Narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the legendary Pandavas brothers in the Mahabharat, the novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale. The novel traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her strategic duels with her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy. Panchaali is a fiery female redefining for us a world of warriors, gods, and the ever-manipulating hands of fate.

    But he’s harboring a secret from his daughter, a love affair he’s keeping all to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,” a husband’s attempt to turn an old friend’s wedding into a romantic getaway weekend with his wife takes a dark, revealing turn as the party lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,” a sister eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish, and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in “Hema and Kaushik,” a trio of linked stories—a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love, and fate—we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome. Unaccustomed Earth is rich with Jhumpa Lahiri’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is a masterful, dazzling work of a writer at the peak of her powers.

    For millennia it has been worshipped as a god; for centuries used as a tool of imperial expansion; today it is the cement of Pakistans fractious union. Five thousand years ago, a string of sophisticated cities grew and traded on its banks. In the ruins of these elaborate metropolises, Sanskrit-speaking nomads explored the river, extolling its virtues in Indias most ancient text, the Rig-Veda. During the past two thousand years a series of invaders Alexander the Great, Afghan Sultans, the British Raj made conquering the Indus valley their quixotic mission. For the people of the river, meanwhile, the Indus valley became a nodal point on the Silk Road, a centre of Sufi pilgrimage and the birthplace of Sikhism. Empires of the Indus follows the river upstream and back in time, taking the reader on a voyage through two thousand miles of geography and more than five millennia of history redolent with contemporary importance.

    But while he has been widely extolled for his achievements, parts of Churchill's record have gone woefully unexamined. As journalist Madhusree Mukerjee reveals, at the same time that Churchill brilliantly opposed the barbarism of the Nazis, he governed India with a fierce resolve to crush its freedom movement and a profound contempt for native lives. A series of Churchill's decisions between 1940 and 1944 directly and inevitably led to the deaths of some three million Indians. The streets of eastern Indian cities were lined with corpses, yet instead of sending emergency food shipments Churchill used the wheat and ships at his disposal to build stockpiles for feeding postwar Britain and Europe.Combining meticulous research with a vivid narrative, and riveting accounts of personality and policy clashes within and without the British War Cabinet, Churchill's Secret War places this oft-overlooked tragedy into the larger context of World War II, India's fight for freedom, and Churchill's enduring legacy. Winston Churchill may have found victory in Europe, but, as this groundbreaking historical investigation reveals, his mismanagement--facilitated by dubious advice from scientist and eugenicist Lord Cherwell--devastated India and set the stage for the massive bloodletting that accompanied independence.

    They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain's most glamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a pious middle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet Arthur Herman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined as the twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead their nations through harrowing trials and two world wars--and become locked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fate of countries, continents, and ultimately an empire. Gandhi & Churchill reveals how both men were more alike than different, and yet became bitter enemies over the future of India, a land of 250 million people with 147 languages and dialects and 15 distinct religions--the jewel in the crown of Britain's overseas empire for 200 years. Over the course of a long career, Churchill would do whatever was necessary to ensure that India remain British--including a fateful redrawing of the entire map of the Middle East and even risking his alliance with the United States during World War Two. Mohandas Gandhi, by contrast, would dedicate his life to India's liberation, defy death and imprisonment, and create an entirely new kind of political movement: satyagraha, or civil disobedience. His campaigns of nonviolence in defiance of Churchill and the British, including his famous Salt March, would become the blueprint not only for the independence of India but for the civilrights movement in the U.S. and struggles for freedom across the world. Now master storyteller Arthur Herman cuts through the legends and myths about these two powerful, charismatic figures and reveals their flaws as well as their strengths. The result is a sweeping epic of empire and insurrection, war and political intrigue, with a fascinating supporting cast, including General Kitchener, Rabindranath Tagore, Franklin Roosevelt, Lord Mountbatten, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. It is also a brilliant narrative parable of two men whose great successes were always haunted by personal failure, and whose final moments of triumph were overshadowed by the loss of what they held most dear.

    on pilgrimage, shrines, beautiful writing.

    Her destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean shortly before the outbreak of the Opium Wars in China. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners on board, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of Canton.

    He is one of the best selling travelogue writer in kerala ,India. His way of writings with the myths, reality and mystical experiences about his ineffable pilgrimages are truly amazing and has attracted millions of fans. His mystical experiences, such as encounters with Divya Yogis and Yoginis deep inside Himalayas are telling to the world that there are many facts that are unexplainable through modern sciences and logic . He has already covered 64 different destinations in Himalaya. Each one of his travel consist of days of research , preparation, arrangement, lonely dangerous trekking through Himalayan glaciers . For example 35 days of trekking is needed for Srikand mahadave kilash darshan. Welcome to the world of amazing Himalaya mystical Explorations .........,

    On what assumptions was Pandit Nehru confident that China would not invade India in 1962? Why and on what basis did he scotch all warnings in Tibet and our entire border? What did he do when those assumptions proved wrong? What eventually led to the debacle of 1962? Are the same delusions and mistakes not being repeated now? Why will the consequences be any different? This is a devastating analysis and warning on India's policy and approach regarding China, based on Nehru's notes to his officers, his correspondence, including letters to chief ministers and his speeches in and out of Parliament.

