Download or read book Monuments Objects Histories written by Tapati Guha-Thakurta and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004-08-05 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art history as it is largely practiced in Asia as well as in the West is a western invention. In India, works of art-sculptures, monuments, paintings-were first viewed under colonial rule as archaeological antiquities, later as architectural relics, and by the mid-20th century as works of art within an elaborate art-historical classification. Tied to these views were narratives in which the works figured, respectively, as sources from which to recover India's history, markers of a lost, antique civilization, and symbols of a nation's unique aesthetic, reflecting the progression from colonialism to nationalism. The nationalist canon continues to dominate the image of Indian art in India and abroad, and yet its uncritical acceptance of the discipline's western orthodoxies remains unquestioned, the original motives and means of creation unexplored. The book examines the role of art and art history from both an insider and outsider point of view, always revealing how the demands of nationalism have shaped the concept and meaning of art in India. The author shows how western custodianship of Indian "antiquities" structured a historical interpretation of art; how indigenous Bengali scholarship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries attempted to bring Indian art into the nationalist sphere; how the importance of art as a representation of national culture crystallized in the period after Independence; and how cultural and religious clashes in modern India have resulted in conflicting "histories" and interpretations of Indian art. In particular, the author uses the depiction of Hindu goddesses to elicit conflicting scenarios of condemnation and celebration, both of which have at their core the threat and lure of the female form, which has been constructed and narrativized in art history. Monuments, Objects, Histories is a critical survey of the practices of archaeology, art history, and museums in nineteenth- and twentieth-century India. The essays gathered here look at the processes of the production of lost pasts in modern India: pasts that come to be imagined around a growing corpus of monuments, archaeological relics, and art objects. They map the scholarly and institutional authority that emerged around such structures and artifacts, making of them not only the chosen objects of art and archaeology but also the prime signifiers of the nation's civilization and antiquity. The close imbrication of the "colonial" and the "national" in the making of India's archaeological and art historical pasts and their combined legacy for the postcolonial present form one of the key themes of the book. Monuments, Objects, Histories offers both an insider's and an outsider's perspective on the growth of these scholarly fields and their institutional apparatus, analyzing the ways they have constituted and recast their objects of study. The book moves from a period that saw the consolidation of western expertise and custodianship of India's "antiquities," to the projection over the twentieth century of varying regional, nativist, and national claims around the country's architectural and artistic inheritance, into a current period that has pitched these objects and fields within a highly contentious politics of nationhood. Monuments, Objects, Histories traces the framing of an official national canon of Indian art through these different periods, showing how the workings of disciplines and institutions have been tied to the pervasive authority of the nation. At the same time, it addresses the radical reconfiguration in recent times of the meaning and scope of the "national," leading to the kinds of exclusions and chauvinisms that lie at the root of the current endangerment of these disciplines and the monuments and art objects they encompass.

Download or read book The Bhilsa Topes Or Buddhist Monuments of Central India written by Alexander Cunningham and published by . This book was released on 1854 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Bhilsa Topes Or Buddhist Monuments of Central India Etc written by Sir Alexander Cunningham and published by . This book was released on 1854 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Kautilya s Arthashastra written by Kau?alya and published by Jaico Publishing House. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kautilya, also known as Chanakya, is India s most illustrious political economist of all time. He regarded economic activity as the driving force behind the functioning of any political dispensation. In fact, he went to the extent of saying that revenue should take priority over the army because sustaining the army was possible out of a well-managed revenue system.Kautilya advocated limiting the taxation power of the State, having low rates of taxation, maintaining a gradual increase in taxation and most importantly devising a tax structure that ensured compliance. He strongly encouraged foreign trade, basing it on the premise that for a successful trade contract to be established, it had to be beneficial to all. He emphasised State control and investment in land, water and mining. Kautilya was a true statesman who bridged the gap between experience and vision. For Kautilya, good governance was paramount. He suggested built-in checks and balances in systems and procedures for the containment of malpractices. Many postulates of Kautilya s philosophy of political economy are applicable to contemporary times.

Download or read book The Afterlives of Monuments written by Deborah Cherry and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-09-07 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Asia is famous for its monuments, past and present. Monuments have been created, destroyed and rescued by competing communities and incoming empires in the making and re-making of history, identity and memory. This collection brings together an international cohort of senior scholars and younger researchers to examine the vast diversity of monuments (and conceptions of monuments) in South Asia from the 1850s to the present. The chapters investigate what constitutes a monument, and interrogate the conditions for its survival, demise or recycling. To explore the afterlives of monuments is to investigate how, where, when, and why monuments have been remodelled, re-sited, destroyed, defaced, or abandoned. It is to investigate the theories of memory, history and community, as well as new forms of artistic practice and global media. As different South-Asian communities claim a stake in the making of national, religious, cultural and local identities and histories, the status of monuments and debates about cultural memory have become increasingly urgent. This book was published as a special issue of South Asian Studies.

