The American Indologist Wendy Doniger, whose academic activity has spanned over forty years with several tomes in different genres, including interpretive works on religion, translations and edited volumes, forms the subject of Dr. H.R.
Meera’s essay in the book 'Ten Heads of Ravana.' The author, through a metaanalysis of Doniger’s methods and frameworks of study, shows how Doniger’s understanding of Indian chronology leads to several wrong interpretations of the historical timelines of important texts of the Sanskrit canon, while highlighting her derision for Indian thinkers such as Manu, Kauṭalya and Vātsyāyana.
Kannan shows the various mistranslations of Sanskrit words in Doniger’s works and how this is an important tool in the latter’s work for propaganda writing and building misinterpretations of several important Dharma texts.
The desacralization project of scholars such as Doniger is also analyzed by Kannan, especially how the former uses psychoanalytic techniques on dhārmic vidyā-s, as seen in the case of studies on Tantra, which forms the core of Tibetan Buddhism as well as Hinduism.
Kannan highlights how while the former is left alone, the Tantra related to Hinduism is targeted by Doniger.