Publications by Christopher R Austin
The Yuga-Avatāra Complex in the Mahābhārata and Harivaṃśa: A Trial for Literary-Holist Readings of the Sanskrit Epic
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2023
A recent publication (by Simon Brodbeck, 2022) proposes to resolve a long-standing theological co... more A recent publication (by Simon Brodbeck, 2022) proposes to resolve a long-standing theological conundrum of Hindu mythology on the basis of a literary-holist or “synchronic” reading of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata, seeking thereby to displace earlier scholarship treating this theme. This review essay provides a thorough analysis of the arguments of Divine Descent and the closely linked matter of the two competing methodologies in the reading of the Sanskrit epics: the “synchronic” or holist approach championed by Brodbeck and the “analytic” approach, which views the Mahābhārata as a historically layered text. Ultimately, I argue here that the latter “analytic” solutions to the conundrum, which it was Brodbeck’s purpose to challenge, account for the matter far more persuasively. In particular, I make special reference to a 1960 study by Paul Hacker as a work of persisting value for understanding the historic development of the avatāra system over time .
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2023
This paper examines a pattern in Sanskrit literature, labelled for convenience the “eropolitical ... more This paper examines a pattern in Sanskrit literature, labelled for convenience the “eropolitical compound”. This is a formula whereby a male protagonist's claiming of a feminine figure is made instrumental to, or tied indissociably with, a political victory or reclamation of control over a public domain. This paper first reviews a number of examples of the motif in well-known works of drama, poetry, and eulogistic inscriptions largely of the fourth–seventh centuries ce, setting these against the particular historical and social contexts in which they occur. In a second step, the motif is identified at work in other genre and historic contexts of Sanskrit tradition, suggesting thereby that the figure also requires treatment at a broader level of analysis. The paper's third and final step is to adopt from Simone de Beauvoir the constructs of immanence, transcendence, and the woman as Other, in order to argue that the eropolitical compound is indeed a kind of formula or persisting theme that cuts across multiple historic and genre contexts, and that it should be seen as a normative construct reflecting and enacting a common strategy of patriarchal cultures.
Review: After the War by Wendy Doniger
Review: Doniger, Wendy. 2022. After the War: The Last Books of the Mahabharata. Oxford University Press., 2023
Visions and Revisions of Sanskrit Narratives: Studies in India’s Epics and Purāṇas, edited by Raj Balkaran and McComas Taylor. Australia National University Press. Forthcoming 2023., 2023
Popular Hindu mythology tends to understand the death of Kṛṣṇa as initiating the turnover from th... more Popular Hindu mythology tends to understand the death of Kṛṣṇa as initiating the turnover from the Dvāpara to the Kali Yuga. Additionally, this Kali Yuga discourse of dharmic devolution often attracts to itself the related theme of pralaya or cosmic dissolution. As such, it is often assumed that these yugic and cosmic implications of Kṛṣṇa's death are established in the Mahābhārata. This chapter seeks to historicise the material by tracing a pattern of amplification from the Mahābhārata to the Harivaṃśa and finally to the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, wherein we find the most explicit setting of Kṛṣṇa's death against both Kali Yuga and pralaya discourse. As such, this chapter demonstrates that the Harivaṃśa mediates between the itihāsa and purāṇa genres, and that the Mahābhārata, while partaking to an extent of the language and mythos of the purāṇas, is not so thoroughly purāṇified as is often assumed.
