Teeming with powerful deities, love-struck monsters, flying monkey gods, magic weapons, demon armies, and divine love, Ramayana tells the story of Rama, a god-turned-prince, and his quest to rescue his wife Sita after she is kidnapped by a demon king. This illustrated tale features over 100 colorful full-spread illustrations, a detailed pictorial glossary of the cast of characters who make up the epic tale, and sketches of the work in progress. From princesses in peril to gripping battles, scheming royals, and hordes of bloodthirsty demons, Ramayana is the ultimate adventure story presented with an unforgettably modern touch.

    Still above is Vaikuntha, heaven, abode of God.The doorkeepers of Vaikuntha are the twins, Jaya and Vijaya, both whose names mean 'victory'. One keeps you in Swarga; the other raises you into Vaikuntha.In Vaikuntha there is bliss forever, in Swarga there is pleasure for only as long as you deserve. What is the difference between Jaya and Vijaya? Solve this puzzle and you will solve the mystery of the Mahabharata.In this enthralling retelling of India's greatest epic, the Mahabharata originally known as Jaya, Devdutt Pattanaik seamlessly weaves into a single narrative plots from the Sanskrit classic as well as its many folk and regional variants, including the Pandavani of Chhattisgarh, Gondhal of Maharashtra, Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu and Yakshagana of Karnataka.Richly illustrated with over 250 line drawings by the author, the 108 chapters abound with little-known details such as the names of the hundred Kauravas, the worship of Draupadi as a goddess in Tamil Nadu, the stories of Astika, Madhavi, Jaimini, Aravan and Barbareek, the Mahabharata version of the Shakuntalam and the Ramayana, and the dating of the war based on astronomical data.With clarity and simplicity, the tales in this elegant volume reveal the eternal relevance of the Mahabharata, the complex and disturbing meditation on the human condition that has shaped Indian thought for over 3000 years.

    The collection was followed by her best-selling and critically acclaimed novel The Namesake—a finely wrought, deeply moving family drama. Presenting these works together here, this edition displays Lahiri’s enormous talent as a storyteller.

    The book explains that the river, its very existence, and its course have been discussed and speculated over for years. The magnificence of the Sarasvati has been detailed in scriptures like the Rig Veda. Historians and archaeologists could not understand how it mysteriously ceased to exist. Some of the even deem the river a myth.This book attempts the deduce facts from fable and makes a strong case for the existence of the river. It goes over the upheavals that the Indian subcontinent went through thousands of years ago, explaining the dry weather, erosion, and tectonic events that changed the terrain, altered river courses, and may have made the Sarasvati disappear. The book then chronicles explorations into the river started, which began around the early nineteenth century, when it was rediscovered by British officials doing topographic explorations.The book also explains the culture around that time, shedding light on the Indus valley civilisation and the rich and flourishing culture of Harappa. The book goes on the show the results of explorations into the river’s origins and course using modern technology like satellite imagery and isotope analysis. The author has also used his proof of the existence of the river to bolster his theory that Aryans were indigenous to India and not foreign invaders.The Lost River was published in 2010 by Penguin India and is available in paperback.Key Features: The book presents evidence for the existence and information about the course and demise of the Sarasvati from various fields of investigation. It contains an extensive appendix with further information and a vast number of footnotes.

    The pieces in this collection are characterized by an incorrigible sense of humour and an eye for ordinary-and most often unnoticed-details that are so essential to the geographic, social and cultural fabric of a place.

    I’d been waiting for months to hear from them...’ In early 2010, Arundhati Roy travelled into the forests of Central India, homeland to millions of indigenous people, dreamland to some of the world’s biggest mining corporations. The result is this powerful and unprecedented report from the heart of an unfolding revolution. About the Author : Arundhati Roy is the author of The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize in 1997. Three volumes of her non-fiction writing, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire and Listening to Grasshoppers, were published in 2001, 2005 and 2009 respectively. The Shape of the Beast, a collection of her interviews, was published in 2008. Arundhati Roy lives in New Delhi.

    It is a decision that will haunt Kavita for the rest of her life, and cause a ripple effect that travels across the world and back again.Asha, adopted out of a Mumbai orphanage, is the child that binds the destinies of these two women. We follow both families, invisibly connected until Asha's journey of self-discovery leads her back to India.Compulsively readable and deeply touching, SECRET DAUGHTER is a story of the unforeseen ways in which our choices and families affect our lives, and the indelible power of love in all its many forms.

    The author argues that anti-caste activism itself has reflected and reinforced the worst stereotypes, identifying foes and friends in obsolete terms, and that in post-independence India, the authority of Caste has found a new ally—the state and its police. This shocking and insightful new analysis will not only provide a fascinating introduction into the issue of caste in a globalised world, but will sharpen any readers' understanding of caste dynamics as they actually exist.

    In it he briefly details basic information about death, the lake of fire, hell, the region of the dead, paradise, heaven, angels, saints, relationships, and some of his observations while in "the world of spirits." When he spent extended time alone with God, at times his spiritual eyes were opened and he met and conversed with saints and angels. They answered many of his questions; he relates some of them here. Because the contents of this booklet are so different from what Christians in the Occident would expect, we strongly recommend that a person first read a good biography of the man, such as that by Phyllis Thompson (who begins each chapter with one of Sundar's parables). When you keep his visions in the context of his character, when you realize that this man was a deeply commited follower of Jesus Christ, who would not compromise his devotion or honesty, who cautioned readers to not confuse his experiences with "spiritism" (a man for whom Corrie ten Boom expressed the greatest respect after hearing him preach and talking with him), it'll be easier to be open to God's showing you what's true and real as you read this account.

    These caustic poems with their black humour, sharp sarcasm, tart repartees, semantic puns and semiotic plays irritate, shock and sting the readers until they are provoked into rethinking the ‘time-honoured’ traditions and entrenched hierarchies at work in contemporary society. The poet stands myths and legends on their head to expose their regressive core. She uses words, images and metaphors as tools of subversion, asserting, in the process, her caste, gender and regional identities while also transcending them through the shared spaces of her socioaesthetic practice. She de-romanticises the world and de-mythifies religious and literary traditions by re-appropriating the hegemonic language in a heretical gesture of Promethean love for the dispossessed. The poet interrogates the tenets of a solipsistic modernism to create a counterpoetic community speech brimming with emancipatory energy.

    Over the last few decades, urban real estate has become the primary source of financing for political parties and the politicians who run them, and as Correa acknowledges, “you cannot look at cities without wandering into architecture on the one hand and politics on the other.” A Place in the Shade identifies the defining issues of the urbanization trends that are so rapidly transforming India.

