The Early History of Renunciation

Abstract

The terms ‘renunciation’ and ‘renouncer’ have become commonplace in modern scholarship on ancient and medieval Indian religions. One of the prominent examples of the use of these terms is the seminal study of Louis Dumont (1960), ‘World Renunciation in Indian Religions’, which had a profound impact on later scholarship. He makes several sweeping assertions relating to the centrality of renunciation both within Hinduism and more generally in Indian religions. ‘The secret of Hinduism’, he claims, ‘may be found in the dialogue between the renouncer and the man-in-the-world’ (37). While the ‘man-in-the-world’ is bound in a network of relationships including caste, the renouncer ‘depends upon no one but himself, he is alone’; ‘he thinks as an individual and this is the distinctive trait which opposes him to the man-in-the-world and brings him closer to the western thinker’ (46). It is not this chapter’s intention to analyse these assertions or determine their historical accuracy. Rather, the beginning of this chapter, devoted to exploring the origins of the institution that Dumont elevates to such a central position, defines the terms and categories used. What is ‘renunciation’? Who is a ‘renouncer’? To which Indian institutions and indigenous terms and categories do they refer?