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The book unravels the glorious past of Kashmir, discussing its importance as the centre of Sanskrit learning in the bygone eras. It highlights the regions achievements in music, dance, drama, sculpture, language and literature, and philosophy marked by the artistic and literary contributions of Jayaditta, Bhatta, Jayadhara, Pingala and Abhinavagupta, and many others.
The Land of Kashmir, celebrated as paradise on earth for its scenic beauty, has an equally enchanting historical and cultural past: this is the place symbolising Indias cultural unity, where different cultures have prospered at different times, where scholars from all over India and the distant lands of Mesopotamia, Persia and China converged to imbibe learning in ancient times. The author, S. Sapru here unravels the glorious past of Kashmir; he discusses its importance as the centre of Sanskrit learning in the bygone eras; its achievements in music, dance, drama, sculpture, language and literature, and philosophy marked by the artistic and literary contributions of eminent men like Jayaditta, Bhatta, Jayadhara, Pingala and Abhinavagupta. Referring to various historical works and combining facts with legend, folklore and impressions from oral traditions, he presents a graphic picture of life and times in the valley in the past that deals with a range of themes like the lands mythology, statecraft, trade links, urban centres, tax system, system of crime and punishment and an ancient tourists impressions of the valley. Through a smooth?flowing narrative that makes the book extremely readable, the author points out that there is more to Kashmir than the present?day spate of violence; the land and its people have an essential Indianness common to other people of India and Kashmirs links with the rest of India cannot be severed.
India’s association with the South-East Asian countries, especially those on either side of the Mekong River, is well known. It analyses India’s past and present relationship in the domains of architecture, religious engagements, interculturality, syncretism of cultures, interliterariness, composite literary cultures, religious arts, trade associations, among others.
India has a fascinating history of cultural relationship with South-East Asia, spanning across more than the last two millennia, mainly with the spread of Buddhism and Hinduism, deeply impacting the cultural, religious and social lives of people in countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The Hindu-Buddhist monuments in South-East Asia stand testimony of this peaceful and mutually beneficial interaction. The contents of this book Mekong-Ganga Axis centre around India’s association with most of the countries of the region, especially those on either side of the Mekong River.
Most of the South-East Asian countries were influenced by more than two foreign cultures, though they have an indigenous culture. The Chinese and Indian cultures had impacted them the most, in addition to the European influence. However, only Indias impact was peaceful and, to a great extent, non-political. This paved the way for many developments in architecture, religious engagements, interculturality, syncretism of cultures, inter-literariness, composite literary cultures, religious arts, trade relations and so on.
This book thus critically engages one to all these topics and more, and recalls India’s glorious relationship of the forgone era with these countries, showcasing somewhat a similar kind of cultural/religious affinity from South China to India. And two great rivers, Mekong and Ganga, are witness to it. It also reinstates the criticality of India to be engaged with these countries at present because of the compulsions of a globalized world.
The crisis of the age inheres in this, that notwithstanding the century’s mind-numbing disasters, it persists in subscribing to propositions which have logically led to the atomization of the whole cloth of human experiencing, and being. Great indeed is the value which is placed on the procedure of analytic dismemberment. While the method has certainly been result-producing, materially, in its wake it has brought immense suffering – both physical and spiritual. The price paid for a lopsided advance is thirty major wars – with their toll of one hundred and thirty million lives, and the irreparable destruction of the natural environment. The time demands a reappraisal of the basic paradigms of human existence, but the hegemony of well-entrenched vested interests – material or intellectual – would seem to preclude this.
The “advanced” people among the mankind of the day become suicidally specialized. For, if the mechanical model of thought has been of advantage in man’s preceding unfolding, the same, what may be called the “survival” paradigm, now creates dangerous dualities, binary oppositions (you–me, body–mind, East–West, etc). The model has outlived its usefulness merely enforcing dormancy on a major part of the human brain.
It behoves mankind to choose wisely right now – since parallel to the socio-economic, scientific and technological revolutions there has got to be the overdue radical psychic transformation. The first step towards clearing the fateful crisis would therefore be to be aware and end the hold of the linear, causal, mechanical thought orientation over the intellectual culture of the times.
Delving deep into the epistemological cum ontological causation of the emergency confronting the being and becoming of man, this volume provokes the thoughtful lay reader to a serious engagement with his or her self.
