Book Reviews by Khadine Morcom
Karma, 2011
Bronkhorst's account of karma aims to provide a concise analytical overview of the concept 'karmi... more Bronkhorst's account of karma aims to provide a concise analytical overview of the concept 'karmic retribution' or 'orthodox karma' (xx) and rebirth in South Asia. He delivers the subject to provide a cultural understanding through origins and teleology. His narrative is primarily through the traditions of Jainism, Buddhism and traditional Brāhmanism from the late half of the 1 st millennium BCE. Bronkhorst examines karmic retribution and rebirth firstly through scriptural chronology. Although these assumptions are debatable, he provides a coherent examination of the subject through a comparative exegesis of the considered traditions. Surprisingly Bronkhorst does not start with the Vedas as the oldest surviving religious texts of India. Although described as "the beginnings of philosophy on the soil of India" (Muller 1919: 33) accordingly "Vedic literature is not the place to look for the origins of the belief in karmic retribution" (3). He argues that the earliest literary sources of karmic retribution arise out of Jainism and Buddhism. His proposal that these sources influenced Brāhmanism (3), is supported through two main elements:
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Book Reviews by Khadine Morcom