    He unified the warring chiefdoms of the Punjab into an extraordinary northern empire, built up a formidable army, kept the British in check to the south of his realm, and closed the Khyber Pass through which plunderers had poured into India for centuries. His consummate humanity was unique among empire-builders. He gave employment to defeated foes, honored faiths other than his own, and included Hindus and Muslims among his ministers. A colorful character, he was inspired by the principles of peaceful coexistence uniquely articulated by the Sikh Gurus, firm in upholding the rights of others, and unabashed in exercising his own. The authors of this first full-length biography in English make use of a variety of eyewitness accounts, from reports by Maratha spies at the Lahore Durbar to British parliamentary papers and travel accounts. The story ends with the controversial Anglo-Sikh Wars following Ranjit's death, which saw the fall of his empire in the hands of his successors whose internecine conflict was exploited by the British. Coinciding with the 300th anniversary of the consecration of the Sikh holy scriptures, this book honors a vital figure in Sikh history.

    

    The Prisons We Broke provides a graphic insight into the oppressive caste and patriarchal tenets of the Indian society, but nowhere does the writing descend to self-pity. With verve and colour the narrative brings to life, among other things, the festivals, rituals, marriages, snot-nosed children, hard lives and hardy women of the Mahar community. The original Marathi work, Jina Amucha, re-defined autobiographical writing in Marathi in terms of form and narrative strategies adopted, and the selfhood and subjectivities that were articulated. It is the first autobiography by a Dalit woman in Marathi, probably even the first of its kind in any Indian language.

    The book, while tracing political systems as existent in India in the ancient and medieval times, introduces the different components of modern Indian polity in terms of their structure and functions and how do they interact in making it citizen friendly. Written for the general reader in a simple and non-technical language, is likely to appeal to a spectrum of readers including teachers and students, and anybody interested in understanding the functioning of Indian polity.

    The book includes the words of Indian authors including Amit Chaudhuri, Amta Desai, Salman Rushdie, and many others.

    Over a period of eight years, he also found himself taking on the role of a publisher, working intimately with Ramesh in the process of publishing some of his books. In May 2007, Gautam wrote an article in Life Positive, India’s leading spiritual magazine, as a tribute to Ramesh on his 90th birthday. With the heartwarming response from readers to this article, and Ramesh’s suggestion to make it into a booklet, he then put down what he considered the core of the teaching as presented by Ramesh – to seekers from all over the world – in his morning talks. Most of Ramesh’s books have been published from his original hand-written notes, or are transcripts of dialogues with seekers. This book is a summation of the core concepts in the “spoken word” of Ramesh, as if he were walking the seeker through his entire teaching in one morning talk. This is what Pointers from Ramesh Balsekar is about – pointers to dealing with life’s situations, its pleasures and pains, with equanimity and peace of mind – from one of the world’s leading Advaita sages. About The Author Gautam Sachdeva With a background in advertising, Gautam Sachdeva sought to self-publish his mother`s books on her spiritual journey, and founded Yogi Impressions in the year 2000. Little did he know that Yogi Impressions would be publishing works by other spiritual masters in the years ahead. Gautam started his spiritual journey under Justice M. L. Dudhat and over the years has been under the specific influence of masters of non-duality like Ramesh Balsekar and Eckhart Tolle. He has spent eight years in close association with Ramesh Balsekar, which included working together closely in the publishing of quite a few books of one of the world’s leading Advaita sages. Gautam writes articles regularly for Life Positive, India`s leading spiritual magazine. He lives in South Mumbai.

    Outside, dark clouds roll in and the rain starts to fall. As animals scatter to find cover, a young boy and his dadaji (grandfather) head out into the rainy weather.The two sail paper boats. They watch the peacocks dance in the rain, just as the colorful birds did when Dadaji was a boy. They pick mangoes and Dadaji lifts up his grandson so he can swing on the roots of the banyan tree, just as Dadaji did when he was young. Finally, when the two return home, hot tea and a loving family are waiting.Author Kashmira Sheth s affectionate, sensitive story provides a look into Indian life and the shared moments and memories that bind generations together. Illustrator Yoshiko Jaeggi s colorful and fanciful watercolor illustrations recreate the lush Indian landscape during monsoon season, and capture the bond of love that unites a grandfather and his grandson.

    But emotional stress has no cure. Inappropriate attitudes and lack of understanding of some critical topics cause stress. So, a cognitive change will make your life stress-free by not letting in stress.

    Its discussion of human goals (artha or purpose, kama or pleasure, dharma or duty/harmony, and moksha or liberation) takes place in a long-standing tradition, attempting to explain the relationship of the individual to society and the world (the nature of the 'Self') and the workings of karma.The object of a translator should ever be to hold the mirror upto his author. That being so, his chief duty is to represent so far as practicable the manner in which his author's ideas have been expressed, retaining if possible at the sacrifice of idiom and taste all the peculiarities of his author's imagery and of language as well. In regard to translations from the Sanskrit, nothing is easier than to dish up Hindu ideas, so as to make them agreeable to English taste. But the endeavour of the present translator has been to give in the following pages as literal a rendering as possible of the great work of Vyasa. To the purely English reader there is much in the following pages that will strike as ridiculous. Those unacquainted with any language but their own are generally very exclusive in matters of taste. Having no knowledge of models other than what they meet with in their own tongue, the standard they have formed of purity and taste in composition must necessarily be a narrow one. The translator, however, would ill-discharge his duty, if for the sake of avoiding ridicule, he sacrificed fidelity to the original. He must represent his author as he is, not as he should be to please the narrow taste of those entirely unacquainted with him.Ugrasrava, the son of Lomaharshana, surnamed Sauti, well-versed in the Puranas, bending with humility, one day approached the great sages of rigid vows, sitting at their ease, who had attended the twelve years' sacrifice of Saunaka, surnamed Kulapati, in the forest of Naimisha. Those ascetics, wishing to hear his wonderful narrations, presently began to address him who had thus arrived at that recluse abode of the inhabitants of the forest of Naimisha. Having been entertained with due respect by those holy men, he saluted those Munis (sages) with joined palms, even all of them, and inquired about the progress of their asceticism. Then all the ascetics being again seated, the son of Lomaharshana humbly occupied the seat that was assigned to him. Seeing that he was comfortably seated, and recovered from fatigue, one of the Rishis beginning the conversation, asked him, 'Whence comest thou, O lotus-eyed Sauti, and where hast thou spent the time? Tell me, who ask thee, in detail.'For additional information on publishing your books on iPhone and iPad please visit www.AppsPublisher.com

