Download or read book Tales of Ancient India written by J.A.B. van Buitenen and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-07-24 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This admirably produced and well-translated volume of stories from the Sanskrit takes the Western reader into one of the Golden Ages of India. . . . The world in which the tales are set is one which placed a premium upon slickness and guile as aids to success. . . . Merchants, aristocrats, Brahmins, thieves and courtesans mingle with vampires, demi-gods and the hierarchy of heaven in a series of lively or passionate adventures. The sources of the individual stories are clearly indicated; the whole treatment is scholarly without being arid."—The Times Literary Supplement "Fourteen tales from India, newly translated with a terse and vibrant effectiveness. These tales will appeal to any reader who enjoys action, suspense, characterization, and suspension of disbelief in the supernatural."—The Personalist

Download or read book Modern Linguistics in Ancient India written by John J. Lowe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-21 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible and relevant introduction to the ancient Indian linguistic tradition, this book assesses the influence of Indian linguistic thought on Western linguistics. It is essential reading for scholars and students of theoretical and historical linguistics, as well as those interested in Indian languages, and Indian/South Asian Studies.

Download or read book The Art of Ancient India written by Susan L. Huntington and published by Motilal Banarsidass. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 849 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To scholars in the field, the need for an up-to-date overview of the art of South Asia has been apparent for decades. Although many regional and dynastic genres of Indic art are fairly well understood, the broad, overall representation of India's centuries of splendor has been lacking. The Art of Ancient India is the result of the author's aim to provide such a synthesis. Noted expert Sherman E. Lee has commented: –Not since Coomaraswamyês History of Indian and Indonesian Art (1927) has there been a survey of such completeness.” Indeed, this work restudies and reevaluates every frontier of ancient Indic art _ from its prehistoric roots up to the period of Muslim rule, from the Himalayan north to the tropical south, and from the earliest extant writing through the most modern scholarship on the subject. This dynamic survey-generously complemented with 775 illustrations, including 48 in full color and numerous architectural ground plans, and detailed maps and fine drawings, and further enhanced by its guide to Sanskrit, copious notes, extensive bibliography, and glossary of South Asian art terms-is the most comprehensive and most fully illustrated study of South Asian art available. The works and monuments included in this volume have been selected not only for their artistic merit but also in order to both provide general coverage and include transitional works that furnish the key to an all encompassing view of the art. An outstanding portrayal of ancient Indiaês highest intellectual and technical achievements, this volume is written for many audiences: scholars, for whom it provides an up-to-date background against which to examine their own areas of study; teachers and students of college level, for whom it supplies a complete summary of and a resource for their own deeper investigations into Indic art; and curious readers, for whom it gives a broad-based introduction to this fascinating area of world art.

Download or read book Political Violence in Ancient India written by Upinder Singh and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-25 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru helped create the myth of a nonviolent ancient India while building a modern independence movement on the principle of nonviolence (ahimsa). But this myth obscures a troubled and complex heritage: a long struggle to reconcile the ethics of nonviolence with the need to use violence to rule. Upinder Singh documents the dynamic tension between violence and nonviolence in ancient Indian political thought and practice over twelve hundred years. Political Violence in Ancient India looks at representations of kingship and political violence in epics, religious texts, political treatises, plays, poems, inscriptions, and art from 600 BCE to 600 CE. As kings controlled their realms, fought battles, and meted out justice, intellectuals debated the boundary between the force required to sustain power and the excess that led to tyranny and oppression. Duty (dharma) and renunciation were important in this discussion, as were punishment, war, forest tribes, and the royal hunt. Singh reveals a range of perspectives that defy rigid religious categorization. Buddhists, Jainas, and even the pacifist Maurya emperor Ashoka recognized that absolute nonviolence was impossible for kings. By 600 CE religious thinkers, political theorists, and poets had justified and aestheticized political violence to a great extent. Nevertheless, questions, doubt, and dissent remained. These debates are as important for understanding political ideas in the ancient world as for thinking about the problem of political violence in our own time.

