Timothy Lubin

Washington and Lee University, Religion, Faculty Member

Washington and Lee University, Law, Faculty Member

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Historian of religion and law of South and Southeast Asia, working with texts and inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Old Javanese, and Old Tamil to study the formation, spread, and transformation of Brahmanical ideals and institutions in the ancient and medieval periods.

Vice-President of the American Society for Premodern Asia

Visiting Researcher, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo (July–November 2025)

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Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia 24450 USA

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4 Books and Edited Volumes
44 Articles and Chapters
15 Book Reviews

Book Reviews by Timothy Lubin

[Review] The History of the Arthaśāstra: Sovereignty and Sacred Law in Ancient India, by Mark R. McClish

JAOS 144 (2): 463–467, 2024

Book review of: The History of the Arthaśāstra: Sovereignty and Sacred Law in Ancient India. By M... more Book review of: The History of the Arthaśāstra: Sovereignty and Sacred Law in Ancient India. By Mark R. McClish (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

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[Review] Yajnavalkya: A Treatise on Dharma, by Patrick Olivelle

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 84.1, 2021

tā ō visp "always until all", even though his comments (pp. 118-21) make it clear that the expres... more tā ō visp "always until all", even though his comments (pp. 118-21) make it clear that the expression means "until the end of this existence". The text is followed by an extensive set of comments in which Zeini brings together all available material to deepen our understanding of the PYH. He uses a methodical step-by-step analysis of how words are used in the broader Pahlavi literature to grasp how for example key concepts such as ahlāyīh "righteousness" and frārōnīh "goodness" relate to each other in the scholarly exegesis of the text. He clarifies the relevance of terms like bar ud bun "yield and capital" in a liturgical text. This section touches on many areas and should inspire much further discussion. This work represents a big step forward in the study of the Pahlavi versions of the Avesta and will hopefully lead to an increased appreciation of these difficult texts. Zeini has presented a plausible method for studying them that can unlock the store of information which they contain concerning the beliefs and situation of the Zoroastrians after the fall of the Sasanian Empire in 651 CE. Even with the large amount of material presented in this work the PYH still has more to give and Zeini has done an admirable job of making the text accessible to broader circles of research.

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[Review] Rites of the God-King: Śānti & Ritual Change in Early Hinduism, by Marko Geslani (Oxford Ritual Studies, 2018)

Journal of Asian Studies, 2020

In spite of efforts by the later Hindu tradition to define and emphasize a continuity between the... more In spite of efforts by the later Hindu tradition to define and emphasize a continuity between the archaic religion of the Veda and multifarious modes of religion of the “classical” age (the Gupta-Pallava era), the changes that intervened were profound. At the same time, the sources on which to reconstruct the sequence of events and ideas are so isolated and refractory that the basic dynamics of the process remain poorly understood. Marko Geslani tackles such issues from an original and unexpected direction: by focusing attention on the increasing salience of rites of “appeasement” (śānti) to counteract omens and pacify divine powers as developed particularly in the Atharvaveda, and services of experts in astrology.

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[Review] A Dharma Reader: Classical Indian Law, by Patrick Olivelle

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 81.2: 372-374, 2018

A Dharma Reader makes Indian sources accessible not just to readers of classical India but to tho... more A Dharma Reader makes Indian sources accessible not just to readers of classical India but to those interested in the comparative study of law and legal history, or in the intersection of religion and law. The Brahmanical Sanskrit literature on dharma (dharmaśāstra) was long bedeviled by mostly ahistorical treatment, and where interpreters attempted to write its history, they were hobbled by the paucity of properly critical editions of the texts and the difficulty of situating the works and their authors in place and time with any confidence. The largest scholarly landmark in this field through much of the twentieth century, P.V. Kane's multi-volume History of Dharmaśāstra, along with careful studies by Robert Lingat, J.D.M. Derrett, Ludo Rocher, and Richard Lariviere, clarified many points and established some historical benchmarks, but the dates offered, especially for the early works, were stabs in the dark, and did not solve the problem of the state of the sources themselves, especially the "classical" works. This situation has changed dramatically with new critical editions by Lariviere (Nārada-Smṛti), Rocher (Vyavahāra-Cintāmaṇi, Dāyabhāga), and most especially Olivelle himself, who has almost single-handedly re-edited and re-translated the major works (the four Dharmasūtras, the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra (the so-called "Laws of Manu"), the Vaiṣṇava-Dharmaśāstra (alias Viṣṇu-Smṛti), and the Yājñavalkya-Dharmaśāstra (forthcoming). The other major scholastic work relevant to India's legal history, Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra (a unique treatise on political science, a topic that was subsequently swallowed up by Dharmaśāstra), has been provided with a new textual study by Olivelle's student Mark McClish, and a new translation by Olivelle himself. All of this work has permitted a tremendous clarification of the development of Dharmaśāstra and, by analysing those works in light of other Sanskrit literature and early Indian epigraphy, of the historical development of law in India. This volume provides an attractive point of entry for students of Indian history, religion, and culture, as well as comparativists. This volume should go a long way towards integrating Indian material into curricula of comparative legal history and legal theory. Olivelle begins by citing (and explaining for non-lawyers) H.L.A. Hart's distinction between primary rules and secondary rules, announces that his book will deal only with the second sort, and goes on to consider Hart's three types of secondary rules: rules of recognition, rules of change, and rules of adjudication. This provides the organizing rubric for the book, with rules of recognition forming the focus of Part I (on "the nature and epistemology of dharma"), and Part II devoted to rules of adjudication (on "courts of law and legal procedure", i.e., vyavahāra). (Ancient India did not have a systematic framework for rules of change; changes occurred either through royal decrees or tweaking the rules of recognition to allow new options, regional customs, or the like, a topic addressed in Part I.) This organization of the material will help those outside of classical Indian studies to make sense of what the Indian authors were up to. ...

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[Review] Ludo Rocher, Studies in Hindu Law and Dharmaśāstra, edited by Donald R. Davis, Jr.

Religions of South Asia 8.2 (2014): 242-245, 2014

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[Review] Rites et pratiques de l'hospitalité: Mondes juifs et indiens anciens, by Philippe Bornet (Franz Steiner Verlag, 2010).

The study of religion as a field distinct from the sorts of training and inquiry traditionally co... more The study of religion as a field distinct from the sorts of training and inquiry traditionally conducted in seminaries, yeshivas, madrasas, and monasteries is intrinsically comparative. The very category of religion as something spanning cultures and periods, along with most of the terminology and corresponding concepts employed in the field, implies that the various "parochial" phenomena that form the object of study share many features and follow patterns that are discernable only when viewed from the analytical distance of comparison. The founding figures of the field (notably, E. B. Tylor, J. G. Frazer, Gerardus van der Leeuw, Emile Durkheim, and Mircea Eliade) embraced this principle with gusto, taking an encyclopedic approach often aimed at providing a single, global explanation or rationale for religion in all its forms. From the middle of the twentieth century, a distaste for the overreaching or overhomogenizing excesses of such projects, along with the broader academic trend toward narrow specialization and an emphasis on the uniqueness of individual cultures, led to a widespread retreat from explicit comparison and indeed a good deal of skepticism for those who persisted with comparative studies. The present volume, based on Philippe Bornet's doctoral dissertation at the University of Lausanne, provides a model of comparative study of religion based on several factors.

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