Download or read book Yaksha Cult and Iconography written by R. N. Misra and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study on a class of Hindu demigods.
Download or read book The Disguises of the Demon written by Gail Hinich Sutherland and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1991-07-03 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the most ancient deities of South Asia, the yaksha straddle the boundaries between popular and textual traditions in both Hinduism and Buddhism and both benevolent and malevolent facets. As a figure of material plenty, the yaksis epitomized as Kubera, god of wealth and king of the yaks In demonic guise, the yaksis related to a large family of demonic and quasi-demonic beings, such as nagas, gandharvas, raks, and the man-eating pisaacas. Translating and interpreting texts and passages from the Vedic literature, the Hindu epics, the Puranas, Kālidāsa's Meghadūta, and the Buddhist Jātaka Tales, Sutherland traces the development and transformation of the elusive yaksfrom an early identification with the impersonal absolute itself to a progressively more demonic and diminished terrestrial characterization. Her investigation is set within the framework of a larger inquiry into the nature of evil, misfortune, and causation in Indian myth and religion.
Download or read book Haunting the Buddha written by Robert DeCaroli and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-30 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert DeCaroli seeks to place the formation of Buddhism in its appropriate social & political contexts, by analysis of the early monks & nuns, what beliefs they brought with them from their upbringing & how the new faith offered them revolutionary new mechanisms with which to engage minor deities & spirits.
Download or read book Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative Iconography and Ritual written by Serinity Young and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Courtesans and Tantric Consorts, Serinity Young takes the reader on a journey through more than 2000 years of Buddhist history, revealing the colourful mosaic of beliefs that inform Buddhist views about gender and sexuality.
Download or read book Early Brahmanical Cults and Associated Iconography written by Richa Sikri and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Present Work Attempts To Study The Development Of Brahmanical Cults And Associated Iconography (C. 400 B.C. To A.D. 600). In This Connection And In Depth Study Of The Sources Both Literary As Well As Archaeological Have Been Made. The Development Of The Brahmanical Cults Have Been Traced In Chrnological Order For The First Time Which Goes To Show How The Cults Reached From Their Formative Stages To The Climax In 600 A.D. It Also Discuss The Iconographic Treatise Written For Making The Perfect Images Of Cult Deities. It Discusses Vaisnava, Saiva, Mother Goddess And Others Include Yaksas, Nagas, Kinnaras, Gandharvas In Detailed Form, Besides Throws Light On The Concept Of Rituals, Puja And Temples. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2: Sources, Chapter 3: Development Of The Brahmanical Cults; (I) C. 4Th Century And 2Nd Century B.C., (Ii) C. 2Nd Century To The Begining Of Christian Eara, (Iii) C. 1St Century To 3Rd Century A.D., (Iv) C. 3Rd Century To 6Th Century A.D., Chapter 4: Iconographic Froms In Acient Texts, Chapter 5: Iconography Of The Brahmanical Deities; (I) Vaisnava Images, (Ii) Saiva Images, (Iii) Mother Goddesses, (Iv) Other Deities Yaksas, Naga, Gandharvas And Kinnaras, Chapter 6: Conclusion.
Download or read book The Disguises of the Demon written by Gail Hinich Sutherland and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the most ancient deities of South Asia, the yakshas straddle the boundaries between popular and textual traditions in both Hinduism and Buddhism and both benevolent and malevolent facets. As a figure of material plenty, the yaksis epitomized as Kubera, god of wealth and king of the yaks In demonic guise, the yaksis related to a large family of demonic and quasi-demonic beings, such as nagas, gandharvas, raks, and the man-eating pisaacas. Translating and interpreting texts and passages from the Vedic literature, the Hindu epics, the Puranas, Kālidāsa's Meghadūta, and the Buddhist Jātaka Tales, Sutherland traces the development and transformation of the elusive yaks from an early identification with the impersonal absolute itself to a progressively more demonic and diminished terrestrial characterization. Her investigation is set within the framework of a larger inquiry into the nature of evil, misfortune, and causation in Indian myth and religion.
Download or read book What s the Use of Art written by Jan Mrazek and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2007-12-03 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Post-Enlightenment notions of culture, which have been naturalized in the West for centuries, require that art be autonomously beautiful, universal, and devoid of any practical purpose. The authors of this multidisciplinary volume seek to complicate this understanding of art by examining art objects from across Asia with attention to their functional, ritual, and everyday contexts. From tea bowls used in the Japanese tea ceremony to television broadcasts of Javanese puppet theater; from Indian wedding chamber paintings to art looted by the British army from the Chinese emperor’s palace; from the adventures of a Balinese magical dagger to the political functions of classical Khmer images—the authors challenge prevailing notions of artistic value by introducing new ways of thinking about culture. The chapters consider art objects as they are involved in the world: how they operate and are experienced in specific sites, collections, rituals, performances, political and religious events and imagination, and in individual peoples’ lives; how they move from one context to another and change meaning and value in the process (for example, when they are collected, traded, and looted or when their images appear in art history textbooks); how their memories and pasts are or are not part of their meaning and experience. Rather than lead to a single universalizing definition of art, the essays offer multiple, divergent, and case-specific answers to the question "What is the use of art?" and argue for the need to study art as it is used and experienced. Contributors: Cynthea J. Bogel, Louise Cort, Richard H. Davis, Robert DeCaroli, James L. Hevia, Janet Hoskins, Kaja McGowan, Jan Mrázek, Lene Pedersen, Morgan Pitelka, Ashley Thompson.
