The Asrama System

by Olivelle, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9788121511353
• ISBN10: 8121511356
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-09-30
• Publisher: Munshirm Manoharlal Pub Pvt Ltd

Summary

The lesser known and explored of the two pillars of Hinduism, varna and asrama, asrama is a system of four distinct and legitimate ways of leading a religious life: as a celibate student, a married householder, a forest hermit, and a world renouncer. In this, the first full-length study of the asrama system, the author uncovers its origin and traces its subsequent history.
He examines in depth its relationship to other institutional and doctrinal aspects of the Brahmanical world and its position within Brahmanical theology, and assesses its significance within the history of Indian religion. Throughout, the author argues that the asrama system is primarily a theological construct and that the system and its history should be carefully distinguished from the socio-religious institutions comprehended by the system and from their respective histories.
The author pays special attention to how the system was theologically reappropriated in diverse ways at different historical periods through the hermeneutic labors of exegetes and theologians. This book thus represents a major study not only of Hindu religious history, but also of the tradition of Indian hermeneutics. In 1994 this book was the winner of the American Academy of Religion's Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Historical category.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations,	xi
Prologue,	3	(4)
I INTRODUCTION
1. Meaning and Method,	7	(28)
1.1 The Meaning of Agrama,	8	(16)
1.1.1 The Meaning of Srama,	9	(2)
1.1.2 The Meaning of Sramana,	11	(5)
1.1.3 Asrama as a Place and as a Way of Life,	16	(3)
1.1.4 The Original Meaning of Asrama,	19	(5)
1.2 The Meaning of the Asrama System,	24	(4)
1.2.1 The System as a Theological Construct,	24	(3)
1.2.2 The System as a Social Institution,	27	(1)
1.3 Issues of Method,	28	(7)
1.3.1 The System and the Institutions,	28	(2)
1.3.2 The Original Formulation and the Origin of the System,	30	(3)
1.3.3 The Sources,	33	(1)
1.3.4 The Asrama System and Brahmanical Hermeneutics,	34	(1)
2. Background and Context,	35	(38)
2.1 The Vedic Ideal of Religious Life,	35	(20)
2.1.1 Marriage and Sacrifice,	37	(4)
2.1.2 Marriage and Procreation,	41	(5)
2.2.3 The Theology of Debts,	46	(7)
2.1.4 The Theology of the Great Sacrifices,	53	(2)
2.2 The Socio-Economic Context,	55	(3)
2.3 Rival Views of Religious Life,	58	(15)
2.3.1 The Emergence of a New World,	62	(2)
2.1.2 The Householder and the Celibate,	64	(4)
2.3.3 The Aryan and the Non-Aryan in Indian Asceticism,	68	(5)
II. THE EARLY PERIOD
3. The Origins,	73	(39)
3.1 The Original Formulation,	73	(10)
3.1.1 Choice of Asrama,	74	(4)
3.1.2 The Asramas as Permanent and Adult Vocations,	78	(2)
3.1.3 The Three Celibate Asramas,	80	(1)
3.1.4 Initiatory Studentship as Preparation for the Asramas,	80	(1)
3.1.5 Who Was Entitled to Choose an Asrama?	81	(1)
3.1.6 The Order of Asramas,	82	(1)
3.2 Controversy and Debate,	83	(11)
3.2.1 The Legitimacy of the Asrama System,	83	(8)
3.2.2 The Debate over Relative Superiority,	91	(3)
3.3 Authorship,	94	(7)
3.3.1 Was the Agrama System a Defense of Orthodoxy?	94	(2)
3.3.2 The A§rama System as a Theological Innovation,	96	(2)
3.3.3 Kapila, Samkhya, and the Asramas,	98	(2)
3.3.4 The Purpose of the Asrama System,	100	(1)
3.4 Date,	101	(5)
3.4.1 The Silence of the Ramayana,	103	(1)
3.4.2 The Silence of the Bhagavad Gita,	103	(3)
3.5 The Pre-History of the Asrama System and the Question of the Three Asramas,	106	(6)
4. Ingredients of Change,	112	(19)
4.1 The Third Asrama and the Problem of the Hermit,	112	(5)
4.1.1 The Special Provisions of Apastamba,	113	(1)
4.1.2 The Institutions of Old Age,	114	(3)
4.2 The Fourth Asrama and the Time of Renunciation,	117	(5)
4.2.1 The Time of Renunciation in the Samnyasa Upanisads,	117	(2)
4.2.2 The Time of Renunciation in Deutero-Baudhayana,	119	(1)
4.2.3 Renunciation and Old Age,	120	(2)
4.3 Ritual Appropriations of Renunciation,	122	(4)
4.3.1 Renunciation as the Abandonment of Ritual,	122	(1)
4.3.2 Renunciation and the Rite In Extremis,	123	(3)
4.4 The Asramas and the Rites of Passage,	126	(5)
III. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
5. The Classical Asrama System,	131	(30)
5.1 Description of the Classical System,	131	(3)
5.2 The Hermeneutics of the Classical System,	134	(2)
5.3 The Classical System in the Smrtis,	136	(15)
5.3.1 Manu,	137	(5)
5.3.2 Yajnavalkya,	142	(2)
5.3.3 Visnu,	144	(1)
5.3.4 Vaikhanasa Smartasutra,	145	(3)
5.3.5 The Mahabharata,	148	(3)
5.4 The Original System in the Classical Period,	151	(10)
5.4.1 The Arthasastra,	151	(2)
5.4.2 The Mahabharata,	153	(2)
5.4.3 The Puranas,	155	(3)
5.4.4 Miscellaneous Sources,	158	(1)
5.4.5 Medieval Theologians,	159	(2)
6 Development of the Classical System,	161	(22)
6.1 Classifications of the Asramas,	161	(12)
6.1.1 Early Classifications of the Four Institutions,	162	(3)
6.1.2 Formal Classifications of the Asramas,	165	(5)
6.1.3 Hermeneutics and the Classification of Renouncers,	170	(3)
6.2 Modifications of the Classical System,	173	(10)
6.2.1 Skipping the Third Asrama,	173	(4)
6.2.2 Renunciation as an Exception to the Classical System,	177	(6)
7. The Asramas and Other Brahmanical Institutions,	183	(37)
7.1 Gender and Asrama,	183	(7)
7.2 Varna and Asrama,	190	(11)
7.2.1 Status of the Sudras,	192	(3)
7.2.2 Varna and Renunciation,	195	(6)
7.3 The Asramas and Civil Authority,	201	(9)
7.3.1 The King as Guardian of the Asramas,	201	(3)
7.3.2 The Asramas, Ascetics, and the Law,	204	(6)
7.4 Parisad and Asrama,	210	(4)
7.5 Asrama and Other Aspects of Dharma,	214	(2)
7.6 Sets of Four: The Purusarthas and the Asramas,	216	(4)
8. The Asrama System in Medieval Theology,	220	(24)
8.1 Anasramin: Obligation to Live in an Asrama,	220	(2)
8.2 Atyasramin: Transcendence of the Asramas,	222	(10)
8.3 The Question of a Fifth Asrama,	232	(2)
8.4 Asrama and the Doctrine of Yuga,	234	(3)
8.5 The Legitimacy of the Asrama System: The Continuing Debate,	237	(7)
Epilogue,	244	(3)
Bibliography,	247	(16)
Index,	263