Download or read book The Legend of King A oka written by John S. Strong and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 1989 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first English translation of the Asokavadana text, the Sanskrit version of the legend of King Asoka, first written in the second century A.D. Emperor of India during the third century B.C. and one of the most important rulers in the history of Buddhism. Asoka has hitherto been studied in the West primarily from his edicts and rock inscriptions in many parts of the Indian subcontinent. Through an extensive critical essay and a fluid translation, John Strong examines the importance of the Asoka of the legends for our overall understanding of Buddhism. Professor Strong contrasts the text with the Pali traditions about Kind Asoka and discusses the Buddhist view of kingship, the relationship of the state and the Buddhist community, the king s role in relating his kingdom to the person of the Buddha, and the connection between merit making, cosmology, and Buddhist doctrine. An appendix provides summaries of other stories about Asoka.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of the Ancient World written by Shona Grimbly and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2000 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference tells the stories of the peoples of the ancient past and shows how they laid the foundations of the modern world. Each of the first five chapters looks at the cultures and civilizations that developed in one particular region. The last chapter looks at some general aspects of life in the ancient world, such as agriculture or legal codes, and examines them in different cultures. A time line shows how civilizations in different parts of the world relate to each other in time. Nicely illustrated with many color images. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book The Archaeology of South Asia written by Robin Coningham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-31 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a critical synthesis of the archaeology of South Asia from the Neolithic period (c.6500 BCE), when domestication began, to the spread of Buddhism accompanying the Mauryan Emperor Asoka's reign (third century BCE). The authors examine the growth and character of the Indus civilisation, with its town planning, sophisticated drainage systems, vast cities and international trade. They also consider the strong cultural links between the Indus civilisation and the second, later period of South Asian urbanism which began in the first millennium BCE and developed through the early first millennium CE. In addition to examining the evidence for emerging urban complexity, this book gives equal weight to interactions between rural and urban communities across South Asia and considers the critical roles played by rural areas in social and economic development. The authors explore how narratives of continuity and transformation have been formulated in analyses of South Asia's Prehistoric and Early Historic archaeological record.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of the Ancient World written by Shona Grimbly and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Download or read book The Sacred Garden of Lumbini written by Kai Weise and published by UNESCO. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha, was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1997. It is situated in an area commonly referred to as the 'Sacred Garden'. Archaeological remains testify to the authenticity of the place, which has become a major pilgrimage site. Nevertheless over two and a half millennia, the understanding of Lumbini has changed and different perceptions exist of what Lumbini might have been like at the birth of Lord Buddha. For the long-term safeguarding of this World Heritage site, overall understanding of the property is essential. This publication will provide a means for the various stakeholders to come to an understanding of each other's historical, religious, environmental and touristic perspectives of Lumbini.

Download or read book The Buddhist Dead written by Bryan J. Cuevas and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its teachings, practices and institutions, Buddhism in its varied Asian forms is centrally concerned with death and the dead. This title offers a comparative investigation of this topic across the major Buddhist cultures of India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Tibet and Burma.

Download or read book The Nine Unknown written by Talbot Mundy and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-11-18 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Emperor Asoka started a project around 260 BC to collate and guard advanced knowledge gathered from around the world over the years. The project ended with making the nine books of secret knowledge and from then on, the nine different men are assigned to guard the nine books. Father Cyprian, a Christian priest, believes that their contents total tip the almost absolute of evil, and wants to burn them, so he invites Jimgrim and his faithful compatriots Ramsden and Ross to help him bring down the secret society that holds the nine books.

Download or read book A Study of Historical Monuments in Bidar District 1st Century 17th Century CE written by Dr. Ratnakar D. Hosamani and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bidar is a district located in the northeastern corner of the state, with Andhra Pradesh to the east and Maharashtra to the north and west, Gulbarga district lies to the south. It was the meeting place of several shades of culture from the very beginning.The History of Bidar goes back to third century B.C.E since the great Mauryas. After the Mauryas, Satavahanas, Chalukyas of Badami and later Rashtrakutas (with Mayurkhandi or Morkhandi their as capital in present Bidar) district reigned over the territory. Basavakalyan was the capital of Chalukyas of Kalyana and Kalachuris. For a short period after Chalukyas of Kalyana, the area of Bidar was under the sevunas of Devgiri and Kakatiyas of Warangal.

Download or read book The Bhilsa Topes written by Sir Alexander Cunningham and published by . This book was released on 1854 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas written by Romila Thapar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published by the Clarendon Press in 1961, this authoritative work is based largely on the edicts of Asoka, whose policies are analysed against the background of Mauryan civilization during the third and fourth centuries BC. This is a thoroughly revised edition, with a substantial new afterword by the author, a revised bibliography and index, and a map showing new archaeological sites.

Download or read book The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean written by Raoul McLaughlin and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of ancient Roman shipping and trade across continents reveals the Roman Empire’s far-reaching impact in the ancient world. In ancient times, large fleets of Roman merchant ships set sail from Egypt on voyages across the Indian Ocean. They sailed from Roman ports on the Red Sea to distant kingdoms on the east coast of Africa and southern Arabia. Many continued their voyages across the ocean to trade with the rich kingdoms of ancient India. Along these routes, the Roman Empire traded bullion for valuable goods, including exotic African products, Arabian incense, and eastern spices. This book examines Roman commerce with Indian kingdoms from the Indus region to the Tamil lands. It investigates contacts between the Roman Empire and powerful African kingdoms, including the Nilotic regime that ruled Meroe and the rising Axumite Realm. Further chapters explore Roman dealings with the Arab kingdoms of southern Arabia, including the Saba-Himyarites and the Hadramaut Regime, which sent caravans along the incense trail to the ancient rock-carved city of Petra. The first book to bring these subjects together in a single comprehensive study, The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean reveals Rome’s impact on the ancient world and explains how international trade funded the legions that maintained imperial rule.

Download or read book The Study of the State written by Henri J. Claessen and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Study of the State.