How to Cite

Wiese, Harald: Exchange, gifting, and sacrificing: Premodern Indian perspectives, Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, 2023. https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1232

Identifiers

ISBN 978-3-948791-73-5 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-948791-74-2 (Softcover)

Published

08/29/2023

Authors

Harald Wiese

Exchange, gifting, and sacrificing

Premodern Indian perspectives

In both the Vedic and the classical periods, a special elite class of people existed that were called Brahmins. In a rough manner, one might say that their material wellbeing depended on dakiā in the Vedic period and on dāna in the classical one.

Broadening the perspective beyond dakṣiṇā and dāna, this book is on all sorts of giving in the context of pre-modern India, using Vedic, Sanskrit, Buddhist and, to a much lesser extent, Roman and Christian sources. The Brahmanical theory of the gift (i.e., the theory of dutiful gifting, dharmadāna) is a major focus of, and has provided a major motivation for, this study.

Harald Wiese is Professor of Microeconomics at the University of Leipzig. He has been interested in Sanskrit and "Indian economics" for over a decade. By the latter he means the application of microeconomic

Chapters

Table of Contents
Pages
PDF
Title
U1,i-iv
Contents
v-ix
Preface
x-xi
PART ONE: Preliminaries
1
I Abbreviations, symbols, figures, and tables
2-7
II Introduction
8-19
III Setting the stage
20-37
PART TWO: Indian (and other emic) perspectives on giving and taking
39
IV Vedic perspectives
40-48
V The king
49-67
VI Dharmadāna (Brahmanical theories of the gift)
68-85
VII Diverse transactions
86-105
VIII Buddhist perspectives
106-120
IX Seneca on beneficium and fellowship
121-126
X Christian perspectives
171-130
PART THREE: Modern (etic) perspectives on Indian (and other) perspectives
131
XI The toolbox
132-141
XII Structuring the modern perspectives
142-150
XIII Arthadāna and dānagrahaṇa in the private realm
151-155
XIV Kanyādāna
156-162
XV Marketing and competition
163-173
XVI The king’s givings and takings
174-182
XVII Yajña
183-191
XVIII Thisworldly social effects of gifting and of not taking
192-201
XIX Dharmadāna (and Buddhist) perspectives
202-216
PART FOUR: Retrospection
217
XX Conclusion: leftovers and wrapping up
218-232
PART FIVE: Appendices and Indices
233
XXI Appendices
234-241
Publication bibliography
242-256
Index
257-261
Backcover
-

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