{"title":"Richard H. Davis","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRichard H. Davis\u003c\/strong\u003e explores the rich and complex traditions of early religious thought, with a particular focus on the spiritual landscapes of ancient India. His works offer readers a deep and nuanced understanding of the origins and development of diverse religious practices and beliefs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough careful scholarship and insightful commentary, Davis invites readers to engage thoughtfully with themes of mythology, ritual, and philosophy. His books are essential for those interested in the history of religion and the foundations of spirituality.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"religions-of-early-india-by-richard-h-davis-9780691199269","title":"Religions of Early India","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe extraordinary multiplicity of religions and religious cultures in India, chronicled over two thousand years\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom its earliest recorded history, India was a place of remarkable and varied religious activity, ranging from elaborate sacrificial rituals and rigorous regimes of personal austerity to psycho-spiritual experimentation and utopian visions. In this ambitious and wide-ranging chronicle, Richard Davis offers a history of India's myriad religious cultures that spans two thousand years, from 1300 BCE to 700 CE.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIndia, as Davis writes, was not only the birthplace of the religions we now know as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It was also the home of other, often unnamed religions that can be classified as \"folk\" or \"popular\" religions. Tracing these intertwined practices, Davis shows that the ardent and heterogeneous religious cultures of early India came to define and redefine themselves in relation to one another.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDavis recounts this history through voices—voices recorded in hymns, poems, songs, didactic stories, epic narratives, scientific treatises, and theological discourses, as well as voices that speak through material remains, whether monumental sculptures or tiny terracotta figurines of nameless goddesses. He focuses on the long millennium often designated as \"classical India,\" which stretches from the time of the founding figures of Buddhism and Jainism during the sixth century BCE through the seventh-century-CE dynasties of the Chalukyas and the Pallavas in southern India.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout, he emphasizes encounter, interaction, debate, critique, and borrowing among religious communities within a shared, changing social and political reality. The voices and visions of early India's religions, Davis shows us, are fascinating in their multiplicity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47597827031276,"sku":"9780691199269","price":134.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780691199269-religions-of-early-india.jpg?v=1777959345"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/richard-h-davis.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}