Although many of the vast sources for the vernacular literatures have not been translated, there are some available in English translation, including: W. Douglas P. Hill (trans.), The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rāma (1952), a translation of the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas; Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh (trans.), The Bījak of Kabir (1983); Kenneth E. Bryant, Poems to the Child-God: Structures and Strategies in the Poetry of Sūrdās (1978); John Stratton Hawley, Sūr Dās: Poet, Singer, Saint (1984); and A.K. Ramanujan (trans.), Speaking of Śiva (1973), Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Viṣṇu (1981), and Poems of Love and War: From the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Long Poems of Classical Tamil (1985). Early history and religion
A good introduction to tribal and Hindu folklore is provided by Verrier Elwin (trans.), Tribal Myths of Orissa (1954, reprinted 1980), Myths of Middle India (1949, reprinted 1977), and Myths of the North-East Frontier of India (1958, reissued 1968).
Studies of the prehistoric period, the Indo-European background of Indian civilization, and the Indus valley civilization include Georges Dumézil, Gods of the Ancient Northmen, trans. from French (1973); Bruce Lincoln, Myth, Cosmos, and Society: Indo-European Themes of Creation and Destruction (1986); Jaan Puhvel (ed.), Myth and Law Among the Indo-Europeans: Studies in Indo-European Comparative Mythology (1970); and John Marshall (ed.), Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization, 3 vol. (1931, reprinted 1973).
The best works on the Vedic religion include the essays found in J.C. Heesterman, The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual (1985); Frits Staal, C.V. Somayajipad, and M. Itti Ravi Nambudiri, Agni, the Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar, 2 vol. (1983). Still useful is Louis Renou, Vedic India, trans. from French (1957, reissued 1971). Brian K. Smith, Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion (1989), is an examination of the relations between Vedic religion and later Hinduism. Dharma and karma
The literature and teachings on dharma are presented in Pandurang Vaman Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religions and Civil Law in India), 2nd ed., 5 vol. in 8 (1968–77), an indispensable work. A summary of dharma is found in Robert Lingat, The Classical Law of India (1973; originally published in French, 1967). The best study on Yoga is Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, 2nd ed. (1969; originally published in French, 1954). The doctrine of karma and rebirth as it is presented in the texts is examined in the essays collected in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (ed.), Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions (1980). Of the many works on the theoretical underpinnings of the caste system, the most influential has been the magnum opus by Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications, rev. ed. (1980; originally published in French, 1966). Also noteworthy is Veena Das, Structure and Cognition: Aspects of Hindu Caste and Ritual, 2nd ed. (1982). Art and architecture
For a convenient summary of the Hindu practice and ideology of image worship, consult the excellent Richard H. Davis, Lives of Indian Images (1997); Diana L. Eck, Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India, 2nd rev. and enlarged ed. (1985); Susan L. Huntington and John C. Huntington, The Art of Ancient India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (1985); and the essays in Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Norman Cutler, and Vasudha Narayanan (eds.), Gods of Flesh/Gods of Stone: The Embodiment of Divinity in India (1985). The best work on Hindu temples is Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple, 2 vol. (1946, reprinted 1976). Michael W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky, Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture (1983– ), is a comprehensive work. Deities and their sects
An overview of the sects worshipping Vishnu or one of his forms can be found in Suvira Jaiswal, The Origin and Development of Vaiṣṇavism: Vaiṣṇavism from 200 B.C. to A.D. 500, 2nd rev. and enlarged ed. (1981); and Milton Singer (ed.), Krishna: Myths, Rites, and Attitudes (1966, reprinted 1981). An excellent study on Krishna is Alf Hiltebeitel, The Ritual of Battle: Krishna in the Mahābhārata (1976). Other important works include John Stratton Hawley, Krishna, the Butter Thief (1983); and David R. Kinsley, The Divine Player: A Study of Kṛṣṇa līlā (1979).
The history of Shaivism is surveyed in C.V. Narayana Ayyar (sadananda), Origin and Early History of Śaivism in South India (1936, reprinted 1974). The mythology of Shiva is discussed in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Śiva (1973, reprinted as Śiva, the Erotic Ascetic, 1981).
For the worship of the goddess in her many forms, consult the essays in John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff (eds.), The Divine Consort: Rādhā and the Goddesses of India (1982); Kathleen M. Erndl, Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddesses of Northwest India in Myth, Ritual, and Symbol (1993); John Stratton Hawley and Donna M. Wulff (eds.), Devī: Goddesses of India (1996); Alf Hiltebeitel, The Cult of Draupadī (1988– ); David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition (1986, reissued 1997); and Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts (1980). An interesting and accessible comparison of certain themes in the worship of Krishna and the goddess Kali is David Kinsley, The Sword and the Flute: Kālī and Kṛṣṇa, Dark Visions of the Terrible and the Sublime in Hindu Mythology (1975). Religious and philosophical traditions
The Indian ascetic and monastic traditions are examined in Johannes Bronkhorst, The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism (1993); Robert Lewis Grosse, The Sādhus of India: A Study of Hindu Asceticism (1992); T.N. Madan, Non-Renunciation: Themes and Interpretations of Hindu Culture (1987, reissued 1996); David W. Miller and Dorothy C. Wertz, Hindu Monastic Life, rev. ed. (1996); Patrick Olivelle, Saṃnyāsa Upanishads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation (1992); and Wendy Sinclair-Brull, Female Ascetics: Hierarchy and Purity in an Indian Religious Movement (1997).
The various devotional traditions of Hinduism are examined in David L. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation: A Study of the Rāgānugā Bhakti Sādhana (1988); Friedheim Hardy, Viraha-Bhakti: The Early History of Kṛṣṇa Devotion in South India (1983); Jeffrey J. Kripal, Kali’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna, 2nd ed. (1998); David N. Lorenzen (ed.), Bhakti Religion in North India (1995); Paula Richman (compiler), Extraordinary Child: Poems from a South Indian Devotional Genre (1997); and Karine Schomer and W.H. McLeod (eds.), The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India (1987).
The standard work on the philosophical and theological aspects of various Hindu traditions is Surendranath Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy, 5 vol. (1922–55, reprinted 1975). A fine series of volumes on Indian philosophy is Karl H. Potter (compiler), Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies (1977– ). The best overviews of Tantrism are Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition (1965, reprinted 1977); David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India (1996); and Edward C. Dimock, Jr., The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaiṣṇavasahajiyā Cult of Bengal (1966). Practical Hinduism