About

James McHugh is a Professor of South Asian religions at the University of Southern California. He holds a B.A. Hons. in Philosophy from Cambridge University, an M.Phil. in Classical Indian religions from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Harvard University. His scholarly work focuses on pre-modern South Asian texts, history, and religions, working with sources in Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit, and covering a broad historical period from several centuries BCE through the early second millennium CE. McHugh specializes in cultural history and material culture, analyzing texts across genres including literature and medicine, and working with Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain sources. His research includes the material culture of South Asian religions, the role of smell and aromatics in religion, the history of perfumery, and the history of alcohol and drugs in India. He is the author of two books: 'Sandalwood and Carrion,' which is the first comprehensive study of the sense of smell and aromatics in pre-modern Indian culture and religion, and 'An Unholy Brew,' the first detailed monograph on the history of alcohol and drugs in pre-modern India. McHugh's work involves textual analysis, fieldwork in India and China, and exploration of technological and legal aspects of fermentation and intoxication in ancient Indian texts. He has been recognized with several fellowships and awards, including a fellowship at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University, NEH and ACLS Fellowships, and the Jerry Stannard Award for his article on the history of pharmacology.

Research topics

• Biology
• History
• Food science
• Literature
• Art
• Ancient history
• Geography
• Classics
• Religious studies
• Philosophy

Selected publications

• Canadian Senate Reform: Lessons from Its First Decade, 1867–78

  International Journal of Canadian Studies · 2024-07-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  During the 19th century and through the 20th century, the role of the parliamentary upper house (especially, but not exclusively, within the Westminster system of government) changed in subtle, yet dramatic, ways. Among those changes was increasing deference to elected lower houses of parliament, a reduction in partisanship in its actions and legislative goals, the development and pursuit of greater specialization of interest and function, appeals to the public interest beyond the electoral mandate, and greater practical attention to technical overview and improvement of legislation and policy, especially through the engagement of the committee process. This article argues that the role of the current Senate of Canada is a result of that historical transformation and was evident as early as the first decade of its existence (consistent with an institutional evolution that continues through the 21st century) and should be strongly considered in relation to current and future proposals for its reform.

  PublisherDOI

• Intoxicating Nectars of Plenty Reflections on Wine and Other Drinks in Ancient South Asia

  2024-10-08

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This introductory chapter frames the collection of papers. It is time that we moved beyond merely noting the presence of “imported” Hellenistic wine imagery in Gandhāra, and the view of visual imagery as mere documentary evidence for wine culture in the region: surviving representations of wine culture from Gandhāra are just as layered and historically complex as Renaissance Venetian depictions of The Wedding at Cana. The papers in this issue add exactly that sort of nuance to our understanding of wine in Gandhāra. After a brief summary of what we know about early alcohol production and consumption in South Asia as a whole, the chapter considers what was distinctive about a vinocentric alcohol culture in Gandhāra. How did external trade in wine from Gandhāra affect wine culture in South Asia as a whole? As a somewhat exceptional drink in the South Asian context, how might wine culture have been considered in Buddhist contexts?

  PublisherDOI

• Review of The Charter of Visnusena

  Journal of the American Oriental Society · 2023-06-09

  article1st authorCorresponding

  
 
 
 The Charter of Viṣṇuṣeṇa. Translation and Study by Harald Wiese and Sadananda Das. Studia Indologica Universitatis Halensis, vol. 11. Halle an der Saale: UniversitätsverlaG Halle-Wittenberg, 2019. Pp. 166. € 59.
 
 

  PublisherDOI

• Dr. Mildred Schwartz (1932-2023)

  The American Review of Canadian Studies · 2023-10-02

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• <i>Federalism in Canada: Contested Concepts and Uneasy Balances</i>, by Thomas O. Hueglin

  Publius The Journal of Federalism · 2022-01-12

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Federalism has been, arguably, the most contentious subject within Canadian politics. The long history of scholarship within this field has been distinguished and well developed. Therefore, additions to the field can elicit a reflexive reaction as being potentially redundant. However, Thomas Hueglin’s book on the subject offers an important overview and update. It is particularly impressive in its effort to combine theoretical and applied perspectives while honoring the considerable body of literature that has preceded it. This book will be especially useful to teachers and researchers who are seeking initiation into the subject of Canadian federalism, as well as a wider audience that seeks to understand and appreciate the complexities and possibilities of federalism throughout the modern world. Hueglin begins, appropriately, with a survey of the considerable academic literature on this subject that was prominent during the 1970s and 1980s, reflecting particularly upon his personal experience as a post-doctoral researcher...

