Wendy Doniger - Reception

Reception

Since she began writing in the 1960s, Doniger has gained the reputation of being "one of America's major scholars in the humanities". Her books both in Hinduism and other fields have been positively reviewed by Indian scholar Vijaya Nagarajan and American Hindu scholar Lindsey 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 of postmodernism". Of her Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit, Indologist Richard Gombrich wrote: "Intellectually, it is a triumph..." Gombrich called Doniger's Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva "learned and exciting". Doniger's Rigveda, a translation of 108 hymns selected from the canon, was deemed among the most reliable by historian of religion Ioan P. Culianu She has also been called "one of the most distinguished mythologists of our time" by Sudhir Kakar.

Doniger's 2009 book The Hindus: An Alternative History received many positive reviews, e.g. from the Library Journal, the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Review of Books, the New York Times, and The Hindu. According to the Hindustan Times, The Hindus was a No. 1 bestseller in the non-fiction category in India in 2009. In January 2010, the National Book Critics Circle named The Hindus as a finalist for its 2009 book awards. The Hindu American Foundation protested this decision, alleging inaccuracies and bias in the book.