Assistant Professor Donald R. Davis, Jr. Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin, 2000 Contact Information: Office: 1244 Van Hise Hall Phone: 608/890-0138 E-mail: drdavis@wisc.edu

Specialties/Research Interests:
Law & religion in medieval India; history of religions in South Asia; Malayalam language and literature; Dharmasastra literature; South Indian history.


Current Projects:
Monograph tentatively entitled The Spirit of Hindu Law: A conceptual introduction, contracted with Cambridge UP;

Law and Hinduism: An Introduction, co-edited with Tim Lubin and Jay Krishnan, contracted with Cambridge UP

Cooperative Annotated Bibliography of Hindu Law and Dharmasastra


Recent Publications:
2007. "Law," In Studying Hinduism: Key Concepts and Methods. Eds. Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby. New York: Routledge, 218-229.

2007. "Maxims and Precedent in Classical Hindu Law," Indologica Taurinensia 33.

2007. "Hinduism as a Legal Tradition." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 75:2, 241-267. [also available at DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfm004]

2007. "The Non-Observance of Conventions: A Title of Hindu Law in the Smrticandrika." Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 157:1, 103-124.

2006. "A Realist View of Hindu Law," Ratio Juris: An International Journal of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law 19:3, 287-313.

2006. "Dharma in Hinduism," by Paul Hacker. Journal of Indian Philosophy 34, translation of and brief bibliographic note on "Dharma im Hinduismus," originally published in Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft und Religionswissenschaft 49 (1965): 93-106. [also available at DOI: 10.1007/s10781-006-9002-4].

2005. The Train that Had Wings: Selected Short Stories of M. Mukundan. trans. with an Introduction. Ann Arbor: Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan.

2005. "Intermediate Realms of Law: Corporate Groups and Rulers in Medieval India," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 48:1, 92-117.

2004. The Boundaries of Hindu Law: Tradition, Custom, and Politics in Medieval Kerala. Corpus Iuris Sanscriticum et Fontes Iuris Asiae Meridianae et Centralis. Vol. 5. Ed. Oscar Botto. Torino (Italy): CESMEO.

2004. "Being Hindu or Being Human: A Reappraisal of the Purusarthas," International Journal of Hindu Studies 8:1-3, 1-27.


Courses Regularly Taught:

274 Religion in South Asia
355 Hinduism
367 Jainism: Religion of Non-Violence
620 Studies in South Asian Religions: Hindu Law
620 Studies in South Asian Religions: Religious Law in Asia
717 Seminar on Religion and Society in South Asia: Modern Hinduism
718 Classical Hinduism