Ramayana Revisited

Ramayana Revisited PDF Author: Vipul Maheshwari
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9389351073
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Rama, Maryada Purushottam, the king of Ayodhya, banished his beloved queen, in whose chastity he had complete faith, simply because his subjects disapproved of his accepting a wife who had spent a year in the house of her abductor. The king submitted to the will of the people though it broke his heart. Was his stand justified? Could Manthara be held solely responsible for the banishment of Rama and the subsequent death of Dasharatha? Was Ahalya an adulteress or a victim of sexual assault? Did the actions of the serial molester Ravana stand legal scrutiny? Was Lakshmana, a prince of Ayodhya, legally justified in mutilating Surpanakha? Was his elder brother Rama an accomplice in that action? It was said in ancient India, a king who, after having sworn to safeguard his subjects, failed to protect should be executed like a mad dog. Such a provision indicated that sovereignty was based on an implied social contract, and if the king violated the traditional pact, he forfeited his kingship. So, a king had to be just as justice trickled down from the crown. What happens though if the events of yore are retold and characters made to stand trial in today's time? Here is an attempt, unexplored so far, to retell the significant happenings narrated in the Ramayana through the legal prism of the Indian Penal Code. Each chapter comprises a prosecution version, citations of relevant provisions from the IPC, deposition of witnesses and the defence argument. Ramayana Revisited succeeds in bringing in all alternative perspectives, leaving the final judgement to the discretion of the reader.

The Ramayana Revisited

The Ramayana Revisited PDF Author: Mandakranta Bose
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195168321
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
14 leading 'Ramayana' scholars examine the epic in its myriad contexts throughout South and Southeast Asia. They explore the role the narrative plays in societies as varied as India Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. The essays also expand the understanding of the 'text' to include non-verbal renditions of the epic.

Ramayana Revisited

Ramayana Revisited PDF Author: Vipul Maheshwari
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9389351073
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Rama, Maryada Purushottam, the king of Ayodhya, banished his beloved queen, in whose chastity he had complete faith, simply because his subjects disapproved of his accepting a wife who had spent a year in the house of her abductor. The king submitted to the will of the people though it broke his heart. Was his stand justified? Could Manthara be held solely responsible for the banishment of Rama and the subsequent death of Dasharatha? Was Ahalya an adulteress or a victim of sexual assault? Did the actions of the serial molester Ravana stand legal scrutiny? Was Lakshmana, a prince of Ayodhya, legally justified in mutilating Surpanakha? Was his elder brother Rama an accomplice in that action? It was said in ancient India, a king who, after having sworn to safeguard his subjects, failed to protect should be executed like a mad dog. Such a provision indicated that sovereignty was based on an implied social contract, and if the king violated the traditional pact, he forfeited his kingship. So, a king had to be just as justice trickled down from the crown. What happens though if the events of yore are retold and characters made to stand trial in today's time? Here is an attempt, unexplored so far, to retell the significant happenings narrated in the Ramayana through the legal prism of the Indian Penal Code. Each chapter comprises a prosecution version, citations of relevant provisions from the IPC, deposition of witnesses and the defence argument. Ramayana Revisited succeeds in bringing in all alternative perspectives, leaving the final judgement to the discretion of the reader.

Ramayana Stories in Modern South India

Ramayana Stories in Modern South India PDF Author: Paula Richman
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253219531
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Fresh perspectives on the classic Indiana epic.

The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VI

The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VI PDF Author:
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400833264
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1675

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Book Description
The sixth book of the Ramayana of Valmiki, the Yuddhakanda, recounts the final dramatic war between the forces of good led by the exiled prince Rama, and the forces of evil commanded by the arch demon Ravana. The hero Rama's primary purpose in the battle is to rescue the abducted princess Sita and destroy the demon king. However, the confrontation also marks the turning point for the divine mission of the Ramavatara, the incarnation of Lord Visnu as a human prince, who will restore righteousness to a world on the brink of chaos. The book ends with the gods' revelation to Rama of his true divine nature, his emotional reunion with his beloved wife, his long-delayed consecration as king of Kosala, and his restoration of a utopian age. The Yuddhakanda contains some of the most extraordinary events and larger-than-life characters to be found anywhere in world literature. This sixth volume in the critical edition and translation of the Valmiki Ramayana includes an extensive introduction, exhaustive notes, and a comprehensive bibliography.