    Reviving life in Lahore as it was before 1947, the book opens on a nostalgic note, with vivid descriptions of the people that lived in the city’s streets and lanes like Bhola Pandhe Ki Gali: Tara, who wanted an education above marriage; Puri, whose ideology and principles often came in the way of his impoverished circumstances; Asad, who was ready to sacrifice his love for the sake of communal harmony. Their lives—and those of other memorable characters—are forever altered as the carnage that ensues on the eve of Independence shatters the beauty and peace of the land, killing millions of Hindus and Muslims, and forcing others to leave their homes forever.

    Critiquing the sensibility which equates Indian tradition with Hinduism, and Hinduism with Brahmanism which considers the Vedas as the foundational texts of Indian culture and discovers within the Aryan heritage the essence of Indian civilisation it shows how even secular minds remain imprisoned within the Brahmanical vision. It looks at the alternative traditions nurtured within Dalit movements, which have questioned this way of looking at Indian society and history. Written in a lucid and readable style, the author elucidates how Dalit politics and the Dalit vision require going beyond even the term Dalit and how it has contributed to being symbolic of the most oppressed and exploited sections within the graded hierarchies of caste. Alongside the ascendance of Hinduism, the book traces the invasive trends of resistance and revolt in the tenets of Buddhism and radical bhakti, in the anti-patriarchal stands of early feminists, in the pervasive radicalism of the Dalit activists from Phule and Periyar, Ramabai and Tarabai, to Kabir, Tukaram and Ambedkar, even for that matter Buddha himself. This book brings to the reader the failures and triumphs of the many efforts that have aimed to dissolve the oppressive facets of Hinduism and its caste ideology, and continue to organise in newer ways for 'another' possible world where equality and human freedom reign supreme. It also makes visible the logic of Dalit politics and the rise of the Bahujan Samaj Party, as a major alternative to the rise of Hindutva. This important and essential reading will be an invaluable primer on the subject to students of Dalit and caste studies and politics.

    The water from a magical well in their farmhouse was the reason behind this ‘good fortune’, they said. One day, fifteen-year-old Gurmi sets out to look for the well and what he sees changes everyone’s world forever. The faces of three girls look up at him from the water, and draw him into a world of fun, games and cyber magic—and Gurmi has to face up to an unnerving truth as murky as the surreal well. What terrible crimes have been committed behind the walls of the rambling Diwanchand family home? Will Gurmi and the ghost-girls be able to avenge the evil that has taken place and prevent yet another unspeakable atrocity from occurring? Funny, yet sensitive and immensely powerful, Faces in the Water is the story of lives lost to appease our society’s insatiable hunger for male children, and the price families pay for its sake.

    A quest by the contemporary members of the Tope family, which led to the discovery of the dramatic battle manoeuvres of their ancestor, the legendary Tatya Tope, as well as the true import of the war.It covers the detailed planning of the war and the logistical issues that were overcome to allow the Indian troops to march over a million man-miles in the early months of the war. Hundreds of Urdu letters written to Tatya during the war, which have never been published before, were translated to demonstrate Tatya's administrative acumen in running a full-fledged government in parallel.Operation Red Lotus is the first detailed account of Tatya Tope that covers his entire campaign from the planning of the war until his death; and offers a surprising answer to the generations-old question - 'was the man hanged on 18 April 1859, Tatya Tope?

    It is the teachings of Lord Siva in Mount Kailas to His devotee Ribhu, from whom the Gita derives its name. The Ribhu Gita was translated into Tamil verse by a Brahmin Vedic scholar of high repute, by name Bikshu Sastrigal who was also an accomplished scholar in Tamil. He translated the work under the name of Ulaganatha Swamigal, and because of his efforts attained renowned fame among the Tamil devotees of Siva. The Tamil version is a free translation of the original Sanskrit text, consisting of 1,924 verses of such scintillating brilliance that Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi recommended its recital as a strong support for spiritual sadhana. He used to say that the recital itself leads to spontaneous abidance in the Self.The book presented herewith consists of 122 verses from the original Tamil work, being a free translation into English prose, conveying the essence of the original, rather than a mere mechanical word for word translation. Translated by Professor N. R. Krishnamoorthi Aiyer. The esteemed translator, a retired physics professor, was encouraged by the Maharshi to study this text. The one hundred and twenty-one verses selected for this book are mostly those that the Maharshi made familiar to the devotees. They have been rendered into English with a trained accuracy and deep spiritual insight.pp61

    Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: A Fine Balance, Such a Long Journey, Family Matters. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: A Fine Balance is the second book by Rohinton Mistry. Set in Mumbai, India between 1947 and 1977 during the turmoil of The Emergency, a period of expanded government power and crackdowns on civil liberties, this book is about four characters from varied backgroundsDina Dalal, Ishvar Darji, his nephew Omprakash Darji and the young student Maneck Kohlahwho come together and develop a bond. First published by McClelland and Stewart in 1995, it won the Giller Prize. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996. In 2001 it is currently one of the only two Canadian books that have been selected into Oprah's Book Club. It was one of the selected books in the 2002 edition of Canada Reads, championed by actor Megan Follows. An acclaimed stage-adaptation of the novel by the Tamasha Theatre Company was produced at the Hampstead Theatre in 2006 and later revived in 2007. The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Mistry is generally critical of P. M. Gandhi in the book. Interestingly, however, Gandhi is never referred to by name by any of the characters, and is instead called simply "the prime minister." The characters, from diverse backgrounds, are all brought together by economic forces changing India. Ishvar and Omprakash's family is part of the Chamaar caste, who traditionally cured leather and were considered untouchable. In an attempt to break away from the restrictive caste system, Ishvar's father apprentices his sons Ishvar and Narayan to a Muslim tailor in a nearby village, and so they became tailors. As a result of their skills, which are ...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=93333

    For that reason, if you manage to track down this book outside India, you’re a better literary detective than I. All of which is a shame, because reviews on the sub-continent suggest it is a delicate, deeply affecting novel deserving of wider readership. Set in modern-day Bangalore, Kaberi is pregnant with a longed-for child nobody else knows about: neither her estranged, unfaithful husband, nor her parents or friends. Rebirth takes the form of a monologue from mother to baby in which she expresses her doubts about her marriage and her life, and ultimately seeks, and finds, some form of redemption. In time, it’s likely its shortlisting will open it up to a bigger readership. - From themillions.com

    A quite amazing claim, but one which has yet to be disputed. Nor is it likely to be! His very simple chicken curry dish captured the imagination of the media and public alike. (Self-confessed DJ foodie Chris Evans declared it 'the best curry I've ever tasted'.) But Gurpareet's creativity extends far beyond this one celebrated dish to an extensive and life-changing collection of recipes geared towards eating much more healthily. Recognising the exceptional health-promoting properties of combining western super foods with Asian super spices, whilst at the same time tapping into the world's enduring love affair with curry, Gurpareet sets out to inform us about how each recipe in this wonderful collection - via high antioxidant levels, cardiovascular health benefits and a myriad of curative properties - will help to improve our health and wellbeing.

