Sandalwood and Carrion Smell in Indian Religion and Culture

James McHugh offers the first comprehensive examination of the concepts and practices related to smell in pre-modern India. Drawing on a wide range of textual sources, from poetry to medical texts, he shows the deeply significant religious and cultural role of smell in India throughout the first millennium CE. McHugh describes sophisticated arts of perfumery, developed in temples, monasteries, and courts, which resulted in worldwide ocean trade. He shows that various religious discourses on the purpose of life emphasized the pleasures of the senses, including olfactory experience, as a valid end in themselves. Fragrances and stenches were analogous to certain values, aesthetic or ethical, and in a system where karmic results often had a sensory impact-where evil literally stank-the ethical and aesthetic became difficult to distinguish. Sandalwood and Carrion explores smell in pre-modern India from many perspectives, covering such topics as philosophical accounts of smell perception, odors in literature, the history of perfumery in India, the significance of sandalwood in Buddhism, and the divine offering of perfume to the gods.

Acknowledgments; Preface; Part One: Smells in Theory; 1 INTRODUCTION; 2 EARTH, WIND, FOUL & FRAGRANT: THE THEORY OF SMELLING & ODORS IN MEDIEVAL SOUTH ASIA; Part Two: Smells in the World; 3 LOTUS, FISH, & COWS: THE SMELL-SCAPE OF TRADITIONAL SOUTH ASIA; 4 FLOWERS & FISH IN THE MAH?BH?RATA; Part Three: Smells in Practice; 5 MOON JUICE & UPROAR: PERFUMERY TEXTS; 6 ALLIES, ENEMIES, & YAK?A MUD: PERFUMES; Part Four: Aromatic Materials; 7 THE INCENSE TREES OF THE LAND OF EMERALDS: EXOTIC AROMATICS IN MEDIEVAL SOUTH ASIA; 8 SANDALWOOD: MERCHANTS, EXPERTISE & PROFIT; Part Five: Smell and Religion; 9 BOIS DES ?SLES; 10 THE TOILETTE OF THE GODS; Epilogue; Appendix SANSKRIT & PRAKRIT TEXTS ON PERFUME BLENDING & PERFUMERY; Bibliography

James McHugh is Assistant Professor of Religion, University of Southern California.