Download or read book Seven Hundred Elegant Verses written by Govardhana and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-12-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Go·várdhana composed his "Seven Hundred Elegant Verses" in Sanskrit in the twelfth century CE, the title suggested that this was a response to the 700 verses in the more demotic Prakrit language traditionally attributed to King Hala, composed almost a thousand years earlier. Both sets of poems were composed in the arya metre. Besides being the name of a metre, in Sanskrit arya means a noble or elegant lady, and Go·várdhana wished to reflect and appeal to a sophisticated culture. These poems each consist of a single stanza, almost as condensed and allusive as a Japanese haiku. They cover the gamut of human life and emotion, though the favorite topic is love in all its aspects. Co-published by New York University Press and the JJC Foundation For more on this title and other titles in the Clay Sanskrit series, please visit http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org
Download or read book Mahabharata Book Seven Volume 2 written by and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume Two of "Drona" begins in the aftermath of tragedy. As evening falls, Arjuna journeys wearily back to camp and is greeted by the ashen faces of his brothers. Before they speak, he guesses the worst. And the worst is right: his son Abhimanyu is dead. Arjuna is inconsolable. Insensible with rage, he vows to take revenge on the boy’s killers. He swears that if they are not dead before another day passes, he will set himself alight. The world seems to shudder at his words.
Download or read book Language of the Snakes written by Andrew Ollett and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Language of the Snakes traces the history of the Prakrit language as a literary phenomenon, starting from its cultivation in courts of the Deccan in the first centuries of the common era. Although little studied today, Prakrit was an important vector of the kavya movement and once joined Sanskrit at the apex of classical Indian literary culture. The opposition between Prakrit and Sanskrit was at the center of an enduring “language order” in India, a set of ways of thinking about, naming, classifying, representing, and ultimately using languages. As a language of classical literature that nevertheless retained its associations with more demotic language practices, Prakrit both embodies major cultural tensions—between high and low, transregional and regional, cosmopolitan and vernacular—and provides a unique perspective onto the history of literature and culture in South Asia.
Download or read book Body as Landscape Love as Intoxication written by Brian P. Gault and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2019-09-13 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explore metaphors in the exquisite and enigmatic poetry of Song of Songs One of the chief difficulties in interpreting the Song's lyrics is the unusual imagery used to depict the lovers' bodies. Why is the maiden's hair compared to a flock of goats (4:1), the man’s cheeks likened to garden beds of spice (5:13), and the eyes of both lovers described as doves (4:1; 5:12)? While scholars speculate on the significance of these images, a systematic inquiry into the Song's body metaphors is curiously absent. Based on insights from cognitive linguistics, this study incorporates biblical and comparative data to uncover the meaning of these metaphors surveying literature in the eastern Mediterranean (and beyond) that shares a similar form (poetry) and theme (love). Gault presents an interpretation of the Song's body imagery that sheds light on the perception of beauty in Israel and its relationship to surrounding cultures. Features Exploration of the Song's use of universal themes and culturally specific variations Discussion of the Song's literary structure and unity
Download or read book Gita Govinda written by Jayadeva and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-12-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jayadeva’s Gitagovínda is a lyrical account of the illicit springtime love affair of Krishna and Radha, a god and goddess manifesting on earth as a cowherd and milkmaid for the sake of relishing the sweet miseries and rapturous delights of erotic love. The narrative framing their bucolic songs was composed under royal patronage in northeastern India in the twelfth century. It was to be performed for connoisseurs of poetry and the erotic arts, for aesthetes and voluptuaries who, while sensually engaged, were at the same time devoted to Krishna as Lord of the Universe. The text at once celebrates the vicissitudes of carnal love and the transports of religious devotion, merging and reconciling those realms of emotion and experience. Erotic and religious sensibilities serve, and are served by, the pleasures of poetry. In the centuries following its composition, the courtly text became a vastly popular inspirational hymnal. Jayadeva's songs continue to be sung throughout India in fervent devotional adoration of Krishna.
Download or read book Bhatti s Poem The Death of Ravana written by Bhaṭṭi and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-04 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To the dry bones of grammar Bhatti gave juicy flesh in his poem, telling the Indian story in Sanskrit. This book is both a poetic retelling of Rama's adventures, and a compendium of grammatical and rhetorical examples for students.
Download or read book Bhatti s Poem The Death of Ravana written by and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2016-10-01 with total page 570 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To the dry bones of grammar Bhatti gave juicy flesh in his poem, telling the greatest Indian story in elegant Sanskrit. Composed in the fourth century CE, in South India, ”Bhatti’s Poem: The Death of Rávana” is both a poetic retelling of Rama’s adventures, and a compendium of grammatical and rhetorical examples for students. Bhatti’s study aid to Pánini’s groundbreaking grammatical treatise, the “Eight Books,” gives examples disguised as the gripping, morally improving “Ramáyana” story. In Bhatti’s own words: “This composition is a lamp to those whose eyes have language as their goal.” Tradition has it that an elephant ambled between Bhatti and his pupils, interrupting their outdoors grammar class. By Hindu law this intrusion canceled class for a year. Lest time be lost, Bhatti composed his poem to teach grammar without textbooks. Ever since, “The Death of Rávana” has been one of the most popular poems in Sanskrit literature.
Download or read book Mah bh rata written by Adam Bowles and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "published in the geek chic format" - Bookforum"The Book of Karna" relates the events of the two dramatic days after the defeat of the great warriors and generals Bhishma and Drona, in which Karna - great hero and the eldest Pandava - leads the Kaurava army into combat. This first volume of "Karna" depicts mighty battles in gory detail, sets the scene for Karna's tragic death, and includes a remarkable verbal duel between Karna and his reluctant charioteer Shalya, the king of the Madras, as they hurl abuse at each other before entering the fray.
