Download or read book Varanasi Portrait Of A Civilization written by Raghu Rai and published by Harpercollins. This book was released on 2011-02-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this magnificent book, made up of images culled from three decades of work, Raghu Rai captures more of Varanasi's distinctive, timeless character than anyone else ever has. Rai paints a portrait not just of a holy city but of an entire civilization, depicting its unique way of life, and showing us worlds within worlds. In photograph after photograph, the secular and the profane coexist; the old can hardly be told from the new. Everything is experienced at once - the ghats, the streets, the faith, the temples, the river, the celebrations, man and beast, the burning bodies, all jostling for space in the same frame. These photographs demonstrate unforgettably how all of India is in Varanasi, inspiring and appalling, ancient and up-to-date. A collector's edition.
Download or read book The World Goes On Third Edition written by László Krasznahorkai and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2024-04-02 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, a transcendent and wide-ranging collection of stories by László Krasznahorkai: “a visionary writer of extraordinary intensity and vocal range who captures the texture of present-day existence in scenes that are terrifying, strange, appallingly comic, and often shatteringly beautiful.”—Marina Warner, announcing the Booker International Prize In The World Goes On, a narrator first speaks directly, then narrates a number of unforgettable stories, and then bids farewell (“here I would leave this earth and these stars, because I would take nothing with me”). As László Krasznahorkai himself explains: “Each text is about drawing our attention away from this world, speeding our body toward annihilation, and immersing ourselves in a current of thought or a narrative…” A Hungarian interpreter obsessed with waterfalls, at the edge of the abyss in his own mind, wanders the chaotic streets of Shanghai. A traveler, reeling from the sights and sounds of Varanasi, India, encounters a giant of a man on the banks of the Ganges ranting on and on about the nature of a single drop of water. A child laborer in a Portuguese marble quarry wanders off from work one day into a surreal realm utterly alien from his daily toils. “The excitement of his writing,” Adam Thirlwell proclaimed in The New York Review of Books, “is that he has come up with his own original forms—there is nothing else like it in contemporary literature.”
Download or read book Indians written by Namit Arora and published by Penguin Random House India Private Limited. This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we really know about the Aryan migration theory and why is that debate so hot? Why did the people of Khajuraho carve erotic scenes on their temple walls? What did the monks at Nalanda eat for dinner? Did our ideals of beauty ever prefer dark skin? Indian civilization is an idea, a reality, an enigma. In this riveting book, Namit Arora takes us on an unforgettable journey through 5000 years of history, reimagining in rich detail the social and cultural moorings of Indians through the ages. Drawing on credible sources, he discovers what inspired and shaped them: their political upheavals and rivalries, customs and vocations, and a variety of unusual festivals. Arora makes a stop at six iconic places -- the Harappan city of Dholavira, the Ikshvaku capital at Nagarjunakonda, the Buddhist centre of learning at Nalanda, enigmatic Khajuraho, Vijayanagar at Hampi, and historic Varanasi -- enlivening the narrative with vivid descriptions, local stories and evocative photographs. Punctuating this are chronicles of famous travellers who visited India -- including Megasthenes, Xuanzang, Alberuni and Marco Polo -- whose dramatic and idiosyncratic tales conceal surprising insights about our land. In lucid, elegant prose, Arora explores the exciting churn of ideas, beliefs and values of our ancestors through millennia -- some continue to shape modern India, while others have been lost forever. An original, deeply engaging and extensively researched work, Indians illuminates a range of histories coursing through our veins.
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 Water written by Steven Solomon and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-01-18 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Far more than oil, the control of water wealth throughout history has been pivotal to the rise and fall of great powers, the achievements of civilization, the transformations of society's vital habitats, and the quality of ordinary daily lives. Today, freshwater scarcity is one of the twenty-first century's decisive, looming challenges, driving new political, economic, and environmental realities across the globe. In Water, Steven Solomon offers the first-ever narrative portrait of the power struggles, personalities, and breakthroughs that have shaped humanity from antiquity's earliest civilizations through the steam-powered Industrial Revolution and America's century. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Water is a groundbreaking account of man's most critical resource in shaping human destinies, from ancient times to our dawning age of water scarcity.
Download or read book A Brief History of Vice written by Robert Evans and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A celebration of the brave, drunken pioneers who built our civilization one seemingly bad decision at a time, A Brief History of Vice explores a side of the past that mainstream history books prefer to hide. History has never been more fun—or more intoxicating. Guns, germs, and steel might have transformed us from hunter-gatherers into modern man, but booze, sex, trash talk, and tripping built our civilization. Cracked editor Robert Evans brings his signature dogged research and lively insight to uncover the many and magnificent ways vice has influenced history, from the prostitute-turned-empress who scored a major victory for women’s rights to the beer that helped create—and destroy—South America's first empire. And Evans goes deeper than simply writing about ancient debauchery; he recreates some of history's most enjoyable (and most painful) vices and includes guides so you can follow along at home. You’ll learn how to: • Trip like a Greek philosopher. • Rave like your Stone Age ancestors. • Get drunk like a Sumerian. • Smoke a nose pipe like a pre–Columbian Native American. “Mixing science, humor, and grossly irresponsible self-experimentation, Evans paints a vivid picture of how bad habits built the world we know and love.”—David Wong, author of John Dies at the End
Download or read book People written by and published by Rupa Publications. This book was released on 2016 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chiefly portraits of Indian celebrities.
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 513 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 Life Along the Silk Road written by Susan Whitfield and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Silk Road was the most traveled trade route for over 1,000 years until it was eclipsed by maritime trade. Whitfield presents composite stories of merchants, soldiers, artists, and princesses who traveled the route, and presents its history through their personal experiences.
