The Character of the Self in Ancient India: Priests, Kings, and Women in the Early Upanisads.

• Author: Lindquist, Steven E.
• Position: Book review

The Character of the Self in Ancient India: Priests, Kings, and Women in the Early Upanisads. By BRIAN BLACK. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 2007, Pp. 224 + xii.

The narratives found in the early Upanisads are some of the most popular texts among certain practicing Hindus and are often used in classes on Hinduism. This is not only because the various Upanisadic ideas about rebirth, renunciation, liberation, and the nature of the self (atman) that appear in these stories become foundational for later Hinduism, but also because these stories serve as a popularizing medium--they are entertaining, they are often true-to-life (if not historically true-in-life), and they serve a didactic function for ideas that are abstract and often difficult to comprehend. Black, building off certain notable forays into narrative analysis of early Sanskrit literature, centers his discussion not on the abstract philosophical ideas themselves, but on the concrete situations in which literary characters discuss them in the early Upanisads. Contrary to the title, the atman itself is not discussed as a character in the fashion of numerous other literary figures found in this book, but it is an "inter-character" or a "dialogical atman," an entity or idea constructed by the characters and narrative situations.

Black's discussion is not limited to the Upanisads only, because, as he notes, Upanisadic narratives follow from numerous precedents found in earlier material (particularly the Brahmanas, but also other genres like the Aranyakas). In this fashion. Black brings a large number of examples from the primary sources together with some of the most recent scholarship on the Upanisads. Pursuing various literary figures (most notably, Uddalaka, Svetaketu, Satyakama, Yajnavalkya, Janaka, Ajatasatru) through passages and longer narratives in the Brahmanas and Upanisads, Black's book follows the thematic program of his subtitle: chapter 1 is on teacher/student relationships, chapter 2 on inter-Brahmin debates, chapter 3 on the relationship of kings and Brahmins, and the final chapter on Brahmin men and women. A short conclusion (pp. 169-74) follows.

Black's book is well researched and intelligent, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in new ways to look at the Upanisads. Most impressive is his ability to bring out the concrete and the social in these narratives, including issues of wealth (pp. 88-91), prestige (pp. 80-88), regional rivalry (pp...