June 4, 2026
David Knipe, Emeritus Professor of Religion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died
peacefully at home in Lynchburg, Virginia on June 4, 2026. David was a historian of
religions, specializing in the religious traditions and rituals of India, ancient and modern.
A graduate of Cornell University (BA, 1955) and Union Theological Seminary (MA, 1958),
David earned an MA (1965) and PhD (1971) at the University of Chicago under the guidance
of Mircea Eliade. He joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin in 1967 and remained
there until his retirement in 2002. During his time at Wisconsin, he was a charismatic
teacher and devoted mentor. He served for a long time as Chair of the Religious Studies
Program and Chair of the Department of South Asian Studies and Director of the South
Asian Studies Program (1987-1990)
David’s many important and varied contributions to his field include: In the Image of Fire:
The Vedic Experiences of Heat (1975), Hinduism: Experiments in the Sacred (1992), and
The Body and Sexuality in Religious Art and Experience (1996). In retirement he published
Vedic Voices: Intimate Narratives of a Living Andhra Tradition (2015), the result of 30 years
of research, fieldwork, and friendship with Vedic pandits in the Konasima region of the
Godavari River delta of Andhra Pradesh. He also published The Hindu Rite of Entry into
Heaven and other Essays on Death and Ancestors in Hinduism (2019). He also released, in
1974, “Exploring the Religions of South Asia,” his educational television series of 15
programs on Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, and Christianity in India.
David lived a long, joyous, and productive life. He will be sorely missed and remembered
with great fondness by family, friends, colleagues, and former students in many parts of
the world.