    Journeying along the edge of the peninsula, Samanth Subramanian reports upon a kaleidoscope of extraordinary stories.In nine essays, Following Fish conducts rich journalistic investigations: among others, of the famed fish treatment for asthmatics in Hyderabad; of the preparation and the process of eating West Bengal's prized hilsa; of the ancient art of building fishing boats in Gujarat; of the fiery cuisine and the singular spirit of Kerala's toddy shops; of the food and the lives of Mumbai's first peoples; of the history of an old Catholic fishing community in Tamil Nadu; of the hunt for the world's fastest fish near Goa.Throughout his travels, Subramanian observes the cosmopolitanism and diverse influences absorbed by India's coastal cities, the wthdrawing of traditional fishermen from their craft, the corresponding growth of fishing as pure and voluminous commerce, and the degradation of waters and beaches from over-fishing.Pulsating with pleasure, adventure and discovery, and tempered by nostalgia and loss, Following Fish speaks as eloquently to the armchair traveller as to lovers of the sea and its lore.

    As the leader of a new state created amidst the bloodiest partition in history, saddled with new and outstanding problems, Nehru was confronting with a range of disputes which threatened to boil over. Srinath Raghavan draws on a rich vein of untapped documents to illuminate Nehru's approach to war and his efforts for peace. Vividly recreating the intellectual and political milieu of the Indian Foreign Policy establishment, he explains the response of Nehru and his top advisors to the tensions with Junagadh, Hyderabad, Pakistan, and China. He gives individual attention to every conflict and shows how strategic decisions for each crisis came to be defined in the light of the preceding ones. The book follows Nehru as he wrestles with a string of major conflicts -- assessing the utility of force, weighing risks of war, exploring diplomatic options for peace, and forming strategic judgements that would define his reputation, both in his lifetime and after. War and Peace in Modern India challenges and revises our received understanding of Nehru's handling of international affairs. General readers as well as students of Indian history and politics will find its balanced consideration of Nehru's Foreign Policy essential to gauge his achievements, his failures, and his enduring legacy.

    T. Vasudevan Nair’s previously published works—Mist and The Soul of Darkness, Kaalam and Kuttiedathi and Other Stories. The volume features an introduction to M. T. Vasudevan Nair’s work by P. P. Raveendran, an eminent academic and a scholar of Malayalam literature.Mist and The Soul of Darkness are translationsof M. T. Vasudevan Nair’s highly-acclaimed novellas, Manhu and Irutinde Atmavu. In the Mist, set at a hill-station resort, the author narrates the story of Vimala, a school teacher who continues to wait for her beloved Sudhir, with whom she once shared a passionate affair filled with promises. The Soul of Darkness, on the other hand speaks ofVelayudhan, a young man regarded by his family as ‘not normal’ and is thus treated abominably, tortured and beaten. Though his cousin Ammakutty really cares for him, she is helpless and cannot do much to save him. In both stories, Nair voices through mists of memories and emotions, some lost hopes and evocative experiences. The narratives are deeply touching, dramatic and realistic.Set against the backdrop of a crumbling matrilineal tarawad system of the Nairs in Kerala with its manifold conflicts and problems, Kaalam is the story of Sethumadhavan Nair who starts out as an ambitious and confident adolescent -- but in his journey towards adulthood, where material and social success go hand in hand, he is faced with an overwhelming sense of disillusionment. In its revelations, the story is beautifully adorned with the emotional experiences of the protagonist, which is also reflective of MT’s own childhood in many ways.Kuttiedathi and other stories is a collection of the finest stories of M. T. Vasudevan Nair that encompasses the ordinary middle class lives and sufferings of people in northern Kerala. Nair’s engaging style of storytelling is touching throughout. If the lead story ‘Kuttiedathi’ mixes tragic memory and domestic martyrdom, ‘When the Doors of Heaven Open’ plays out another life upon which centre a group of lives, all selfish, caring and indifferent by turns. In ‘Insight’ however, strange and unfathomable bonds of passion come up as the main theme. These are little tragedies of the soul told with a finesse characteristic of Nair’s profound, yet minimalist sense of expression.

    Ambani’s sons Anil and Mukesh, who took over after their father's death in 2002, are worth $43 billion and $42 billion respectively, but their relationship is far from amiable. Demonstrating the complicated links between government and big business, this account is not only the riveting story of one of the wealthiest families in the world—including their infamous feud—but also an illustration of India’s transformation into a global economic powerhouse.

    Those who have been are often not fully aware of—or are unwilling to accept—the degree to which they have been compromised.’ Till just a few decades ago, much of the world was carved into empires. By the mid twentieth century independent countries had emerged from these, but even after years of political liberation, cultural freedom has eluded formerly colonized nations like India . In this important book, Pavan Varma, best-selling author of the seminal works The Great Indian Middle Class and Being Indian, looks at the consequences of Empire on the Indian psyche. Drawing upon modern Indian history, contemporary events and personal experience, he examines how and why the legacies of colonialism persist in our everyday life, affecting our language, politics, creative expression and self-image. Over six decades after Independence , English remains the most powerful language in India , and has become a means of social and economic exclusion. Our classical arts and literature continue to be neglected, and our popular culture is mindlessly imitative of western trends. Our cities are dotted with incongruous buildings that owe nothing to indigenous traditions of architecture. For all our bravado as an emerging superpower, we remain unnaturally sensitive to both criticism and praise from the Anglo-Saxon world and hunger for its approval. And outside North Block, the headquarters of free India ’s Ministry of Home Affairs, a visitor can still read these lines inscribed by the colonial rulers: ‘ Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty. It is a blessing which must be earned before it can be enjoyed.’ With passion, insight and impeccable logic, Pavan Varma shows why India , and other formerly subject nations, can never truly be free—and certainly not in any position to assume global leader

    Combining memoir, history, and fiction, the book follows the paths of the author's Irish-Catholic mother and Sindhi-Indian father on their journey toward each other and the biracial child they create. Neela Vaswani's second full-length work thematically echoes such books as The Color of Water, Running in the Family, or Motiba's Tatoos, but it is entirely unique in approach, voice, and story. The book reveals the self as a culmination of all that went before it, a brilliant new weave of two varied, yet ultimately universal backgrounds that spans continents, generations, languages, wars, and, at the center of it all, family.Neela Vaswani is the author of the short story collection Where the Long Grass Bends (Sarabande Books, 2004). Recipient of a 2006 O. Henry Prize, her fiction and nonfiction have been widely anthologized and published in journals such as Epoch, Shenandoah, and Prairie Schooner. She lives in New York City.

