Re-figuring the Ramayana as Theology

Re-figuring the Ramayana as Theology PDF Author: Ajay K. Rao
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134077351
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
The Rāmāyana of Vālmīki is considered by many contemporary Hindus to be a foundational religious text. But this understanding is in part the result of a transformation of the epic’s receptive history, a hermeneutic project which challenged one characterization of the genre of the text, as a work of literary culture, and replaced it with another, as a work of remembered tradition. This book examines Rāmāyana commentaries, poetic retellings, and praise-poems produced by intellectuals within the Śrīvaisnava order of South India from 1250 to 1600 and shows how these intellectuals reconceptualized Rāma’s story through the lens of their devotional metaphysics. Śrīvaisnavas applied innovative interpretive techniques to the Rāmāyana, including allegorical reading, ślesa reading (reading a verse as a double entendre), and the application of vernacular performance techniques such as word play, improvisation, repetition, and novel forms of citation. The book is of interest not only to Rāmāyana specialists but also to those engaged with Indian intellectual history, literary studies, and the history of religions.

Re-figuring the Ramayana as Theology

Re-figuring the Ramayana as Theology PDF Author: Ajay K. Rao
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134077424
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
The Rāmāyana of Vālmīki is considered by many contemporary Hindus to be a foundational religious text. But this understanding is in part the result of a transformation of the epic’s receptive history, a hermeneutic project which challenged one characterization of the genre of the text, as a work of literary culture, and replaced it with another, as a work of remembered tradition. This book examines Rāmāyana commentaries, poetic retellings, and praise-poems produced by intellectuals within the Śrīvaisnava order of South India from 1250 to 1600 and shows how these intellectuals reconceptualized Rāma’s story through the lens of their devotional metaphysics. Śrīvaisnavas applied innovative interpretive techniques to the Rāmāyana, including allegorical reading, ślesa reading (reading a verse as a double entendre), and the application of vernacular performance techniques such as word play, improvisation, repetition, and novel forms of citation. The book is of interest not only to Rāmāyana specialists but also to those engaged with Indian intellectual history, literary studies, and the history of religions.

Re-figuring the Rāmāyaṇa as Theology

Re-figuring the Rāmāyaṇa as Theology PDF Author: Ajay K. Rao
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781134077496
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
The Rāmāyana of Vālmīki is considered by many contemporary Hindus to be a foundational religious text. But this understanding is in part the result of a transformation of the epic's receptive history, a hermeneutic project which challenged one characterization of the genre of the text, as a work of literary culture, and replaced it with another, as a work of remembered tradition. This book examines Rāmāyana commentaries, poetic retellings, and praise-poems produced by intellectuals within the Śrīvaisnava order of South India from 1250 to 1600 and shows how these intellectuals reconceptualized.

Re-figuring the Rāmāyaṇa as Theology

Re-figuring the Rāmāyaṇa as Theology PDF Author: Ajay K. Rao
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781138576292
Category : Hinduism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Rāmāyana of Vālmīki is considered by many contemporary Hindus to be a foundational religious text. But this understanding is in part the result of a transformation of the epic's receptive history, a hermeneutic project which challenged one characterization of the genre of the text, as a work of literary culture, and replaced it with another, as a work of remembered tradition. This book examines Rāmāyana commentaries, poetic retellings, and praise-poems produced by intellectuals within the Śrīvaisnava order of South India from 1250 to 1600 and shows how these intellectuals reconceptualized Rāma's story through the lens of their devotional metaphysics. Śrīvaisnavas applied innovative interpretive techniques to the Rāmāyana, including allegorical reading, ślesa reading (reading a verse as a double entendre), and the application of vernacular performance techniques such as word play, improvisation, repetition, and novel forms of citation. The book is of interest not only to Rāmāyana specialists but also to those engaged with Indian intellectual history, literary studies, and the history of religions.