    Abdul Kalam.

    This book is an interpretation of the history of Indic religions up to around 1200 CE, with particular focus on the development of yogic and tantric traditions. It assesses how much we really know about this period, and asks what sense we can make of the evolution of yogic and tantric practices, which were to become such central and important features of the Indic religious scene. Its originality lies in seeking to understand these traditions in terms of the total social and religious context of South Asian society during this period, including the religious practices of the general population with their close engagement with family, gender, economic life and other pragmatic concerns.

    As ths spider projects and withdraws (unto itself) the web,as the herbs and plants sprout from the earth,as hairs grow on the head and body of man,so from the Imperishable Being comes out the Universe (I-i-7). The Pranava is the bow,the Atman is the arrow and the Brahman is said to be it's mark i.e.,Brahman (II-ii-4). Two birdss bound to each other in close friendship,perch on the self-same tree.One of them eats the fruits of the tree with relish,while other (just) looks on without eating (III-i-1). Gurudev's commentary on the Upanisad,like on all other Upanisads gives insights to the seeker to understand the subtle language of the Upanisads in a easy and clear manner.His master strokes are very evident in his lucid lectures on the Upanisad. The book has sold 15,000 copies ever since it was first published in 1953.

    But to date there has been no comprehensive account of India's remarkable growth or the role policy has played in fueling this expansion. India: The Emerging Giant fills this gap, shedding light on one of the most successful experiments in economic development in modern history.Why did the early promise of the Indian economy not materialize and what led to its eventual turnaround? What policy initiatives have been undertaken in the last twenty years and how do they relate to the upward shift in the growth rate? What must be done to push the growth rate to double-digit levels? To answer these crucial questions, Arvind Panagariya offers a brilliant analysis of India's economy over the last fifty years--from the promising start in the 1950s, to the near debacle of the 1970s (when India came to be regarded as a basket case), to the phenomenal about face of the last two decades. The author illuminates the ways that government policies have promoted economic growth (or, in the case of Indira Gandhi's policies, economic stagnation), and offers insightful discussions of such key topics as poverty and inequality, tax reform, telecommunications (perhaps the single most important success story), agriculture and transportation, and the government's role in health, education, and sanitation.The dramatic change in the fortunes of 1.1 billion people has, not surprisingly, generated tremendous interest in the economy of India. Arvind Panagariya offers the first major account of how this has come about and what more India must do to sustain its rapid growth and alleviate poverty. It will be must reading for everyone interested in modern India, foreign affairs, or the world economy.An Economist Best Book of 2008.

    S. RADHAKRISHNAN Former President of India SWARAJ IS MY BIRTHRIGHT, AND I SHALL HAVE IT! This biography of Lokmanya Tilak was written in collaboration by Prof. A.K. Bhagwat and Prof. G.P. Pradhan in 1956, the birth-centenary year of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The book was awarded a prize in the All India Competition held under the auspices of the All India Congress Committee. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan had written the foreword to this biography.

    From the Rann of Kutch to the Coromandel coast, from city to village, handloom weavers, block printers, textile painters, dyers, and embroiderers continue India's flourishing textile traditions.The authors have traveled thousands of miles in a country they know intimately to gather information and photographs of tribal and folk textiles woven for use within the family, as well as of workshop production in villages and towns. They first examine the cultural background to the textiles: the history, from the earliest civilizations to Post-Independence; the materials, including silks, cottons, and wool; and the techniques of weaving, printing, painting, and tie-dye.The second part of the book comprises a detailed region-by-region account of traditional textile production, including western India, famous for its dyed and printed cloth, appliqué, and beadwork, plus other centers in the north, south, and east, and in Sri Lanka. An array of 365 photographs, 335 in color, including over one hundred new images, provides an unrivaled visual presentation of the textiles. The reference section includes information on technical terms, a list of museums and galleries, and an updated bibliography.

    Devoted to the concept of deterrence of terrorism in the Indian concept, a concept held to be under finable, this book defines such a concept for India.

    Through stunning photography and insightful text, India covers the landscape, history, people, culture, and architecture of this vibrant nation.

