Max Weber's early twentieth-century study of the religions and civilization of India is a great pioneering adventure in the sociology of ancient India. Weber's insight and analysis - especially his application of the sociological perspective to the work of classical Indologists and the religious texts available to him - were to add much to the store of the social scientist. Later, historians and archaeologists were to confirm a surprising number of Weber's theories.
The central concern of this and other of Weber's studies of countries we today describe as "developing" was with the obstacles to industrialization and modernization. Weber anticipated by several decades a problem that has come to occupy the post-World War II world. Why had these countries failed to display the full consequence of these rationalizing tendencies which, to Weber's mind had so powerful an affinity with the scientific technical transformation of the West. He isolated religious institutions and the key social strata which mediate them to wider society as crucial for the original formation of social-psychological orientations to the practical concerns of life and, hence, for receptivity or resistance to industrialization.
Max Weber (1864-1920), Greman Social scientist and political economist who become a founding father of modern sociology. After a brief period as a legal assistant and on completion of his doctoral dissertation, he was appointed professor first at the University of Freiburg and then at Heidelberg. Despite a severe nervous breakdown several years later, Weber produced a body of work that established him as the foremost figure in social thought in the century.
Contents
Prefatory Note | V | |
Part One- The Hindu Social System | ||
I | India and Hinduism | 3 |
1 | The General Place of Hinduism | 3 |
2 | Diffusion Patterns of Hinduism | 9 |
3 | Hindu Doctrine and Ritual | 21 |
4 | The Place of the Vedas | 25 |
5 | The Brahmans and the Castes | 29 |
6 | Caste and Tribe | 30 |
7 | Caste and Guild | 33 |
8 | Caste and Status group | 39 |
9 | The Social Rank Order of the Castes | 44 |
10 | Caste and Sib | 49 |
II | The Main Grouping of the Castes | 55 |
1 | The Brahmans | 57 |
2 | The Kshatriyas | 63 |
3 | The Vaishyas | 77 |
4 | The Shudras | 93 |
III | Caste Forms and Schisms | 101 |
1 | Caste Criteria | 101 |
2 | Caste Schism | 102 |
3 | Caste Discipline | 108 |
4 | Caste and Traditionalism | 111 |
5 | The Religious Promise of the Caste System | 117 |
6 | The Developmental Conditions of the Caste System | 123 |
Part Two- Orthodox and Heterodox Holy Teaching of the Indian Intellectuals | ||
IV | Anti-Orgiastic and Ritualistic Character of Brahmanical Religiosity | 137 |
1 | Brahmanical, Hellenistic, and Confucian Intellectual Strata | 137 |
2 | Dharma and the Absence of the Concept of Natural Law | 143 |
3 | Knowledge, Asceticism, and Mysticism in India | 146 |
4 | Sramana and Brahmanical Asceticism | 154 |
5 | Brahmanical Writings and Science | 158 |
V | Orthodox Hinduism | 163 |
1 | Holy Technique (yoga) and the Development of Religious Philosophy | 163 |
2 | Orthodox Salvation Doctrines | 166 |
3 | Holy Teaching and the Professional Ethic of the Bhagavadgita | 180 |
VI | The Heterdox Soteriologies of the Cultured Professional Monks | 192 |
1 | The Two Great Heterodoxies | 192 |
2 | Jainism | 193 |
3 | Ancient Buddhism | 204 |
Part Three - The Asiatic Sects and the Redemption Religions | ||
VII | The Transformation of Ancient Buddhism | 233 |
1 | General Reasons for the Transformation of Ancient Buddhism | 233 |
2 | King Ashoka | 235 |
3 | Mahayana Buddhism | 244 |
VIII | The Missions | 257 |
1 | Ceylon and Outlying Indian Territories | 257 |
2 | China | 264 |
3 | Korea | 269 |
4 | Japan | 270 |
5 | Inner Asia: Lamaism | 282 |
IX | The Orthodox Restoration in India | 291 |
1 | General Character | 291 |
2 | Shivaism and the Lingam Cult | 298 |
3 | Vishnuism and Bhakti Piety | 306 |
4 | The Sects and the Gurus | 318 |
X | The General Character of Asiatic Religion | 329 |
Notes | 344 | |
Index | 389 |
Sample Pages
Max Weber's early twentieth-century study of the religions and civilization of India is a great pioneering adventure in the sociology of ancient India. Weber's insight and analysis - especially his application of the sociological perspective to the work of classical Indologists and the religious texts available to him - were to add much to the store of the social scientist. Later, historians and archaeologists were to confirm a surprising number of Weber's theories.