Download or read book The Idea of Ancient India written by Upinder Singh and published by Penguin Random House India Private Limited. This book was released on 2023-08-28 with total page 709 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can the complexities of ancient India be comprehended? This book draws on a vast array of texts, inscriptions, archaeology, archival sources and art to delve into themes such as the history of regions and religions, archaeologists and the modern histories of ancient sites, the interface between political ideas and practice, violence and resistance, and the interactions between the Indian subcontinent and the wider world. It highlights recent approaches and challenges in reconstructing South Asia's early history, and in doing so, brings out the exciting complexities of ancient India. Authoritative and incisive, this revised Penguin edition-with two new chapters-is essential reading for students and scholars of ancient Indian history and for all those interested in India's past.

Download or read book India The Ancient Past written by Burjor Avari and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India: The Ancient Past provides a clear and systematic introduction to the cultural, political, economic, social and geographical history of ancient India from the time of the pre-Harappan culture nine thousand years ago up until the beginning of the second millennium of the Common Era. The book engages with methodological and controversial issues by examining key themes such as the Indus-Sarasvati civilization, the Aryan controversy, the development of Vedic and heterodox religions, and the political economy and social life of ancient Indian kingdoms. This fully revised and updated second edition includes: Three new chapters examining the differences and commonalities between the north and south of India; Extended discussion on contested issues, such as the origins of the Aryans and the role of feudalism in ancient India; New source excerpts to introduce students to the most significant works in the historiography of India, and questions for discussion; Study guides, including a list of key issues, suggested readings and a selection of internet sources for each chapter; Specially designed maps to illustrate different time periods and geographical regions This richly illustrated guide provides a fascinating account of the early development of Indian culture and civilization that will appeal to all students of Indian history.

Download or read book Thinking Recording and Writing History in the Ancient World written by Kurt A. Raaflaub and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-11-08 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World presents a cross-cultural comparison of the ways in which ancient civilizations thought about the past and recorded their own histories. Written by an international group of scholars working in many disciplines Truly cross-cultural, covering historical thinking and writing in ancient or early cultures across in East, South, and West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas Includes historiography shaped by religious perspectives, including Judaism, early Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism

Download or read book History Of Ancient India portraits Of A Nation 1 e written by Kapur and published by Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. This book was released on 2010 with total page 732 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Character of the Self in Ancient India written by Brian Black and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book is an elegant exploration of the Upanisads, often considered the fountainhead of the rich, varied philosophical tradition in India. The Upaniṣads, in addition to their philosophical content, have a number of sections that contain narratives and dialogues—a literary dimension largely ignored by the Indian philosophical tradition, as well as by modern scholars. Brian Black draws attention to these literary elements and demonstrates that they are fundamental to understanding the philosophical claims of the text. Focusing on the Upanisadic notion of the self (ātman), the book is organized into four main sections that feature a lesson taught by a brahmin teacher to a brahmin student, debates between brahmins, discussions between brahmins and kings, and conversations between brahmins and women. These dialogical situations feature dramatic elements that bring attention to both the participants and the social contexts of Upanisadic philosophy, characterizing philosophy as something achieved through discussion and debate. In addition to making a number of innovative arguments, the author also guides the reader through these profound and engaging texts, offering ways of reading the Upaniṣads that make them more understandable and accessible.

Download or read book Ancient India written by Upinder Singh and published by Aleph Book Company. This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Upinder Singh urges us to abandon simplistic stereotypes and instead think of ancient India in terms of the coexistence of five powerful contradictions-between social inequality and promises of universal salvation, the valorization of desire and detachment, goddess worship and misogyny, violence and non-violence, and religious debate and conflict. She does so using a vast array of sources including religious and philosophical texts, epics, poetry, plays, technical treatises, satire, biographies, and inscriptions, as well as the material and aesthetic evidence of archaeology and art from sites across the subcontinent. Singh's scholarly but highly accessible style, clear explanation, and balanced interpretations offer an understanding of the historian's craft and unravel the many threads of what we think of as ancient Indian culture. This is not a dead or forgotten past but one invoked in different contexts even today. Further, in spite of enormous historical changes over the centuries, the contradictions discussed here still remain.

