In The Nay Science, Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee undertake a careful and rigorous hermeneutical approach to nearly two centuries of German philological scholarship on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita.

INTRODUCTION ; A HISTORY OF GERMAN INDOLOGY ; THE HISTORY OF GERMAN INDOLOGY AS A HISTORY OF METHOD ; THE ORIGINS OF THE HISTORICAL-CRITICAL METHOD IN NEO-PROTESTANTISM OF THE 18TH CENTURY ; THE ORIGINS OF PHILOLOGY IN THE ARGUMENT FOR THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL ; DEFINING THE SCOPE OF INQUIRY ; PLAN OF STUDY ; CHAPTER 1: HISTORICAL IDENTITY AND NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTS IN AN INDO-GERMANIC SETTING ; THE BIRTH OF GERMAN MAHABHARATA STUDIES ; THE INDO-GERMANIC ORIGINAL EPIC: ; THE BUDDHIST POETIC COMPOSITION ; BUDDHISM AND PROTESTANTISM ; PROTESTANTISM, THE COUNTER-REFORMATION, AND THE PROSECUTION OF HERESY ; THE TWIN BRAHMANIC REDACTIONS ; BRAHMANISM AND CATHOLICISM ; RETURN TO THE PROBLEM OF TEXTUAL RECONSTRUCTION ; CHAPTER 2: TEXT-HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION AND THE STRUGGLE FOR AN OBJECTIVE CANON ; THE BHAGAVAD GITA IN GERMAN INDOLOGY ; THE THEISTIC GITA: RICHARD GARBE ; THE EPIC GITA: HERMANN JACOBI ; A PRACTICAL GITA: HERMANN OLDENBERG ; THE TRINITARIAN GITA: RUDOLF OTTO ; THE SOLDIER'S GITA: THEODOR SPRINGMANN ; THE ARYAN GITA: JAKOB WILHELM HAUER ; THE BRAHMANIC GITA: GEORG VON SIMSON ; WHAT IS THE GERMAN GITA?: A REVIEW ; CHAPTER 3: GERMAN INDOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EUROPEAN GEISTESWISSENSCHAFTEN ; PROBLEMS WITH THE CRITICAL METHOD ; THE SCIENTIFICATION OF PROTESTANT THEOLOGY IN THE CRITICAL METHOD ; THE SECULARIZATION OF PROTESTANT THEOLOGY IN THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS ; THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF PROTESTANT THEOLOGY IN INDOLOGY ; THREE NOTIONS OF SCIENCE: POSITIVISM, HISTORICISM, AND EMPIRICISM ; CRITICISMS OF THE POSITIVISTIC NOTION OF TRUTH ; FROM HISTORICISM TO HERMENEUTICS ; CONCLUSION ; WRITING UNDER ERASURE ; CREATING THE OBJECT OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ; HONEST HERETICS OR NEO-BRAHMINS? ; AFTERWORD: GANDHI ON THE GITA PROBLEM ; NOTES ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX

"The Nay Science is an important work of hermeneutic analysis "--Religion Compass "An extraordinary work [and] brilliant in-depth investigation If ever there is a fine specimen of how to do the in-depth history of ideas as it pertains to an academic discipline, this study by Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee ranks very, very highly This is a monumental piece of work, and scholars wanting to think through their own presuppositions and conditionings will ignore it at their peril All hail to two veritable Indian masters of both German and English."--History of Religions "The Nay Science is arguably one of most comprehensive historiographies of Indology, assessing the field's philosophical roots and the implications it has had on both academic and practical discourses about Hinduism and other Indian classical traditions....The Nay Science (a clever play on nescience, or ignorance) speaks to the institutional antagonism of 19th and early 20th century German Indologists towards ancient Indian scriptures, subsequently shaping a paradigm from which many Indologists continue to draw. Their assertion, backed by correspondences between Indologists and their own published works, is not so much a critique of Orientalism as it is a surgical evisceration of the scholarly field that has developed over nearly two centuries."--OPEN Magazine "The Nay Science concludes with some exciting and discomforting questions: How should we navigate and negotiate apparent antitheses: 'modern' and 'traditional,' 'reason' and 'faith'? What pragmatic concerns and consequences should inform our scholarship, such that the humanities can truly humanize us? These questions are key to a critical reorientation, toward thinking about India 'after Indology.'"--American Historical Review "Adluri and Bagchee eschew the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel exercise of excoriating nineteenth-century European scholars for their sins and instead conclude by drawing some lessons from Gadamer and Gandhi on the benefits of an alternative philosophical philology. The points the authors make are relevant to historians of religion no matter what discipline they study."--Religious Studies Review "[The Nay Science] adds significantly to the many recent studies of Orientalism...Highly recommended."--CHOICE "This book begins at a point where Edward Said left off. Rather than replicate the 'Orientalist' critique as so many have done, Adluri and Bagchee offer a diagnosis of German Indology as a form of 'Occidentalism': rather than accomplishing its stated goal of defining the other (which would be 'Orientalism'), it represents the other so as to define itself. The Nay Science challenges scholars to recognize that the 'Brahmanic hypothesis' was not and probably no longer can be an innocuous thesis. The 'corrupting' impact of Brahmanical 'priestcraft' served German Indology as a cover by which to talk about Catholics, Jews, and other 'Semites.'" -- Alf Hiltebeitel, Professor of Religion and Human Sciences, George Washington University "The Nay Science is more than a history of German Indology. Besides offering a highly nuanced critique of scientific positivism and historicism, it makes important interventions in broader debates on the development of the social and human sciences in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Germany, and has much to say regarding the role of race and religion in the formation of German national identity. Last but not least, The Nay Science contributes greatly to our understanding of the origins, nature, and consequences of German orientalism. While the non specialist reader might find this ambitious work daunting in its depth, breadth, and complexity, the authors have produced a remarkable work of scholarship." --Central European History

Vishwa Adluri has a PhD in Philosophy from the New School and a PhD in Indology from Philipps-Universität Marburg. He is Adjunct Associate Professor of Religion at Hunter College. Joydeep Bagchee has a PhD in Philosophy from the New School and is Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at Freie Universität Berlin.