Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty
Doniger in 2025
Born	Wendy Doniger (1940-11-20)November 20, 1940 (age 85) New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Radcliffe College (BA) Harvard University (PhD) Oxford University (DPhil)
Scientific career
Fields	Sanskrit literature Hinduism Mythology History of Religions
Institutions	University of Chicago
Doctoral advisor	Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr. (Harvard) R.C.Zaehner (Oxford)
Doctoral students	Jeffrey Kripal,Alexander Argüelles[1]

Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an AmericanIndologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar ofSanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works includeThe Hindus: An Alternative History;Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva;Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook;The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology;Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts; andThe Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit.^[2]

She is theMircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of History of Religions at theUniversity of Chicago, and has taught there since 1978.^[2] In 1998 she served as president of theAssociation for Asian Studies .^[3]

Wendy Doniger was born in New York City to immigrant non-observant Jewish parents, and raised inGreat Neck, New York, where her father, Lester L. Doniger (1909–1971), ran a publishing business. While in high school, she studied dance underGeorge Balanchine andMartha Graham.^[4]

She graduatedsumma cum laude inSanskrit and Indian Studies fromRadcliffe College in 1962,^[4] and received her M.A. fromHarvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in June 1963. She then studied inIndia in 1963–1964 with a 12-monthJunior Fellowship from theAmerican Institute of Indian Studies. She received a Ph.D. fromHarvard University in June 1968, with a dissertation onAsceticism and Sexuality in the Mythology ofSiva, supervised byDaniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr. She obtained a D. Phil. inOriental Studies fromOxford University, in February 1973, with a dissertation onThe Origins of Heresy in Hindu Mythology, supervised byRobert Charles Zaehner.

Doniger held theMircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Chair in History of Religions at the University of Chicago.^[4][5] She is the editor of the scholarly journalHistory of Religions,^[6] having served on its editorial board since 1979, and has edited a dozen other publications in her career. In 1985, she was elected president of theAmerican Academy of Religion,^[7] and in 1997 President of theAssociation for Asian Studies.^[3] She serves on the International Editorial Board of theEncyclopædia Britannica.

She was invited to give the 2010Art Institute of Chicago President's Lecture at theChicago Humanities Festival, which was titled, "TheLingam Made Flesh: Split-Level Symbolism in Hindu Art".^[8]

Since she began writing in the 1960s, Doniger has gained the reputation of being "one of America's major scholars in the humanities".^[9] Assessing Doniger's body of work, K. M. Shrimali, Professor of Ancient Indian History at theUniversity of Delhi, writes:

... it (1973) also happened to be the year when her first major work in early India's religious history, viz.,Siva, the Erotic Ascetic was published and had instantly become a talking point for being a path-breaking work. I still prescribe it as the most essential reading to my postgraduate students at the University of Delhi, where I have been teaching a compulsory course on 'Evolution of Indian Religions' for the last nearly four decades. It was the beginning of series of extremely fruitful and provocative encounters with the formidable scholarship of Wendy Doniger.^[10]

Doniger is a scholar ofSanskrit and Indian textual traditions.^[2] By her self-description,

I myself am by both temperament and training inclined to texts. I am neither an archaeologist nor an art historian; I am a Sanskritist, indeed a recovering Orientalist, of a generation that framed its study of Sanskrit with Latin and Greek rather than Urdu or Tamil. I've never dug anything up out of the ground or established the date of a sculpture. I've labored all my adult life in the paddy fields of Sanskrit, ...^[11]

Her books both inHinduism and other fields have been positively reviewed by the Indian scholarVijaya Nagarajan^[12] and the American Hindu scholarLindsey B. Harlan, who noted as part of a positive review that "Doniger's agenda is her desire to rescue the comparative project from the jaws of certain proponents ofpostmodernism".^[13] Of herHindu Myths: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit, theIndologistRichard Gombrich wrote: "Intellectually, it is a triumph..."^[14] Doniger's (then O'Flaherty) 1973 bookAsceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Śiva was a critique of the "Great traditionŚivapurāṇas and the tension that arises between Śiva's ascetic and erotic activities."^[15] Richard Gombrich called it "learned and exciting";^[14] however,John H. Marr was disappointed that the "regionalism" so characteristic of the texts is absent in Doniger's book, and wondered why the discussion took so long.^[15][16] Doniger'sRigveda, a translation of 108 hymns selected from the canon, was deemed among the most reliable byhistorian of religionIoan P. Culianu.^[17] However, in an email message,Michael Witzel called it "idiosyncratic and unreliable just like her Jaiminiya Brahmana or Manu (re-)translations."^[18]

This sectionmay beunbalanced towards certain viewpoints. Please helpimprove it by adding information on neglected viewpoints. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page.(August 2020)

Beginning in the early 2000s, some conservative diaspora Hindus started to question whether Doniger accurately describedHindu traditions.^[19] Together with some of her colleagues, she was the subject of a critique by Hindu right-wing activist speakerRajiv Malhotra,^[20] for usingpsychoanalytic concepts to interpret non-Western subjects.Aditi Banerjee, a co-author of Malhotra, criticised Wendy Doniger as grossly misquoting the text ofValmiki Ramayana.^[21]

