John Nemec
· Assistant Professor of Religious StudiesUniversity of Virginia · Religious Studies
Active 1959–2025
About
John Nemec holds a Ph.D. in South Asia Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.Phil. in Oriental Studies from Oxford University, an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in Religion from the University of Rochester. His graduate training included extensive study of premodern Indian languages such as Classical Sanskrit, Vedic Sanskrit, Pali, and the Prakrits, as well as modern spoken Hindi, with lived experience in Hindi-speaking areas of India. His academic background is complemented by training in theory and methodology in the study of religion. Currently, he is the Editor of the Religion in Translation Series published by Oxford University Press and sponsored by the American Academy of Religion. Since joining the University of Virginia in 2004, he has contributed to the field through his research on Sanskrit texts, Indian philosophy, and religious narratives, with a focus on Tantric and Śaiva traditions, as well as the philosophical and literary history of South Asian religions.
Research topics
- Sociology
- Political Science
- Linguistics
- Computer Science
- Geography
- Psychology
- Economic geography
- Gender studies
- Public relations
- Acoustics
- Law
- Regional science
- Developmental psychology
- Philosophy
- History
- Aesthetics
- Epistemology
- Economics
- Art
- Literature
Selected publications
2025-03-13
book1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This book examines key Sanskrit literary works, arguing that a major and framing literary theme therein involves the proffering of advice, usually by Brahmins and regularly for kings, and queens and princes. Based in the technical literatures on Hindu law and on statecraft (the Dharmaśāstras and the Arthaśāstra and related works), the narratives counsel a model of action that synthesizes views found in both of these types of sources, recommending a kind of virtue ethic that suggests one may do well in the world by being good. Reading the texts for their narrative qualities, which are deeply intertextually formed, this book further argues that the Sanskrit works examined put metaphorical flesh on the bare bones of the doctrines they reflect while also seeking to cultivate in their audiences the inclination habitually to put into practice the counsel they collectively offer.
2025-03-13
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract Chapter 3 critically examines the major narrative theme of the Rājataraṅgiṇī. Like the two epics it explores a kṣatriya milieu inasmuch as the work chronicles the history of the kings and queens of the Kashmir Valley. I argue, however—against the prevailing scholarly opinion—that the Rājataraṅgiṇī chronicles the lives of Kashmir’s rulers not to recommend to its (largely Brahminical) audience world renunciation in a sentiment of “resignation” but to counsel that same Brahminical audience to work productively to model and counsel dharmic action, so as to effect the same in the lives of those in power. In this sense, I read the Rājataraṅgiṇī in a manner consonant with my interpretation of the Mahābhārata, on which Kalhaṇa’s text is modeled. This, then, is a story about kings that primarily is for Brahmins. Counselors can see that their advice was historically put to practice and can be still, if only they can practice the same. Dharma is thus again the primary concern of the work, though its link to the pursuit of prosperity, artha, is implicitly enlaced through the entire narrative as well.
Wizards and Kings, or “Tantra beyond the Tantras”
2025-03-13
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract The Kathāsaritsāgara, examined in Chapter 4, narrates the pursuit of good fortune (artha), of pleasure (kāma) in the form of winning wives, and ultimately of felicity beyond this world, achieved in the form of immortality as a “wizard” or vidyādhara. Its milieu is heavily that of the third of the four varṇas, the vaiśyas, but it is framed and organized by the brāhmaṇa-kṣatriya alliance and features members of both of the top two varṇas as its protagonists. The tone of the text is decidedly less didactic than the works that deal with dharma, and therefore the message it offers is more implicitly stated, though equally clear. Kings and princes should keep the company of trusted ministers, who offer reliable counsel in times of duress, for—purely and simply—they are magically powerful. Here one sees the Brahmin advisor counseling a prince who will be king and doing so in his capacity as an advisor who has access to tantric powers. Tantrism is presented in the text in a manner meant to appeal to a nontantric audience, all while overcoding with the brāhmaṇa-kṣatriya bond the preexistent story about adventuring merchants, the Bṛhatkathā, centering thereby the royal sovereign and his uniquely capable ministerial counselor in the narrative.
Review of Qu’est-ce que la philosophie indienne?
Journal of the American Oriental Society · 2024-08-20
article1st authorCorrespondingQu’est-ce que la philosophie indienne? By Vincent Eltschinger and Isabelle Ratié. Collection Folio Essais. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2023. Pp. 560. €13.50 (paper), €12.99 (ebook).
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies · 2023-10-01
article1st authorCorrespondingAn abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion · 2023-09-01
article1st authorCorrespondingJournal Article What is Religion?: Debating the Academic Study of Religion, Edited by Aaron W. Hughes and Russell T. McCutcheon Get access What is Religion?: Debating the Academic Study of Religion. Edited by Aaron W. Hughes and Russell T. McCutcheon. Oxford University Press, 2021. xii + 365 pages. $110.00 (hardcover), $37.99 (paperback), $34.00 (e-book). John Nemec John Nemec University of Virginia jwn3y@Virginia.EDU Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, lfad057, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfad057 Published: 24 January 2024
Śiva’s Claim to Identity: Can Personalism in a Theistic Tradition of a Strict Identity Survive?
2023-03-06
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingSomānanda’s <i>Śivadṛṣṭi</i> as an Argument against Dharmakīrti
Oxford University Press eBooks · 2023-04-20
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract It is well known that the philosophy of the Buddhist epistemologist Dharmakīrti pervasively influenced the Kashmirian Pratyabhijñā philosopher Utpaladeva (fl. ca. 925–975 CE) and, through him, his grand-disciple Abhinavagupta (fl. ca. 975–1025 CE). This chapter will demonstrate the centrality of the same in the thinking of Utpaladeva’s teacher, Somānanda (fl. ca. 900–950 CE), the founding author of the Pratyabhijñā. Somānanda’s magnum opus, the Śivadṛṣṭi, though it is an eclectic and ranging work that engages a great variety of esoteric religious traditions and orthodox Hindu and Buddhist philosophical schools, takes as a central task the parrying of Dharmakīrti’s antipersonalist philosophy, this by engaging many of its elements in order to articulate a hyperpersonalist and realist, if simultaneously monist, Śaiva ontology. This chapter traces these Buddhist influences in Somānanda’s text and establishes thereby a basis for weighing its legacies in the writings of those who follow him in the guru-śiṣya lineage of the Kashmiri Pratyabhijñā.
Logical Proofs in the Śivadṛṣṭi of Somānanda
2022-01-01
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingIndo-Iranian Journal · 2022-03-16
article1st authorCorresponding
Frequent coauthors
- 12 shared
O. Karban
Izhevsk State Agricultural Academy
- 11 shared
J. Habanec
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
- 11 shared
P. Bém
Czech Academy of Sciences, Nuclear Physics Institute
- 5 shared
V. Presperín
- 4 shared
George Tyras
University of Arizona
- 2 shared
A Krístek
- 2 shared
Zamrazil
- 2 shared
M Goutaib
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