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Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. By JULIUS LIPNER. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. xiii, 375 pp. $27.95 (paper).
Writing a survey or introductory book on Hinduism is a daunting task but a task that Julius Lipner has performed in a rich and interesting way. There is a sense in this book of being taken on a journey and guided through a complex maze of data and history with clarity and insight but without oversimplification. This is just what the undergraduate and interested lay person, the book's intended readership, needs. Julius Lipner adopts what he calls a "radial approach" to the subject, returning to themes from different angles. He thereby intends to do justice to the complexity of the amalgam of traditions we call "Hinduism" and to show not only the diversity of the "Hindu phenomenon" but to represent the coherence of the Hindu narrative.
Lipner uses the image of the banyan tree to convey his sense of Hinduism as a collection of ancient roots and branches intertwined in complex ways but constantly being regenerated. The discussion opens with a bewildering array of contradictory definitions, making the point that definitions tend to be inadequate, not because, as some might argue,...