A Deferential Krsna: The Unstolen Cows of Harivaṃśa 113
Religions of South Asia, 2022
This paper examines the concluding scene (chapter 113) of the Harivamsa’s Krsna biography, in whi... more This paper examines the concluding scene (chapter 113) of the Harivamsa’s Krsna biography, in which Krsna tries to steal some cows, but then chooses not to. I argue that the episode should be understood first in connection with the Mahabharata’s amsavatarana frame of partial incarnations. Secondly, I bring to bear on Harivamsa 113 the multiple meanings of the cow in epic mythology, according to which the animal stands in for both the earth and the brahmin as paradigmatic objects of ksatriya protection. In so doing, I hope to provide a reading of Harivamsa 113 which illustrates its participation in a recurring epic theme of ksatriya transgression against the brahmin and subsequent retreat to a properly deferential position. I then historicize these bovine-encoded anxieties attending brahmin–ksatriya relations in their post-Mauryan context. Recognizing such themes at work in Harivamsa 113 can help us to see that, however much popular traditions may favour the playful and transgressive Krsna, his posture in the latter part of the Harivamsa is characterized by a complex conservatism informed by both historic and epic-mythological concerns.
Review: The Other Rāma: Matricide and Genocide in the Mythology of Paraśurāma by Brian Collins
American Academy of Religion: Reading Religion: https://readingreligion.org/9781438480398/the-other-rama/, 2022
Rethinking the Body in South Asian Traditions, edited by Diana Dimitrova. Routledge., 2020
Asian Literature and Translation, 2020
The Pārijātaharaṇa or theft of the magical Pārijāta tree is a well known episode in the life of t... more The Pārijātaharaṇa or theft of the magical Pārijāta tree is a well known episode in the life of the Hindu god Kṛṣṇa. The earliest Sanskrit sources of the incident consist largely of short or passing references to the deed, and mainly understand the seizure of the tree to have involved a fight between Kṛṣṇa and Indra. The actual episode is narrated in the critical text of the HV, but there no fight occurs. This piece follows up on and responds to a recent publication in this journal in which the narrative discontinuity surrounding the Pārijātaharaṇa is treated briefly in connection with the problem of textual emendation. After identifying and contextualizing the relevant epic passages, I take up the key sources of the myth in the following centuries, and reflect briefly on the issue of the Sanskrit tradition's own work of narrative emendation, as well as some of the implications thereof for readers and translators.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pradyumna-9780190054113?cc=ca&lang=en&, 2019
This book provides the first full-scale English-language study of Pradyumna, the son of the Hindu... more This book provides the first full-scale English-language study of Pradyumna, the son of the Hindu god Krsna. Often represented as a young man in mid-adolescence, Pradyumna is both a handsome double of his demon-slaying father and the rebirth of Kamadeva, the God of Love. Sanskrit epic, puranic, and kavya narratives of the 300-1300 CE period celebrate Pradyumna's sexual potency, mastery of illusory subterfuges, and military prowess in supporting the work of his avatara father. These materials reflect the values of an evolving Brahminical and Vaisnava tradition that was deeply invested in the imperatives of family, patrilines, the violent but necessary defense of the social and cosmic order, and the celebration of beauty and desire as a means to the divine. Pradyumna's evolving narratives, almost completely absent from existing studies of Hindu mythology, provide a point of access to the development of Krsna bhakti and Vaisnava theism more broadly. Conversely, Jain sources cast Pradyumna as an exemplary figure through whom a pointed rejection of these values can be articulated, even while sharing certain of their elementary premises.
Pradyumna: Lover, Magician, and Scion of the Avatara assembles these narratives, presents key Sanskrit materials in translation and summary form, and articulates the social, gender, and religious values encoded in them. Most importantly, the study argues that Pradyumna's signature two-handed maneuver--the audacious appropriation of a feminine partner, enabled by the emasculating destruction of her demonic male protector--communicates a persistent fantasy of male power expressed in the language of a mutually implicating sex and violence.
The Pradyumnābhyudaya of Ravivarman: A New Sanskrit Text of the Trivandrum Edition and English Translation. Harrassowitz Verlag: Drama und Theater in Südasien vol. 12, 2019
Purānic Studies: Proceedings of the Purāṇa Section of the 17th World Sanskrit Conference, July 9-13, 2018, edited by Raj Balkaran and McComas Taylor. Vancouver: Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, 2019
This is my own attempt at rendering this slightly tricky verse; I am indebted to the translation ... more This is my own attempt at rendering this slightly tricky verse; I am indebted to the translation of Bryant (2003: 239-240) which I have found helpful: It is not surprising that his mothers thought of him as their own husband, since they were unwavering in their devotion to Kṛṣṇa, and Pradyumna had a strong resemblance to his father. Indeed, their love was secretly kindled by Pradyumna, the very image of Kṛṣṇa, the abode of Ramā, the goddess of fortune. What can then be said about how other women [reacted when they saw him]? It was, after all, Kāma, love personified, who was visible to their eyes!