Hindu Pilgrimage

Hindu Pilgrimage PDF Author: Prabhavati C. Reddy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317806301
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
In recent years, changes in religious studies in general and the study of Hinduism in particular have drawn more scholarly attention to other forms of the Hindu faith that are concretely embodied in temples, icons, artworks, rituals, and pilgrimage practices. This book analyses the phenomenon of pilgrimage as a religious practice and experience and examines Shrî Shailam, a renowned south Indian pilgrimage site of Shiva and Goddess Durga. In doing so, it investigates two dimensions: the worldview of a place that is of utmost sanctity for Hindu pilgrims and its historical evolution from medieval to modern times. Reddy blends religion, anthropology, art history and politics into one interdisciplinary exploration of how Shrî Shailam became the epicentre for Shaivism. Through this approach, the book examines Shrî Shailam’s influence on pan-Indian religious practices; the amalgamation of Brahmanical and regional traditions; and the intersection of the ideological and the civic worlds with respect to the management of pilgrimage centre in modern times. This book is the first thorough study of Shrî Shailam and brings together phenomenological and historical study to provide a comprehensive understanding of both the religious dimension and the historical development of the social organization of the pilgrimage place. As such, it will be of interest to students of Hinduism, Pilgrimage and South Asian Studies.

The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi

The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi PDF Author: Makarand R. Paranjape
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317682335
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
Who is responsible for the Mahatma’s death? Just one single, but determined, fanatic, the whole ideology of Hindu nationalism, the ruling Congress-led government whichfailed to protect him, or a vast majority of Indians and their descendants who considered Gandhi irrelevant? Such questions mean that Gandhi, even after his tragic and brutal death, continues to haunt India – perhaps more effectively in his afterlife than when he was alive. The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi is a groundbreaking and profound analysis of the assassination of the ‘father of the nation’ and its after-effects. Paranjape argues that such a catastrophic event during the very birth pangs of a new nation placed a huge burden of Oedipal guilt on Indians, and that this is the reason for the massive repression of the murder in India’s political psyche. The enduring influence of Gandhi is analysed, including his spectral presence in Indian cinema. The book culminates in Paranjape’s reading of Gandhi’s last six months in Delhi, where, from the very edge of the grave, he wrought what was perhaps his greatest miracle, the saving of Delhi and thus of India itself from internecine bloodshed. This evocative and moving meditation into the meaning of the Mahatma’s death will be relevant to scholars of Indian political and cultural history, as well as those with an interest in Gandhi and contemporary India

Debating 'Conversion' in Hinduism and Christianity

Debating 'Conversion' in Hinduism and Christianity PDF Author: Ankur Barua
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317538587
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Hindu and Christian debates over the meanings, motivations, and modalities of ‘conversion’ provide the central connecting theme running through this book. It focuses on the reasons offered by both sides to defend or oppose the possibility of these cross-border movements, and shows how these reasons form part of a wider constellation of ideas, concepts, and practices of the Christian and the Hindu worlds. The book draws upon several historical case-studies of Christian missionaries and of Hindus who encountered these missionaries. By analysing some of the complex negotiations, intersections, and conflicts between Hindus and Christians over the question of ‘conversion’, it demonstrates that these encounters revolve around three main contested themes. Firstly, who can properly ‘speak for the convert’? Secondly, how is ‘tolerating’ the religious other connected to an appraisal of the other’s viewpoints which may be held to be incorrect, inadequate, or incomplete? Finally, what is, in fact, the ‘true Religion’? The book demonstrates that it is necessary to wrestle with these questions for an adequate understanding of the Hindu and Christian debates over ‘conversion.’ Questioning what ‘conversion’ precisely is, and why it has been such a volatile issue on India’s political-legal landscape, the book will be a useful contribution to studies of Hinduism, Christianity and Asian Religion and Philosophy.