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• Drugs in Early South Asia

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2022-03-18 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Contrary to myth, little evidence exists for extensive drug use in ancient India and South Asia. In the earliest texts, the Vedas, a plant beverage called soma was prepared for offerings to the gods and ritual consumption. The source of soma is now forgotten and the quest to identify it, from alcohol to mushrooms, best reflects modern theories of drugs and religion. Soma was a singular ritual drug yet with early substitutes. Research identifies alcohol as the sole ancient intoxicant consistently consumed and regulated in India. Betel arrived in the early first millennium and unlike alcohol was universally acceptable, if often classified as a perfume rather than intoxicant. Evidence for cannabis and opium use comes much later in the early second millennium CE. Yet once established, these drugs thrived, rapidly assimilated into traditional theories and practices. Notably newer drugs became incorporated into the ancient origin myth of alcohol, the prototypical intoxicant.

  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021-10-20

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  The introduction briefly frames the project in terms of the study of drugs, alcohol, and altered states of consciousness in South Asian history and religions. What sort of evidence exists for writing a history of alcohol in India and what are the limits of this archive? What are the methodological and philological difficulties to be overcome in writing this sort of history of India? This chapter also presents a brief survey of previous scholarship on this topic and raises the question of whether this book should be considered controversial or offensive. The chapter concludes with an outline of the book and an explanation for the organization of topics within the book.

  PublisherDOI

• Firewater and Corpse-Reviver

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021-10-20

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Chapter 9 contains some very brief observations on what happened to the drinks, ideas, narratives, and rituals discussed in this book over the later second millennium CE. Although limited to certain narrow sectarian and professional contexts, many of these ancient intellectual resources still formed a repertoire of materials with which to think about drink and drugs in very changed historical circumstances. The chapter first examines what happened to traditional methods of <italic>surā</italic> brewing, and how distillation was incorporated, practically and conceptually. Then the chapter briefly considers how tobacco was described and classified within the world of Sanskrit texts. Although this period witnessed new technologies and substances, the Sanskritic tradition continued to adapt to these new situations, often by having recourse to ancient ideas and motifs.

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• Surā Regained

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021-10-20

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  Chapter 8 presents a brief, simplified account of how drink was used in a selection of Tantric rituals, mainly as presented in some (though by no means all) Hindu Tantras, and in particular in the writings of the Kashmiri author Abhinavagupta. Additionally, this chapter explores a later text that contains a spectacular description of the personified goddess of liquor: Surā (and her nine cups): a mythological account of how humans came to have access to all the intoxicating substances they now possess. This text also mentions cannabis, which is discussed here along with opium, considering some ways in which new substances were incorporated into Indian religious and intellectual traditions.

  PublisherDOI

• Luxurious, Erotic Drinking in Literary Texts

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021-10-20

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  A more poetic, literary style goes hand in hand with more elite drinking. Chapter 4 explores a range of texts on such drinking, which often involves servants, privacy, precious vessels, imported wine, erotic encounters, intense literary moods, and perfumed betel. Again, the conventions of genre are very much in evidence here, so this chapter is more a guide to those features of literature than a study of practice. The chapter also considers representations of ancient Indian “wine talk” and presents some didactic passages on how to drink properly, including a few from the <italic>Kāmasūtra</italic>. Additionally, the chapter examines the small number of Sanskrit texts devoted primarily to the pleasures and purposes of drinking.

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Frequent coauthors

• Garbis Iradian

  8 shared

• Enrique Gelbard

  8 shared

• Christian Beddies

  8 shared

• Laure Redifer

  International Monetary Fund

  8 shared

• Marcus Missal

  UCLouvain

  6 shared

• Θεοδώρα Κοσμά

  ATEbank (Greece)

  6 shared

• S. C. Giess

  Dartmouth College

  4 shared

• David B. Edelman

  Dartmouth College

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2015-2016)
• American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (2014-2015)
• Jerry Stannard Memorial Award in the history of pharmacology…
• Fellow, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University (2010…