    

    From the powerful god Shiva, greatest of all yogis and most beautiful of all beings, to stone dancers twisting along temple walls, the body in Indian art is always richly adorned. "Alankara" (ornament) protects the body and makes it complete and attractive; to be unornamented is to invite misfortune.In "The Body Adorned," Vidya Dehejia, who has dedicated her career to the study of Indian art, draws on the literature of court poets, the hymns of saints and "acharyas," and verses from inscriptions to illuminate premodern India's unique treatment of the sculpted and painted form. She focuses on the coexistence of sacred and sensuous images within the common boundaries of Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu "sacred spaces," redefining terms like "sacred" and "secular" in relation to Indian architecture. She also considers the paradox of passionate poetry, in which saints praised the sheer bodily beauty of the divine form, and nonsacred Rajput painted manuscripts, which freely inserted gods into the earthly realm of the courts.By juxtaposing visual and literary sources, Dehejia demonstrates the harmony between the sacred and the profane in classical Indian culture. Her synthesis of art, literature, and cultural materials not only generates an all-inclusive picture of the period but also revolutionizes our understanding of the cultural ethos of premodern India.

    the actual point of time BCE when the hymns of the text were composed. Moroever, it presents linguistic evidence for the Indian Homeland hypothesis as the only one that explains all the linguistic problems arising in the course of the quest for the Original Homeland.While the beginnings of the history of the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian Civilizations are known to lie at least as far back as the fourth millennium BCE on the basis of detailed decipherable and deciphered records, the beginnings of Indian Civilization as we know it could not really be traced far earlier than the Ashokan inscriptions of the third century BCE. The earlier records, the seals of the Harappan Civilization, are not yet convincingly deciphered; neither their language nor even whether they represent a language at all. However, ironically, decipherable records have been found in West Asia, dating to the mid-second millennium BCE, which record the presence of Indo-Aryan-speakers, especially in the Mitanni kingdom. The analysis of the textual data in this book shows that the culture common to the Rigveda, the Avesta and the Mitanni records developed in northern India in the Late Rigvedic Period, and that the earlier periods, Middle Rigvedic and Early Rigvedic, saw not only the Indo-Aryans but also the proto-Iranians as inhabitants of areas deeper within northern India, whence they only expanded westwards towards the end of the Early Rigvedic Period.

    Barry Cooper began his lifelong romance with tea at an early age, being raised amongst the tea fields of Kenya, East Africa. In this book, he chronicles his ensuing forty-year quest for the perfect cup of tea. Cooper shares lessons learned while being trained in England's most esteemed tea house. He lays bare truths of the tea industry, including the unreported struggles between tea growers, buyers, blenders, and merchants around the world. Cooper reveals the crazy adventures and hair-raising situations encountered in his determination to discover previously unknown sources of herbs. And finally, he tells the inside story of the gambles he took to develop his signature teas.

    Intrigued by the stone inscriptions that declared religious tolerance, conservation, nonviolence, species protection, and human rights, Rich was drawn into Ashoka's world. Ashoka was a powerful conqueror who converted to Buddhism on the heels of a bloody war, yet his empire rested on a political system that prioritized material wealth and amoral realpolitik. This system had been perfected by Kautilya, a statesman who wrote the world's first treatise on economics. In this powerful critique of the current wave of globalization, Rich urgently calls for a new global ethic, distilling the messages of Ashoka and Kautilya while reflecting on thinkers from across the ages—from Aristotle and Adam Smith to George Soros.Bruce Rich discusses Universal Health Care in Ancient India:

    Born and raised in India Caryl saw first hand the effects that Hinduism had on the people of that nation. After leaving India as a young adult, she became involved in the counter-culture New Age movement, only to find that the elements of Hinduism and the New Age were very much the same. Later as a Christian, Caryl discovered that this same spirituality had entered the Christian church through various avenues. This fascinating and compelling apologetic biography shows the spirituality that lies behind the New Age movement, its dangers, and its deception. It also shows how much of the New Age philosophy has entered the Christian church through various avenues, such as yoga and meditation.

    

    She also considers how their near-invisibility except as victims has underpinned the construction of the ideal citizen-subject in late colonial India. Through critical engagements with significant feminist and postcolonial scholarship, Sarkar maps out when and where Muslim women enter into the written history of colonial Bengal. She argues that the nation-centeredness of history as a discipline and the intellectual politics of liberal feminism have together contributed to the production of Muslim women as the oppressed, mute, and invisible “other” of the normative modern Indian subject.Drawing on extensive archival research and oral histories of Muslim women who lived in Calcutta and Dhaka in the first half of the twentieth century, Sarkar traces Muslim women as they surface and disappear in colonial, Hindu nationalist, and liberal Muslim writings, as well as in the memories of Muslim women themselves. The oral accounts provide both a rich source of information about the social fabric of urban Bengal during the final years of colonial rule and a glimpse of the kind of negotiations with stereotypes that even relatively privileged, middle-class Muslim women are still frequently obliged to make in India today. Sarkar concludes with some reflections on the complex links between past constructions of Muslim women, current representations, and the violence against them in contemporary India.

    Uncle is welcoming, but in a country steeped in tradition, the three women must abide by his decisions. Asha knows this is temporary—just until Baba sends for them. But with scant savings and time passing, the tension builds: Ma, prone to spells of sadness, finds it hard to submit to her mother- and sister-in-law; Reet’s beauty attracts unwanted marriage proposals; and Asha's promise to take care of Ma and Reet leads to impulsive behavior. What follows is a firestorm of rebuke—and secrets revealed! Asha’s only solace is her rooftop hideaway, where she pours her heart out in her diary, and where she begins a clandestine friendship with Jay Sen, the boy next door. Asha can hardly believe that she, and not Reet, is the object of Jay’s attention. Then news arrives about Baba . . . and Asha must make a choice that will change their lives forever.