The central concern of this and other of Weber's studies of countries we today describe as "developing" was with the obstacles to industrialization and modernization. Weber anticipated by several decades a problem that has come to occupy the post-World War II world. Why had these countries failed to display the full consequence of these rationalizing tendencies which, to Weber's mind had so powerful an affinity with the scientific technical transformation of the West. He isolated religious institutions and the key social strata which mediate them to wider society as crucial for the original formation of social-psychological orientations to the practical concerns of life and, hence, for receptivity or resistance to industrialization.
Max Weber (1864-1920), Greman Social scientist and political economist who become a founding father of modern sociology. After a brief period as a legal assistant and on completion of his doctoral dissertation, he was appointed professor first at the University of Freiburg and then at Heidelberg. Despite a severe nervous breakdown several years later, Weber produced a body of work that established him as the foremost figure in social thought in the century.
Contents
Prefatory Note | V | |
Part One- The Hindu Social System | ||
I | India and Hinduism | 3 |
1 | The General Place of Hinduism | 3 |
2 | Diffusion Patterns of Hinduism | 9 |
3 | Hindu Doctrine and Ritual | 21 |
4 | The Place of the Vedas | 25 |
5 | The Brahmans and the Castes | 29 |
6 | Caste and Tribe | 30 |
7 | Caste and Guild | 33 |
8 | Caste and Status group | 39 |
9 | The Social Rank Order of the Castes | 44 |
10 | Caste and Sib | 49 |
II | The Main Grouping of the Castes | 55 |
1 | The Brahmans | 57 |
2 | The Kshatriyas | 63 |
3 | The Vaishyas | 77 |
4 | The Shudras | 93 |
III | Caste Forms and Schisms | 101 |
1 | Caste Criteria | 101 |
2 | Caste Schism | 102 |
3 | Caste Discipline | 108 |
4 | Caste and Traditionalism | 111 |
5 | The Religious Promise of the Caste System | 117 |
6 | The Developmental Conditions of the Caste System | 123 |
Part Two- Orthodox and Heterodox Holy Teaching of the Indian Intellectuals | ||
IV | Anti-Orgiastic and Ritualistic Character of Brahmanical Religiosity | 137 |
1 | Brahmanical, Hellenistic, and Confucian Intellectual Strata | 137 |
2 | Dharma and the Absence of the Concept of Natural Law | 143 |
3 | Knowledge, Asceticism, and Mysticism in India | 146 |
4 | Sramana and Brahmanical Asceticism | 154 |
5 | Brahmanical Writings and Science | 158 |
V | Orthodox Hinduism | 163 |
1 | Holy Technique (yoga) and the Development of Religious Philosophy | 163 |
2 | Orthodox Salvation Doctrines | 166 |
3 | Holy Teaching and the Professional Ethic of the Bhagavadgita | 180 |
VI | The Heterdox Soteriologies of the Cultured Professional Monks | 192 |
1 | The Two Great Heterodoxies | 192 |
2 | Jainism | 193 |
3 | Ancient Buddhism | 204 |
Part Three - The Asiatic Sects and the Redemption Religions | ||
VII | The Transformation of Ancient Buddhism | 233 |
1 | General Reasons for the Transformation of Ancient Buddhism | 233 |
2 | King Ashoka | 235 |
3 | Mahayana Buddhism | 244 |
VIII | The Missions | 257 |
1 | Ceylon and Outlying Indian Territories | 257 |
2 | China | 264 |
3 | Korea | 269 |
4 | Japan | 270 |
5 | Inner Asia: Lamaism | 282 |
IX | The Orthodox Restoration in India | 291 |
1 | General Character | 291 |
2 | Shivaism and the Lingam Cult | 298 |
3 | Vishnuism and Bhakti Piety | 306 |
4 | The Sects and the Gurus | 318 |
X | The General Character of Asiatic Religion | 329 |
Notes | 344 | |
Index | 389 |
Sample Pages