Download or read book Yak as written by Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrations: 73 B/w Illustrations Description: Particular significance attaches to Yaksas in Indian mythology, religion and art. Their almost universal presence in the earlier Indian religions, Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina, wherein they are invested with peculiar traits and powers, indicates their importance. Ananda Coomaraswamy's Yaksas is an attempt at bringing together the mass of information from literary and monumental sources about Yaksas and Yaksis, their origin, and development from the conceptual, mythological and iconographical points of view. Coomaraswamy has shown how this non- and pre-Aryan animistic concept originated and, in the historical times, dovetailed with the Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina religious systems to the extent that the concept of Yaksattva got closely bound up with the idea of reincarnation. In the preparation of this monograph, Coomaraswamy has extensively drawn upon the sectarian and semi-secular literature and has shown unmistakable evidences of the Yaksas' once honourable status, their benevolence toward men and the affection felt by men toward them. Coomaraswamy begins by tracing the origin of the word yaksa which is first found in Jaiminiya Brahmana, where it means nothing more than 'a wondrous thing.' In course of time Yaksas and Yaksis are often mentioned and their names are found in the Epics, Buddhist and Jaina works and even in sculpture. In Jaina books Yakkhas are often called Devas, where, as Sasana Devatas they are usually guardian angels. In Buddhist works they are sometimes represented as teachers of good morals and as guardian spirits. Of equal importance are the Yaksas and Yaksis in early Indian art and in the early examples (Bharhut, Sanci, Gandhara, etc.) they are frequently represented as Atlantes, supporters of buildings and superstructures. The early iconography of Yaksas, again, seems to have formed the foundation of later Hindu and Buddhist iconography. Coomaraswamy has traced a kind of Bhakti cult centering round the worship of Yaksas on the basis of the Yaksa caityas, the offerings to the Yaksas and has tried to show that the facts of Yaksa worship correspond almost exactly with those of the other Bhakti religions. Coming as it does from the pen of Ananda Coomaraswamy, this brilliant monograph is the acme of scholarship and brilliance and provides a mass of well-documented information. The work is divided into two parts, an Appendix giving Tale of a Yaksa found in the Divyavadana, alongwith 73 plates.
Download or read book Buddhist Tantra Methodology and Historiography written by Pranshu Samdarshi and published by SABHI (Students for the Awareness of Buddhist Heritage of India), Delhi, India.. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses our conventional ways of looking at Buddhism in general and Buddhist tantra in particular. It investigates how the frameworks and structures that were developed for European and Biblical studies have been deployed to interpret various facets of Buddhism. Many such models that still dominate the historical imagination of Buddhist studies have been examined in this book. This book also proposes an alternative approach towards the Buddhist studies and advocates incorporating the critical study of tantra texts from the perspective of traditional accounts.
Download or read book Tantric Revisionings written by Geoffrey Samuel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tantric Revisionings presents stimulating new perspectives on Hindu and Buddhist religion, particularly their Tantric versions, in India, Tibet or in modern Western societies. Geoffrey Samuel adopts an historically and textually informed anthropological approach, seeking to locate and understand religion in its social and cultural context. The question of the relation between 'popular' (folk, domestic, village, 'shamanic') religion and elite (literary, textual, monastic) religion forms a recurring theme through these studies. Six chapters have not been previously published; the previously published studies included are in publications which are difficult to locate outside major specialist libraries.
Download or read book Of Death and Birth written by Barbara Schuler and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 2009 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars of popular Hindu religion in India have always been fascinated by oral texts and rituals, but surprisingly only few attempts have as yet been made to analyse the relationship between rituals and texts systematically. This book contributes to the filling of this gap. Focusing on the dynamics of a local (non-Brahmanical) ritual, its modular organisation and inner logic, the interaction between narrative text and ritual, and the significance of the local versus translocal nature of the text in the ritual context, the study provides a broad range of issues for comparison. It demonstrates that examining texts in their context helps to understand better the complexity of religious traditions and the way in which ritual and text are programmatically employed. The author offers a vivid description of a hitherto unnoticed ritual system, along with the first translation of a text called the Icakkiyamman-Katai (IK). Composed in the Tamil language, the IK represents a substantially longer and embellished form of a core versio which probably goes as far back as the seventh century C.E. Unlike the classical source, this text has been incorporated into a living tradition, and is being constantly refashioned. A range of text versions have been encapsulated in the form of a conspectus, which will shed light on the text's variability or fixity and will add to our knowledge of bardic creativity. Includes a film by the author on DVD.