Christian Lee Novetzke, associate professor ofSouth Asian Studies at theUniversity of Washington, summarizes this controversy as follows:

Wendy Doniger, a premier scholar of Indian religious thought and history expressed through Sanskritic sources, has faced regular criticism from those who consider her work to be disrespectful of Hinduism in general.^[22]

Novetzke cites Doniger's use of "psychoanalytical theory" as

... a kind of lightning rod for the censure that these scholars receive from freelance critics and 'watch-dog' organizations that claim to represent the sentiments of Hindus.^[22]

PhilosopherMartha Nussbaum, concurring with Novetzke, adds that while the agenda of those in theAmerican Hindu community who criticize Doniger appears similar to that of theHindu right-wing in India, it is not quite the same since it has "no overt connection to national identity", and that it has created feelings of guilt among American scholars, given the prevailing ethos of ethnic respect, that they might have offended people from another culture.^[23]

While Doniger has agreed that Indians have ample grounds to rejectpostcolonial domination, she claims that her works are only a single perspective which does not subordinate Indian self-identity.^[24]

Her authorship of the section describing Hindu Religion inMicrosoft's Encarta Encyclopedia was criticized for being politically motivated and distorted. Following a review, the article was withdrawn.^[25] Patak Kumar notes that Doniger has given a "dispassionate secular critique" of Hinduism, which is met with defensive responses by Indian scholars such asVaradaraja V. Raman, who acknowledged the "sound scholarship" of Doniger, but urged "appreciation and sensitivity" when "analyzing works regarded as sacred by vast numbers of people."^[26]

Doniger's trade book,The Hindus: An Alternative History was published in 2009 by Viking/Penguin. According to theHindustan Times,The Hindus was a No. 1bestseller in its non-fiction category in the week of October 15, 2009.^[27] Two scholarly reviews in theSocial Scientist and theJournal of the American Oriental Society, though praising Doniger for her textual scholarship, criticized both Doniger's poor historiography and her lack of focus.^[28][29] In the popular press, the book has received many positive reviews, for example from theLibrary Journal,^[30] theTimes Literary Supplement,^[31] theNew York Review of Books,^[32]The New York Times,^[33] andThe Hindu.^[34]In January 2010, theNational Book Critics Circle namedThe Hindus as a finalist for its 2009 book awards.^[35] TheHindu American Foundation protested this decision, alleging inaccuracies and bias in the book.^[36]

In 2011, a lawsuit was filed against Doniger and Penguin books byDinanath Batra on the grounds that the book intentionally offended or outraged the religious sentiments of Hindus, an action punishable by criminal prosecution underSection 295A of the Indian Penal Code.^[37] In 2014, as part of a settlement agreement reached with plaintiff,The Hindus was recalled byPenguin India.^[38][39][40] Indian authors such asArundhati Roy,Partha Chatterjee,Jeet Thayil, and Namwar Singh inveighed against the publisher's decision.^[41][42] The book has since been published in India by Speaking Tiger Books.^[43]

• 1989 elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences^[44]
• 1996 elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society^[45]
• 2000PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for excellence in multi-cultural literature, non-fiction, forSplitting the Difference^[46]
• 2002Rose Mary Crawshay prize from theBritish Academy, for the best book about English literature written by a woman, forThe Bedtrick^[47]
• 2008Martin E. Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award from theAmerican Academy of Religion^[48]
• 2015Charles Homer Haskins Prize of theAmerican Council of Learned Societies^[49]

Doniger has written 16 books, translated (primarily from Sanskrit to English) with commentary nine other volumes, has contributed to many edited texts and has written hundreds of articles in journals, magazines and newspapers. These includeNew York Times Book Review,London Review of Books, theTimes Literary Supplement,The Times,The Washington Post,U.S. News & World Report,International Herald Tribune,Parabola,The Chronicle of Higher Education,Daedalus,The Nation, and theJournal of Asian Studies.^{[citation needed]}

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

• Served as Vedic consultant and co-author, and contributed a chapter ("Part II: The Post-Vedic History of the Soma Plant," pp. 95–147) inSoma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, byR. Gordon Wasson (New York:Harcourt Brace, 1968).
• Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva (Oxford University Press, 1973).
• The Ganges (London: Macdonald Educational, 1975).
• The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology (Berkeley:University of California, 1976).
• Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1980).
• Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984 ).
• Tales of Sex and Violence: Folklore, Sacrifice, and Danger in the Jaiminiya Brahmana (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985).
• Other Peoples' Myths: The Cave of Echoes. (New York: Macmillan, 1988).

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

• The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth. The 1996–1997 ACLS/AAR Lectures. New York:Columbia University Press, 1998.
• Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India. The 1996 Jordan Lectures. Chicago and London:University of London Press and University of Chicago Press, 1999.
• Der Mann, der mit seiner eigenen Frau Ehebruch beging. Mit einem Kommentar vonLorraine Daston. Berlin:Suhrkamp, 1999.
• The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
• La Trappola della Giumenta. Trans. Vincenzo Vergiani. Milan: Adelphi Edizione, 2003.
• The Woman Who Pretended to Be Who She Was. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
• The Hindus: An Alternative History. New York:Penguin Press, 2009.
• The Donigers of Great Neck: A Mythologized Memoir. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2019.