    They headed for the city's iconic landmarks and the mayhem they unleashed lasted nearly 60 hours. The audacious terror attacks jolted Mumbai like never before. Even as they mourned, the residents of Maximum City demanded answers. But the information they got in return???accounts of the investigation, government rhetoric, newspaper reports, television features, books and even a film???was sketchy at best. Meanwhile, the courts continued with their prosecution of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving 26/11 gunman. The broad picture available to the public is of the Pakistan-based terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba and its ringleaders such as Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi training, arming and dispatching ten young men in a boat to attack India???s commercial capital. All we have been told about Kasab is that he was just another recruit brainwashed into carrying out the plot against Mumbai. Kasab: The Face of 26/11 breaks new ground by painstakingly piecing together Kasab???s terror trail. The narrative follows Kasab through the bylanes of Pakistani villages and cities as he made his way towards PoK; the dense forests where the terrorist-training camps are situated; the trains, buses and jeeps he boarded; the Indian vessel he and the others hijacked en route to Mumbai???s shores; Kasab???s capture and incarceration. Rommel Rodrigues??? path-breaking investigative journalism fleshes out for the first time the well thought-out planning and organization that lay behind the attacks of 26/11.

    The Book contains Sri Rudram,a hymn from the Vedas,the sacred book of the Hindus.Diving deeply into the book brings Isvara into one's life so that one comes out with namah on one's lips and Isvara in one's heart.

    Only recently, however, have they been available in English translation.Detha has a gift for selecting the most provocative tales he hears from his fellow villagers and re-creating them in a literary form as engaging and daring as his oral sources. In one tale a ghost uses his powers to change a woman's sex so that she can stay married to the woman she loves. In another--re-created in film by Mani Kaul in the early 1970s as Duvidha and more recently by Bollywood director Amol Palekar as the wildly successful Paheli--a ghost falls in love with a young bride and assumes her husband's form so convincingly even her in-laws are fooled. In the title story of this collection, a group of Bania merchants engage in battle to the death with a group of nomadic Banjaras over a misplaced fleck of straw.These stories pose riddles that fi nd new relevance across languages and eras: Who has the right to tell us whom to marry? What counts as truth when it comes to protecting someone we love? How do the epic stories we hear encourage us to repeat scenes of ethnic violence?Detha's tales combine the local Rajasthani storytelling idiom with narrative technique from the modern short story to set a new standard for contemporary writing in India. Translator Christi A. Merrill has worked with the author and his Hindi translator Kailash Kabir to craft a style that allows these stories to come alive in English with equal inventiveness and vibrancy.

    By 1825 the empire had annexed eastern Afghanistan and the whole of what is now Kashmir going well into Tibet. The Maharaja was first among non Muslims to annex the Pathan -Pushtun- territories where the Taliban is now active. This brought to an end a one thousand year of loot by Muslim raiders from the north west.Though the Muslim population of the Maharaja was 90% but his rule was, what we now call: the most secular. More than half the ministers in his Durbar -Court- were Muslim or Hindus and many of his Generals were Europeans who modernized his army.His army was so powerful and modern for the times that even the East India Company of the English, having occupied most of the Indian subcontinent by 1805, were not keen to threaten him. The Sikh Khalsa army was the best and even better than what the English had.This book covers in detail the demise of his empire after his death due to lack of an able ruler. The book shows very nicely how the English cultivated certain elements in the Durbar and how the two armies fought Nine battles in two Anglo-Sikh wars of 1845 and 1849 before the Sikh empire could be annexed.The author brings out references to show that the English never had to pay such a high prize for annexing any other Indian kingdom as they had to pay for subduing the Sikhs. The Sikhs never asked for a quarter in battle and never gave one. The English lost so many Generals in those battles that they had never lost that many before or even there after, in all the wars they fought until now.Impressed by the fighting tenacity of the Sikhs, the English enrolled them in large numbers so much so that by the time the Second World War ended, more than half the Indian army was from Punjab of which Sikhs alone were 50%.A very well written book.

    How can you train yourself to spot competences in others and build on them to create an effective team? How do you achieve the right balance between adherence to existing systems, and creative or experimental problem-solving? And do you have the people skills—the ability to network extensively and build trust-based relationships—required to be a leader? Richly illustrated with anecdotes and experiences of well-known managers, and with a broad array of tips and self-assessment tools to sharpen your management skills, this book is a must read for all practising and aspiring managers. The IIM Ahmedabad Business Books bring key issues in management and business to a general audience. With a wealth of information and illustrations from contemporary Indian businesses, these non-academic and user-friendly books from the faculty of IIM Ahmedabad are essential corporate reading.

    The existence of such a complex and distinctive democratic regime qualifies as one of the world's bona fide political miracles. Furthermore, India's leading political thinkers have often served as its most influential political actors--think of Gandhi, whose collected works run to more than ninety volumes, or Ambedkar, or Nehru, who recorded their most eloquent theoretical reflections at the same time as they strove to set the delicate machinery of Indian democracy on a coherent and just path. Out of the speeches and writings of these thinker-activists, Ramachandra Guha has built the first major anthology of Indian social and political thought. Makers of Modern India collects the work of nineteen of India's foremost generators of political sentiment, from those whose names command instant global recognition to pioneering subaltern and feminist thinkers whose works have until now remained obscure and inaccessible.

    View all books in the series here: http: //www.penguinbooksindia.com/Words_of_fr...

    When he was subjected to 'one thousand days of solitary confinement' during 1985-89 in Secunderabad Jail, a leading national daily invited him to write about his prison experiences. While prison writing is a hoary tradition, no writer has had the opportunity to publish his writings from jail. VV, however, did meet the demands placed on him as a writer, despite constraints of censorship by jail authorities and the Intelligence section. He decided to test his creative powers in jail on the touchstone of his readers' response and expressed himself in a series of thirteen remarkable essays on imprisonment, from prison.

    Novelette.Since childhood, Subhash had been cautious. His mother never had to run after him. He kept her company, watching as she cooked or sewed. While Subhash stayed in clear view, his brother, Udayan, was disappearing: even in their two-room house, when he was a boy, he hid compulsively. Subhash wondered if his placid nature was regarded as a lack of inventiveness, perhaps even a failing, in his parents’ eyes. It became his mission to obey them, given that it wasn’t possible to surprise or impress them. That was what Udayan did.