Download or read book The Past Before Us written by Romila Thapar and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-14 with total page 778 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The claim that India--uniquely among civilizations--lacks historical writing distracts us from a more pertinent question: how to recognize the historical sense of societies whose past is recorded in ways very different from European conventions. Romila Thapar, a distinguished scholar of ancient India, guides us through a panoramic survey of the historical traditions of North India, revealing a deep and sophisticated consciousness of history embedded in the diverse body of classical Indian literature. The history recorded in such texts as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is less concerned with authenticating persons and events than with presenting a picture of traditions striving to retain legitimacy amid social change. Spanning an epoch from 1000 BCE to 1400 CE, Thapar delineates three strains of historical writing: an Itihasa-Purana tradition of Brahman authors; a tradition composed mainly by Buddhist and Jaina monks and scholars; and a popular bardic tradition. The Vedic corpus, the epics, the Buddhist canon and monastic chronicles, inscriptional evidence, regional accounts, and literary forms such as royal biographies and drama are all scrutinized afresh--not as sources to be mined for factual data but as genres that disclose how Indians of ancient times represented their own past to themselves.

Download or read book History of India written by Captivating History and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India is a land of mystery, richness, and deep spiritual discovery. Every facet of this ancient land seems scented with the famous spices that lured European traders to its shores more than five centuries ago. India is quite unique in the way it has brought its ancient histories and traditions with it into the modern age.

Download or read book Ancient India in Its Wider World written by Grant Richard Parker and published by U of M Center for South Asian Studies. This book was released on 2008 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawn from a variety of academic disciplines and perspectives, this volume approaches ancient India both historically and geographically. The primary temporal focus lies in India's "Early Historic" period, from the mid-first millennium BCE through the mid-first millennium CE. The geographic focus is shifted landward rather than seaward and is centered on South Asia rather than the Mediterranean. Contributors examine power and material culture; Mediterranean image making, which looks at Greek and Roman understandings of India; and language and otherness, which explores Indian knowledge and understandings of outsiders. The volume as a whole directs us to the complex webs and networks that throughout Indian history have linked South Asians to each other and to the world beyond the subcontinent. A very wide world indeed. Contributors are Shinu A. Abraham, Madhav Deshpande, Grant Parker, Alka Patel, Himanshu P. Ray, James Romm, Martha Ann Selby, and Thomas R. Trautmann. Grant Parker is Assistant Professor of Classics, Stanford University. Carla M. Sinopoli is Professor of Anthropology and Curator and Director, Museum of Anthropology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan.

Download or read book The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in HIstorical Outline written by D D Kosambi and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1965, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline is a strikingly original work, the first real cultural history of India. The main features of the Indian character are traced back into remote antiquity as the natural outgrowth of historical process. Did the change from food gathering and the pastoral life to agriculture make new religions necessary? Why did the Indian cities vanish with hardly a trace and leave no memory? Who were the Aryans – if any? Why should Buddhism, Jainism, and so many other sects of the same type come into being at one time and in the same region? How could Buddhism spread over so large a part of Asia while dying out completely in the land of its origin? What caused the rise and collapse of the Magadhan empire; was the Gupta empire fundamentally different from its great predecessor, or just one more ‘oriental despotism’? These are some of the many questions handled with great insight, yet in the simplest terms, in this stimulating work. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, South Asian studies and ethnic studies.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology written by Roger S. Bagnall and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 711 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of documentary and literary texts written on papyri and potsherds, in Egyptian, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Persian, have transformed our knowledge of many aspects of life in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds. Here experts provide a comprehensive guide to understanding this ancient documentary evidence.

Download or read book Ancient India Maurya Empire written by John Bankston and published by Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-09-30 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Maurya Empire stretched from Afghanistan to the southern tip of India. The first emperor, Chandragupta Maurya, grew up in a village of peacock farmers. His grandson Ashoka would renounce war and strive for peace. Indians still call him Ashoka the Great and regard him as one of history’s finest rulers. The Maurya Empire was ruled by kings who allowed their ministers to disagree with them. It existed over two thousand years ago, yet it had laws familiar in the 21st century—protecting workers, buyers and sellers. Today its monuments survive while its symbols adorn the flag of India.

Download or read book Polyandry in Ancient India written by Sarva Daman Singh and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 1988 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars have studied polyandry in modern India with reference to specific areas; but the investigation of its past history in the Indian context remains a desideratum. The present book therefore fills a gap in historical research relating to an institution as interesting as it is ancient as significant as it is slighted, or sought to be swept under the carpet. Based on original sources it clearly and categorically established the prevalence of polyandry amongst Vedic Aryans as also amongst other peoples of the old Indo-European stock.