I, Yantra

“Cohen’s book reveals the fascinating story of androids and automata in ancient and medieval India through sources that are almost completely unknown today. Drawing connections between areas and times that most people consider unrelated, it presents a hidden history of the overlaps between the deep past and imagined futures, between religion and technology, and between Asian and Mediterranean civilizations.” — Michael Slouber, Western Washington University

“Cohen rightly points out the lacuna in current scholarship on the subject of androids in Indian literature. She also poses an enticing central research question: What does reading android stories in Indian literature tell us about South Asian conceptions of human personhood? This is a fascinating and novel approach to questions of humanness in South Asian religions.” — Gregory M. Clines, Trinity University

Signe Cohen is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Missouri. She is the author of Textual Criticism and Sacred Texts and Text and Authority in the Older Upaniṣads and the editor of The Upaniṣads: A Complete Guide.