The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VII

The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume VII PDF Author:
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691182922
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1544

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Book Description
The concluding volume of a critical English edition of the monumental Indian epic The seventh and final book of the monumental Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, the Uttarakāṇḍa, brings the epic saga to a close with an account of the dramatic events of King Rāma’s millennia-long reign. It opens with a colorful history of the demonic race of the rākṣasas and the violent career of Rāma’s villainous foe Rāvaṇa, and later recounts Rāma’s grateful discharge of his allies in the great war at Lankā as well as his romantic reunion with his wife Sītā. But dark clouds gather as Rāma makes the agonizing decision to banish his beloved wife, now pregnant. As Rāma continues as king, marvelous tales and events unfurl, illustrating the benefits of righteous rule and the perils that await monarchs who fail to address the needs of their subjects. The Uttarakāṇḍa has long served as a point of social and religious controversy largely for its accounts of the banishment of Sītā, as well as of Rāma’s killing of a low-caste ascetic. This seventh volume in the critical edition and translation of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa includes an extensive introduction and describes the complex reception history of the Uttarakāṇḍa, as well as exhaustive notes and a comprehensive bibliography.

Performing the Ramayana Tradition

Performing the Ramayana Tradition PDF Author: Paula Richman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197552536
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
The Ramayana, one of the two pre-eminent Hindu epics, has played a foundational role in many aspects of India's arts and social norms. For centuries, people learned this narrative by watching, listening, and participating in enactments of it. Although the Ramayana's first extant telling in Sanskrit dates back to ancient times, the story has continued to be retold and rethought through the centuries in many of India's regional languages, such as Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali. The narrative has provided the basis for enactments of its episodes in recitation, musical renditions, dance, and avant-garde performances. This volume introduces non-specialists to the Ramayana's major themes and complexities, as well as to the highly nuanced terms in Indian languages used to represent theater and performance. Two introductions orient readers to the history of Ramayana texts by Tulsidas, Valmiki, Kamban, Sankaradeva, and others, as well as to the dramaturgy and aesthetics of their enactments. The contributed essays provide context-specific analyses of diverse Ramayana performance traditions and the narratives from which they draw. The essays are clustered around the shared themes of the politics of caste and gender; the representation of the anti-hero; contemporary re-interpretations of traditional narratives; and the presence of Ramayana discourse in daily life.

Argument and Design: The Unity of the Mahābhārata

Argument and Design: The Unity of the Mahābhārata PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004311408
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
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.

Nexus

Nexus PDF Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0593734246
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 529

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Book Description
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. “Striking original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly.”—The Economist “This deeply important book comes at a critical time as we all think through the implications of AI and automated content production. . . . Masterful and provocative.”—Mustafa Suleyman, author of The Coming Wave For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence. Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.

India: the road ahead

India: the road ahead PDF Author: Mark Tully
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446490947
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Since the Indian economy was liberated from bureaucratic, socialist controls in 1991, it has developed rapidly. A country once renowned for the backwardness of its industries, its commerce and its financial market is now viewed as potentially one of the major world economies of the twenty-first century. But there are many questions which need to be asked about the sustainability of this rapid economic growth and its effect on the stability of the country. Have the changes had any impact on the poor and marginalised? Can India's democracy contain the mounting resentment of those left out of the new economic order? Can a high growth rate be sustained with India's notoriously corrupt and inefficient governance? Can the development of its creaking infrastructure be speeded up? How is India going to feed itself unless agriculture is reformed? This timely book will answer these questions through interviews with industrialists and cricketers, God men and farmers, plutocrats and former untouchables. Full of fascinating stories of real people at a time of great change, it will be of interest to economists, business people, diplomats, politicians, as well as to those who love to travel and who take an interest in the rapid growth of one of the world's largest countries, and what this means to us in the West.

A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture

A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture PDF Author: Rebecca M. Brown
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119019532
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 691

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Book Description
A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture presents a collection of 26 original essays from top scholars in the field that explore and critically examine various aspects of Asian art and architectural history. Brings together top international scholars of Asian art and architecture Represents the current state of the field while highlighting the wide range of scholarly approaches to Asian Art Features work on Korea and Southeast Asia, two regions often overlooked in a field that is often defined as India-China-Japan Explores the influences on Asian art of global and colonial interactions and of the diasporic communities in the US and UK Showcases a wide range of topics including imperial commissions, ancient tombs, gardens, monastic spaces, performances, and pilgrimages.