Download or read book Valmiki s Ramayana written by and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-04-20 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of India’s greatest epics, the Ramayana pervades the country’s moral and cultural consciousness. For generations it has served as a bedtime story for Indian children, while at the same time engaging the interest of philosophers and theologians. Believed to have been composed by Valmiki sometime between the eighth and sixth centuries BCE, the Ramayana tells the tragic and magical story of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, an incarnation of Lord Visnu, born to rid the earth of the terrible demon Ravana. An idealized heroic tale ending with the inevitable triumph of good over evil, the Ramayana is also an intensely personal story of family relationships, love and loss, duty and honor, of harem intrigue, petty jealousies, and destructive ambitions. All this played out in a universe populated by larger-than-life humans, gods and celestial beings, wondrous animals and terrifying demons. With her magnificent translation and superb introduction, Arshia Sattar has successfully bridged both time and space to bring this ancient classic to modern English readers.

Download or read book Grounds for Play written by Kathryn Hansen and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-12-22 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nautanki performances of northern India entertain their audiences with often ribald and profane stories. Rooted in the peasant society of pre-modern India, this theater vibrates with lively dancing, pulsating drumbeats, and full-throated singing. In Grounds for Play, Kathryn Hansen draws on field research to describe the different elements of nautanki performance: music, dance, poetry, popular story lines, and written texts. She traces the social history of the form and explores the play of meanings within nautanki narratives, focusing on the ways important social issues such as political authority, community identity, and gender differences are represented in these narratives. Unlike other styles of Indian theater, the nautanki does not draw on the pan-Indian religious epics such as the Ramayana or the Mahabharata for its subjects. Indeed, their storylines tend to center on the vicissitudes of stranded heroines in the throes of melodramatic romance. Whereas nautanki performers were once much in demand, live performances now are rare and nautanki increasingly reaches its audiences through electronic media—records, cassettes, films, television. In spite of this change, the theater form still functions as an effective conduit in the cultural flow that connects urban centers and the hinterland in an ongoing process of exchange.

Download or read book Bhakti Religion in North India written by David N. Lorenzen and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1994-11-09 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In India, religion continues to be an absolutely vital source for social as well as personal identity. All manner of groups--political, occupational, and social--remain grounded in specific religious communities. This book analyzes the development of the modern Hindu and Sikh communities in North India starting from about the fifteenth century, when the dominant bhakti tradition of Hinduism became divided into two currents: the sagun and the nirgun. The sagun current, led mostly by Brahmins, has remained dominant in most of North India and has served as the ideological base of the development of modern Hindu nationalism. Several chapters explore the rise of this religious and political movement, paying particular attention to the role played by devotion to Ram. Alternative trends do exist in sagun tradition, however, and are represented here by chapters on the low-caste saint Chokhamel and the tantric sect founded by Kina Ram. The nirgun current, led mostly by persons of Ksand artisan castes, formed the base of both the Sikh community, founded by Guru Nanak, and of various non-Brahmin sectarian movements derived from such saints as Kabir, Raidas, Dadu, and Shiv Dayal Singh. Two chapters discuss the formation of a distinctive Sikh theology and a Sikh community identity separate from that of the Hindus. Other chapters discuss the validity of the sagun-nirgun distinction within Hindu tradition and the interplay of social and religious ideas in nirgun hagiographic texts and in sectarian movements such as the Adi Dharma Mission and the Radhasoami Satsang.

Download or read book Decolonizing the Hindu Mind written by Koenraad Elst and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book India written by Stuart Cary Welch and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 1985 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A selection of 333 works of art representing masterpieces of the sacred and court traditions as well as their urban, folk, and tribal heritage.

Download or read book The Economy of the Mughal Empire C 1595 written by Shireen Moosvi and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

Download or read book Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples written by Jain Meenaksji and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Invitation to World Religions written by Jeffrey Brodd and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS have offered answers to the weightiest questions of human existence, contributed to the formation of political and social institutions, inspired masterpieces of art and literature, and provided many of the cultural values and ideals on which entire civilizations have been based. Today, religions continue to play a powerful role in shaping the ways in which people understand themselves, the world they live in, and how they should live. Invitation to World Religions welcomes students to the study of religion. In these pages, we open the doors and invite the reader to explore with wonder and respect. We describe the essential features of the world's major religions and show how they have responded to basic human needs and to the cultural settings in which they developed. We also compare the answers religions have offered us regarding some of the most essential human questions: Why are we here? What is the nature of the universe? How should we live? Our aim has been to balance concision and substance in an introductory text that is accessible, as well as challenging"--

Download or read book Prince of Ayodhya written by Ashok Banker and published by Grand Central Pub. This book was released on 2003 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic fantasy based on the ancient Hindu classic finds young Rama, heir to the throne of Ayodhya, called upon by the legendary mage Vishwamitra when two powerful demons raise an army to defeat the human world. 20,000 first printing.

