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Indian Culture and I...
Indian Culture and India’s Future (PB)
by: Michel Danino$25.00
ISBN: 9788124605677
Year Of Publication: 2019
Edition: 5th Impression
Pages : 248
Bibliographic Details : Bibliography; Index
Language : English
Binding : Paperback
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Size: 23
Weight: 500
Can Indian civilization be compared to a “thousand-branched tree”? What have been its outstanding achievements and its impact on the world?
These are some of the questions this book asks. But it also deals with issues confronting more and more Indians caught in an identity crisis: What does it mean to be Indian? What is specific to the worldview developed by Indian culture? How has it dialogued with other cultures? Is it built on durable foundations, or is it little more than colourful religiosity and quaint but outdated customs? And what are the meaning and application of secularism and tolerance in the Indian context?
The French-born author, who has been living in India for 33 years, argues that Indian culture is not some exotic relic of the past, but a dynamic force that still has a role to play in defining India’s identity and cohesion, and in proposing solutions to today’s global challenges.
Written in a crisp and engaging style, this thought-provoking volume challenges received ideas on India’s culture and invites us to think afresh.
Prologue
Introduction: Is Indian Culture Obsolete?
Part One: A Thousand-Branched Tree
1. India’s Scientific Mind
2. India’s Gifts to the World
3. India in France
4. For the Love of Nature
Part Two:Indian Culture at the Crossroads
5. The Colonized Indian Mind
6. The Age of Confusion
7. The Gita and the Problem of Action
Part Three: India and the World
8. Wounded Identity
9. The Conqueror and the Conquered
10. Dialogue among Civilizations: an Indic Perspective
Epilogue
Notes
Suggested Further Readings
Index
“Indian Culture and India’s Future (PB)”
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Indian Culture and India’s Future $35.00
Can Indian civilization be compared to a “thousand-branched tree”? What have been its outstanding achievements and its impact on the world?
These are some of the questions this book asks. But it also deals with issues confronting more and more Indians caught in an identity crisis: What does it mean to be Indian? What is specific to the worldview developed by Indian culture? How has it dialogued with other cultures? Is it built on durable foundations, or is it little more than colourful religiosity and quaint but outdated customs? And what are the meaning and application of secularism and tolerance in the Indian context?
The French-born author, who has been living in India for 33 years, argues that Indian culture is not some exotic relic of the past, but a dynamic force that still has a role to play in defining India’s identity and cohesion, and in proposing solutions to today’s global challenges.
Written in a crisp and engaging style, this thought-provoking volume challenges received ideas on India’s culture and invites us to think afresh. -
Ramayana Culture $32.00
These essays, originally presented at an international conference, are in the forefront of the modern response to an ancient work that has gained a new critical and social relevance in contemporary scholarship. Approaching the Ramayana from several angles in an attempt to understand its aesthetic and ideological meaning, they examine the epic through the perspectives of textual criticism, art, architecture and film. Thereby they address critical issues such as the seminal status of Valmiki, the underlying problem of canonicity itself, the importance of other — so-called derivative — Ramayanas, the implications of gender representation, and the cultural manipulation of social ideals relating to the position of women and the idealisation of love that achieves its highest value in marriage. Using the methods of rigorous textual and historical investigation, each essay seeks not only to uncover the layers of meaning in the complex structure of the epic in its varied forms but also to situate it critically in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia.
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Tantric Rituals of Kerala Temples $44.00
Kerala Tantra is a regional phenomenon, which is an offshoot or synthesis of Saiddhantika and Pancaratra tantric ritual rites. It is a tradition deeply rooted within the Vedic ritualistic fold and characterized by Smarta-Pauranika beliefs and customs.
This volume is a general, but a serious and in-depth study of distinct temple ritual cult of Kerala. Kerala Tantra still remains to be a less explored subject. There is no exclusive study on the ritual peculiarities of Kerala Tantra. This book focuses on filling that gap covering extensively the prominent characteristics of the unique ritual cult of Kerala.
The data presented in the book are based on many unpublished and less-known, but authentic manuscripts of late medieval period, and interviews with previous and current generations of tantrins and their testimonies. It covers the great traditions of Tantra, Kerala Tantra, and transmission of tantric knowledge through formal and informal methods. It also talks about the institutionalization of Tantric education, taking a cue from the context of Vedic and Sanskrit education of Kerala. -
Fundamentals of Hinduism (PB) $20.00
The book is one of the earliest authoritative works on the fundamental nature of Hinduism, authored by a noted Western scholar, Sir Monier Monier-Williams. The scholarly work deals with the fundamental aspects of Hinduism: the nature of its beliefs, philosophy and practice. It provides precious details on the principal works of Hinduism: the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Dharmashastras. It discusses the essence of the Vedic hymns, the Brahmanas and the sacrificial system, the Upanishadic philosophy, the doctrine of triple manifestations, and the development of sectarian beliefs Shaivism, Vaisnavism and later Shaktism. The in-depth study delves objectively into the major concepts and doctrines associated with Hinduism, such as, the doctrine of incarnation, doctrine of devotion and idol-worship as well as the caste system. It presents a discussion on the famous places held sacred by the Hindus which are the major centres of pilgrimage: the city of Benares, Allahabad, Gaya, Nashik and Haridwar, among others.
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Christ the Guru $40.00
The ocean of philosophical insight hiding in the words and story of Jesus Christ has influenced and charged millions of people and are still inspiring. The teaching and philosophy discerned across the four Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have stirred the philosophical perspective of Muni Narayana Prasad and it paved the way for him making a Gospel commentary in the light of Indian philosophy, Advaita Vedanta. In his scholarly attempt, the author has brought an apocryphal Gospel of Thomas too into its ambit.
Though the words of wisdom revealed by Jesus across these Gospels differ in language and style from Indian Vedanta, they reveal the same wisdom or supreme happiness that the Vedanta philosophy talks about. In this book, the author has attempted to explain the wisdom found in one cultural frame of reference as found in the other. That is, the teachings of Jesus Christ are elucidated in terms of the characteristics of Advaita Vedanta. Jesus, seen across these Gospels, always maintains his position of an enlightened seer (rishi). Thus the author calls him a sad-guru.
The author contends that from the Gospel accounts one may perceive, in Jesus’s life and words, the same absolutist vision that underlies the teachings of Advaita Vedanta. Echoing interreligious harmony, the author invites the non-Christians to visit the great enlightened guru in Jesus and the Christians to imbibe the spirit of Advaita Vedanta in Jesus’s teachings.
A must-collect, the book should find favour with the spiritual gurus, philosophers, and all progressive-thinking persons across religions.
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