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The book deals with aspects of everyday life of the Vedic people seers and the elite as well as that of the common people their housing, mode of production and occupations, social organisation, education, food and drink, entertainment, dress and cosmetics, etc.
Based on a deep analysis of the Vedic literature, the book deals with aspects of everyday life of the Vedic people: their housing, mode of production and occupations, social organisation, education, food and drink, entertainment, dress and cosmetics, etc. Tracing the influence of Vedic learning on Upanishads and Såtra literature which have also been referred to here for details on the Vedic people and their traditions, this study focuses on the lifestyle of seers and the elite as well as that of the common people and stresses the importance of the ritualistic context in discussing aspects of daily life like preparing of food and food-eating habits, style of dressing, building of houses and so on. It deals with the Vedic peoples approach to life, covering points such as their attitude towards knowledge and their quest for Brahman, their view of death and their yearning for heaven. This publication also examines the growth of the Vedic tradition from one based on the minimum requirements of life to a tradition involving refinement of things a system of writing and a complex religion based on deep philosophical study and explanations of cosmology. The book will be useful to all students and scholars of ancient Indian religion and culture.
This impressively illustrated volume brings forth the evergreen spirit of a Muslim ruler of Awadh, Nawab Wajid Ali Shaw (1822-87), in composing love poetry taking a cue from the amorous Krishna leela and assimilating and practising the same in personal life. A trained Kathak dancer himself and a dedicated patron of poetry, painting and performing arts, Wajid Ali Shah immersed in the rasa of dance, music and drama, and got deeply indulged in the many an expression of shringar, while administering the political affairs of his state.
Recalling the different facets of Nawab Wajid Ali’s life, the book explores the state and fame of Lucknow, of his times, where the Nawab lived a life of refinement and pomp, and attracted the best talents in arts and crafts. It also portrays how were dance and music enjoying pride of place during his reign.
While presenting a penetrating account of Ali Shah’s poetry, the book revisits his musical scholarship, history of his times and presents his poems with English translation. It as well showcases the best paintings centring around his personal and cultural life, and guides one go through the religious and cultural harmony prevailed in Awadh where a lot of factors were at play effecting acculturation between the Hindus and the Muslims, popularly known as the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb.
This impressively illustrated volume brings forth the evergreen spirit of a Muslim ruler of Awadh, Nawab Wajid Ali Shaw (1822-87), in composing love poetry taking a cue from the amorous Krishna leela and assimilating and practising the same in personal life. A trained Kathak dancer himself and a dedicated patron of poetry, painting and performing arts, Wajid Ali Shah immersed in the rasa of dance, music and drama, and got deeply indulged in the many an expression of shringar, while administering the political affairs of his state.
Recalling the different facets of Nawab Wajid Ali’s life, the book explores the state and fame of Lucknow, of his times, where the Nawab lived a life of refinement and pomp, and attracted the best talents in arts and crafts. It also portrays how were dance and music enjoying pride of place during his reign.
While presenting a penetrating account of Ali Shah’s poetry, the book revisits his musical scholarship, history of his times and presents his poems with English translation. It as well showcases the best paintings centring around his personal and cultural life, and guides one go through the religious and cultural harmony prevailed in Awadh where a lot of factors were at play effecting acculturation between the Hindus and the Muslims, popularly known as the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb.
Matrimonial alliances between royal families were a prominent feature of politics in ancient India. Beginning with matrimonial relations among the shodash-mahajanapadas, the book traces alliances formed by the Nandas, Mauryas, Indo-Greeks, Shakas, the Imperial and later Guptas, etc. from the sixth century bce to the seventh century ce.
Matrimonial alliances between royal families to further the power, prestige and influence were a prominent feature of politics in ancient India. This volume examines the matrimonial alliances among the ruling dynasties of ancient India from the sixth century bce to the seventh century ce. Beginning with matrimonial relations among the shodash-mahajanapadas that flourished before the time of the Buddha, the book traces alliances formed by the Nandas, Mauryas, Shungas, Satavahanas, Cedis, Indo-Greeks, Shakas, Pahlavas and Kushanas, the Imperial Guptas, Vakatakas, the Later Guptas, Maukharis and Varadhanas. Dr Preeti Prabhat studies the important places accorded to such alliances by rulers in their foreign policies. She views their beneficial and adverse impact for royalty. They led to expansion as in the case of the Mauryan kingdom, opened new avenues for economic growth, and helped powers retain their independence as for the Satavahanas (from the Shakas). But they also created jealousies and rivalries between family members and neighbouring kingdoms. She relies on a host of historical accounts from Ceylonese Chronicles and Greek writings to Hindu religious literature and secular writings as well as archaeological evidence including epigraphic and numismatical sources to produce a comprehensive research. The book will interest scholars of Indian history focused on ancient Indian polity as well as general readers interested in knowing about politics of mighty kings and kingdoms of ancient India.