This well-illustrated volume seeks to explain an enigmatic and paradoxical symbolism common to many of the world religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic that of the cavernous maw of a great monster. Drawing on a broad array of comparative evidence, including examples from Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions, it delves on the cross-cultural points of contact that may have contributed to the spread of such zoomorphic hybrids from Turkey, the Caucasus and Iran to the Indian Subcontinent.
This well-illustrated volume seeks to explain an enigmatic and paradoxical symbolism common to many of the world religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic that of the cavernous maw of a great monster. Drawing on a broad array of comparative evidence, including examples from Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions, it delves on the cross-cultural points of contact that may have contributed to the spread of such zoomorphic hybrids from Turkey, the Caucasus and Iran to the Indian Subcontinent.
Straddling the boundaries between popular and textual traditions the gaping jaws of a great monster is a mythical paradigm of the bivalence of a deep-seated historic force: the yawning orifice of all-consuming death can as well symbolize the power of life or generative power. This dual force can also be reflected in an abbreviated conceptualization visualized on opposite sides of a common axis. The outcome of the symbolic synthesis, which axiomatically unifies such vast, inexorably linked, seemingly irresistible potent forces, thus may suggest different shades of meaning daunting, and yet again singularly attracting, humbling and at the same time exalting.
This book should arouse keen interest among all those interested in the comparative perspective of religious, cultural and artistic history.
This book proposes to lay a foundation for construction of a theory of meaning in relation to the action that is obtained in the progress of earliest narratives Pancatantra, Hitopadesha, Jatakakathavali, Kathasaritsagara, Baital Paccisi, Simhasana Battisi, Aesop’s Fables, The Canterbury Tales, Legends of King Arthur, The Decameron and The Pilgrim’s Progress at large.
In the narratives of the Indian and Western traditions, both the construction of the character and the configuration of an action have remarkably the idealized perspectives. In them the nature of action is very realistic, hence it commutes itself through its orientation in the cause and the effect. The dimension of this dichotomy acquires various meanings and internalizations. While in the Indian tradition, the action is almost reversible and foresees the growth of cumulative assortment of events, in the European narratives, the organization of an action is obtained in an event that is by and large irreversible in nature. To drive this point home, Pancatantra, Hitopadesha, Jatakakathavali, Kathasaritsagara, Baital Paccisi and Simhasana Battisi from the Indian tradition, and Aesop’s Fables, The Canterbury Tales, Legends of King Arthur, The Decameron and The Pilgrim’s Progress from the Western side are well explored in this volume.
The pursuit of meaning in Indian and European earliest narratives is to convey the action by certain instruments of transformation of which conjunction, injunction, conception and inception are the most important. The book makes a serious discussion about resolution and convergence between Pancatantra and The Canterbury Tales, and Jatakakathavali and The Pilgrim’s Progress, offering certain conceptual structures, which would determine the propriety of a new theoretical effort.
This book therefore proposes to lay a foundation for construction of a theory of meaning in relation to the action that is obtained in the progress of earliest narratives at large.
Many learned people, from various sects, have written about death and soul. Ceremonies, after death, for honouring the dead, especially in Hindu religion have been dealt chronologically. Also the importance of cloning after death and its resultant impact on society has been discussed.
Many learned people, from various sects, have written about death and soul. Ceremonies, after death, for honouring the dead, especially in Hindu religion have been dealt chronologically. Also the importance of cloning after death and its resultant impact on society has been discussed.
Professor Filippi explores the Indian view of mortal existence from an individuals conception to his/her journey to the Kingdom of Yama with rare scientific objectivity by unveiling a complex network of sentiments, beliefs, scriptural references, customs, etc.
