Download or read book A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India written by Upinder Singh and published by Pearson Education India. This book was released on 2008 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Basic Approach Developed as a comprehensive introductory work for scholars and students of ancient and early medieval Indian history, this books provides the most exhaustive overview of the subject. Dividing the vast historical expanse from the stone age to the 12th century into broad chronological units, it constructs profiles of various geographical regions of the subcontinent, weaving together and analysing an unparalleled range of literary and archaeological evidence. Dealing with prehistory and protohistory of the subcontinent in considerable detail, the narrative of the historical period breaks away from conventional text-based history writing. Providing a window into the world primary sources, it incorporates a large volume of archaeological data, along with literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence. Revealing the ways in which our past is constructed, it explains fundamental concepts, and illuminates contemporary debates, discoveries, and research. Situating prevailing historical debates in their contexts, Ancient and Early Medieval India presents balanced assessments, encouraging readers to independently evaluate theories, evidence, and arguments. Beautifully illustrated with over four hundred photographs, maps, and figures, Ancient and Early Medieval India helps visualize and understand the extraordinarily rich and varied remains of the ancient past of Indian subcontinent. It offers a scholarly and nuanced yet lucid account of India s early past, and will surely transform the discovery of this past into an exciting experience. Tabel of Contents List of photographs List of maps List of figures About the author Preface Acknowledgements A readers guide 1. Understanding Literary and Archaeological Sources 2. Hunter-Gatherers of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Ages 3. The Transition to Food Production: Neolithic,Neolithic Chalcolithic, and Chalcolithic Villages, c. 7000 2000 bce 4. The Harappan Civilization, c. 2600 1900 bce 5. Cultural Transitions: Images from Texts and Archaeology, c. 2000 600 bce 6. Cities, Kings, and Renunciants: North India, c. 600 300 bce 7. Power and Piety: The Maurya Empire, c. 324 187 bce 8. Interaction and Innovation, c. 200 BCE 300 ce 9. Aesthetics and Empire, c. 300 600 ce 10. Emerging Regional Configurations, c. 600 1200 ce Note on diacritics Glossary Further readings References Index Author Bio Upinder Singh is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Delhi. She taught history at St. Stephen s College, Delhi, from 1981 until 2004, after which she joined the faculty of the Department of History at the University of Delhi. Professor Singh s wide range of research interests and expertise include the analysis of ancient and early medieval inscriptions; social and economic history; religious institutions and patrona≥ history of archaeology; and modern history of ancient monuments. Her research papers have been published in various national and international journals. Her published books include: Kings, Brahmanas, and Temples in Orissa: An Epigraphic Study (AD 300 1147) (1994); Ancient Delhi (1999; 2nd edn., 2006); a book for children, Mysteries of the Past: Archaeological Sites in India (2002); The Discovery of Ancient India: Early Archaeologists and the Beginnings of Archaeology (2004); and Delhi: Ancient History (edited, 2006).

Download or read book Tamil Oratory and the Dravidian Aesthetic written by Bernard Bate and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book about the newness of old things. It concerns an oratorical revolution, a transformation of oratorical style linked to larger transformations in society at large. It explores the aesthetics of Tamil oratory and its vital relationship to one of the key institutions of modern society: democracy. Therefore this book also bears on the centrality of language to the modern human condition. Though Tamil oratory is a relatively new practice in south India, the Dravidian (or Tamil nationalist) style employs archaic forms of Tamil that suggest an ancient mode of speech. Beginning with the advent of mass democratic politics in the 1940s, a new generation of politician adopted this style, known as "fine," or "beautiful Tamil" (centamil), for its distinct literary virtuosity, poesy, and alluring evocation of a pure Tamil past. Bernard Bate explores the centamil phenomenon, arguing that the genre's spectacular literacy and use of ceremonial procession, urban political ritual, and posters, praise poetry are critical components in the production of a singularly Tamil mode of political modernity: a Dravidian neoclassicism. From his perspective, the centamil revolution and Dravidian neoclassicism suggest that modernity is not the mere successor of tradition but the production of tradition, and that this production is a primary modality of modernity, a new newness-albeit a newness of old things.

Download or read book A Handbook of Tamil Nadu written by K. M. Venkataramaiah and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Kerala History and its Makers written by A. Sreedhara Menon and published by D C Books. This book was released on 2011-03-04 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume deals with the history of Kerala with special attention to selected historical personages who had played significant roles in shaping the history of Kerala through the ages.

