This volume brings together sixteen articles on the religions, literatures and histories of South and Central Asia in tribute to Patrick Olivelle, one of North America's leading Sanskritists and historians of early India. An exceptionally prolific scholar, Olivelle's best-known works include 'Manu's Code of Law' (2005), 'The Early Upani¿ads' (1998) and 'The Asrama System' (1993). Over the last four decades, the focus of his scholarship has been on the ascetic and legal traditions of India, but his work as both a researcher and a teacher extends beyond early Indian religion and literature. 'Religion and Identity and South Asia and Beyond' is a testament to that influence.

Introduction: Patrick Olivelle and Indology; Major Publications of Patrick Olivelle; PART I. WORD, TEXT, CONTEXT; The Elusive Snataka; Who Gets to Live Forever in Ancient India? Rethinking ayus ("life") in the Rgveda; One Yajñavalkya... Two? On the (Questionable) Historicity of a Literary Figure; A Theologian in a South Indian Kingdom: The Historical Context of the Jivanmuktiviveka of Vidyaranya; The Rhetoric of Secrecy in the Upani¿ads; PART II. CUSTOM AND LAW; Punishing Puns: Etymology as Linguistic Ideology in Hindu and British Traditions; Matrilineal Adoption, Inheritance Law, and Rites for the Dead among Hindus in Medieval Kerala; Punishing in Public: Imposing Moral Self-Dominance in Normative Sanskrit Sources; PART III. BUDDHISTS AND JAINS AS SELVES AND OTHERS; How the Buddha Dealt with Non-Buddhists; Sacrifice and Asceticism in Early Mahayana Buddhism; Text and Image: Identifying Ellora's Jain Deities; PART IV. (RE)CONSIDERING GEOGRAPHICAL AND CONCEPTUAL BOUNDARIES; Spiritual Practice and Corporate Identity in Medieval Sufi Communities of Iran, Central Asia, and India: The Khalvati/'Ishqi/Shattari Continuum; Digesting the Sacrifices: Ritual Internalization in Jewish, Hindu, and Manichaean Traditions; The Hindutva Underground: Hindu Nationalism and the Indian National Congress in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial India; Marking the Boundaries of a New Literary Identity: The Assertion of 'Dalit Consciousness' in Dalit Literary Criticism; Young Svetaketu in America: Learning to be Hindu in the Diaspora; List of Contributors