Sandalwood and Carrion: Smell in Indian Religion and Culture
"A brilliant and engaging study of a completely original subject. McHugh's writing is thoughtful and sophisticated, and his book opens up a whole new dimension of understanding South Asian culture. Sandalwood and Carrion exemplifies an exciting new vitality current in classical Indian studies, and stimulates us all to think of fresh questions and strategies in our scholarship." --Dominik Wujastyk, University of Vienna"This is a book that will irrevocably change the way Indologists and Buddhist scholars working on India will read their texts. They will no longer be able to skip over the rich and complex references to smells--both good and bad--that are met with at every turn in so many of their sources." --Gregory Schopen, Rush C. Hawkins University Professor of Religious Studies, Brown University"An interdisciplinary approach that draws on religion, history, material culture, anthropology and art history... Highly recommended." -_CHOICE"Creative and well written, the work explores a huge selection of literature... Each chapter opens up multiple facets of the physiology, aesthetics, social function, and economics of smell... Because of the richness of his sources and the breadth of his scope, historians of religion, literature, transnational exchange, technology, and medicine will equally benefit from reading McHugh." --Bulletin of the History of Medicine