    A must for our times. A must for saving the country.

    Most of the articles have a small black and white picture of the scientist. These essays are short (3-10 pages), so there are a lot of different accounts in this 367-page book.

    Scrumptious treats like bhel puri (rice puff salad), tandoori chicken, and sweet coconut cham-cham, look good enough to eat in Wilson Sanger's gorgeous collage art, while her trademark bouncy text will please little ears.  World Snacks books have sold more than 160,000 copies. Includes punctuation guide and glossary of Indian terms used in the book.

    Part of the Infinity Foundation Series.Contributors to history of Indian science & technology.

    Goats. Dry shrubs. Buffaloes. Thorns. A fallen tamarind tree.” Such were the sights that greeted David Shulman on his arrival in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in the spring of 2006. An expert on South Indian languages and cultures, Shulman knew the region well, but from the moment he arrived for this seven-month sojourn he actively soaked up such simple aspects of his surroundings, determined to attend to the rich texture of daily life—choosing to be at the same time scholar and tourist, wanderer and wonderer. Lyrical, sensual, and introspective, Spring, Heat, Rains is Shulman’s diary of that experience. Evocative reflections on daily events—from explorations of crumbling temples to battles with ineradicable bugs to joyous dinners with friends—are organically interwoven with considerations of the ancient poetry and myths that remain such an inextricable part of life in contemporary India. With Shulman as our guide, we meet singers and poets, washermen and betel-nut vendors, modern literati and ancient gods and goddesses. We marvel at the “golden electrocution” that is the taste of a mango fresh from the tree. And we plunge into the searing heat of an Indian summer, so oppressive and inescapable that when the monsoon arrives to banish the heat with sheets of rain, we understand why, year after year, it is celebrated as a miracle. An unabashedly personal account from a scholar whose deep knowledge has never obscured his joy in discovery, Spring, Heat, Rains is a passionate act of sharing, an unforgettable gift for anyone who has ever dreamed of India.

    

    Highlighting the role of birds in human life-from religion to entertainment, mythology to science, superstition to wisdom-the collection brings to light the richness and diversity of the literature available on the subject.From the Panchatantra, The Baburnama, The Jahangirnama, and Abdul Halim Sharar's accounts of bird-keeping in Lucknow, to writings by the inimitable Edward Hamilton Aitken (EHA) and others-the writings speak for themselves. Alongside S�lim Ali, the anthology features pieces by contemporary greatslike S. Theodore Baskaran, R.S. Dharmakumarsinhji, Madhav Gadgil, Edward Pritchard Gee, Peter Jackson, M. Krishnan, and Zai Whitaker and by well-known writers and public figures like Abul Kalam Azad, William Dalrymple, Rudyard Kipling, Jawaharlal Nehru, Khushwant Singh, and Mark Twain. TheIntroduction together with the biographical head-notes to the writings, detailed sources, and further reading add value for readers.

    In tracing the modern-day evolution of business communities in India, this book uses social history to systematically document and understand India's new entrepreneurial groups.

    It is often taken for granted that independence from the british rule also ushered an era of cultural and social freedom in india the author wishes to examine if that is true or if a cultural decline set in soon after based on a verse in the pancatantra, the book has been divided into six parts: eka (person), kula (family), grama (habitat), janapada (land), prithvi (earth) and atma issues of education, conflicts between the classes, regions, jatis, languages and religions, expansion of proselytizers, lack of governance, tensions between the legislators and judiciary, rise of unbridled consumerism, falling standards of democracy, dilemmas created by notions of dharma challenged by westernized modernity, and the problems of attaining universal harmony, are all put into a perspective under these six categories while examining the state of affairs the author also suggests a way for the pursuit of happiness through unselfish transcendence

    Women of Pride studies, in depth, the devadasi tradition and its transformation into a living cultural phenomenon in the context of Hindu tradition. The book brings into focus the activities and identities of the devadasis and examines the functions and forms of the devadasi tradition. The changing face of the tradition has been authenticated and given a voice by the author by featuring some of the most prominent devadasis of our times. The book also examines the devadasi reform movement in a political, religious, and social context.

    . . there are rare instances where a reviewer thinks; I wish I could write like that. This is one of those rare instances’ —Bibek Debroy in Indian ExpressIn a rare attempt to understand the Indianness of Indians—among the most intelligent people in the world; but also; to a dispassionate eye; perhaps the most baffling—V. Raghunathan uses the props of game theory and behavioural economics to provide an insight into the difficult conundrum of why we are the way we are. He puts under the scanner our attitudes towards rationality and irrationality; selflessness and selfishness; competition and cooperation; and collaboration and deception. Drawing examples from the way we behave in day-to-day situations; Games Indians Play tries to show how in the long run each one of us—whether businessmen; politicians; bureaucrats; or just plain us—stand to profit more if we were to assume a little self-regulation; give fairness a chance and strive to cooperate and collaborate a little more even if self-interest were to be our main driving force.

    

    The topics dealt in greater detail are: religion philosophy mythology rituals scriptural works festivalsand pilgrim centres. Other topics include astrology biographies of religious personalities iconography Sanskritlanguage of literature temples and religious institutions. A must for all students of Hinduism.See more at: http://www.chennaimath.org/istore/pro...