Yama, in Hindu mythology, is the eschatologist and god of death. And is, thus, dreaded. Even in todays India, there is a fearful hesitancy, if not conscious avoidance, of any talk about him. Yet, paradoxically, the phenomenon of death does not evoke a similar fear in the Indian psyche accepted, as it is, a natural event, a part of life: just like poverty, sickness and old age. Here is an insightful, at once compelling exposition of the phenomenon of death, based on plurimillennial tradition of the Hindus which, despite the affirmation of Western attitudes in certain elitist sections of the urban society, has endured since the times of the Vedas and Indic Civilization. Exploring, contextually, the age-old Indian view of mortal existence: from the very moment of an individuals conception to his/her journey to the Kingdom of Yama through the major phases of birth, growth and ageing, Professor Filippi unveils a complex network of sentiments, beliefs, scriptural references, customs, hopes, ritualistic practices and much else relevant to the great adventure of death. Notwithstanding the sentimental undertones of the mrtyu-theme, Dr. Filippis work outstands for its rare scientific objectivity. It has grown from years of his rigorous research effort involving not only his extensive studies of Indian literature: classical as well as modern, but also his interviews with Indian samnyasins, brahmanas, relatives of the dead, and the persons living around the cremation grounds. Together with visual material, bibliographic references, and a glossary of non-English terms, the book holds out as much appeal to the general reader as to the specialist.
This is an anthology of parallel texts from the Irish and Indian intellectual traditions. It shows that, despite major differences between the two countries, contacts and similarities between them have been substantial. It records testimonies of Irish people and Indians who have visited the respective countries.
This is an anthology of parallel texts from the Irish and Indian intellectual traditions ranging over what scholars have said about the two countries histories of turmoil, their philosophies of mind and being, their myths and fantasies, their contemplative imagination as expressed in their lyrical poetry, their learning in medicine, history, linguistics and poetics, the records left about them by Irishmen who came to India and by Indians who went to Ireland, and the contemporary engagements between the two countries.
The volume shows that, despite major differences between the two countries, contacts and similarities between them have been substantial. The recorded testimonies of Irish people and Indians who have visited the respective countries demonstrate that in both cases the experience has been a warm and encouraging one, which has led the visitor to become more aware of what is meant by nationality, what he or she has acquired from his or her country of origin and what he or she has gained by contact with another society and another culture. That the two appear to share the same spirit of the self is attested by the fact that they both end up in the twentieth century, by coincidence or destiny, with the symbolism in their flags of the same three colours orange, white, and green.
Here is a biography of Narayana Guru, which introduces him, faithful to his true form, as an embodiment of Wisdom. Although most extant biographies of the Guru were written by persons belonging to his own geographical and cultural background, this one stands an exception in this respect.
Narayana Guru’s major contribution to world culture comes from the example of his personal life and his philosophical and mystical writings in Malayalam, Tamit and Sanskrit. Both the cream of the ancient Dravidian culture preserved by the Tamil language and the Upanishadic wisdom enshrined by the Sanskrit language found their confluence in the writings of Narayana Guru. His mystical hymns are both inspiring and elevating. Without watering down the emotional fervor of devotion, he used these poems as a means to restate his philosophy of unitive understanding. Today, scholars all over the world are finding in his writings new avenues to approach the eternal riddles of life. The universal and thoroughgoing ethical norms enunciated by him are well suited to be used as the normative basis for the world order of a unified human family. His insight into psychology opens up the mysterious depths of the human mind and spirit, and if it is properly pursued, we can discover in its light the meaning and purpose of our life in the here and now, and the secret of establishing harmonious relationships with the rest of the world. -Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati
This book analyses various aspects of Vedic culture, exploring the origin of the concepts of rastra (nation) and rastrabhakti (patriotism). It presents the salient features of nation and nationalism in ancient Indian culture culture- based and not political which helped India to emerge successful.
The concepts of nation and nationalism are generally considered as having their genesis in western modes of thought. However, in this book, Dr. Shiva Acharya attempts to show that the theories of nation and nationalism can be traced to the Vedic era on the basis of a painstaking study of the Vedic culture and civilization. The book analyses the social, political, civil and military, economic, religious and philosophical aspects of the Vedic culture to explore the origin of the concepts of rashtra (nation), motherland and rashtrabhakti (patriotism), parliaments, the notion of all-round development, democratic educational system, equality of peoples and economic growth for prosperity in Vedic times. Citing from the Vedas and other Vedic literature and a host of modern scholarly researches on the subject, it presents the salient features of the nation and nationalism theories as found in ancient Indian culture such as their stress on culture-based nationalism rather than political. It points out that these features have enabled India to continue with its past traditions and culture and emerge as a successful nation in modern times. The volume will prove indispensable to all students and scholars of Indology and general readers as it unravels the immense contributions of ancient Indian thought to ideas and philosophies that hold great sway in modern times.
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