You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The Indian Theogony by Sukumari Bhattacharji Published by Motilal Banarsidass (www.mlbd.co.in, [email protected]) The present book is the result of ten years of work on the subject of the historical development of Indian mythology and its connection with the parallel historical development of Indian mythology and its connection with parallel mythologies elsewhere, on which no satisfactory work exists in English. In the first part, the Vedic-Brahmanical and epic-puranic components of Siva, Varuna, Yama, Nirrti, Agni, Kala, the mother goddess, Karttikeya, Ganapati, Kama and Pusan are treated. Part II studies the rise of Visnu. The component gods-the Vedic solar gods Savitr, Surya, Vivasvat, Mitr...
This book presents an overview of the varied experiences and representations of motherhood in India from ancient to modern times. The thrust of the arguments made by the various contributors is that the centrality of motherhood as an ideology in a woman’s life is manufactured. This is demonstrated by analysing various institutional structures of society – language, religion, media, law and technology. The articles in this book are chronologically arranged, tracing the different stages that motherhood as a concept has traversed in India – from goddess worship to nationalism, to being a vehicle of reproduction of the sexual division of labour and the inheritance of property via the male-...
This book is a captivating narration of the various legends and folktales that surround the revered goddesses of India. The goddesses not only epitomize the forces of good fighting over evil, but also the source of worldly wellbeing. Ramananda Bandapadhyay s illustrations are symbolically rich and they in themselves constitute a storehouse of information on mythological iconography.
A young poet is killed by her lover, a politician, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. Soon afterward, across India in Bombay, an idealistic journalist is hired by a movie director to write a Bollywood screenplay about the murdered poet. Research for the script takes the writer, Binod, back to Bihar, where he and his cousin Rabinder were raised. While the high-minded Binod struggles to turn the poet’s murder into a steamy tale about small towns, desire, and intrigue, Rabinder sits in a Bihari jail cell, having been arrested for distributing pornography through a cybercafé. Rabinder dreams of a career in Bollywood filmmaking, and, unlike his cousin, he is not burdened by ethical scruples. Nobody Does the Right Thing is the story of these two cousins and the ways that their lives unexpectedly intertwine. Set in the rural villages of Bihar and the metropolises of Bombay and Delhi, the novel is packed with telling details and anecdotes about life in contemporary India. At the same time, it is a fictional investigation into how narratives circulate and vie for supremacy through gossip, cinema, popular fiction, sensational journalism, and the global media.
This volume takes stock of the current status of the comparatively new discipline of `Anthropological Demography', and discusses its major methods, its main strengths, and its chief limitations. It includes contributions from both mainstream demographers and foremost anthropologists, all stressing the necessity of a shared agenda for each discipline to progress successfully and avoid marginalization. While the unique research and personal satisfaction afforded by `participant observation' is described, the book also highlights the potential contribution to the understanding of demographic events of much more than the field methods of traditional anthropology. In particular, it stresses the i...
Argument and Design features fifteen essays by leading scholars of the Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, discussing the Mahābhārata’s upākhyānas, subtales that branch off from the central storyline and provide vantage points for reflecting on it. Contributors include: Vishwa Adluri, Joydeep Bagchee, Greg Bailey, Adam Bowles, Simon Brodbeck, Nicolas Dejenne, Sally J. Sutherland Goldman, Robert P. Goldman, Alf Hiltebeitel, Thennilapuram Mahadevan, Adheesh Sathaye, Bruce M. Sullivan, and Fernando Wulff Alonso.
Women In Early Indian Societies Is An Anthology Of Articles And Excerpts From Leading Works On The Theme. There Is A Special Focus On Issues And Perspectives In Historical Writings, On The Material Underpinnings Of Gender Relations, Socio-Sexual Construction Of Gender And The Complex Relationship Between Women And Religious Traditions. The Introductory Essay And Bibliography Contextualise The Themes Which Are Explored And Suggest Possibilities For Future Research.