Argues that the post-independence period was a unique era of literary experimentation in Hindi literature, which must be read in the contexts of both local and global cultural, social, and literary history.

Examines Kṛṣṇa’s hint of laughter (prahasann iva) in the Bhagavadgītā, its interpretations in the Vedānta commentarial tradition, and its significance in Kṛṣṇaite iconography and literature.

Examines the intersections of gender, religion, and politics among various Indian religious communities, from early British rule to the late twentieth century.

Combines historical, literary, art historical, and archaeological perspectives to explore the idea of the Hindu temple in the British colonial imagination.

Explores the cultural dynamics of this ancient form of Sanskrit theater.

A literary and historical investigation into an ancient Indian religious thinker, tracing his rise in importance in the Hindu tradition.

A comparative study of wonder in South Asian religions.

Presents Tantra from an ethnographic vantage point, through a series of case studies grounded in diverse settings across contemporary Asia.

Offers a portrait of India as seen through the eyes of a sensitive, sharp-eyed, and witty young scholar in the early 1960s.

Details the textual and performative history of the South Asian festival of Indra and its role in the development of classical Hinduism.

Reveals how the persona of India's most famous emperor was constantly reinvented in ancient times to suit a variety of social visions, political agendas, and moral purposes.

A richly scholarly yet accessible and imaginative account of society in the time of the Buddha.

Contextualizes Sabha Theatre historically, politically, and aesthetically, revealing how it expresses a Tamil Brahmin identity that is at once traditional and modern.

Rejects Hindu nationalism and pluralist secularism in favor of a revitalized politics of Indian federalism.

Examines the colonization of Goa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the durability of Portuguese rule.

Examines the place of history in the political thought of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, one of the key architects of modern Hindu nationalism.

Documents how the premodern techniques of narrating the past in South Asia were deeply transformed by colonial modernity, resulting in newer forms of truth-telling within the Sikh community.

Chronicles the astonishing and counterintuitive spread of Christianity among a group of previously isolated tribes in a remote and hilly part of Northeastern India.

Explores the rich diversity of narratives, rituals, and participants connected with one of the most important celebrations for Hindus in South Asia and in the diaspora.

Explores how a folk ballad in southern India transforms the landscape and embeds the deities that are its subject within the social worlds of their devotees.

Examines the relationship between Mughal political culture and the two dominant strains of Islam's Sufi traditions in South Asia: one centered around orthodoxy, the other focusing on a more accommodating and mystical spirituality.

Examines English-language Indian newspapers from the mid-nineteenth century and their role in simultaneously sustaining and probing British colonial governance.

A major contribution to the study of South Asian literature, offering a landmark view of Mahābhārata studies.

Examines the key role of a hagiographer within a charismatic religious movement.

The first book to offer a detailed framework, a fine-grained history, and an analytically nuanced understanding of one of the rarest branches of Hindu worship.