Download or read book Indian Political Thought written by Mahendra Prasad Singh and published by Pearson Education India. This book was released on 2011 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Indian Political Thought: Themes and Thinkers covers all major Indian political thinkers from the ancient, through medieval to the modern times. Thus, this book provides an overview of the evolution of the Indian political thought through different historical periods, giving an insight into the sociological and political conditions of the times that shaped the Indian political thinking. It does not only talk about the lives and times of the thinkers, but also explores the important themes that formed the basis of their political ideologies. The chapters discuss the contributions of the thinkers and at the same time examine some important themes including the theory of state, civil rights, ideal polity, governance, nationalism, democracy, social issues like gender and caste, swaraj, satyagraha, liberalism, constitutionalism, Marxism, socialism and Gandhism. With a comprehensive coverage of both the thinkers and the themes of the Indian political thought, this book caters to needs of the undergraduate as well as the post graduate courses of all Indian universities. It is valuable also for UGC-NET and civil service examinations.

Download or read book From Lineage to State written by Romila Thapar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1999-11-01 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a concise collection of lectures which discuss the nature of early Indian society during the mid-first millennium BC and relate it to the ancient Indian historical tradition in its earliest forms. It also looks at the particular character of social formations, their genesis, and continuity as part of the later Indian social landscape. Examining the social and political formulations of the period, this volume analyses the transformation of lineage-based societies into state formulations. It considers the migration and arrival of the monarchies in the middle Ganga valley, where the evolution of these societies resulted in the formation of a state. It provides insights into environmental influences on settlements, the particularities of caste, the role of rituals, and the interaction of ideology with these changes. The volume presents an account of the interplay of a range of variables in state formation.

Download or read book History UGC NET SET JRF Paper II and III 1 e written by Amitava Chatterjee and published by Pearson Education India. This book was released on 2014 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History: UGC-NET/SET/JRF (Paper II and III) has been structured strictly in accordance with the prescribed syllabus of the University Grants Commission. The book is divided into three sections—ancient, medieval and modern Indian history. The chronologies of different dynasties of ancient and medieval Indian history have been incorporated along with a section on world concepts. Almost all probable Multiple-choice Questions (MCQs), which are indispensable for Paper II and Paper III in the NET/SET examination, have been included in this book.

Download or read book According to Tradition written by Winand M. Callewaert and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 1994 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The London Jungle Book written by Bhajju Shyam and published by Tara Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning visual travelogue by an Indian tribal artist showing London as an exotic bestiary.

Download or read book Adventures of Feluda Trouble in Gangtok written by Ray Satyajit and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2019-11-11 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Feluda and Topshe are on vacation in Bangkok when they stumble upon the mysterious murder of a business executive.

Download or read book Hanuman s Tale written by Philip Lutgendorf and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-11 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hanuman, the devoted monkey helper of Rama and Sita, has long been recognized as a popular character in India's ancient Ramayana epic. But more recently he has also become one of the most beloved and worshiped gods in the Hindu pantheon - enshrined in majestic new temples, but equally present in poster art, advertising, and mass media. Drawing on Sanskrit and vernacular texts, classical iconography and modern TV serials, and extensive fieldwork and interviews, Philip Lutgendorf challenges the academic cliché of Hanuman as a "minor" or "folk" deity by exploring his complex and growing role in South Asian religion and culture. This wide-ranging study examines the historical evolution of Hanuman's worship, his close association with Shiva and goddesses, his invocation in tantric ritual, his physical immortality and enduring presence in sacred sites, and his appeal to devotees who include scholars, wrestlers, healers, politicians, and middle-class urbanites. Lutgendorf also offers a rich array of entertaining stories not previously available in English: an expanding epic cycle that he christens the "Hanumayana." Arguing that Hanuman's role as cosmic "middle man" is intimately linked to his embodiment in a charming and provocative simian form, Lutgendorf moves beyond the Indian subcontinent to interrogate the wider human fascination with anthropoid primates as boundary beings and as potent signifiers of both Self and Other.

Download or read book The Book of Ram written by Devdutt Pattanaik and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2015 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He Is Eka-Vachani, A King Who Always Keeps His Word; Eka-Bani, An Archer Who Strikes His Target With The First Arrow; And Eka-Patni, A Husband Who Is Eternally And Absolutely Devoted To A Single Wife. He Is Maryada Purushottam Ram, The Supreme Upholder Of Social Values, The Scion Of The Raghu Clan, Jewel Of The Solar Dynasty, The Seventh Avatar Of Vishnu, God Who Establishes Order In Worldly Life. Hindus Believe That In Stressful And Tumultuous Times Chanting Ram&Rsquo;S Name And Hearing His Tale, The Ramayan, Brings Stability, Hope, Peace And Prosperity. Reviled By Feminists, Appropriated By Politicians, Ram Remains Serene In His Majesty, The Only Hindu Deity To Be Worshipped As A King.