel
THE LADY OF LINSHUI: A CHINESE FEMALE
CULT. By Brigitte Baptandier. Translated by Kristin Ingrid
Fryklund. Asian Religions and Cultures. Stanford, CA: Stan-
ford University Press, 2008. Pp. xiii + 374; ills. $ 65.00.
Combined with mythological and ethnographic studies,
The Lady of Linshui (revised and translated from the author’s
path-breaking La Dame-du-bord-de-l’eau), provides fresh
insights to the historical cult of the eighth-century shaman
Chen Jinggu (later known as Lady of Linshui), that is still
popular in Taiwan and Fujian. An omnipotent goddess, Chen
Jinggu is primarily regarded as a protector of pregnancy and
childhood. The first half of the book is an analysis of the
fifteenth-century novelistic account of the goddess, Pacifica-
tion of the Demons of Linshui (Linshui pingyao). Through a
structualist interpretation, Baptendier argues that symbols
of Daoist internal alchemy appear in every aspect of Chen
Jinggu’s apotheosis. In addition, Chen Jinggu “dies” indi-
rectly from a symbolic abortion that she performed in order
to prepare herself for conducting a rain-praying ritual. This
is a dramatization of the conflict in women’s struggle to be
religious professionals and to fulfill the responsibilities of
motherhood, the paramount duty of all women in Chinese
culture. The book’s second half is based on the author’s
fieldwork in Taiwan and Fujian, and discusses the beliefs of
Chen Jinggu in practice. The author’s detailed account of the
ritual activities carried out by female shamans and male Red
Head Daoist masters at Chen Jinggu’s temples sheds new
light on concepts about pregnancy, motherhood, and child-
hood in modern times. I can recommend this book without
reservation to scholars interested in gender and Chinese
religion. For classroom usage, it is more suitable for gradu-
ate students and advanced undergrad students with some
knowledge of anthropological theories and Daoist religion.
Shin-yi Chao
Rutgers University, Camden
ECCENTRIC SPACES, HIDDEN HISTORIES: NAR-
RATIVE, RITUAL, AND ROYAL AUTHORITY FROM
THE CHRONICLES OF JAPAN TO THE TALE OF THE
HEIKE. By David T. Bialock. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univer-
sity Press, 2007. Pp. xiv + 465. $70.00
Bialock’s study of classical Japanese texts seeks to
reveal their “embeddedness” in “the material condition of
their production”: the cultural construction of royal author-
ity in early and medieval Japan. He argues that this debate
can be mapped according to associations between the ruler
and other entities. As the stability and unity of the Nara and