Strong Arms and Drinking Strength: Masculinity, Violence, and the Body in Ancient India
"This important book cuts sensitively to the core of the construction of masculinity in Vedic family, clan, and tribal society. From early hymns that reflect expansion through seasonal migrations to the hegemonic patriarchy embodied in state formation that closes the Rgvedic canon, Whitaker details a consistent androcentric ideology that lauds strength, intimidation, and violence through images of the hyper-masculine body and soma drinking of the god Indra. A needed but rare convergence of philology with gender, body, and ritual studies."--Alf Hiltebeitel, Columbian Professor of Religion, History, and Human Sciences, The George Washington University"I am much impressed. Whitaker sheds glaring light on a greatly neglected aspect of Rgvedic ritual."--Professor Thomas Oberlies, Institute of Indology, University of Goettingen"Dr Whitaker's monograph brilliantly demonstrates how the Vedic ritual experts used their arts of poetic composition and performance to create and reinforce a social construction of masculinity. Clearly written and well-argued, this book brings together current scholarship in Vedic studies and in gender theory in order to contribute to debates in both of these fields."--Theodore N. Proferes, Senior Lecture in Ancient Indian Religions, Department of the Study of Religions, School of Oriental and African Studies