Did Brahmins have Power in Premodern India?

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Preface V
3. Contents VII
4. Introduction 1
5. Shaping Policy: Case Study from Ancient Egypt
6. The Political Role of an Egyptian Priest under the Early Ptolemies: The Case of Manetho 9
7. Oracles as an Instrument for Political Decisions and Royal Legitimation: A Case Study of Ancient Egypt 35
8. Experts for Teaching and Consulting
9. Politics in the Life of Daniel the Stylite: The Holy Man as a Political Player in Late Antique Constantinople 55
10. Did Brahmins have Power in Premodern India? 73
11. Instrumentalizing the ‘Priests’
12. Ideologists, Instigators or ‘Stage Props’? Priests and Popular Protest in the English Rising of 1381 97
13. Gender, Politics and Religion in Antiquity: The Challenge of the Reign of Queen Alexandra 127
14. ‘Vassal’ or ‘political player’? Towards a re-assessment of Willibrord’s political activity in Merovingian Francia (AD 690–739) 141
15. Control of Knowledge: Documenting Priestly Power
16. The Power of the Rabbis: Reading Urban Stories of Late Antiquity 161
17. “Domination through Knowledge”: The Sacred Dimension of Bureaucracy in the Oracular Sanctuary of Dodona 173
18. Behind the Scene: Religion at the Service of Politics in Ancient Egypt: Views from Philae Island 199
19. In the Field of Power: Priests and Legitimization
20. Power through Pilgrimage: The Making of the Papacy 215
21. A New Political Order in the Late Sixth Century BC Athens Powered by the Delphic Oracle 231
22. Keepers of the Secrets of the Sky, the Earth, and the Underworld: The High Priests of Ptah at Memphis During the Kushite and the Saite-Persian Periods (c. 728−332 BC) 253
23. Conclusion 307
24. Index of Names 313