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Vasudha Narayanan

Contact Information

Office: 104 Anderson Hall
Phone: 352-392-1625
Website

Distinguished Professor

Ph.D. University of Bombay
Hinduism in India & the Diaspora

Vasudha Narayanan is Distinguished Professor, Department of Religion, at the University of Florida and a past President of the American Academy of Religion (2001-2002). She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023. She was educated at the Universities of Madras and Bombay in India, and at Harvard University. Her fields of interest are the Hindu traditions in India, Cambodia, and America; visual and expressive cultures in the study of the Hindu traditions; and gender issues. She is currently working on Hindu temples and traditions in Cambodia.

She is the author or editor of nine books and numerous articles, chapters in books, and encyclopedia entries. In addition, she is also the associate editor of the seven-volume Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from several organizations including the Centre for Khmer Studies, the American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Institute of Indian Studies/ Smithsonian, and the Social Science Research Council. She was the president of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies from 1996-1998. Dr. Narayanan was named University of Florida’s Teacher Scholar of the Year in 2010.

Dr. Narayanan and the University of Florida have created the nation’s first Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions (CHiTra) to encourage the research, teaching and public understanding of Hindu culture and traditions. Click here to read the University of Florida News article about CHiTra.

Books:

  • Associate Editor, Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, 2009 – 2024
  • Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls and Darbars. Edited by Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, Astrid Zotter, Albany: SUNY Press, 2021.
  • The Wiley Companion to Material Religion. Vasudha Narayanan, editor. Wiley Blackwell. 2020.
  • The Life of Hinduism (co-edited with John Stratton Hawley, 2007)
  • Hinduism (2004, 2009)
  • The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation, and Ritual (1994)
  • The Tamil Veda: Pillan’s Interpretation of the Tiruvaymoli (co-authored with John Carman, 1989)
  • The Way and the Goal: Expressions of Devotion in the Early Srivaisnava Tradition (1987)

Articles & Chapters in Books:

