| Tirumurai is the sacred poetry in the Saiva tradition of ancient Tamilnadu. Sung to the rhythm of percussion, string and reed instruments, the devotional outpouring of saints and poets known as Nayanars of the fifth to the twelfth century CE reflect the religious and cultural mores of the people. This book attempts to capture the grandeur of this vast, fascinating subject by presenting a detailed overview of the salient features. Beginning with an introduction to Nataraja Tattvam and Tamil Isai, all twelve Tirumurai are explained. Each chapter begins with the life story of the Nayanar followed by an analysis of the poetry with explanation of paN (raga) and sthala puranam. A few select songs from each Tirumurai are presented in the original Tamil with Romanized transliteration as well as English translation, made available in an online audio album complementing this book. Foreword by Lakshmi Viswanathan |
Gita Govinda, a drsya-kavya of Jayadeva, a twelfth-century Sanskrit poet, due to its deep foundations in devotion and exquisite intrinsic beauty, is the most desired in the music and dance of India. This erotic poem, through its three characters in Radha, Krsna and the sakhi, portrays physical love as a metaphor for divine longing of the individual soul to have its union with the Supreme.
The volume in hand presents the primacy of the language in linguistic and literary theories as the vehicle of thought, along with the performing arts background and technical aspects of dance that complement Jayadeva’s composition. It also deals with a setting for the Gita Govinda in terms of its historical context, time, cultural influences and relevance in the arts.
It addresses each and every verse of Gita Govinda with translation and literary notes. Also, it showcases the uninterrupted text in Devanagari along with Romanized transliteration. In a nutshell, the book brings to us a magical world of dance and music through the eyes of a Sanskrit scholar and a mature, expressive dancer in Sharda Narayanan and Sujatha Mohan, respectively.
This research study is concerned with understanding the concept of jati and dravya in the Vakyapadiya of Bhartrhari.
The concept of jati is crucial to the enunciation of sphota, the single most outstanding contribution of Vakyapadiya to the field of language study. The concept, already connected with the import of a word in Nyaya-Vaisheshika and Mimamsa schools, was brought into the field of linguistics by Bhartrhari. This book traces the development of language study from the Vedic period to the darshanas. It deals with the main contribution of Bhartrhari to the field of linguistic study and its impact on philosophy in general. It then presents a systematic study of the jati, dravya and bhuyo dravya samuddeshas in the Vakyapadiya, explaining all the karikas. It also views the concept of jati in the philosophies of Nyaya and Mimamsa, its development over the centuries and the necessity of modifying some tenets owing to the sharp criticism from other schools especially Buddhism. The volume includes relevant quotations from Sanskrit texts and makes use of important commentaries like the Prakasha of Helaraja and Ambakartri of Pt. Raghunatha Sarma.
The scholarly work will prove invaluable to scholars and students of Indology, particularly those keen on studying Indian linguistic philosophy with special reference to Bhartrhari.