Download or read book The Book of Demons written by Nanditha Krishna and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2007-10-16 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From The Rig Veda To Myriads Of Folk Narratives, The Belief In Demons Prevails All Over India, Vividly Illustrating That A Demon Is Something People Fear Because It Is Beyond Their Comprehension And Control. Time And Again, The Menacing And Uncontrollable Forces Of Night, Darkness And Death, Along With Powerful Defeated Enemies And Incomprehensible Natural Phenomena, Are Demonized. The Book Of Demons Presents A Perceptive Overview Of The Various Types Of Demonic Beings And Concepts That Exist In Hindu Literature, Supplemented With A Dictionary Of Individual Demons For Ready Reference. Besides The Well-Known Rakshasas And Asuras, The Author Also Reveals A Densely Populated World Of Lesser-Known, But Equally Fascinating, Demonic Creatures. Andhaka (Blind Darkness), Conceived When Parvati Playfully Covered Shiva S Eyes And The World Was Plunged Into Darkness; Gajamukha, The Elephant-Faced Demon Who Was Transformed Into A Mouse By Ganesha And Then Converted Into His Vehicle; Jambha, The Demon-Leader Who Snatched The Pot Of Immortal Nectar From The Ocean During The Great Churning; Maya, The Demonic Equivalent Of Vishvakarma, Architect Of The Gods, Who Built The Three Cities Of Tripura; And Putana, The Demon Who Tried To Kill Krishna By Suckling Him With Poisoned Breasts. Male Or Female, Human, Animal, Plant, Or Simply A Concept Demons Play A Pivotal Role In Our Mythical Traditions. Blending Insightful Erudition And Lively Description, Nanditha Krishna Brings To Life The Traits And Actions Of A Host Of Complex, Colourful, Monstrous And Intriguing Demons That Inhabit Indian Religion And Mythology.
Download or read book Ethics of Tibet written by and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1991-09-03 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the great contributions of Tibetan Buddhism to the Buddhist tradition as a whole, and one of the things that distinguishes it from the Mahayana traditions that developed via China, has been the clear and systematic articulation of a doctrine of compassion. This text is perhaps the paradigmatic expression of that and as such is vitally important. It will advance Western access to and understanding of Tibetan Buddhism considerably.
Download or read book Many Heads Arms and Eyes written by Doris Meth Srinivasan and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1997-09-01 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the first things that strike the Western viewer of Indian art is the multiplicity of heads, arms and eyes. This convention grows out of imagery conceived by Vedic sages to explain creation. This book for the first time investigates into the meaning of this convention. The author concentrates on its origins in Hindu art and on preceding textual references to the phenomenon of multiplicity. The first part establishes a general definition for the convention. Examination of all Brahmanical literature up to, and sometimes beyond, the 1st - 3rd century A.D., adds more information to this basic definition. The second part applies this literary information mainly to icons of the Yaksa, Śiva, Vāsudeva-Kṛsṇa and the Goddess, and indicates how Brahmanical cultural norms, exemplified in Mathurā, can transmit textual symbols. Both Part I and Part II provide iconic modules and a methodology to generate interpretations for icons with this remarkable feature through the Gupta age.
Download or read book The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre written by Michael M. Chemers and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-10-09 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together international perspectives on the figure of the “monster” in performance, this edited collection builds on discussions in the fields of posthumanism, bioethics, and performance studies. The collection aims to redefine “monstrosity” to describe the cultural processes by which certain identities or bodies are configured to be threateningly deviant, whether by race, gender, sexuality, nationality, immigration status, or physical or psychological extraordinariness. The book explores themes of race, white supremacy, and migration with the aim of investigating how the figure of the monster has been used to explore representations of race and identity. To these, we add discussions on gender, queer identities, and how the figure of the “monster” has been used to explore the gendered body to finally understand how monstrosity intersects with contemporary issues of technology and the natural world. Navigating the fields of disability studies, performance-centered monster studies, and representation in performance, editors Michael M. Chemers and Analola Santana have brought together perspectives on the figure of the “monster” from across a variety of fields that intersect with performance studies. This book is essential reading for Theatre and Performance students of all levels as well as scholars. It will also be an enlightening text for those interested in monstrosity and Cultural Studies more broadly.
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 Indian Sculpture Circa 500 B C A D 700 written by Los Angeles County Museum of Art and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sheer wealth and dizzying diversity of Indian sculpture are celebrated in this second volume of the catalogue raisonne of the Los Angeles County Museum's collection. Nearly two hundred sculptures produced during eleven centuries are described. Of these, one-quarter of the pieces are part of the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, while the remaining three-quarters have been acquired since 1970. This splendid collection, while not representing all the major styles of sculpture that flourished on the Indian subcontinent from 700-1900, is certainly one of the most comprehensive among American and European museums. Included are stone, metal, ivory, and wood sculptures from fourteen states and territories of India and from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Organized by regions--Central and Western, Eastern, and Southern India, and the Northwest--the catalogue contains detailed descriptions and illustrations of the 188 sculptures, many with details or multiple views, for a total of 259 illustrations--251 in duotone and halftone and 8 in color.