  • 2024. “Trade Winds, Westerlies, and the Cross Winds of Cultural Contacts: India and other Convergence Zones.” In A Cultural History of Hinduism in the Classical Age, (volume 2 of 6 volumes); volume ed. Adheesh Sathaye, series editor, Karen Pechilis, Bloomsbury, 197-227
  • 2024. “Residing on the hair of Śiva, Rising from the Foot of Viṣṇu: The River Gaṅgā in the Khmer Landscape.” In Pilgrimage, Place, and Pluralism: Essays in Conversation with Diana Eck edited by Jennifer Peace and Elinor Pierce. Monkfish Publishing, 2024, 110-118.
  • 2024. “Women Sharing Bhakti, Women Singing Devotion: Friends, Teachers, and Leaders in the Hindu Diaspora.” In Gendered Agency in Transcultural Hinduism and Buddhism: Nuns, Gurus, and Priestesses, edited by Ute Hüsken, Routledge, Routledge Critical Studies in Religion, Gender and Sexuality, 2024, 98-118.
  • 2023. ‘Paradoxology’: The Art of Praising Vishnu.” in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Comparative Theology; edited by Axel Marc Oaks Takacs and Joseph Kimmel, Wiley-Blackwell, 209-224.
  • 2023. “‘Fortune, Success, Well-being, Victory!’ Connections between India and Cambodia in the First Millennium CE.” In The Oxford History of Hinduism, ed. Knut Jacobsen, Oxford University Press, 23-51.
  • 2023.“Prestige Temples, Performing Arts, and Power: Hindu Immigrants in the United States.” In The Oxford History of Hinduism, ed. Knut Jacobsen, Oxford University Press, 178-208.
  • 2023. Vasudha Narayanan and Prathik Murali, “Dances of War, Pleas for Protection: The Dance of the Defeated Rākṣasas in Tirumaṅkai-āḻvār’s Periya Tirumoḻi”. Journal of Vaishnava Studies, Volume 31 No. 2 Spring 2023 pp. 157-172.
  • 2021. “Nine Nights of Power: Durga, Dolls, and Darbars—An Introduction.” With Ute Hüsken and Astrid Zotter. In Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls and Darbars, edited by Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, Astrid Zotter, Albany: SUNY Press, 2021, 1-13.
  • 2021. “Hindu-Christian Relations through a Performing Arts Lens.” (A chapter responding to the whole book). In The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations, ed. Chad M. Bauman and Michelle Voss Roberts. London and New York: Routledge, 459-475.
  • 2019. Vasudha Narayanan and Jodi Shaw, “Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva Poets in Common Landscapes and Parallel Universes.” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, Vol. 28, no. 1, Fall 2019, 119-136.
  • 2019. “A Note on the Buddha and Buddhism from a Vaiṣṇava Perspective.” Journal of Vaisnava Studies, Vol. 28, no. 1, Fall 2019, pp. 183-196.
  • 2019. “Hinduism and Social Transformation.” Pluriverse: A Post-Development Text. Ed. Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta. New Delhi: Tulika Books.
  • 2018. “Royal Darbar and Domestic Kolus: Social Order, Creation, Procreation, and Re-Creation.” In Nine nights of the Goddess: The Navaratri Festival in South Asia.” Ed. Caleb Simmons, Hilary Rodriguez, and Moumita Sen. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. 2018.
  • 2017. “The “monument Visnuite” at the Musee Guimet and the Luminous Pillar.” In Anna L. Dallapiccola and Anila Verghese, India and Southeast Asia: Cultural Discourses. Mumbai: The K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, 2017, 245-278.
  • 2017. “Extending Selva J. Raj’s Scholarship to Hindu American Temples: Accommodation, Assimilation, and a Dialogue of Action.” In Vernacular Catholicism, Vernacular Saints: Selva Raj on “Being Catholic the Tamil Way.” Edited by Reid Locklin, Albany, NY, SUNY Press, 225-242.
  • 2017. “Matters That Matter: Material Religion in Contemporary India,” in Jacobsen, Knut A. Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India. 329-346.
  • 2017. “Hinduism.” (29,082 words) A completely revised chapter for The Concise Introduction to World Religions, edited by Amir Hussain and Roy Amore. Toronto and NY: Oxford University Press.
  • 2015. “The History of the Academic Study of Religion in Universities, Centers, and Institutes in India.” Numen. Vol. 62, no. 1, 7-39.
  • 2015. “The Hero at Play: Depictions of the Govardhana-Laia story in Khmer art.” Journal of Vaishnava Studies. Vol. 23, no. 2, 131-147.
  • 2014. “Creating Realities, Communicating Dreams, Constructing Temple Lore: Anklets of the Goddess’s Feet at Thirmeeyachur.” In Inventing and Reinventing the Goddess: Contemporary Iterations of Hindu Deities on the Move, ed. Sree Padma, Lantham, MD and London, UK: Lexington Books, 121-142. (2014)
  • 2014. Social and Bhakti Hierarchies in Interpreting the life of Tiruppan Alvar.” Journal of Vaishnava Studies Vol 22/ no 2 (Spring 2014), 221-246.
  • 2014. “Who is the Strong-Armed Monkey who Churns the Ocean of Milk?” UDAYA: Journal of Khmer Studies, 11, 3-28.
  • “Hinduism: Practicing Tradition Today.” In South Asian Religions: Tradition and Today, edited by Karen Pechilis and Selva J. Raj (New York: Routledge), 39-72 (2013)
  • 2012. “Rewriting the Hindu Traditions from Global Perspectives.” In Re-imagining South Asian Religions: Essays in Honour of Professors Harold G. Coward and Ronald W. Neufeldt, edited by Pashaura Singh and Michael Hawley. Leiden: Brill Academic, 66-88.
  • 2012. “Hinduism in America.” The Cambridge History of Religion in America, ed. Stephen Stein. Cambridge University Press
  • 2012. “Hinduism.” Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Edited by Mark Juergensmeyer and Helmut K. Anheier, Sage Publications, volume 2, pp. 793-799
  • 2010. “The Hindu Tradition” in World Religions: Eastern Traditions, ed. by Willard Oxtoby and Roy Amore
  • 2009. “Hindu Attitudes to Genetically Modified Food.” Acceptable Genes: Religious and Cultural Perspectives, edited by Harold Coward and Conrad Brunk. State University of New York Press, 159- 178.
  • 2009. “Cambodia.” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, volume 1. Regions, Pilgrimage, Deities. Edited by Knut Jacobsen, Vasudha Narayanan, Angelika Malinar, and Helene Basu. Brill, 2009, 345-352 (double columns/ 10,000 words).
  • 2009. “Gods and Goddesses—Overview article.” Introductory article to section on Gods, Goddesses and Divine Powers. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, volume 1. Regions, Pilgrimage, Deities. Edited by Knut Jacobsen, Vasudha Narayanan, Angelika Malinar, and Helene Basu. Brill, 2009, 457-468.
  • 2009. “Sri Lakshmi.” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, volume 1. Regions, Pilgrimage, Deities. Edited by Knut Jacobsen, Vasudha Narayanan, Angelika Malinar, and Helene Basu. Brill, 2009, 755-764.
  • 2009. “Venkateswara.” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, volume 1. Regions, Pilgrimage, Deities. Edited by Knut Jacobsen, Vasudha Narayanan, Angelika Malinar, and Helene Basu. Brill, 2009, 781-785.
  • 2008. “’With the earth as a lamp and the sun as the flame…’: Lighting Devotion in South India.” International Journal of Hindu Studies (Springer Verlag) vol. 11 no 3, 227-253
  • 2006. “Shanti: Peace for the Mind, Body, and Soul: Well being, health and healing in the Hindu Traditions.” Teaching Religion and Healing, edited by Linda L. Barnes and Ines M. Talamantes. New York: Oxford University Press, 61-82
  • 2007. “Weaving Garlands of Tamil Poems” in An Anthology of Krishna-Resources, edited by Edwin Bryant.
  • 2007. “Performing Arts, Reforming Rituals,” in Women’s Lives, Women’s Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, edited by Tracy Pintchman
  • 2006. “Sacred Land, Sacred Service: Hindu Adaptations to the American Landscape” in A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multi-religious America, edited by Stephen Prothero (2006)
  • 2005. “Heterogenous Spaces and Modernities: Hindu Rituals to Sacralize the American Landscape.” Journal of Vaishnava Studies (Spring 2005)
  • 2004.“Sacred land, Common ground, Contested territory: The Healing Mother of Velankanni Basilica and the Infant Jesus Shrine in Bangalore” in Journal of Hindu Christian Studies, Vol.17, (Fall 2004)
  • 2004.“Gurus and Goddesses, Deities and Devotees” in The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States, edited by Karen Pechilis (2004)
  • 2003. 2002 American Academy of Religion presidential address “Embodied Cosmologies: Sights of Piety, Sites of Power,” in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 71/3 (Fall 2003)
  • 2002. “Vaishnava Traditions in Cambodia,” in Festschrift for Dennis Hudson, Journal of Vaishnava Studies, 11/1 (September 2002)
  • 2001. “Water, Wood, and Wisdom: Ecological Perspectives from the Hindu Traditions.” Daedalus, 130/4 (Fall 2001)
  • 1997. “‘One Tree is Equal to Ten Sons’: Some Hindu Responses to the Problems of Ecology, Population and Consumption” in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 65/2 (June 1997)