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

• Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook, translated from the Sanskrit. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1975.
• The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1981).
• (withDavid Grene)Antigone (Sophocles). A new translation for the Court Theatre, Chicago, production of February 1983.
• Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, in the series Textual Sources for the Study of Religion, edited by John R. Hinnells (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
• (with David Grene).Oresteia. A New Translation for the Court Theatre Production of 1986. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

• Mythologies. A restructured translation ofYves Bonnefoy's Dictionnaire des Mythologies, prepared under the direction of Wendy Doniger (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1991). 2 vols.
• The Laws of Manu. A new translation, with Brian K. Smith, of theManavadharmasastra (Harmondsworth:Penguin Classics, 1991).
• Vātsyāyana Kāmasūtra. A new translation by Wendy Doniger andSudhir Kakar. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• The Lady of the Jewel Necklace and The Lady Who Shows Her Love.Harsha'sPriyadarsika andRatnavali.Clay Sanskrit Series. New York:New York University Press,JJC Foundation, 2006.

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:

• The Concept of Duty in South Asia. (with J. D. M. Derrett). (London:School of Oriental and African Studies).
• The Critical Study of Sacred Texts. (Berkeley:Graduate Theological Union, Religious Studies Series, 1979).
• Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions. (Berkeley:University of California Press; 1980).
• Elephanta: The Cave of Siva. Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Carmel Berkson, and George Michell (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).ISBN 978-0-691-04009-7
• Religion and Change. Edited by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty.History of Religions 25:4 (May 1986).

Published under the name of Wendy Doniger:

• Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India. Photographs byStella Snead; text by Wendy Doniger and George Michell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
• Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts. Essays byDavid Shulman,V. Narayana Rao,A. K. Ramanujan,Friedhelm Hardy,John Cort,Padmanabh Jaini,Laurie Patton, and Wendy Doniger. Edited by Wendy Doniger. (SUNY Press, 1993).
• Off with Her Head! The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Ed., withHoward Eilberg-Schwartz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
• Myth and Method. Ed., with Laurie Patton. Virginia:University of Virginia Press, 1996.
• The Norton Anthology of World Religions: Hinduism. Ed., withJack Miles. New York: Norton, 2015.

• Doniger, Wendy, "The Rise and Fall of Warhorses" (review ofDavid Chaffetz,Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires, Norton, 2024, 424 pp.),The New York Review of Books, vol. LXXII, no. 6 (10 April 2025), pp. 17–19. "Unlike cows,horses, whose teeth are quite dull, pull up grass by the roots rather than biting off the blades, or they nibble it right down to the ground, thus quickly destroying the land, which may require some years to recover.... [H]orses in the wild... range constantly to find new territory... [T]he horse came to symbolizeconquest through its own naturalimperialism. Thesteppes brednomadic horses and nomadichordes.... Men wagedwar to get other people's horses so that they could wage war.Horsepower... remained the basic unit of power for centuries.... But thehorse-breeding people of the steppes never succeeded in conquering the part of the world west of theCarpathians and theAlps, norcivilizations.... wheresea power... was decisive." (p. 17.)

• A. K. Ramanujan, author of300 Ramayanas
• Censorship in India

• Marr, John H. (1976). "Review of Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty:Asceticism and eroticism in the mythology of Śiva. (School of Oriental and African Studies.) Oxford University Press, 1973".Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.39 (3):718–719.doi:10.1017/s0041977x00051892.JSTOR 614803.S2CID 163033725.
• Rocher, Ludo (April–June 2012). "Review:The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger".Journal of the American Oriental Society.132 (2):302–304.doi:10.7817/jameroriesoci.132.2.0302.JSTOR 10.7817/jameroriesoci.132.2.0302.
• Shrimali, K. M. (July–August 2010). "Review ofThe Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger".Social Scientist.38 (7/8):66–81.JSTOR 27866725.
• Taylor, McComas (June 2011). "Mythology Wars: The Indian Diaspora, "Wendy's Children" and the Struggle for the Hindu Past".Asian Studies Review.35 (2):149–168.doi:10.1080/10357823.2011.575206.S2CID 145317607.
• Agarwal, V. (2014). New stereotypes of Hindus in Western Indology.ISBN 978-1-5058-8559-0
• Rajiv Malhotra (2016), Academic Hinduphobia:A Critique of Wendy Doniger's Erotic School of Indology.ISBN 978-93-85485-01-5
• Antonio de Nicolas, Krishnan Ramaswamy, and Aditi Banerjee (eds.) (2007),Invading the Sacred: An Analysis Of Hinduism Studies In America. Rupa & Co.

Wikiquote has quotations related toWendy Doniger.

• Doniger's homepage at theUniversity of Chicago Divinity School website
• Wendy Doniger from Stanford University Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts

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