For centuries the figure who evoked India to the West has been the ascetic, the yogi, the religious loner, the person who renounced home and family. Yet through all those years it has actually been householders who set most of the tone and terms of Hindu life. This book gets at the roots of the concept "householder," and we are guided, appropriately enough, not by a lone scholar but by a team — members of the distinguished academic family gathered around Stephanie
Jamison and Patrick Olivelle.
Patrick Olivelle is Professor Emeritus, University of Texas at Austin. He was President of the American Oriental Society. The author of over 30 books and 50 articles, his books have won awards from American Academy of Religion and Association of Asian Studies. His major publications include: Yajñavalkya: A Treatise on Dharma; Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmasastra; Reader on Dharma: Classical Indian Law; King,
Governance, and Law in Ancient India; Visnu's Code of Law; The Life of the Buddha; Manu's Code of Law; Upanisads; and Asrama System.