    This concise and reader-friendly volume addresses this need.Culled from the collective wisdom of distinguished contributors, the volume provides a comprehensive and engaging account of the trends and issues across various sectors of the Indian economy. More than 100 pertinent entries, organized thematically, cover the evolution of the Indian economy from relative obscurity to an emergent global force. They span the recent cover stories of India's phenomenal growth, and also document the backwaters-widespread poverty, farmer suicides, child labour, and the large and impoverished informal sector.A new introduction and some new entries cover the developments since the first edition was written, and also focus on the economic crises. An appendix presents relevant statistics on Indian economic indicators, which will serve as a handy reference for students of the Indian economy and, more generally, of development economics.

    Bengali prose emerged, and with it the novel and modern blank verse; old arguments about religion, society, and the lives of women were overturned; great schools and colleges were created; new ideas surfaced in science. And all these changes were led by a handful of remarkable men and women. For the first time comes a gripping narrative about the Bengal Renaissance recounted through the lives of all its players from Rammohun Roy to Rabindranath Tagore. Immaculately researched, told with colour, drama, and passion, Awakening is a stunning achievement.

    

    It is a translation of his original Bengali work in English. Some of the short stories include 'Devdas' and 'The Paradise of Abhagi'.

    Whether you're looking for the things not to miss at the Top 10 sights, or want to find the best nightspots; this guide is the perfect companion. Rely on dozens of Top 10 lists - from the Top 10 museums to the Top 10 events and festivals - there's even a list of the Top 10 things to avoid. The guide is divided by area with restaurant reviews for each, as well as recommendations for hotels, bars and places to shop. You'll find the insider knowledge every visitor needs and explore every corner effortlessly with DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide: Delhi. DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide: Delhi - showing you what others only tell you. Now available in Kindle format.

    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. Mr. Pickford, in the preface to his English translation of the Mahavira Charita, ably defends a close adherence to the original even at the sacrifice of idiom and taste against the claims of what has been called 'Free Translation,' which means dressing the author in an outlandish garb to please those to whom he is introduced."Vaisampayana said, 'Then those valiant descendants of Kuru, who belonged to the same party (with Virata), having joyfully celebrated the nuptials of Abhimanyu and rested themselves that night, presented themselves at dawn, well pleased, in the court of Virata, And the chamber of the king of the Matsya was full of riches, and variegated with choice gems and precious stones, with seats methodically arranged, adorned with garlands, and filled with fragrance. And those mighty monarchs of men all came to that place, And on the seats in front sat the two kings Virata and Drupada. And the revered and aged rulers of the earth, and Valarama and Krishna along with their father, all sat there. And close to the king of Panchala was seated the great hero of the race of Sini, together with the son of Rohini. And side by side with the king of the Matsya sat Krishna and Yudhishthira, and all the sons of king Drupada, and Bhima and Arjuna, and the two sons of Madri, and Pradyumna and Samva, both valiant in battle, and Abhimanyu with Virata's sons. And those princes, the sons of Draupadi, rivalling their fathers in valour, strength, grace, and prowess, sat upon excellent seats inlaid with gold. And when those mighty heroes wearing shining ornaments and robes had set themselves down, that gorgeous assembly of kings looked beautiful like the firmament spangled with resplendent stars.For additional information on publishing your books on iPhone and iPad please visit www.AppsPublisher.com

    Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... The four grandsons of Dushhanta, Kalinjar, Keral, Pand, .and Chowal gave their names to countries. Kalinjar is the celebrated fortress in Boondelkhund, so well-known for its antiquities, which have claimed considerable notice. Of the second, Keral, it is only known that in the list of the thirty-six royal races in the twelfth century, the Keral makes one, but the capital is unknown. The kingdom founded by Pand may be that on the coast of Malabar, the Pandu-Mandal of the Hindus, the Regia Pandiona of the geographers of the west, and of which probably, Tanjore is the modern capital. Chowal is in the Saurashtra peninsula, and on the coast, towards Jugut Koont, ' the world's end, ' and still retains its appellation.' The other shoot from Babru became celebrated. The thirty-fourth prince, Anga, founded the kingdom of Angadesa, of which Champa-J-Malini was the capital, established about the same time with Canouj, probably fifteen hundred years before Christ. With him the patronymic was changed, and to this day, An-des still designates the Alpine regions of Thibet bordering on Chinese Tartary. Pristoosena terminates the line of Anga; and as he survived the disasters of the Great War, his race probably multiplied in those regions, where caste appears never to have been introduced. Thus have we rapidly reviewed the dynasties of Surya and Chandra, from Manu and Boodha to Rama, Crishna, Yudhisthira and Jarasandha; establishing, it is hoped, some new points, and perhaps adding to, the credibility of the whole. The wrecks of almost all the vast cities founded by them are yet to be traced in ruins. The city of Icshwacu and Rama, on the Sarayu; Indraprastha, Mathura, Surpura, Prayag on the Yamuna; Hastinapura, Canyacubja, Raj-graha on the Ganges; Maheswar on the...

    Throughout the twentieth century arguments have raged over the Palestinian problem and the future of bilateral relations. Yet no text comprehensively looks at the attitudes and policies of India toward Israel, especially their development in conjunction with history.P. R. Kumaraswamy is the first to account for India's Israel policy, revealing surprising inconsistencies in positions taken by the country's leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, and tracing the crackling tensions between its professed values and realpolitik. Kumaraswamy's findings debunk the belief that India possesses a homogenous policy toward the Middle East. In fact, since the early days of independence, many within India have supported and pursued relations with Israel.Using material derived from archives in both India and Israel, Kumaraswamy investigates the factors that have hindered relations between these two countries despite their numerous commonalities. He also considers how India destabilized relations, the actions that were necessary for normalization to occur, and the directions bilateral relations may take in the future. In his most provocative argument, Kumaraswamy underscores the disproportionate affect of anticolonial sentiments and the Muslim minority on shaping Indian policy.