    Hyderabad is a city that mixes cultures, cuisines, religions and languages.

    This concept, Karnad demonstrates, permits the Indian nuclear forces to be beefed up, size and quality-wise, and to acquire strategic reach and clout, even as the qualifier minimum suggests an overarching concern for moderation and economical use of resources, and strengthens India's claims to be a responsible nuclear weapon state.Based on interviews with Indian political leaders, nuclear scientists, and military and civilian nuclear policy planners, it provides unique insights into the workings of India's nuclear decision-making and deterrence system. Moreover, by juxtaposing the Indian nuclear policy and thinking against the theories of nuclear war and strategic deterrence, nuclear escalation, and nuclear coercion, offers a strong theoretical grounding for the Indian approach to nuclear war and peace, nuclear deterrence and escalation, nonproliferation and disarmament, and to limited war in a nuclearized environment. It refutes the alarmist notions about a nuclear flashpoint in South Asia, etc. which derive from stereotyped analysis of India-Pakistan wars, and examines India's likely conflict scenarios involving China and, minorly, Pakistan.

    It is the first anthology to represent not just the major poets of the past half-century - the canonical writers who have dominated Indian poetry and publishing since the 1950s - but also the different kinds of poetry written by an extra-ordinary range of younger poets who live in many other countries. It is a groundbreaking global anthology of 70 poets writing in a common language, responding to shared traditions, different cultures and contrasting lives in the changing modern world.

    

    This book contains English translation of about 270 poems and quatrains derived from the 8 books of Urdu poetry that Faiz Ahmed Faiz published from 1941 to 1984 over a tumultuous period of 4 decades For helping him and his poetry put in context the book includes a Preface how other writers viewed his poetry including his own views on his poetry and how it sought social justice and freedom of speech and action through his own incarcerations This is another effort to bring to English readers poetry from a culturally philologically distant language and culture and A Word on Translation elaborates the issues involved Recent Emergency in Pakistan November 2007 also showed how relevant his poetry still was when protestors marched around one of the slogans being Bol Speak Up the title of a poem he published in 1941

    He allows Westerners to see it as a variant of the universal aspirations of the human spirit and facilitates the meeting of East and West.

    They also transformed the country's cooking by intermingling Middle Eastern cuisine with Indian spices and ingredients to produce some of the most exquisite Mughlai food

    The life that awaits Neela is a far cry from her hopes and expectations. Treated worse than a servant by her in-laws, and finding that she is unwanted by her husband, she finally escapes in search of independence and freedom. This novel addresses the painful issues around arranged, loveless marriages in a personal, moving way"--P. [4] of cover.

    During the same time, Bombay’s sex industry grew vast in scale. Ashwini Tambe explores why these remarkably similar laws failed to achieve their goal and questions the actual purpose of such lawmaking. Against the backdrop of the industrial growth of Bombay, Codes of Misconduct examines the relationship between lawmaking, law enforcement, and sexual commerce. Ashwini Tambe challenges linear readings of how laws create effects and demonstrates that the regulation and criminalization of prostitution were not contrasting approaches to prostitution but different modes of state coercion. By analyzing legal prohibitions as productive forces, she also probes the pornographic imagination of the colonial state, showing how regulations made sexual commerce more visible but rendered the prostitute silent.Codes of Misconduct engages with debates on state control of sex work and traces how a colonial legacy influences contemporary efforts to contain the spread of HIV and decriminalize sex workers in India today. In doing so, Tambe’s work not only adds to our understanding of empire, sexuality, and the law, it also sheds new light on the long history of Bombay’s transnational links and the social worlds of its underclasses.

    Having been brought up as a son for years, she now considered herself a man . . . She believed that she would grow a moustache when she got married.’ Folktales are the collective memories of people, handed down from one generation to another. But often, this process of handing down stops the evolution of these folktales. Vijai Dan Detha, one of India’s most iconic and iconoclastic writers, not only puts these mostly oral stories into words, he also weaves contemporary issues into them and gives them renewed relevance. His stories speak of alternative ways of life and, sometimes, they speak out for the most common victims of feudal societies—women. In ‘A New Life’, two women, Teeja and Beeja, are married to each other to satisfy the whim of an unbending father. They realize the mistake that they have been inadvertently forced into, but they also understand that this is the ideal union for them and, with the help of the ghost chieftain, build a new life for themselves. In ‘The Crow’s Way’ the selfishness of a husband, in-laws and other benefactors convinces a young wife that the only true human relationship is the one between a prostitute and her customer. ‘Discretion’ is the story of a she-jackal who is more virtuous than Sita but unwittingly cheats on her husband with the sun and the moon. The stories in New Life, many of them path-breaking in Indian writing, are refreshingly free of stereotypes. Detha’s deep understanding of human relationships and his matter-of-fact engagement with unconventional themes makes this an unforgettable collection.

    60 Indian Poets spans fifty-five years of Indian poetry in English, bridging continents and generations, and seeks to expand the definition of ‘Indianness’.

    It features access to the interiors of India's finest monuments and palaces as well as insightful text that completes this documentation of India's architectural heritage.

    This book focuses on Greenlaw's response to the architecture within its spectacular natural setting.

    Several major developments occurred during this decade. The latest design of the Royal Navy’s Leander class frigates started being produced in Mazagon Docks in India with British collaboration. The first submarine arrived in 1968, and by 1975, the Submarine Arm had grown to eight submarines. The Air Arm was augmented by additional Seahawks, Alizes, and the latest British SeaKing antisubmarine helicopters equipped with dunking sonar. Along with the induction of modern fire-control systems in ships, submarines, and aircraft, the navy acquired its first guided missiles and homing torpedoes.

