Wendy Doniger
Born	1940 (age 83–84) New York, New York
Citizenship	United States
Academic background
Alma mater	Harvard University Oxford University
Doctoral advisor	Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr.
Academic work
Institutions	University of Chicago
Doctoral students	David Gordon White, Jeffrey Kripal, David Dean Shulman, Laurie Patton, among others

Wendy Doniger (O'Flaherty) (born in New York City, November 20 1940) is Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Social Thought. She has taught at the University of Chicago since 1978. Much of her work is focused on translating, interpreting and comparing elements of Hinduism through modern contexts of gender, sexuality and identity.

Biography

She first trained as a dancer under George Balanchine and Martha Graham, and then went on to complete two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian Studies. She has since been awarded six honorary doctorates. Doniger received her M.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in June 1963. She next studied in India in 1963-64 with a 12-month Junior Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies. She received her first Ph.D., in Sanskrit and Indian Studies, from Harvard University in June, 1968. She received a D. Phil. in Oriental Studies from Oxford University in February 1973, for which her dissertation was "The Origins of Heresy in Hindu Mythology."

Doniger has taught at Harvard, Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, the University of California at Berkeley, and, since 1978, at the University of Chicago, where she is at present the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions, in the Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Social Thought.

In 1984 she was elected President of the American Academy of Religion, in 1989 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 1996 a Member of the American Philosophical Society, and in 1997 President of the Association for Asian Studies. She serves on the International Editorial Board of the Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1986 she was awarded the Radcliffe Medal; in 1992 the Medal of the Collège de France; in June 2000, the PEN Oakland literary award for excellence in multi-cultural literature, non-fiction, for Splitting the Difference; and in October, 2002, the Rose Mary Crawshay prize from the British Academy, for the best book about English literature written by a woman, for The Bedtrick.

In 2004, she was invited to give the Stanford Presidential Lecture in the Humanities and Arts. Her lecture was entitled, "Self-Imitation in Ancient India, Shakespeare, and Hollywood"^[1]

The Graham School of General Studies of the University of Chicago gave her the award for Excellence in Teaching in Graduate Studies, November 10, 2007, and the American Academy of Religion awarded her the 2008 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.

Doniger has served on History of Religions editorial board since 1979, and is also a member of International Journal of Hindu Studies Advisory Editorial Board.

By 2004, Doniger was the author of 240 published articles.^[2]

Works

Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva

Bruce Long wrote about Doniger's first book:

Every decade or so a scholarly book appears that is recognized immediately as a bench mark in its area of study, a work which, by virtue of the novelty of its approach, of the thoroughness of its research and analysis, will serve for many years as a guide to scholars in charting their own courses. This study of the mythology of Siva is, without doubt, such a book.^{[3] [4]}

The Hindus: An Alternative History

In the Times Literary Supplement, David Arnold wrote of Doniger's 2009 The Hindus: An Alternative History:

The Hindus is a celebration not just of a personal way of seeing Hinduism, but of the boldness and vitality of a textual tradition threatened by those who claim to be its guardians, and who would make of something as rich as myth something as routine as religion. Hinduism, as Doniger presents it, is fortunate not to have had in its long history a pope-like head to constrain inventiveness and “rule certain narratives unacceptable”. The “great pity” is that there are now, as she sees it, some Hindus “who would set up such a papacy in India, smuggling into Hinduism a Christian idea of orthodoxy”.^[5]

In the New York Times, Pankaj Mishra wrote:

This book will no doubt further expose her to the fury of the modern-day Indian heirs of the British imperialists who invented “Hinduism.” Happily, it will also serve as a salutary antidote to the fanatics who perceive — correctly — the fluid existential identities and commodious metaphysic of practiced Indian religions as a threat to their project of a culturally homogenous and militant nation-state.^[6]

In the Washington Post, Michael Dirda wrote:

Wendy Doniger's erudite "alternative history" shouldn't be anyone's introduction to Hinduism. But once you've learned the basics about this most spiritual of cultures, don't miss this equivalent of a brilliant graduate course from a feisty and exhilarating teacher.^[7]