    Rama marries beautiful Sita, but Ravana, the 10-headed, 20-armed Demon King, falls in love with her too. He captures her and takes her in his chariot to the Demon Kingdom, Lanka. Rama has to find a way to rescue Sita, and he seeks the help of the monkey general Hanuman and the King of the Bears, and Jambuvan, the King of the Bears. Rama, his brother Lakshman and the band of monkeys and bears battle their way to the Kingdom of the Demons. They cross the sea by building a bridge, with the help of the fishes and sea creatures, and find Sita locked in Hanuman's tower, guarded by demonesses. After a final, terrible battle, the Demon King is defeated and Rama and Sita are reunited. The beautiful end to the story, telling how people put out lamps to light Rama and Sita's pathway home, is at the heart of the Hindu festival of Divali. in which earthen lamps - called divas - are lit, to celebrate the return of Rama after his exile and to mark the end of one year and the beginning of another.

    and continuing for more than a thousand years, an extraordinary poetic practice was the trademark of a major literary movement in South Asia. Authors invented a special language to depict both the apparent and hidden sides of disguised or dual characters, and then used it to narrate India's major epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, simultaneously.Originally produced in Sanskrit, these dual narratives eventually worked their way into regional languages, especially Telugu and Tamil, and other artistic media, such as sculpture. Scholars have long dismissed simultaneous narration as a mere curiosity, if not a sign of cultural decline in medieval India. Yet Yigal Bronner's Extreme Poetry effectively negates this position, proving that, far from being a meaningless pastime, this intricate, "bitextual" technique both transcended and reinvented Sanskrit literary expression.The poems of simultaneous narration teased and estranged existing convention and showcased the interrelations between the tradition's foundational texts. By focusing on these achievements and their reverberations through time, Bronner rewrites the history of Sanskrit literature and its aesthetic goals. He also expands on contemporary theories of intertextuality, which have been largely confined to Western texts and practices.

    Beginning in the 1980s, his work, particularly within the context of India, has served as the foundation for subaltern studies, an area of scholarship he continues to develop.In this collection, English-speaking readers are finally able to experience the breadth and substance of Chatterjee's wide-ranging thought. His provocative essays examine the phenomenon of postcolonial democracy and establish the parameters for research in subaltern politics. They include an early engagement with agrarian politics and Chatterjee's brilliant book reviews and journalism. Selections include one never-before-published essay, "A Tribute to the Master," which considers through a mock retelling of an episode from the classic Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharata, a deep dilemma in the study of postcolonial history, and several Bengali essays, now translated into English for the first time. An introduction by Nivedita Menon adds necessary context and depth, critiquing Chatterjee's ideas and their influence on contemporary political thought.

    It is an essential reference for all those concerned with modern Hindi, whether students, scholars, translators, or in professional contexts. The Dictionary reflects the dramatic development of Hindi in the twentieth century, giving extensive coverage of the modern standardized language, both spoken and literary. Its main features are: Over 70,000 entries Generous illustrative examples showing words in use Modern regional variants Coverage of Urdu vocabulary

    Masood Ashraf Raja's main assertion, challenging the conventional andpostcolonial appraisals of the Indian national history, is that the Indian Muslim particular identity and Muslim exceptionalism preceded the rise of Congress or Gandhian nationalism. Using major theories of nationalism-including works of Benedict Anderson, Anthony D. Smith, John Breuilly, ParthaChatterjee and others-and analysis of literary, political, and religious texts produced by Indian Muslims, Constructing Pakistan traces the varied Muslim responses to the post 1857 British ascendancy. This study provides a multilayered discussion of Indian Muslim nationalism from the rise of post1857 Muslim exceptionalism to the beginnings of a more focused struggle for a nation-sate in the 1940s.In this dual act of retrieval and intervention, a varied mixture of literary, political, and religious texts are employed to suggest that if the Muslim textual production of this time period is read within the realm of politics and not just within the arena of culture, then the rise of Indian Muslimnationalism can be clearly traced within these texts and through their affective value for the Indian Muslims.Raja states that no such work exits either in the postcolonial field or in the field of area studies that combines close readings of the texts, their reception, and the politics of identity formation specifically related to the rise of Indian Muslim nationalism. The author's main argument hinges ontwo important assumptions: 1) After the rebellion it becomes extremely important for the Muslim elite to force the dominant British regime into a hegemonic view of the Muslims, and 2) this forces the Muslim elite to develop a language of politics that must always invoke the people in order to enterthe British system of privileges and dispensations. Consequently, the rise of early Muslim exceptionalism and its eventual specific nationalistic unfolding, of which Pakistan was one outcome, can then be read as political acts that long preceded the Indian national party politics. The reason mostIndian and European historians cannot trace a pronounced Muslim sense of separate identity before the 1940s is because they trace this identity either in the form of resistance or in the shape of party politics. The early loyalism of the Muslim elite, in such strategy, remains unexplained, as itdoes not fit the resistance model. Constructing Pakistan attempts to re-read this loyalism as a sophisticated form of resistance that, in the end, makes the Muslim question central to the British politics of post-rebellion era.

    It means a tree lopped from the top, slashed and dwarfed. Madhopuri uses it as a metaphor for the Dalit or an 'untouchable' Indian whose potential for growth has been 'robbed by the Hindu social order'. Significantly, the lopped tree also denotes its inherent and defiant resilience that brings forth fresh branches and leaves. Set in the village of Madhopuri in Punjab, Chhaangya Rukh traces the social history of the Dalit community in Punjab and brings out the caste relations constructed on prejudice and inequality. But Madhopuri's vision is able to capture and sensitively portray the lot of the Dalits often living on the fringes of society in other parts of the country. Writing with honesty and sincere objectivity, Madhopuri recounts the bleakness of life despite all constitutional and legislative measures. A saga of triumph, this real life story relates a Dalit's angst of deprivation, social exclusion, and humiliation, as well as of resistance, achievement, and hope. This volume also includes a perceptive Introduction by Harish Puri.

    Tulsi Ram: the Dalit social milieu, a glimpse in the life of depressed castes in India (state of UP) and his struggles. A book full of stories and humour, Professor Tulasi Ram has wore his heart on his sleeves.The paperback copy is priced 125 Rupees now (2012). There will be a sequel book to it as Murdahiya covers only his life till his inter college studies in Azamgarh.

    For the past 150 years most aspects of the Uprising have been subjected to intense scrutiny by historians, yet the nature of the outbreak itself remains obscure. What was the extent of the conspiracies and plotting? How could rumours of contaminated ammunition spark a mutiny when not a single greased cartridge was ever distributed to the sepoys?Based on a careful, even handed reassessment of the primary sources, The Great Fear of 1857 explores the existence of conspiracies during the early months of that year and presents a compelling and detailed narrative of the panics and rumours which moved Indians to take up arms. With its fresh and unsentimental approach, this book offers a radically new interpretation of one of the most controversial events in the history of British India.Kim A. Wagner is Lecturer in Imperial and World History at the University of Birmingham. He has published extensively on crime and rebellion in British India and his first book, Thuggee: Banditry and the British in Early Nineteenth-Century India, was shortlisted for the History Today Award 2008.

    Revathi was born a boy, but felt and behaved like a girl. In telling her life story, Revathi evokes marvellously the deep unease of being in the wrong body that plagued her from childhood. To be true to herself, to escape the constant violence visited upon her by her family and community, the village born Revathi ran away to Delhi to join a house of Hijras. Her life became an incredible series of dangerous physical and emotional journeys to become a woman and to find love. Translated by V. Geetha from Tamil.