    The study of the Constitution provides a platform on which extensive political deliberations and arguments over procedural and substantive issues relating to Indian society can be found. The volume provides discussions on equality, the idea of citizenship and property, notion of minority rights, conception of democracy and welfare found in the Constitution. It also asks questions like: Does the Constitution recognize all moral rights possessed by citizens? What importance does the Constitution accord to the rights that it recognizes? Is the section on duties consistent with the section on fundamental rights? If it is, then why do tensions between rights and duties still exist? Is it because the Constitution prescribes duties over and above rights? Is the Indian Constitution predominantly right-based? Does the Constitution support liberty, equality and fraternity in equal measure? The aim of the volume, thus, is to arbitrate between contesting interpretations of the many core values of our polity. It points to the need to examine whether or not serious disjunction exists between the constitutional ideals and its expression.

    Dating back 30 to 100 years, they include original garments, temple offerings, welcome banners, and second-generation quilted works that combine precious remnants for new decorative uses. These items have trickled onto the world market where they are treasured by decorators and collectors. Textile artists, designers, and ethnologists alike will delight in these examples of the boundless imaginations of itinerant tribal women who make much of little in their elaborate, mica and bead-studded creations. Abstract, geometric, floral, and religious imagery celebrates the boundless exuberance of their quest for beauty.

    It examines the navy’s success in keeping abreast of advances in technology in step with progressive self-reliance. In a decade and a half of innovation, the navy equipped its indigenously built frigates, corvettes, and other vessels with combinations of the latest available weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union, from Europe, and from indigenous sources. A tiny “ship design cell,” which in 1965 was designing yard craft, was by 1990 designing an aircraft carrier, submarines, and missile destroyers. The new acquisitions from the Soviet Union ranged from missile destroyers, conventional submarines, and long-range reconnaissance aircraft, to minesweepers. All these high-tech inductions needed to be operated and manned by better-educated and better-trained personnel. New maintenance, repair, and refit facilities had to be created. The increase in the volume of spares and the diversity of sources compelled modernization of the logistics system. This volume analyzes how these problems were tackled.

    It is an invitation to the pleasures of Bollywood, the world's largest film industry. The collision of this most democratic of art forms with one of the liveliest movie genres results in a glorious explosion of color, form, and typography.Bollywood's film posters have a long and illustrious history, and it is brilliantly celebrated here. The posters included span the entire history of Hindi movies, from the early twentieth century to the present day.Bollywood movies are a much-loved international phenomenon, and this book is sure to have an avid audience among its fans. But its appeal extends beyond that--graphic designers and artists will find much to inspire them as well.Jerry Pinto has written several books on the Indian film industry, including Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb. Sheena Sippy is a photographer whose work has been featured in Vogue, Elle, and Time.

    The stories here, among the first texts to be inscribed by Buddhists, highlight the moral economy of karma, illustrating how gestures of faith, especially offerings, can bring the reward of future happiness and ultimate liberation. Originally contained in the Divyavadana, an enormous compendium of Sanskrit Buddhist narratives from the early Common Era, the stories in this collection express the moral and ethical impulses of Indian Buddhist thought and are a testament to the historical and social power of narrative. Long believed by followers to be the actual words of the Buddha himself, these divine stories are without a doubt some of the most influential stories in the history of Buddhism.

    The articles in this volume introduce readers to the writings of four scholars who study the subject of temple desecration in interesting and different ways. They focus on the ways in which historians study the political culture, events, historical narratives, material remains and aesthetic norms of a time very distant from us. Through their focus on the theme of temple desecration, a subject of considerable import in political rhetoric today, these essays also underline how easily history can be subverted to serve narrow, cynical ends. At a time when history has become so important in the making of the nation's identity, the articles in this book invite the readers to pause and reflect on the craft of history, the exciting and engaging conclusions to which it can lead and the worrying ends to which it can also be nudged. Contents: Introduction— Sunil Kumar Indian Art Objects as Loot—Richard H. Davis Narratives of a History—Romila Thapar Temple Desecration in Pre-Modern India—Richard Eaton Islam, Iconoclasm and the Early Indian Mosque—Finbarr B. Flood Appendix: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Address to the Public Meeting at Somnath on October 31, 2001

    It also provides a deeper understanding of the mysteries and spiritual traditions of India. This book includes: Descriptions of the temples and their architecture and what you will see at each place. Explanations of holy places of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Muslims. The spiritual benefits a person acquires by visiting them. This book goes beyond the usual descriptions of the typical tourist attractions and opens up the spiritual venue waiting to be revealed for a far deeper experience on every level.