Download or read book Facets of South Indian Art and Architecture written by Irā Nākacāmi and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Four Hundred Songs of War and Wisdom written by George L. Hart and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2002-08-21 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two prominent translators present the first complete English-language edition of one of India's greatest works of classical literature: the Purananuru. This anthology of four hundred poems by more than 150 poets between the first and third centuries CE in old Tamil—the literary language of ancient Tamilnadu—was composed before Aryan influence had penetrated the south. It is thus a unique testament to pre-Aryan India. Beyond its importance for understanding the development of South Asia's history, culture, religion, and linguistics, the Purananuru is a great work of literature, reflecting accurately and profoundly the life of southern India 2,000 years ago. One of the few works of classical India that confronts life without the insulation of a philosophical facade and that makes no basic assumptions about karma and the afterlife, the Purananuru has universal appeal. It faces the world as a great and unsolved mystery, delving into living and dying, despair, love, poverty, and the changing nature of existence. To this hidden gem of world literature George L. Hart and Hank Heifetz add a helpful appendix, an annotated bibliography, and an excellent introduction describing the work and placing it in its social and historical context.

Download or read book Warfare in Pre British India 1500BCE to 1740CE written by Kaushik Roy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-03 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a comprehensive survey of warfare in India up to the point where the British began to dominate the sub-continent. It discusses issues such as how far was the relatively bloodless nature of pre-British Indian warfare the product of stateless Indian society? How far did technology determine the dynamics of warfare in India? Did warfare in this period have a particular Indian nature and was it ritualistic? The book considers land warfare including sieges, naval warfare, the impact of horses, elephants and gunpowder, and the differences made by the arrival of Muslim rulers and by the influx of other foreign influences and techniques. The book concludes by arguing that the presence of standing professional armies supported by centralised bureaucratic states have been underemphasised in the history of India.

Download or read book Thamizh Is Not Just A Language written by Madhan Kumar and published by Educreation Publishing. This book was released on with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In general histories of India, the part of the country with which we are concerned figures only in a small way. Vincent Smith rightly observed ‘most historians of ancient India have written as if the South did not exist’ and explained this neglect of the South in two ways. ‘The historian of India,’ he said, ‘is bound by the nature of things to direct his attention to the North, and is able to give only a secondary place to the story of Deccan Plateau and the far south. ‘South India and northern Ceylone are the one of the oldest inhabited regions of the world and its prehistoric archaeology and contacts with neighbouring lands, so far as traceable, constitutes an important chapter in the history of world’s civilizations. The Marathas of the western Deccan are the southern most of indo Aryan speaking people and all the country to the east and south of them speaks languages which fall into a single group with Thamizh as the source which is the Classical living language & exists the ethnicity called Thamizhan, with its own individuality and unique, unconquerable potency in both Politics, culture, sport, worship, art, agriculture and valour. They had a wide spread life in now called India with Himalayas as their border in North and Kanyakumari in South. This is what all about in this book, the valour, courage and valiance of kings and warriors who existed in Thamizh ethnics’ right from the ancient era. Shown with available referrals from the Thamizh epics and literatures from Sangam era translated in English.

Download or read book Language Culture and Power written by C. T. Indra and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-11-13 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the relationship between language and power across cultural boundaries. It evaluates the vital role of translation in redefining culture and ethnic identity. During the first phase of colonialism, mid-18th to late-19th century, the English-speaking missionaries and East India Company functionaries in South India were impelled to master Tamil, the local language, in order to transact their business. Tamil also comprised ancient classical literary works, especially ethical and moral literature, which were found especially suited to the preferences of Christian missionaries. This interface between English and Tamil acted as a conduit for cultural transmission among different groups. The essays in this volume explore the symbiotic relation between English and Tamil during the late colonial and postcolonial as also the modernist and the postmodernist periods. The book showcases the modernity of contemporary Tamil culture as reflected in its literary and artistic productions — poetry, fiction, short fiction and drama — and outlines the aesthetics, philosophy and methodology of these translations. This volume and its companion (which looks at the period between 1750 to 1900 CE) cover the late colonial and postcolonial era and will be of interest to students, scholars and researchers of translation studies, literature, linguistics, sociology and social anthropology, South Asian studies, colonial and postcolonial studies, literary and critical theory as well as culture studies.

Download or read book The Rapids of a Great River written by and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-06-08 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rapids of a Great River begins with selections from the earliest known Tamil poetry dating from the second century CE. The writings of the Sangam period laid the foundation for the Tamil poetic tradition, and they continue to underlie and inform the works of Tamil poets even today. The first part of this anthology traverses the Sangam and bhakti periods and closes with pre-modern poems from the nineteenth century. The second part, a compilation of modern and contemporary poetry, opens with the work of the revolutionary poet Subramania Bharati. Breaking free from prescriptions, the new voices—which include Sri Lankan Tamils, women and dalits, among others—address the contemporary reader; the poems, underscored by a sharp rhetorical edge, grapple with the complexities of the modern political and social world. The selection is wide-ranging and the translations admirably echo the music, pace and resonance of the poems. This anthology links the old with the new, cementing the continuity of a richly textured tradition. There is something in the collection for every reader and each will make his or her own connections—at times startling, at other times familiar.