In October 2009, Indian journalist Nilanjana S. Roy claimed that what offends Doniger's opponents is that she often knows more about Hindu traditions than Doniger's critics do. Roy also claimed that egg-throwing is itself a foreign idea to India, which should be condemned by Indian religious traditions. Roy also claimed that Hindu fundamentalists are "terrified" by the prospect of multiple version of Hinduism^[8]

Translation of Vastsyayana's Kamasutra

In a review for The Hindu of Doniger and Sudhir Kakar's Oxford World's Classics translation of Vastsyayana's Kamasutra, Kala Krishnan Ramesh wrote:

The translation's readability comes as much from the clarity of the translated text, its original features — analysing how the woman is not always the object in the original text; exploring the genders perspective (women, homosexual, lesbian, persons of the "third nature") and keeping the commentary separate from the text — as from the general tone of light heartedness, oftentimes breaking into the most unexpectedly droll turns of phrase.^[9]

Criticism

A BBC article wrote about Wendy Doniger as, "Professor Wendy Doniger is known for being rude, crude and very lewd in the hallowed portals of Sanskrit academics. Referring to her works "ranging from Siva: The Erotic Ascetic to Tales of Sex and Violence", the article wrote that her works have "revolved around the subject of sex in Sanskrit texts."^[10][11][12]

Wendy Doniger's article on Hinduism for Microsoft Encarta Encyclopædia which was "unsympathetic and negative, in contrast to the articles on Islam and Christianity" in the encyclopedia. and replaced with an article by Arvind Sharma, a religious scholar at McGill University.^[13]

Wendy Doniger has been criticized by some Hindus and academic scholars, including Krishnan Ramaswamy and Antonio T. De Nicolás, who have argued that her works consists of mistranslations and misuse of psychoanalysis.^[14] Michael Witzel, Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University writes that Wendy Doniger prefers to "always finds a 'hip' translation such as 'he had sex'" which can "simply" be translate ' "he has come together"—just as the Sanskrit says'.^[15] Religious scholar Christopher Framarin of University of Calgary writes that translation of Manusmrti has mistakes.^[16]

Discussions and protests

In 2001, the The Religions in South Asia ( RISA ) subsection of American Academy of Religion organized a panel entitled "Defamation/Anti-Defamation: Hindus in Dialogue with the Western Academy". Malhotra who was invited to the panel criticized few of the American scholars of Hinduism including Doniger as "denying agency and rights to non-westerners", "academic arson" and concluded by saying that Hindus in the diaspora should be included as "dialog representatives" in the joint study of Hinduism.^[13] In September 2002 Rajiv Malhotra, wrote an essay "RISA Lila-1: Wendy's Child Syndrome" which criticized Wendy Doniger and argued the misuse of psychoanalysis.^[13][17]

During a November 2003 University of London lecture, an an egg was thrown at Doniger, which struck a wall behind her.^[18] Shankar Vedantam, writing in the Washington Post, described the more extreme attacks ("tossed eggs to assaults to threats of extradition and prosecution in India") in the following terms:

The attacks against American scholars come as a powerful movement called Hindutva has gained political power in India, where most of the world's 828 million Hindus live. Its proponents assert that Hindus have long been denigrated and that Western authors are imposing a Eurocentric world view on a culture they do not understand."^[19]

Doniger described the controversy as "being fueled by a fanatical nationalism and Hindutva, which says no one has the right to make a mistake, and no one who is not a Hindu has the right to speak about Hinduism at all."^[19] However, Arvind Sharma wrote "There may be a Hindutva connection in what happened in India and the death threats and the person who threw the egg, but there also is a Hindu response."^[19]

Psychoanalysis

Wendy Doniger uses Freudian psychoanalysis in the study of Hindu texts and Hindu Mythology and this has been controversial.^[20] One of her disputed interpretations is related to Mythology of Shiva, who she refers as "erotic ascetic".^[21] Nicholas Kazanas, a European Indologist, referring to Doniger's psychoanalytical works and wrote that Doniger seems to be obsessed with only one meaning, the most sexual imaginable.^[22] In the Journal of Indo-European Studies, Kazanas wrote, "[Doniger] seems to see only one function ... of fertility and sexuality, copulation, defloration, castration and the like: even bhakti 'devotion' is described in stark erotic terms including incest and homosexuality (1980:87-99:125-129). Surely, erotic terms could be metaphors for spiritual or mystical experiences as is evidenced in so much literature?".^[23][20]