Encyclopedia of Indian Religions: Hinduism and Tribal Religions, eds. Jeffery D. Long, Rita D. Sherma, Pankaj Jain and Madhu Khanna. Springer, Dordrecht., 2018
Rukmiṇī: Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa's eldest and principal wife, a princess of Vidarbha. Rukmiṅ ī: Queen of D... more Rukmiṇī: Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa's eldest and principal wife, a princess of Vidarbha. Rukmiṅ ī: Queen of Dvārakā Rukmiṇī is the eldest wife of Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa and is often identified as an incarnation of the goddess of prosperity Śrī-Lakṣmī. The earliest sources that speak of her are the Mahābhārata (MBh) [14] and Harivaṃśa (HV) [16]. As a princess of Vidarbha
Encyclopedia of Indian Religions: Hinduism and Tribal Religions, eds. Jeffery D. Long, Rita D. Sherma, Pankaj Jain and Madhu Khanna. Springer, Dordrecht., 2018
Viṣṇu: Widely worshiped Hindu deity associated with creation, justice, and order and known for hi... more Viṣṇu: Widely worshiped Hindu deity associated with creation, justice, and order and known for his cosmos-and dharma-sustaining avatāra embodiments.
Encyclopedia of Indian Religions: Hinduism and Tribal Religions, eds. Jeffery D. Long, Rita D. Sherma, Pankaj Jain and Madhu Khanna. Springer, Dordrecht., 2018
Harivaṃśa: the "lineage of Hari," a third-century CE Sanskrit poem telling the life story of Vāsu... more Harivaṃśa: the "lineage of Hari," a third-century CE Sanskrit poem telling the life story of Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa.
Encyclopedia of Indian Religions: Hinduism and Tribal Religions, eds. Jeffery D. Long, Rita D. Sherma, Pankaj Jain and Madhu Khanna. Springer, Dordrecht., 2018
Satyabhāmā: Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa's "favorite" wife, known especially for her roles in the Hindu myths o... more Satyabhāmā: Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa's "favorite" wife, known especially for her roles in the Hindu myths of the slaying of the demon Naraka and the theft of the magical Pārijāta tree. Satyabhāmā: Kṙṡṅ a's "Favorite" Wife Hindu tradition assigns to Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa many wives, often numbered at 16,108. All but eight of these are anonymous, and of the eight only three have any consistent role and identity across the various sources of Kṛṣṇa's life: Rukmiṇī, Jāmbavatī, and Satyabhāmā (often called simply Satyā). While Rukmiṇī is Kṛṣṇa's eldest and chief wife, Satyabhāmā is invariably cast as the younger, prettier, and "favorite" wife of Kṛṣṇa.