    Today, the sociocultural diversity of many polities renders this understanding obsolete. This volume provides the framework for the state-nation, a new paradigm that addresses the need within democratic nations to accommodate distinct ethnic and cultural groups within a country while maintaining national political coherence.First introduced briefly in 1996 by Alfred Stepan and Juan J. Linz, the state-nation is a country with significant multicultural—even multinational—components that engenders strong identification and loyalty from its citizens. Here, Indian political scholar Yogendra Yadav joins Stepan and Linz to outline and develop the concept further. The core of the book documents how state-nation policies have helped craft multiple but complementary identities in India in contrast to nation-state policies in Sri Lanka, which contributed to polarized and warring identities. The authors support their argument with the results of some of the largest and most original surveys ever designed and employed for comparative political research. They include a chapter discussing why the U.S. constitutional model, often seen as the preferred template for all the world’s federations, would have been particularly inappropriate for crafting democracy in politically robust multinational countries such as India or Spain. To expand the repertoire of how even unitary states can respond to territorially concentrated minorities with some secessionist desires, the authors develop a revised theory of federacy and show how such a formula helped craft the recent peace agreement in Aceh, Indonesia.Empirically thorough and conceptually clear, Crafting State-Nations will have a substantial impact on the study of comparative political institutions and the conception and understanding of nationalism and democracy.

    Tracing the affective, thematic, and imaginative tropes that underwrote Indian claims to formal equality prior to decolonization, she emphasizes the extralegal life of citizenship: the modes of self-representation it generates even before it is codified and the political claims it triggers because it is deferred. Banerjee theorizes modes of citizenship decoupled from the rights-conferring nation-state; in so doing, she provides a new frame for understanding the colonial subject, who is usually excluded from critical discussions of citizenship.Interpreting autobiography, fiction, election speeches, economic analyses, parliamentary documents, and government correspondence, Banerjee foregrounds the narrative logic sustaining the unprecedented claims to citizenship advanced by racialized colonial subjects. She focuses on the writings of figures such as Dadabhai Naoroji, known as the first Asian to be elected to the British Parliament; Surendranath Banerjea, among the earliest Indians admitted into the Indian Civil Service; Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to study law in Oxford and the first woman lawyer in India; and Mohandas K. Gandhi, who lived in South Africa for nearly twenty-one years prior to his involvement in Indian nationalist politics. In her analysis of the unexpected registers through which they carved out a language of formal equality, Banerjee draws extensively from discussions in both late-colonial India and Victorian Britain on political economy, indentured labor, female professionalism, and bureaucratic modernity. Signaling the centrality of these discussions to the formulations of citizenship, Becoming Imperial Citizens discloses a vibrant transnational space of political action and subjecthood, and it sheds new light on the complex mutations of the category of citizenship.

    Book about the history of plight of tribals in India: how the state has failed in it duties to protect the tribals.

    Farina Mir asks how qisse, a vibrant genre of epics and romances, flourished in colonial Punjab despite British efforts to marginalize the Punjabi language. She explores topics including Punjabi linguistic practices, print and performance, and the symbolic content of qisse. She finds that although the British denied Punjabi language and literature almost all forms of state patronage, the resilience of this popular genre came from its old but dynamic corpus of stories, their representations of place, and the moral sensibility that suffused them. Her multidisciplinary study reframes inquiry into cultural formations in late-colonial north India away from a focus on religious communal identities and nationalist politics and toward a widespread, ecumenical, and place-centered poetics of belonging in the region.

    This biography explores Sombre's bizarre life, detailing its implications for modern conceptions of race, privilege and empire.

    It contains Nashtaneer (The Broken Nest), Malancha (The Garden) and Dui Bon (Two Sisters).

    To ask one of the dead, at least, I went to the mortuary. My corpse lay there, The ribcage apart and in place of the heart there was a grinding stone.Five frontline Tamil poets—Cheran, Jayapalan, Yesurasa, Latha, Ravikumar—lament the loss of their land, their language and thousands of people. They chronicle the people who have learnt to pose for hours clutching with ease the barbed wire without getting pricked.Translated into English for the first time by Meena Kandasamy and Ravi Shanker, these introspective poems tell us how and why ‘waking is another dream’ in Sri Lanka.

    Yet, by not asking, are they missing out on something, perhaps half the story? This is the question this book, edited and written by journalists, for journalists and the lay public interested in media, raises. Through examples from the media, and from their own experience, the contributors explain the concept of gender-sensitive journalism and look at a series of subjects that journalists have to cover—sexual assault, environment, development, business, politics, health, disasters, conflict—and set out a simple way of integrating a gendered lens into day-to-day journalism. Written in a non-academic, accessible style, this book is possibly the first of its kind in India—one that attempts to inject a gender perspective into journalism.

    India: A Traveler’s Literary Companion features 14 short stories from some of India’s best writers, collectively offering an insightful portrait of the beauty and complexity of Indian landscape, culture, and society. Travel to the Taj Mahal with Kunal Basu, as the humble accountant of his story becomes, in another incarnation, the architect of one of the world’s most resplendent monuments. Let Vikram Chandra leads readers by the hand into the ghettos of Mumbai (Bombay), where a small-time thug fences some gold bars he has stolen and then decides to find out what pleasures his money can buy. Journey with Bibhutibhushan Bandhopadhyay’s silver-tongued salesman of medicated oil as he travels the trains around Calcutta, the city he loves more than anything else. And Nazir Mansuri’s Melvillian “The Whale” transports readers to a small fishing village on the west coast of India, where an embittered sailor makes every whale he sees the object of his fury. Stories from nine languages and more than a dozen distinct cultures and regions — from north, south, east, west, and even from India’s remote northeast — are brought together in this vibrant collection.

    

    He places the judicial discourse within the wider political and philosophical context of Indian secularism. The author also focuses on judgments related to Article 44, under the Directive Principles of State Policy, which places a duty on the state to 'secure' a uniform civil code for the nation. His contention is that the Indian Supreme Court has actively aimed at reform and rationalization of obscurantist religious views and institutions and has, as a result, contributed to a 'homogenization of religion' and also the nation, that it has not shown adequate sensitivity to the pluralism of Indian polity and the rights of minorities.

    While Bollywood poster artists produced a staggering number of these hand-painted images, their ephemeral work has traditionally been presented unevenly, with shoddy reprints and re-release posters. The Art of Bollywood digs deeper into the tradition, presenting the original art in its true glory—from seldom-seen posters to rare images of street publicity and cinema displays. The text provides a detailed discussion of the works of key artists, in this comprehensive overview of a previously neglected and underrated artistic genre.