Download or read book Mumbai where Dreams Don t Die written by Raghu Rai and published by Om Books International. This book was released on 2010 with total page 87 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mumbai has been extensively photographed over the past century. Like New York, it is a city full of men and women with aspirations of making it big in life. Mumbai is also known as a dream factory because of the overwhelming presence of its film industry, one of biggest in the world. This book collects nearly three decades of work from Raghu Rai, one of Indias foremost photojournalists. The pictures encompass life in all its manifestations from the high-rise skyscrapers to the gushing waves of the Arabian sea. It shows movement and activity that almost never ceases fairs and festivities, political demonstrations, films in the making, and the advertising and modelling scene.
Download or read book The Art of South and Southeast Asia written by Steven Kossak and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2001 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents works of art selected from the South and Southeast Asian and Islamic collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, lessons plans, and classroom activities.
Download or read book Bangladesh the Price of Freedom written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In early 1971, when negotiations for an autonomous East Bengal broke down, brutalities against the citizens of erstwhile East Pakistan led to a mass exodus of refugees into India. This book documentes the plight of the refugees, the action during the war and the jubilant scenes of victory and Independence. In early 1971, when negotiations for an autonomous East Bengal broke down, brutalities against the citizens of erstwhile East Pakistan led to a mass exodus of refugees into India. Despite an international outcry, the assaults and rapes continued. With the
Download or read book India s Great Masters written by Raghu Rai and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raghu Rai, India`s best known photographer, first shot a series of memorable photo essays on the masters of Indian classical music for India Today magazine in the mid- 980s. Since then, he has ever stopped shooting them in concerts, in their homes, with their gurus, and in special locations. Rai profiles only thirteen masters the greatest of the great nayak musicians who went much beyond their gharanas and broke new ground with their approach to music. They include Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Gandharva, S. Balchander, Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain, Vilayat Khan, Bismillah Khan, Kishori Amonkar, Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Bhimsen Joshi. Eight of these masters have passed away, so these portraits in turn affectionate, intense, playful, and reverent will remain their definitive ones, a precious and unsurpassable record of Indian musical heritage. Only a true rasik like Rai could have taken these pictures, for they required someone who possessed not only an understanding of classical music but also complete humility. Both aspects are evident in the extraordinary images that follow. The book is accompanied by a perceptive text written by noted writer and music expert Ashok Vajpeyi, chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi. His profiles of these musicians show what makes them great, alongside giving us remarkable snapshots of their lives, on and off the stage. A fonder photographic tribute to the custodians of Indian classical music could not have been possible. This is undoubtedly a collector`s edition.
Download or read book My Journey as a Witness written by Shahidul Alam and published by Skira Editore. This book was released on 2011 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This inspiring personal journey offers unique, insider perspectives on Bangladesh and its many messages of struggle and triumph. Shahidul Alam is a photographer, writer, curator and activist. A former president of the Bangladesh Photographic Society, Alam set up the award winning Drik agency, the Bangladesh Photographic Institute, and Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography; considered one of the finest schools of photography in the world. Over 30 years, Alam's leadership in Bangladesh has led the way in developing photography as a discipline, with an entirely new generation of acclaimed artists in the international arena. His style is personal, sometimes fast paced, often reflective, with magnificent imagery interwoven throughout the narrative. This book showcases Shahidul Alam's photographs, more than 100 colour and black and white plates illustrating the journey of an artistic, social, and political witness from inside Bangladesh. This ground-breaking work retraces his visual journey and personal vision spanning three decades, and provides the best interpretative and investigative angles into a culture and national reality, hitherto often misunderstood in the West. Using photography and journalism as its parameters, it is the first comprehensive vision of Bangladesh; these images are not 'about' the region from a European perspective; this is not an ethnographic account of an ex-colonial world. Instead, its on-the-ground insight aspires to explore its topography with decidedly indigenous eyes. Alam founded an artistic movement that cannot be silenced: the emergence of 'indigenous' photographers, achieving an intimacy with their subjects that truly understands their human condition.
Download or read book Hindu Nationalism written by Christophe Jaffrelot and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hindu nationalism came to world attention in 1998, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won national elections in India. Although the BJP was defeated nationally in 2004, it continues to govern large Indian states, and the movement it represents remains a major force in the world's largest democracy. This book presents the thought of the founding fathers and key intellectual leaders of Hindu nationalism from the time of the British Raj, through the independence period, to the present. Spanning more than 130 years of Indian history and including the writings of both famous and unknown ideologues, this reader reveals how the "Hindutuva" movement approaches key issues of Indian politics. Covering such important topics as secularism, religious conversion, relations with Muslims, education, and Hindu identity in the growing diaspora, this reader will be indispensable for anyone wishing to understand contemporary Indian politics, society, culture, or history.
Download or read book Picturing Time written by and published by Rupa Publications India Pvt Limited. This book was released on 2015 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "50 years of exceptional images and the stories behind them"--Cover.
Download or read book The Story of India written by Michael Wood and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-05-14 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Story of India, Michael Wood weaves a spellbinding narrative out of the 10,000-year history of the subcontinent. Home today to more than a fifth of the world's population, India gave birth to the oldest and most influential civilization on Earth, to four world religions, and to the world's largest democracy. Now, as India bids to become a global economic giant, Michael sets out on an epic journey across this vibrant country to trace the roots of India's present in the incredible riches of her past. The Story of India is a magical mixture of history and travelogue, and an unforgettable portrait of India - past, present and future.