Works

Interpretive works

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

• Served as Vedic consultant and co-author, and contributed a chapter ("Part II: The Post-Vedic History of the Soma Plant," pp. 95-147) in Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, by R. Gordon Wasson (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1968). 381 pp.
• "Asceticism and Eroticism" in The Mythology of Siva (Oxford University Press, 1973). 386 pp.
• The Ganges (London: Macdonald Educational, 1975).
• The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology (Berkeley: University of California, 1976). 411 pp.
• Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). 382 pp.
• Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984 ). 361 pp.
• Tales of Sex and Violence: Folklore, Sacrifice, and Danger in the Jaiminiya Brahmana (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985). 145 pp.
• Other Peoples' Myths: The Cave of Echoes. (New York: Macmillan, 1988). 225 pp.

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

• The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth. The 1996-7 ACLS/AAR Lectures. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998; 200 pp.
• Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India. The 1996 Jordan Lectures. Chicago and London: University of London Press and University of Chicago Press, 1999. 376 pp.

• Der Mann, der mit seiner eigenen Frau Ehebruch beging. Mit einem Kommentar von Lorraine Daston. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 1999. 150 pp.
• The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 599 pp. Won the Rose Mary Crawshay prize from the British Academy for the best book about English literature written by a woman, 2002.
• La Trappola della Giumenta. Trans. Vincenzo Vergiani. Milan: Adelphi Edizione, 2003.
• The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 272 pp.
• The Hindus: An Alternative History. New York: Penguin Press, 2009. 789 pp.

Translations

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

• Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook, translated from the Sanskrit. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1975; 357 pp.
• The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1981).
• (with David Grene) Antigone (Sophocles). A new translation for the Court Theatre, Chicago, production of February, 1983.
• Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, in the series Textual Sources for the Study of Religion, edited by John R. Hinnells (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990). 211 pp.
• (with David Grene). Oresteia. A New Translation for the Court Theatre Production of 1986. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). 249 pp.

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

• Mythologies. A restructured translation of Yves Bonnefoy's Dictionnaire des Mythologies, prepared under the direction of Wendy Doniger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1991). 2 vols., c. 1,500 pp.
• The Laws of Manu. A new translation, with Brian K. Smith, of the Manavadharmasastra (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1991).
• Kamasutra. Abridged by Wendy Doniger. Philadelphia and London: Running Press, 2003.
• The Lady of the Jewel Necklace and The Lady Who Shows Her Love. Harsha’s Priyadarsika and Ratnavali. Clay Sanskrit Series. New York: New York University Press, JJC Foundation, 2006.

Edited volumes

Under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

• The Concept of Duty in South Asia. Edited (with J. D. M. Derrett), with an introduction (pp. xiii-xix) and an essay ("The clash between relative and absolute duty: the dharma of demons," pp.96-106) by W. D. O'Flaherty. (London: School of Oriental and African Studies). 240 pp.
• The Critical Study of Sacred Texts. Edited, with an introduction (pp. ix-xiii). (Berkeley: Graduate Theological Union, Religious Studies Series, 1979). 290 pp.
• Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions. Edited, with an introduction (pp. i-xv) and an essay ("Karma and rebirth in the Vedas and Puranas," pp. 1-39). (Berkeley: University of California Press; 1980). 340 pp. Reprinted, Banarsidass, 1999.
• The Cave of Siva at Elephanta. by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Carmel Berkson, and George Michell (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).
• Religion and Change. Edited by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty. History of Religions 25:4 (May, 1986).

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

• Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India. Photographs by Stella Snead; text by Wendy Doniger (pp.3-23) and George Michell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
• Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts. Essays by David Shulman, V. Narayana Rao, A. K. Ramanujan, Friedhelm Hardy, John Cort, Padmanabh Jaini, Laurie Patton, and Wendy Doniger. Edited by Wendy Doniger. (SUNY Press, 1993). 331 pp.
• Off with Her Head! The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Ed., with Howard Eilberg-Schwartz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
• Myth and Method. Ed., with Laurie Patton. Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 1996.

References

External links

• Doniger's homepage at the University of Chicago Divinity School website