Download or read book From Vedic Altar to Village Shrine written by Yasuhiko Nagano and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Roots of Tantra written by Katherine Anne Harper and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the many spiritual traditions born and developed in India, Tantra has been the most difficult to define. Almost everything about it—its major characteristics, its sources, its relationships to other religions, even its practices—are debated among scholars. In addition, Tantrism is not confined to any particular religion, but is a set of beliefs and practices that appears in a variety of religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism. This book explores one of the most controversial aspects of Tantra, its sources or roots, specifically in regard to Hinduism. The essays focus on the history and development of Tantra, the art history and archaeology of Tantra, the Vedas and Tantra, and texts and Tantra. Using various disciplinary and methodological approaches, from history to art history and religious studies to textual studies, scholars provide both broad overviews of the beginnings of Tantra and detailed analyses of specific texts, authors, art works, and rituals.
Download or read book The Sacred Town of Sankhu written by Bal Gopal Shrestha and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a detailed view of Newar society and culture, and its socio-economic, socio-religious and ritual aspects, concentrating on the Newar town of Sankhu in the Valley of Nepal. The foundation of the town of Sankhu is attributed to the goddess Vajrayoginī, venerated by both Buddhists and Hindus in Nepal and beyond. Myths, history, and topographical details of the town and the sanctuary of the goddess Vajrayoginī and her cult are discussed on the basis of published sources, unpublished chronicles, and inscriptions. The book deals with the relation between Hinduism and Buddhism, with the interrelations between the Newar castes (jāt), caste-bound associations (sī guthi), and above all with the numerous socio-religious associations (guthi) that uphold ritual life of the Newars. All major and minor Newar feasts, festivals, dances, fasts and processions of gods and goddesses are discussed.
Download or read book The Renewal of the Priesthood written by C. J. Fuller and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much has changed for the priests at the Minakshi Temple, one of the most famous Hindu temples in India. In The Renewal of the Priesthood, C. J. Fuller traces their improving fortunes over the past 25 years. This fluidly written book is unique in showing that traditionalism and modernity are actually reinforcing each other among these priests, a process in which the state has played a crucial role. Since the mid-1980s, growing urban affluence has seen more people spend more money on rituals in the Minakshi Temple, which is in the southern city of Madurai. The priests have thus become better-off, and some have also found new earnings opportunities in temples as far away as America. During the same period, due partly to growing Hindu nationalism in India, the Tamilnadu state government's religious policies have become more favorable toward Hinduism and Brahman temple priests. More priests' sons now study in religious schools where they learn authoritative Sanskrit ritual texts by heart, and overall educational standards have markedly improved. Fuller shows that the priests have become more "professional" and modern-minded while also insisting on the legitimacy of tradition. He concludes by critiquing the analysis of modernity and tradition in social science. In showing how the priests are authentic representatives of modern India, this book tells a story whose significance extends far beyond the confines of the Minakshi Temple itself.
Download or read book The Hidden Lives of Brahman written by Joël André-Michel Dubois and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2014-02-01 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2014 Best First Book in the History of Religions presented by the American Academy of Religion Śaṅkara's thought, advaita vedānta or non-dual vedānta, is a tradition focused on brahman, the ultimate reality transcending all particular manifestations, words, and ideas. It is generally considered that the transcendent brahman cannot be attained through any effort or activity. While this conception is technically correct, in The Hidden Lives of Brahman, Joël André-Michel Dubois contends that it is misleading. Hidden lives of brahman become visible when analysis of Śaṅkara's seminal commentaries is combined with ethnographic descriptions of contemporary Brāhmin students and teachers of vedānta, a group largely ignored in most studies of this tradition. Du bois demonstrates that for Śaṅkara, as for Brāhmin tradition in general, brahman is just as much an active force, fully connected to the dynamic power of words and imagination, as it is a transcendent ultimate.
Download or read book The Myth of the Holy Cow written by D. N. Jha and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hugely controversial upon its publication in India, this book has already been banned by the Hyderabad Civil Court and the author's life has been threatened. Jha argues against the historical sanctity of the cow in India, in an illuminating response to the prevailing attitudes about beef that have been fiercely supported by the current Hindu right-wing government and the fundamentalist groups backing it.
Download or read book Encompassing a Fractal World written by Gil Daryn and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encompassing a Fractal World presents a groundbreaking, innovative paradigm which opens up new perspectives for understanding and analyzing Hindu life and culture. This book is an interdisciplinary comparative work which attempts to 'connect the dots', moving beyond isolated local village-based studies in order to bridge the gulf between anthropology and Hindu studies.
Download or read book Daemons Are Forever written by David Gordon White and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-01-08 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A richly illustrated tapestry of interwoven studies spanning some six thousand years of history, Dæmons Are Forever is at once a record of archaic contacts and transactions between humans and protean spirit beings—dæmons—and an account of exchanges, among human populations, of the science of spirit beings: dæmonology. Since the time of the Indo-European migrations, and especially following the opening of the Silk Road, a common dæmonological vernacular has been shared among populations ranging from East and South Asia to Northern Europe. In this virtuoso work of historical sleuthing, David Gordon White recovers the trajectories of both the “inner demons” cohabiting the bodies of their human hosts and the “outer dæmons” that those same humans recognized each time they encountered them in their enchanted haunts: sylvan pools, sites of geothermal eruptions, and dark forest groves. Along the way, he invites his readers to reconsider the potential and promise of the historical method in religious studies, suggesting that a “connected histories” approach to Eurasian dæmonology may serve as a model for restoring history to its proper place at the heart of the discipline of the history of religions.
Download or read book Homa Variations written by Richard K. Payne and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout human history, and across many religious cultures, offerings are made into fire. The essays collected in Homa Variations provide detailed studies of this practice, known in the tantric world as the "homa," from its inception up to the present.
Download or read book Hinduism and the Religious Arts written by Heather Elgood and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2000-04-01 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The roots between the Hindu religion and the wider culture are deep and uniquely complex. No study of either ancient or contemporary Indian culture can be undertaken without a clear understanding of Hindu visual arts and their sources in religious belief and practice. Defining what is meant by religion - no such term exists in Sanskrit - and what is understood by Hindu ideals of beauty, Heather Elgood provides the best synthesis and critical study of recent scholarship on the topic. In addition, this book offers critical background information for anyone interested in the social and anthropological roots of artistic creativity, as well as the rites, practices and beliefs of the hundreds of millions of Hindus in the world today.
Download or read book The Culture of Association and Associations in Contemporary Japanese Society written by Hirochika Nakamaki and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Japanese Civilization in the Modern World Comparative studies of information and communication written by Tadao Umesao and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Circumpolar Ethnicity and Identity written by Takashi Irimoto and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Japanese Anthropologists and Malaysian Society written by Shamsul Amri Baharuddin and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cultural Change in the Arab World written by Tetsuo Nishio and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Time Language and Cognition written by Yasuhiko Nagano and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Japanese Civilization in the Modern World written by Tadao Umesao and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
