The Life of a Text

The Life of a Text PDF Author: Philip Lutgendorf
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520909348
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
The Life of a Text offers a vivid portrait of one community's interaction with its favorite text—the epic Ramcaritmanas—and the way in which performances of the epic function as a flexible and evolving medium for cultural expression. Anthropologists, historians of religion, and readers interested in the culture of North India and the performance arts will find breadth of subject, careful scholarship, and engaging presentation in this unique and beautifully illustrated examination of Hindi culture. The most popular and influential text of Hindi-speaking North India, the epic Ramcaritmanas is a sixteenth century retelling of the Ramayana story by the poet Tulsidas. This masterpiece of pre-modern Hindi literature has always reached its largely illiterate audiences primarily through oral performance including ceremonial recitation, folksinging, oral exegesis, and theatrical representation. Drawing on fieldwork in Banaras, Lutgendorf breaks new ground by capturing the range of performance techniques in vivid detail and tracing the impact of the epic in its contemporary cultural context.

The Life of a Text

The Life of a Text PDF Author: Philip Lutgendorf
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520909348
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 486

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Life of a Text offers a vivid portrait of one community's interaction with its favorite text—the epic Ramcaritmanas—and the way in which performances of the epic function as a flexible and evolving medium for cultural expression. Anthropologists, historians of religion, and readers interested in the culture of North India and the performance arts will find breadth of subject, careful scholarship, and engaging presentation in this unique and beautifully illustrated examination of Hindi culture. The most popular and influential text of Hindi-speaking North India, the epic Ramcaritmanas is a sixteenth century retelling of the Ramayana story by the poet Tulsidas. This masterpiece of pre-modern Hindi literature has always reached its largely illiterate audiences primarily through oral performance including ceremonial recitation, folksinging, oral exegesis, and theatrical representation. Drawing on fieldwork in Banaras, Lutgendorf breaks new ground by capturing the range of performance techniques in vivid detail and tracing the impact of the epic in its contemporary cultural context.

Śrī Nārada Pañcarātra : of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa. Vol. 2. Third, fourth and fifth Rātras

Śrī Nārada Pañcarātra : of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa. Vol. 2. Third, fourth and fifth Rātras PDF Author: Vyāsa
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788187812876
Category : Bhakti
Languages : en
Pages : 563

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Introduction to the Pāñcarātra and the Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā

Introduction to the Pāñcarātra and the Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā PDF Author: Friedrich Otto Schrader
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Iśvarasaṃhitā

Iśvarasaṃhitā PDF Author: V. Varadachari
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Pāñcarātra
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
Visnuism has given rise to two very important schools of ritual and philosophy, namely Vaikhanasa and Pancaratra. Isvarasamhita is an important text of the Pancaratra school of Visnuism. Whereas Vaikhanasa is relatively archaic in character and leans more upon the Vedic tradition for its repertoire of Mantras used in religious rites and ceremonies, the Pancaratra is more liberal and open in its approach. It has a text tradition going back to some two thousand years- which has also been the main source of the Visistadvaita philosophy of Ramanuja (11th 12th c.). In most of the Vaisnava temples in South India, especially in Tamilnadu, worship is conducted in accordance with the prescription of one of the important Pancaratra Samhitas. Isvarasamhita is an important text of the Pancaratra School and is followed meticulously for conduction of daily Puja ceremony and performances of various religious festivals in the Narayanasvami temple of Melkote. It can safely be dated to 8th-9th Century at least on the basis of its reference in the Agama Pramanya of Shri Yamunacarya. It is supposed to be a simpler and smaller version of the older sattvatasamhita of this school which is the earliest available work of Pancaratra and is considered as one of three ratnas, (Jewels), along with Pauskara- and Jaya Samhitas. In 25 long Adhyayas the Isvarasamhita describes in great details the rites, rituals and ceremonies taking place ( or ought to take place) in a Vaisnava temple. Palm leaf Manuscripts of the Isvarasamhita were procured mainly from the Narayanasvami temple of Melkote for the sake of authenticity. We have also appended to the text the gloss of Alasimha Bhatta (early 19th C.) which shall be helpful in comprehending certain difficult or sectarian expressions. The English translation on the opposite (right) page has been provided for the facility of the modern scholars working on philosophy, Ritual and Iconography of Visnuism. A proper understanding of ritual is obviously indispensable for the study of Art.

Modern Evaluation of the Mahābhārata

Modern Evaluation of the Mahābhārata PDF Author: Satya Pal Narang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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India as Seen in the Bṛhatsaṁhitā of Varāhamihira

India as Seen in the Bṛhatsaṁhitā of Varāhamihira PDF Author: Ajay Mitra Shastri
Publisher: Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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LAKSMI TANTRA

LAKSMI TANTRA PDF Author: Sanjukta Gupta
Publisher: Brill Archive
ISBN:
Category : Pāñcarātra
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Philosophy of Pancaratras

Philosophy of Pancaratras PDF Author: S. Rangachar
Publisher: Hesperides Press
ISBN: 1406735892
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess

Breaking Boundaries with the Goddess PDF Author: Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya
Publisher: Manohar Publishers
ISBN: 9788173047602
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
This book draws together twelve Sakta interpreters from North America, Europe, and India to discuss the present state and future challenges of Studies of the South Asian Goddess. They focus on Sanskrit, Tamil, Bengali, and tribal languages, and they cover geographic areas from the north to the south of the subcontinent and beyond, including Tibet, and even parts of Central Asia that were once under Kusana rule. Their sources are wide-ranging: they investigate archaeological finds from the Indus Valley, sculptures recovered in robbers' hordes in eastern India, and sites excavated by the Russians near Afghanistan. They read texts, including Vedas, Agamas, epics, Puranas, Tantras, medieval ritual digests, and glorifications; examine rituals, art, and social attitudes; and their fieldwork takes them to meet tribal Khonds, Gonds, Oraons, and Nagas, Bengali Tantric practitioners, and temple priests and devotees. Numerous goddesses find their way into the pages of this volume: the Vedic Viraj, Laksmi, Sita, Durga Mahisamardini, Kali, Korravi, tribal goddesses such as Tari Penu and Anna Kuari, the ten Mahavidyas, Jagaddhatri, various yaksinis, Vindhyavasini, and even goddesses whose names cannot be deciphered with our present knowledge. All of the contributors write in honor of the late Professor Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya (1934-2001), the Bengali master interpreter of Saktism, who mentored many of them and influenced the field tremendously, with his insistence that the study of ritual or text not to be divorced from a consideration of social institutions, particularly those derived from tribal culture, and his belief that the importance of women as ritual actors and purveyors of tradition not to be forgotten.

The Origin and Development of Vaiṣṇavism

The Origin and Development of Vaiṣṇavism PDF Author: Suvira Jaiswal
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Vaishnavism
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description