Envisaging india--A Essay on Zimmer, Eliade and Dumont

Abstract

In this paper, three Western scholars, namely,Heinrich Zimmer (1890-1943), Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) and Louis Dumont (1911-1998), whose works on Indian religious culture had far-reaching influence in the second half of the last century, are discussed and evaluated. Zimmer’s works on Hindu Geistesleben, especially esoteric imagination, form a new point of departure in terms of Indian studies in the States after World War II. Mircea Eliade’s idea of homo religiosus, which became the dominant theme in the studies of religion after 1960 in the States, as he stated, is from his Indian experience. Louis Dumont’s bold idea of homo hierarchicus on explicating the ideological configuration of caste system begins a new era in the studies of Indian society. The three scholars are all European origin who grew up at the heyday of Orientalism and colonialism. They either chose deliberately to stay in the States or kept close contact with Anglo-Saxon academe. Oriental encounter brought them to India and they were captivated by what they had envisioned and pursued it with fervent ardor to make explicit what is distinctive Hindu religious life. In the process of questing for the Hindu religious truth, they redefined or reexamined their own cultural roots.