Download or read book South India Heritage written by Prema Kasturi and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do you know about Carnatic music? South India`s dance styles? Handloom weavers of Andhra Pradesh? The Madras Sanskrit College? The art of Ivory carving? Temple murals? Who was Ramanuja? How have Christians contributed to art, literature and architecture in South India? What`s notable about Gangaikondacholapuram, Belur, or Islamic places of worship? What do we know irrigation practices in Ancient South India? The evolution of Malayalam literature? What is special about the cuisines of South India? These are some of the 500-odd topics on South India`s Heritage discussed in this book. It provides snapshots of the collective cultural experience of the people of South India, their heroes, their rivers, lakes and hills and forests, their temples, their music, dance and folklore. The book has a general section on South India`s Heritage, common to the four southern states. It is followed by three sections--political, socio-economic and cultural. The book covers South India`s Heritage till the end of the nineteenth century. The book is targeted specifically at Indian students from South India who go abroad for college education. It is meant to give them an idea of our heritage--kindle their interest in the subject, enable them to answer questions, serve as their heritage companion and guide. A product of painstaking research, the book reflects an earnest attempt to shed light on a complex, amorphous, many-faceted subject and give it form, shape and substance.

Download or read book Uproot Hindutva written by Thirumaavalavan and published by Popular Prakashan. This book was released on 2004 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author is a leader of the Viduthalai Chirutaigal, the Liberation Panthers. In this book -- a selection of his speeches -- he speaks of the need to counter Hindutva with a Tamil identity that can reach beyond its region to other oppressed peoples. It speaks of the refusal to be a Hindu and of theright to conversion, of women's rights, of the heritage and culture of the Dalits, among other issues.

Download or read book Music as History in Tamilnadu written by T. K. Venkatasubramanian and published by Primus Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent scholarship on the history of music in South Asia has examined the processes by which music as an art form was reinvented for nationalist purposes, yet, the disciplined study of music (and its aesthetics) remains only a few centuries old. Studying music through a historical lens has opened new approaches to interdisciplinary studies. Music as History in Tamilnadu examines how history can be interpreted through aesthetics and music and vice versa. Musicologists focus on the study of musical activity, while ethnomusicologists examine this activity first-hand using the 'field' research methods of cultural anthropology. The historian's task, then, is to interpret the musical past as part of cultural production and thereafter relate music to general historical trends. This collection of essays seeks to establish the interdisciplinarity between music (the Karnatak system) and the history of Tamilnadu, south India.

Download or read book Atlantis Thamizhargal written by Rajasankar and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2023-03-24 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is a bold research on the ancient history to bring out the hidden truth with all possible scientific evidential analysis. The readers would undergo an exhilarating experience from its pages, understanding about various aspects such as the knowledge, calculation and methods of the ancient people. It will conclusively end your search of Plato's “ATLANTIS”, an Advanced Ancient Civilization. It also introduces a new hypothesis (EAIS Theory) in astronomy to explain the phenomenon of Earth’s Axial Precession in a different view. “It’s impossible to rewrite history, but our insight changes with the evidence currently shown” -Author

Download or read book Material Devotion in a South Indian Poetic World written by Leah Elizabeth Comeau and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Material Devotion in a South Indian Poetic World contributes new methods for the study and interpretation of material religion found within literary landscapes. The poets of Hindu devotion are known for their intimate celebration of deities, and while verses over a thousand years old are still treasured, translated, and performed, little attention has been paid to the evocative sensorial worlds referenced by these literary compositions. This book offers a material interpretation of an understudied poem that defined an entire genre of South Asian literature -Tirukkovaiyar-the 9th-century Tamil poem dedicated to Shiva. The poetry of Tamil South India invites travel across real and imagined geography, naming royal patrons, ancient temple towns, and natural landscapes. Leah Elizabeth Comeau locates the materiality of devotion to Shiva in a world unique to the South Indian vernacular and yet captivating to audiences across time, place, and tradition.

Download or read book Saiva Siddhanta written by and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Secularism Under Siege written by Zaheer Ali and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology makes a discerning attempt to bring into focus myriad dimensions of secularism and the foremost impediments to its attainment. The scholars who contributed to this volume have underscored that the disconnect between a modern-secular state and a conservative society is detrimental to recognizing an ideal secular-democratic polity. Then there is the burden of the past centuries that independent India has to carry on its young shoulders. The political factions in India invent their own historical narratives to advance their political agenda coupled with political and economic arguments leading to social dissensions and communal hatred, the ugliest manifestation of which is communal violence that occasionally takes on the form of anti-minority pogroms. The academic critiques of the concept of secularism and its correlated premises belted in this volume shall be of assistance not only to the scholars but also to the students of social sciences and the conscientious readers interested in knowing about the current socio-political milieu. This title is co-published with Aakar Books. Print editions not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)