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New Books in Indian ReligionsAuthor: Marshall Poe
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150 channels and browse our 28,000 episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/indian-religions Language: en Genres: Hinduism, Religion & Spirituality Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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James D. Ryan, "The Upanisads as They Are: Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Kausitaki" (Bloomsbury, 2026)
Episode 647
Thursday, 17 September, 2026
These Upanisads (c. 800-300 BCE) are almost always read from the point of view of the later Vedantins, but they do not share in the neatly tailored characteristics of the mature Vedantic philosophies, representing, instead, divergent, variegated and even conflicting narratives. In The Upanisads as They Are (Bloomsbury, 2026) the author focuses on the earliest of these Upanisads: Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Kausitaki. These Upanisads are read “as they are,” emphasizing aspects of these texts that are often completely overlooked, among them: their Vedic approach to contradiction, their frequent acceptance of means other than gnostic knowledge of or veneration of atman/brahman as a means for liberation, their positing of entities/realities other than atman or brahman as totalistic, and their frequent depiction of the human body or embodied human as a microcosm of or in identity with the universe. In course, the interpretations of the Upani?adic view, the Vedantic view, for each of these Upani?ads, of Sa?karacarya (c. 800 CE) and Ramanujacarya (c. 1100 CE), as primary examples in the range of Upani?adic interpreters, will be examined and often refuted. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