The immemorial systems, rules and customs of Ancient India were invaded, subdued and modified by a succession of foreign conquerors who imposed new rules and introduced an exotic creed, strange languages and a foreign art. Their invasion started with the raid of the Muslim Arabs in Sind and with the arrival of the Turks under Mahmud the Iconoclast at the beginning of the eleventh century, India entered upon her Middle Age. This volume talks about the Indian history of over a 1,000 years, from 712-1764 with the raid of the Arabs in the Sind to the decline of the Moghul empire, featuring the Turks, Persians and Afghans (Moghuls) and specifies that the age-old Indian life outlived the shock of the new ideas, religion and culture that were imposed on India’s polity. India never assimilated the foreigners or their ideas. Barring Akbar the Great, that too at a minuscule level, no one could make much influence on them. Therefore, these foreigners remained essentially as an army of occupation among a hostile or repellent population, making the history of the Mohammedan Period more of a chronicle of kings, courts and conquest than of organic or national growth, stimulating and instructive.
This volume focuses on the new studies, researches and revelations about the Megalithic culture. The old focus on structural forms has given way to the study of their alignment with solstice and constellation. The book also talks about the
ethno-archaeological approaches in understanding the socio-religious paradigm behind erecting such structural forms along with the study of megalithic art.
This volume focuses on the new studies, researches and revelations about the Megalithic culture. The old focus on structural forms has given way to the study of their alignment with solstice and constellation. The book also talks about the
ethno-archaeological approaches in understanding the socio-religious paradigm behind erecting such structural forms along with the study of megalithic art.
This book tells the story of minerals and metals in ancient India by unravelling the mysteries of archaeomaterials with scientific inquiry into production modes and use of minerals. It also studies the indigenous literary sources for the purpose.
In two volumes, the book tells the fascinating, coherentlywoven story of the Minerals and Metals from across the entire sub-continental sprawl of the old-world India (including Pakistan and Bangladesh). Covering a vast span of over five millennia: from the Pre-Harappan Chalcolithic sites, like Mehargarh, Mundigak and Ganeshwar to about ad 1200, Volume 1 is a brilliant effort to unravel the mysteries of archaeo-materials with scientific inquiry into both the modes of production and use of minerals, gems, metals, alloys and other kindred artefacts. Including, as he does, a chronological discussion of the specifically excavated sites, from Mehargarh to Taxila, Professor Arun Biswas captures a panoramic view of the hoary, richly variegated cultures which, in their final analysis, lead him not only to question the diffusionist theory concerning the Aryan intrusion, but also to highlight, among a range of his first-time-arrived conclusions, the primacy of India in the areas of non-ferrous ore mining, production of carburised iron, wootz, steel, forge-welding of wrought iron, distilled zinc and high-zinc brass. Barring the foreign travellers accounts, the volume draws exclusively on archaeological evidence. Volume 2 approaches the theme from the viewpoint of indigenous literary sources chronologically marshalling over three thousand years of Sanskrit writings: ranging from Rigveda to Rasaratnasamuccaya. Reviewing, among other things, the entire gamut of studies in gemmology (ratnashastra) and alchemy (rasashastra), the authors here set out a meticulous analysis of Rasaratnasamuccaya: a fourteenth century text, high-lighting the climactic heights of iatrochemistry in ancient India. With detailed explanations of Sanskrit technical expressions, the volume also tries to correlate, wherever possible, literary evidence with archaeological data. Sponsored by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi, Minerals and Metals in Ancient India has involved years of the authors painstaking research. Together with maps, figures, tables, appendices and illustrative photographs, it will evoke enormous interest in geologists, metallurgists,archaeo-metallurgists, mineralogists, gemmologists, historians of science, archaeologists, Indologists, and the scholars of Indian pre- and ancient history.
Professor Biswas examines the fascinating indigenous gems, non-gem minerals, metals and metallic art of India from ad 1200 onwards to almost the threshold of modern times, focusing on iron and steel, brass and zinc in pre-modern India and the superb vitality of its artisans tradition.
