Talk:Vijaya Nagarajan

By Sachi Anjunkar

Vijaya Nagarajan is an associate professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and in the Program of Environmental Studies, University of San Francisco as of April 2024. According to her university profile, her research interests are Hinduism, Environment, Gender, Ritual, and the Commons.

In 2016, she signed a letter addressed to the State Board of Education, California Department of Education, dated May 17, 2016. The letter stated the following:

1. "There is no established connection between Hinduism and the Indus Civilization. The Rg Veda contains numerous mentions of horses and chariots but there is no conclusive material or fossil evidence for either at any Indus valley archeological site."
2. "It is inappropriate to remove mention of the connection of caste to Hinduism."

Publications

1. Nagarajan, Vijaya. Feeding A Thousand Souls, Women, Ritual and Ecology in India, an Exploration of the Kōlam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
2. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "On the Multiple Languages of the Commons." Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology 2.1 (2017): 41-60. In Special Issue: Wicked Problems in a Warming World: Religion and Environmental Ethics.
3. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Rangōli and Kōlam entry." Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, edited by Jean-Louise Ruijters. Netherlands, 2013. (Selected and republished on Sahapedia in India with the permission of Brill, Leiden, Netherlands).
4. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Threshold Designs, Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kōlam." In Women’s Lives, Women’s Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, edited by Tracy Pinchman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 85-105.
5. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "The Thinning and Thickening of Places, Relations and Ideas, in 'Post-Field Positioning'." Guest Editor, Susan Seizer, Indian Folklife, Serial No. 23, National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai, India, Aug. 2006, pp. 10-13.
6. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Floor Designs." In South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Margaret Mills, Peter Claus, and Sarah Diamond. New York: Routledge Press, 2003, pp. 197-198.
7. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Kōlam." In South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Margaret Mills, Peter Claus, and Sarah Diamond. New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 340-343.
8. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "(In) Corporating Threshold Art: Kōlam Competitions, Patronage and Colgate." In Religions/Globalization: Theories and Cases, edited by Lois Lorentzen, Dwight Hopkins, David Batstone, and Eduardo Mandieta. Duke University Press, 2001, pp. 161-186.
9. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Rituals of Embedded Ecologies: Drawing Kōlam, Marrying Trees and Generating Auspiciousness." In Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water, edited by Christopher Chapple and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 453-468.
10. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "The Earth as Goddess Bhudevi: Towards a Theory of Embedded Ecologies in Folk Hinduism." In Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India, edited by Lance Nelson. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998, pp. 269-298.
11. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Hosting the Divine: The Kōlam in Tamil Nadu." In Mud, Mirror and Thread: Folk Traditions of Rural India, edited by Nora Fisher. Middletown, New Jersey: Grantha Corporation and Santa Fe, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1993, pp. 192-204.
12. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Feeding A Thousand Souls, Women, Ritual and Ecology in India, an Exploration of the Kōlam." New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
13. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "On the Multiple Languages of the Commons." Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture and Ecology 2.1 (2017): 41-60. In Special Issue: Wicked Problems in a Warming World: Religion and Environmental Ethics.
14. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Rangōli and Kōlam entry." Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, edited by Jean-Louise Ruijters. Netherlands, 2013. (Selected and republished on Sahapedia in India with the permission of Brill, Leiden, Netherlands).
15. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Threshold Designs, Forehead Dots, and Menstruation Rituals: Exploring Time and Space in Tamil Kōlam." In Women’s Lives, Women’s Rituals in the Hindu Tradition, edited by Tracy Pinchman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 85-105.
16. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "The Thinning and Thickening of Places, Relations and Ideas, in 'Post-Field Positioning'." Guest Editor, Susan Seizer, Indian Folklife, Serial No. 23, National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai, India, Aug. 2006, pp. 10-13.
17. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Floor Designs." In South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Margaret Mills, Peter Claus, and Sarah Diamond. New York: Routledge Press, 2003, pp. 197-198.
18. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Kōlam." In South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Margaret Mills, Peter Claus, and Sarah Diamond. New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 340-343.
19. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "(In) Corporating Threshold Art: Kōlam Competitions, Patronage and Colgate." In Religions/Globalization: Theories and Cases, edited by Lois Lorentzen, Dwight Hopkins, David Batstone, and Eduardo Mandieta. Duke University Press, 2001, pp. 161-186.
20. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Rituals of Embedded Ecologies: Drawing Kōlam, Marrying Trees and Generating Auspiciousness." In Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water, edited by Christopher Chapple and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 453-468.
21. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "The Earth as Goddess Bhudevi: Towards a Theory of Embedded Ecologies in Folk Hinduism." In Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India, edited by Lance Nelson. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998, pp. 269-298.
22. Nagarajan, Vijaya. "Hosting the Divine: The Kōlam in Tamil Nadu." In Mud, Mirror and Thread: Folk Traditions of Rural India, edited by Nora Fisher. Middletown, New Jersey: Grantha Corporation and Santa Fe, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1993, pp. 192-204.