    The book is an attempt to spread the ideals of Swami Vivekananda which inspired men like Subhash Chanra Bose to court hardship and make great sacrifices to make India a great nation.

    This first book to fully explore the opulent art and refined lifestyle of Lucknow showcases cultural diversity at its most magnificent.

    Features four stories about young Prince Veera, who, along with his friend Suku, helps his father, the king, solve some of the problems he is having with his subjects.

    Each of these stories says something revealing and memorable about the effects of war, migration and displacement, as new lives play out against altered worlds ‘back home.’"The book opens in a remote Bengal village in the 1930s when George VI was King Emperor of India. It moves on to stories set in the years of insurrection and war in Bangladesh. The second batch of stories begins with new migrants in the U.S., the war fresh in their memories. We stop in Boston in the 1970s where a graduate student from Bangladesh finds himself in the midst of a different sort of war. On to Detroit in the 1980s where a Bangladeshi ex-soldier tussles with his ghosts while flirting with the singer in a Blues club. The book closes with stories involving second-generation immigrants who discover that residues from their migrant history show up to influence their attempts to love, connect, and make life."

    Azad has been our friend for more than thirty years and as much time, two thirds of his short life of 56 years, he spent developing, exploring, elucidating and debating these ideas. A voracious reader and prolific writer that he was, the writings collected here might be less than a tenth of his literary output. Much of his writing was anonymous or under different pseudonyms in clandestine journals and documents and we leave it for future research to prepare his collected works, most probably with active support from the party for which he was a spokesperson, member of Central Committee and Politbureau at the time of his brutal killing by police on July 2, 2010 in Adilabad forests of Andhra Pradesh.

    Covering a long span-from the Vedic period to twelfth century AD-it explores the linkages between social formations and modes ofproduction. It also examines the transition from ancient to medieval, underlining the accompanying socio-economic changes and the characteristic of the early medieval period. The book provides an incisive account of ancient social formations underscoring themes like oriental despotism, position ofthe sudras, feudalism, urban decay, and the sati. Using a rich array of literary and archaeological source material as well as linguistic and tribal studies, this book will be useful for undergraduate students and teachers of ancient Indian history.

    As sacred images of the Buddha proliferated over time, it is said that his relics were divided among 84,000 South Asian sites of Buddhist worship, or stupas. This abundance of sacred sites in turn rendered pilgrimage and worship increasingly prominent influences on Asian culture and daily life.Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art employs sacred objects, textiles, sculpture, manuscripts, and paintings to discuss the relationship between Buddhist pilgrimage and Asia’s artistic production. Accompanying an exhibition of approximately 90 extraordinary objects, many of which have never before been displayed publicly, this book addresses the process of the sacred journey in its entirety, including discussion of pilgrimage motivation, ritual preparation, and worship at the sacred destination. Exceptional and visually stunning examples of painted mandalas, reliquaries, prayer wheels, and traveling shrines demonstrate that pilgrims and pilgrimage inspired centuries of artistic production and shaped the development of visual culture in Asia.Through insightful essays by a team of scholars, Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art illuminates artwork’s complex role in Buddhist culture, in which art serves as a form of memory and a bridge to the spiritual world as well as a functional tool with temporal purposes.

    With the expansion of education among them, they are taking things with gusto and intelligence, at times coming out with unexpected results. Their understanding is different, approach is different and what they present is also not only engrossing but also enlightening. It is time women wrote with themselves at the centre of happenings and here is perhaps the first such collection of exciting stories by the upcoming author Dixy Gandhi who shows great promise and quality. “SHE” is a collection of stories that describe the lives of independent, single individuals who are too arrogant to be dragged down by mediocrity. Every story is an effort to understand a central theme which defines the story.

    Art historian Iftikhar Dadi here explores the art and writings of major artists, men and women, ranging from the late colonial period to the era of independence and beyond. He looks at the stunningly diverse artistic production of key artists associated with Pakistan, including Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Zainul Abedin, Shakir Ali, Zubeida Agha, Sadequain, Rasheed Araeen, and Naiza Khan. Dadi shows how, beginning in the 1920s, these artists addressed the challenges of modernity by translating historical and contemporary intellectual conceptions into their work, reworking traditional approaches to the classical Islamic arts, and engaging the modernist approach towards subjective individuality in artistic expression. In the process, they dramatically reconfigured the visual arts of the region. By the 1930s, these artists had embarked on a sustained engagement with international modernism in a context of dizzying social and political change that included decolonization, the rise of mass media, and developments following the national independence of India and Pakistan in 1947.Bringing new insights to such concepts as nationalism, modernism, cosmopolitanism, and tradition, Dadi underscores the powerful impact of transnationalism during this period and highlights the artists' growing embrace of modernist and contemporary artistic practice in order to address the challenges of the present era.

    Mount Everest rises nearly 5 miles into the sky! Children will learn all about India, a country known for mountains, curry, and the world's second largest population.

    It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: Calcutta [S.N. Sen.]; Publication date: 1918; Subjects: History / General; History / General;

    It is a powerful critique based on extensive ethnographic research in Jharkhand, a state in eastern India officially created in 2000. While the realization of an independent Jharkhand was the culmination of many years of local, regional, and transnational activism for the rights of the region’s culturally autonomous indigenous people, Alpa Shah argues that the activism unintentionally further marginalized the region’s poorest people. Drawing on a decade of ethnographic research in Jharkhand, she follows the everyday lives of some of the poorest villagers as they chase away protected wild elephants, try to cut down the forests they allegedly live in harmony with, maintain a healthy skepticism about the revival of the indigenous governance system, and seek to avoid the initial spread of an armed revolution of Maoist guerrillas who claim to represent them. Juxtaposing these experiences with the accounts of the village elites and the rhetoric of the urban indigenous-rights activists, Shah reveals a class dimension to the indigenous-rights movement, one easily lost in the cultural-based identity politics that the movement produces. In the Shadows of the State brings together ethnographic and theoretical analyses to show that the local use of global discourses of indigeneity often reinforces a class system that harms the poorest people.

    This edition's elaborate commentary, written by a prominent American scholar of Hindu studies, who is also a practitioner, opens up the text's esoteric teaching to a Western audience for the first time, adding context and relevance that make the book accessible and its teachings practicable for a Western readership.A foreword, written by prominent Hinduism scholar Charles S. J. White joins the author's own introduction to lay out the Uddhava Gita's background, philosophical dimensions, and religious significance. This edition does not include the original Sanskrit, nor does it labor to translate each word verbatim. Rather, it gives the reader all 1,030 verses in plain English, offering accessible commentary that allows the meaning and relevance of the Uddhava Gita to unfold to one and all.

    Learn more about the owl in this informative series.