expressed about image worship. Written by eminent scholars of anthropology, art history, and religion with interests in different regions (India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia), this volume takes a fresh look at the many ways in which images were defined and received in Asian religions. Areas addressed include the complex, fluid, and contested nature of the religious image; the reception of images within the intellectual culture of Hinduism and Buddhism; and the importance of historical and cultural context in the study of religious images. [4] Translations The Forest of Thieves and the Magic Garden: An Anthology of Medieval Jain Stories (Penguin, 1998) is a translation of numerous medieval Jain stories drawn from texts dating from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries CE, focusing on the Indic concept of renunciation. The stories translated in this book have been very carefully selected to explore numerous themes central to Jainism and medieval Indian culture. The original language for these stories is sometimes Sanskrit and on other occasions Prakrit. [5] The Journey: Stories by Kishor Charan Das (University of Michigan Press, 2000) is a collection of urban stories whose characters are mainly middle class. Kishor Charan Das is one of the more distinguished writers of the Oriyā language. His stories are often about differences between realities and imagination. These are stories about human weaknesses, the fallibility of human relationships, and the strategies we adopt to cope with our failures. They are about coming to terms with unpleasant, sometimes shocking truths about ourselves and others. [6] Academic recognition Granoff first received academic recognition for her 1978 book titled "Philosophy and Argument in Late Vedānta: Śrī Harshā's Khaṇḍanakhaṇḍakhādya." This book deals with the work of Śrī Harshā, a twelfth-century Indian philosopher, who is regarded as "one of the most important intellectual figures to rise within the mature Sanskrit tradition." [7] The Journal of the American Oriental Society reviewer of this work declared it to be "the first conceptually and textually responsible work dealing with Śrī Harshā." [7] In this work, Granoff is praised for providing a different perspective from that of "the Western and neo-Hindu readings of Vedānta," by showing it to be an "existentially earnest, logically sophisticated philosophical position." [7] Granoff and Shinohara also received praise for their 1992 work titled "Speaking of Monks: Religious Biography in India and China." The reviewer of this book described Granoff and Shinohara to be "experienced masters of the