A Sequel to his widely acclaimed Minerals and Metals in Ancient India, in two volumes, (1996), Professor Biswas here continues with the fascinating story of indigenous gems, non-gem minerals, metals and metallic art : from 1200 ad onwards to almost the threshold of modern times. Like its predecessor, this volume too is sponsored by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi. Beginning with a view of medieval India’s enchanting gems, its highly dexterous diamond mining, and an array of non-gem minerals including, among others, metallic ores of copper, lead, zinc, ferrocobaltite, aluminium, and even building stones, the book offers a focussed study of iron and steel, brass and zinc in pre-modern India with coherent descriptions of the diversities of ores processed, smelting techniques, wootz-making and other products in different parts of the subcontinent. A painstakingly researched work based on foreigners travelouges and many other sources, the book re-explores the achievements of indigenous industries of the day, highlighting how, for about two millennia since the Lothal and Atranjikhera eras, India commanded primacy in zinc and brass; how its zinc smelting and distillation technology were transferred to the West, like the Chinese technologies of paper and gunpowder; and how its artisans could work marvels in metal. The author examines, in retrospect, Indian traditions of metallic works, which are vividly exemplified in its arts of enamelling, encrustation, jewel-setting, brass and high zinc Bidriware, and much else. Concludingly, Professor Biswas also goes into the causes that spelt decline of the Indian industries and the superb vitality of its artisans tradition.
The book endeavours in recounting the mode in which Mohammed accomplished a tedious task of constructing a state and an empire out of the Arab tribes. It attempts to do justice to his intellectual ability and to observe towards him the respectful attitude which his greatness deserves. The volume is neither an apology nor an indictment.
The standpoint from which this book is written suggests and regards Mohammed as a great man, who solved a political problem of appalling difficulty – the construction of a state and an empire out of the Arab tribes. The book endeavours in recounting the mode in which Mohammed accomplished this, to do justice to his intellectual ability and to observe towards him the respectful attitude which his greatness deserves. The volume is neither an apology nor an indictment.
As far as the fecundity of the content is concerned, the book has taken a cue from different Arab sources and many scholarly works of earlier historians, efforts of many European scholars on Mohammedan antiquities and Islamic traditions. In condemning traditions unhistorical, the book has ordinarily considered the obelus of scholars like Ignaz Goldziher, Thodor Noldeke and Julius Wellhausen sufficient.
The Indian subcontinent is home to some spectacular mosques which are architectural marvels produced by the spread of Islam in India. 54 important mosques including their locations, history, structure and plan patterns, are covered in this volume which will be indispensable for scholars and students of Indo-Islamic architecture.
The spread of Islam in India produced some of the most spectacular monuments, the mosques stand as testimony to the great architectural skill and expertise of the Indian subcontinent through centuries and constitute one of the most important aspects of the rich architectural culture of the region. This volume showcases some 54 important mosques spread across the Indian subcontinent from Lahore in modern Pakistan to Gaur in modern West Bengal and from Delhi in the north to Kayalpatnam and Bijapur in South India. It mentions the location of the mosques, their history, structure and plan patterns and discusses various elements of the structures in detail: their entrances, pillars, porticoes, type of mihrab and other aspects. It emphasises the importance of a particular masjid such as its typifying the mosques of a certain period or dynasty and setting the standard for later masjids in some manner. It presents some other plans and proportional elevations in the appendices for a comparative study. An extremely useful list of Muslim rulers of the Indian subcontinent is provided. With maps and drawings of plans of mosques, the book is a painstaking effort to examine the evolution and iconography of the mosque architecture in the region. The volume will be indispensable for scholars and students of Indo-Islamic architecture.
The book delves into the place of music in the Vedas and the role of temples, particularly in south India, in preserving and promoting musical traditions. It also concentrates on both vocal and instrumental music and dance forms as rituals in temples and temple festivals.
The book presents a wealth of information on the music rituals in temples at various places in south India. Following visits to a number of temples and based on interviews with temple artistes, the author shows that the musical traditions of temples differ from temple to temple, particularly from Vaishnavite to Shaivite temples.
Beginning with the place of music in the Vedas, the book discusses music itself as a form of worship and the role of temples in promoting it. It focuses on the musical contributions of Nayanmars and Alvars whose hymns are sung today as a daily ritual in many temples, and compares their music. It concentrates on both vocal and instrumental music, dance forms as rituals in temples, and music and singing involved in temple festivals. Many interesting inscriptions and sculptures related to dance and music have also been taken up for discussion. In a fascinating attempt, the author has dealt with unique music traditions in some temples of south India like ragas associated with specific temples only and the tradition of nadasvaram playing in Tiruvarur temple.
The volume will enthral scholars of Indology, particularly those involved in study of religious art and music traditions.
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