Indian Thought and Western Theism

Indian Thought and Western Theism PDF Author: Martin Ganeri
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317551664
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
The encounter between the West and India in the modern period has also been an encounter between Western modernity and the traditions of classical Indian thought. This book is the study of one aspect this encounter, that between Western scholasticism and one classical Indian tradition of religious thought and practice: the Vedānta. In the modern period there have been many attempts to relate Western theistic traditions to classical Indian accounts of ultimate reality and the world. Parallels have usually been drawn with modern forms of Western philosophy or modern trends in theism. Modern Indological studies have continued to make substantial use of Western terms and concepts to describe and analyse Indian thought. A much-neglected area of study has been the relationship between Western scholastic theology and classical Indian thought. This book challenges existing parallels with modern philosophy of religion and forms of theism. It argues instead that there is an affinity between scholasticism and classical Indian traditions. It considers the thought of Rāmānuja (traditional dates 1017-1137 CE), who developed an influential theist and realist form of Vedānta, and considers how this relates to that of the most influential of Western scholastics, Thomas Aquinas (1224/5-1274 CE). Within what remain very different traditions we can see similar methods of enquiry, as well as common questions and concerns in their accounts of ultimate reality and of the world. Arguing that there is indeed an affinity between the Western scholastic tradition and that of classical Indian thought, and suggesting a reversal of the tendencies of earlier interpretations, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian religion, Hinduism and Indian philosophy.

Buddhaksetraparisodhana

Buddhaksetraparisodhana PDF Author: Charles DiSimone
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3923776705
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 718

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Book Description
Buddhaksetraparisodhana is a volume in honor of the Buddhologist and Philologist, Paul M. Harrison, George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University. The contributions of twenty-nine of his colleagues, students, and friends from across the globe are dedicated to his academic interests and represent a cross-section of the disciplines that have been so heavily influenced by Paul Harrison's scholarship in the past decades: Buddhist Studies, Indology, Sinology, Tibetology, and Art History.

Defending God in Sixteenth-Century India

Defending God in Sixteenth-Century India PDF Author: Jonathan Duquette
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192643576
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
This book is the first in-depth study of the Śaiva oeuvre of the celebrated polymath Appaya Dīkṣita (1520-1593). Jonathan Duquette documents the rise to prominence and scholarly reception of Śivādvaita Vedānta, a Sanskrit-language school of philosophical theology which Appaya single-handedly established, thus securing his reputation as a legendary advocate of Śaiva religion in early modern India. Based to a large extent on hitherto unstudied primary sources in Sanskrit, Duquette offers new insights on Appaya's early polemical works and main source of Śivādvaita exegesis, Śrīkaṇṭha's Brahmamīmāmsābhāṣya; identifies Appaya's key intellectual influences and opponents in his reconstruction of Śrīkaṇṭha's theology; and highlights some of the key arguments and strategies he used to make his ambitious project a success. Centred on his magnum opus of Śivādvaita Vedānta, the Śivārkamanidīpikā, this book demonstrates that Appaya's Śaiva oeuvre was mainly directed against Viśiṣtādvaita Vedānta, the dominant Vaiṣṇava school of philosophical theology in his time and place. A far-reaching study of the challenges of Indian theism, this book opens up new possibilities for our understanding of religious debates and polemics in early modern India as seen through the lenses of one of its most important intellectuals.

The Illustrated Ramayana

The Illustrated Ramayana PDF Author: DK
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0744058546
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Discover the Ramayana-one of India's most celebrated epics, and a story that transcends time itself. The tale of Rama, the exiled prince of Ayodhya who battles the evil Ravana, the king of Lanka, and rescues his abducted wife, Sita, is about much more than the eternal battle of good versus evil. It is a tale of love, friendship, loyalty, devotion, righteousness, and deliverance. Ramayana and Rama, whose journey is told in the epic, are embedded in India's cultural consciousness, but they transcend borders. Various versions of the Ramayana can be found across the Indian subcontinent and in parts of southeast Asia. Created in consultation with distinguished economist, scholar, and translator Dr. Bibek Debroy, The Illustrated Ramayana draws from one of its earliest composers, the celebrated sage and poet Valmiki. It uses a combination of text and stunning images drawn from a variety of sources-historic and contemporary artifacts, paintings, photographs, and performances-to tell Rama's story as he walks the path that destiny creates for him.