Journal of Vaiṣṇava Studies, 2015
Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 2015
McGrath's Heroic Kr. s. n. a, published by the Ilex Foundation, is a small and tightly focused mo... more McGrath's Heroic Kr. s. n. a, published by the Ilex Foundation, is a small and tightly focused monograph on the character Vāsudeva Kr. s. n. a in the enormous Sanskrit epic poem the Mahābhārata. The Mahābhārata, which is thought to have emerged in its present form perhaps in roughly the 4th century CE, tells of the war between the Pāṅḋavas and the Kauravas. Kr. s. n. a is a central figure of this long and varied narrative, and is one of the most widely venerated deities in the Hindu tradition. McGrath's concern in Heroic Kr. s. n. a is to strip Kr. s. n. a of the divinity with which he is endowed in the Mahābhārata, and to present us with what he takes to be the underlying "original" human hero figure embodying ancient Indo-Āryan virtues. This is the third monograph from McGrath published in the Ilex series treating the Mahābhārata, the earlier two dealing with women and performance. As is indicated by the titles of these three books, as well as his 2004 Brill volume on the character Karṅa, his concern is with the "Epic Mahābhārata." The Mahābhārata is of course nothing if not an epic, and there is nothing controversial in broadly designating the work as such. However, McGrath's consistent qualification of the poem with this term in the titles of his works signals his highly selective reading of only those materials which he deems to be "epic." This means throwing out as "late" or the product of "bricolage" (a term used constantly throughout) almost all of the material following the battle books (e.g. 48, note 10; 135, note 6), without providing a hint of argument or analysis to support this. The format of Heroic Kr. s. n. a is therefore an "explication de texte" (ix) composed of translated passages, commentary upon these passages, and summaries of other selected scenes, largely drawn from the "battle books." Each chapter focuses on one facet of Kr. s. n. a's character: his close friendship with Arjuna (2. Two Kr. s. n. as); the alliance with the Pāṅḋavas and the nature of Kr. s. n. a's political relationship with Yudhis. ṫhira (3. The Alliance); Kr. s. n. a's function as diplomat and envoy to the Kauravas just prior to the war (4. The Embassy); Kr. s. n. a's character as a charioteer Book Reviews / Comptes rendus
Religious Studies and Theology, 2014
This article examines the Harivaṃśa's rendering of Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa's encounter with and marriage t... more This article examines the Harivaṃśa's rendering of Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa's encounter with and marriage to Rukmiṇī of Vidarbha (HV 87-90), and proposes that this episode of Kṛṣṇa's life is of special importance to the Harivaṃśa's larger concern to develop in full the Mahābhārata's partial portrait of the adult Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa. I argue that the Harivaṃśa's basic work of unpacking Kṛṣṇa's adult identity advances on three fronts simultaneously: genealogical, political and theological, and that it is especially by recounting Kṛṣṇa's relationship with Rukmiṇī that the poets are able to develop all at once some of the key political, genealogical and theological dimensions of Kṛṣṇa's identity revealed only partially in the Mahābhārata.
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2013
This paper begins and ends with the observation that the Pārijātaharaṇa or theft of the magical P... more This paper begins and ends with the observation that the Pārijātaharaṇa or theft of the magical Pārijāta tree appears to be the only scene from the adult biography of Kṛṣṇa to have enjoyed a popularity comparable to the scenes of his childhood and youth. Inquiring why this might be the case, the article treats the oldest source of the episode, namely the Critical Edition text of the Harivaṃśa, and its elaboration in two Harivaṃśa appendices (App. I 29 and 29A). Two thematic elements characterize 29 and 29A's enlargement upon the deed: the amplification of conflict over the tree and the ritual activities of women. While the first of these themes, developed in App. I 29, is a natural, if not predictable augmentation of the Kṛṣṇa narrative, understanding the rationale behind App. I 29A's concerns with the ritual responsibilities of the pativratā or devoted wife requires a more sustained analysis. I argue here that 29A makes explicit a fundamental dynamic of the divine feminine and its role within the Kṛṣṇa biography which can be found at work in the earlier Critical text of the HV as well. This makes possible a final hypothesis on why the Pārijāta episode may have enjoyed a popularity in the Vaiṣṇava tradition unlike any other scene of Kṛṣṇa's adult biography.
International Journal of Hindu Studies, 2013
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Publications by Christopher R Austin
American Academy of Religion: Reading Religion, April 2023
Pradyumna: Lover, Magician, and Scion of the Avatara assembles these narratives, presents key Sanskrit materials in translation and summary form, and articulates the social, gender, and religious values encoded in them. Most importantly, the study argues that Pradyumna's signature two-handed maneuver--the audacious appropriation of a feminine partner, enabled by the emasculating destruction of her demonic male protector--communicates a persistent fantasy of male power expressed in the language of a mutually implicating sex and violence.