    Since then, Candrakirti has been celebrated as offering the most thorough and accurate vision of Nagarjuna's view of emptiness which, in turn, most fully represents the final truth of the Buddha's teaching. Candrakirti's emptiness denies the existence of any "nature" or substantial, enduring essence in ourselves or in the phenomenal world while avoiding the extreme view of nihilism. In this view, our false belief in nature is at the root of our ignorance and is the basis for all mental and emotional pain and disturbance. For many Tibetan scholars, only Candrakirti's Middle Way entirely overcomes our false belief in inherent identity and, consequently, alone overcomes ignorance, delivering freedom from the cycle of uncontrolled death and rebirth known as samsara.Candrakirti's writings have formed the basis for Madhyamaka study in all major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. In Resurrecting Candrakirti, Kevin Vose presents the reader with a thorough presentation of Candrakirti's rise to prominence and the further elaborations the Tibetans have made on his presentation of emptiness. By splitting Madhyamaka into two subschools, namely the Svatantrika and Prasangika, the Tibetans became pioneers in understanding reality and created a new way to define differences in interpretation. Resurrecting Candrakirti provides the historical and philosophical context necessary to understand both Madhyamaka and its importance to Tibetan Buddhist thought.

    Public alarm over climate change has helped to make sustainable development a major public policy issue and a topic of growing importance in the daily lives of Americans. This book is a comprehensive assessment of U.S. progress toward sustainable development and a roadmap of necessary next steps toward achieving a sustainable America. Packed with facts, figures, and the well-informed opinions of forty-one experts, it provides an illuminating “snapshot” of sustainability in the United States today. And each of the contributors suggests where we need to go next, recommending three to five specific actions that we should take during the next five to ten years. It thus offers a comprehensive agenda that citizens, corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and government leaders and policymakers can use to make decisions today and to plan for the future. Sustainable development holds enormous promise for improving the quality of life for Americans over the coming decades. Agenda for a Sustainable America describes what we need to do to make the promise a reality. It assesses trends in twenty-eight separate areas of American life—including forestry; transportation; oceans and estuaries; religion; and state, local, and national governance. In every area, contributors reveal what sustainable development could mean, with suggestions that are specific, desirable, and achievable. Their expert recommendations point the way toward greater economic and social well-being, increased security, and environmental protection and restoration for current and future generations of Americans. Together they build a convincing case for how sustainable development can improve our opportunities and our lives.

    This collection of essays by eminent scholars discusses various aspects of Hinduism with a contemporary relevance.

    The year 1950 was certainly one such crucial year in the destinies of India, Tibet, and China. The three nations had the choice of moving toward peace and collaboration, or tension and confrontation. Decisions can be made with all good intentions, as in the case of Nehru who believed in an “eternal friendship” with China, or with the uncharitable motives of Mao. In strategic terms, Tibet is critical to South Asia and Southeast Asia. Rather, the Tibetan plateau holds the key to the peace, security, and the well-being of Asia and the world. This study of the history of Tibet, a nation sandwiched between two giant neighbors, will enable better understanding of the geopolitics influencing the tumultuous relations between India and China, particularly in the backdrop of border disputes and recent events in Tibet.

    

    These late works from the Pratyabhijnā tradition of monistic and tantric Kashmiri Śaiva philosophy focus on means to deindividualize and disclose the primordial, divine essential natures of the human ego and body-sense.David Peter Lawrence situates these writings in their medieval, South Asian religious and intellectual contexts. He goes on to engage Pratyabhijnā philosophical psychology in dialogue with Western religious and psychoanalytic conceptions of identity and "narcissism," and also demonstrates the Śaiva tradition's strong concern with ethics. The richly annotated translation and glossary illuminate the texts for all readers.

    

    It examines the underlying issues that influence state policy towards disadvantaged groups and assesses specific strategies and whether these need rethinking and reshaping to take India forward in its quest or equality. It also looks at the constitutional framework, the institutional structures, and the responses and debates surrounding the inclusion for lower castes and minorities, especially the emphasis on affirmative action for the former and the continuing opposition to the inclusion of the latter in this framework.

    Focusing on the culture of piracy in the Indian capital, this book looks at what has happened to the city in the wake of the dissemination of the new media and the ways in which it has, and will, affect urban cultures in an age of globalization.

    Since that beginning, so much has happened in this already vast field that it would be hard to find a major issue or subject that has not been addressed by scholars and activists. This comprehensive reader sets out to provide a map of the development of women s studies and the ever expanding terrain that it has been investigating. The introduction explores the growth of the field from the upheavals of the 1970s to the transformed conjunctures of the 1990s. In the process, the often elusive relationships between women s studies, the women s movement and the structures of higher education are highlighted. Over eighty edited essays have been brought together in this single volume under distinct thematic clusters from the new beginnings of the 1970s to politics, history, development, violence, the law, education, health, family and household, caste and tribe, religion and communalism, sexualities, and literature and the media. This reader is for both newcomers to women s studies and for those who have long been part of it.

    It tells the definitive story of how India, Pakistan, Burma and Malaysia came into existence and how British interference in Vietnam and Indonesia fatally shaped those countries' futures.

    

    As a young law graduate, Kuldip Nayar witnessed at first hand the collapse of trust between communities in Sialkot and was forced to migrate with his family to Delhi across the blood-stained plains of Punjab. He vividly describes his own perilous journey and his first job as a young journalist in an Urdu newspaper reporting on Gandhi's assassination. Asif Noorani, while still a schoolboy in Bombay, set off with his family by steamer across the Arabian Sea for the promised land of Pakistan, ultimately settling in Karachi. He gives his own compelling account of the difficulties faced by the new arrivals and the slow emergence of today's megacity with its dominant Mohajir culture. Both authors write with authority about their ancestral homes and their adopted cities, which have played so large a role in bilateral relations. This is a book about a trauma which transformed the subcontinent and still exerts a powerful influence today. These are personal narratives bringing to life a lost world of harmonious relations which each author in his own way is still to recreate.