Download or read book Mah bh rata written by and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mahabharata Books Ten and Eleven written by and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great war of the Maha bharata is over. Or is it? This is a single extended family wracked in conflict. Both sides succumbed to treachery. Ashva tthaman, the young leader of the three survivors on the losing side, is incensed at his father’s murder. He returns after dark to the now sleeping encampment. The sacrifice of the unsuspecting champions, the "Dead of Night," ensues. The five sons of Pandu have escaped. After a final confrontation, a missile crisis, Ashva tthaman concedes defeat but redirects his missile into the wombs of the victors’ women. They miscarry, and cannot hope for more children. Now the survivors, victors and vanquished, must struggle to comprehend their loss. "The Women" of both sides are confronted by their men’s mangled corpses in a masterpiece of horror and pathos. But their potent curses must be curbed to usher in a new era. Maha bharata Books Ten and Eleven give voice to the vanquished, to the psychology of loss and the conflicting desires for understanding and revenge.
Download or read book Garland of the Buddha s Past Lives Volume 2 written by Aryashura and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this second volume of the Garland of Past Lives, Aryashura applies his elegant literary skill toward composing fourteen further stories that depict the Buddha’s quest for enlightenment in his former lives. Here the perfection of forbearance becomes the dominant theme, as the future Buddha suffers mutilations from the wicked and sacrifices himself for those he seeks to save. Friendship, too, takes on central significance, with greed leading to treachery and enemies transformed into friends through the transformative effect of the future Buddha’s miraculous virtue. The setting for many such moral feats is the forest. Portrayed as home for the future Buddha in his lives as an animal or ascetic, the peaceful harmony of this idyllic realm is often violently interrupted by intrusions from human society. Only the future Buddha can resolve the ensuing conflict, influencing even kings, in the stories but also throughout Asian history, to express wonder and devotion at the startling demonstrations of virtue they encounter.
Download or read book Mah bh rata written by and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mahabharata Book Six Volume 2 written by and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second half of Bhishma describes the events from the beginning of the fifth day till the end of the tenth of the great battle between the Káuravas and the Pándavas. Despite grandfather Bhishma’s appeal to conclude peace with the Pándavas, Duryódhana continues the bloody battle. The key strategist is general Bhishma, commander of the Káurava forces. Even though he is compelled to fight on the side of the Káuravas, Bhishma’s sympathies are with the Pándavas. After the ninth day of war, when Bhishma has wreaked havoc with their troops, the Pándavas realise that they will be unable to win as long as invincible Bhishma is alive. Bhishma willingly reveals to them how he can be destroyed. Strictly observing the warrior code, he will never fight with Shikhándin, because he was originally born a woman. Bhishma advises the Pándava brothers that Árjuna should strike him from behind Shikhándin’s back, and they follow the grandfather’s advice.
Download or read book The Rise of Wisdom Moon written by Krishna mishra and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2016-10-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rise of Wisdom Moon was composed during the mid-eleventh century by Krishna mishra, an otherwise unknown poet in the service of the Chandella dynasty, whose cultural and religious capital was Khajuraho. The early popularity of Krishna mishra’s work led to its frequent translation into the vernaculars of both North and South India, and even Persian as well. Famed as providing the enduring model of the allegorical play for all subsequent Sanskrit literature, The Rise of Wisdom Moon offers a satirical account of the conquest of the holy city of Benares by Nescience, of the war of liberation waged by the forces of Intuition, and of the freedom of the Inner Man that then follows the rise of Wisdom. But at the outset, when Nescience still has the upper hand, with minions like Lord Lust, such developments seem unlikely.
Download or read book The Quartet of Causeries written by Shyamilaka and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-08 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Four Soliloquies have been handed down as a collection of the most ancient monologue farces in classical Sanskrit.
Download or read book How Urvashi was Won written by Kālidāsa and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the three surviving plays by Kali dasa (fifth century), universally acknowledged as the supreme poet in classical Sanskrit, How Urvashi Was Won, like the other two, is a masterpiece of lyricism, subtle characterization, and the working through of a bold theme. How Urvashi Was Won is the story of King Puru ravas and his love for an immortal, the dancer Urvashi, who normally lives in the heaven of the gods but who has come down to earth in order to realize her passion for the alltoo- mortal king. The tragic love of this asymmetrical couple was described already in the ancient "Rig Veda" and later often expanded. Kali dasa has reworked the narrative so as to depict a goddess in the process of becoming fully, and dangerously, human—since only human beings (at their best) are, in Kali dasa’s vision, truly capable of the depths and intricacies of loving. This great work of love, loss, and eventual restoration speaks to the human condition generally in highly nuanced verses, accessible to any modern reader.
Download or read book Garland of the Buddha s Past Lives Volume 1 written by Aryashura and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-04-01 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Garland of Past Lives is a collection of thirty four stories depicting the miraculous deeds performed by the Buddha in his previous rebirths. Composed in the fourth century C.E. by the Buddhist monk Aryashura, the text’s accomplished artistry led Indian aesthetic theorists to praise its elegant mixture of verse and prose. The twenty stories in this first volume deal primarily with the virtues of giving and morality. Ascetics sacrifice their lives for hungry tigers, kings open their veins for demons to drink their blood, helmsmen steer their crew through perilous seas, and quail chicks quench forest fires by proclaiming words of truth. The experience is intended to arouse astonishment in the audience, inspiring devotion, through the future Buddha’s transcendence of conventional norms in his quest to acquire enlightenment and save the world from suffering. The importance of such stories of past lives in traditional Buddhist culture, throughout Asia and up to today, cannot be overestimated.
