The Ocean of Story, Being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Somadeva's Kathā Sarit Sāgara (or Ocean of Streams of Story) No Edited with Introduction, Fresh Explanatory Notes and Terminal Essay

The Ocean of Story, Being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Somadeva's Kathā Sarit Sāgara (or Ocean of Streams of Story) No Edited with Introduction, Fresh Explanatory Notes and Terminal Essay PDF Author: Somadeva Bhatta
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Folk literature
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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The Strangled Traveler

The Strangled Traveler PDF Author: Martine van Wœrkens
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226850862
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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British colonists in 1830s India lived in terror of the Thugs. Reputed to be brutal criminals, the Thugs supposedly strangled, beheaded, and robbed thousands of travelers in the goddess Kali's name. The British responded with equally brutal repression of the Thugs and developed a compulsive fascination with tales of their monstrous deeds. Did the Thugs really exist, or did the British invent them as an excuse to seize tighter control of India? Drawing on historical and anthropological accounts, Indian tales and sacred texts, and detailed analyses of the secret Thug language, Martine van Woerkens reveals for the first time the real story of the Thugs. Many different groups of Thugs actually did exist over the centuries, but the monsters the British made of them had much more to do with colonial imaginings of India than with the real Thugs. Tracing these imaginings down to the present, van Woerkens reveals the ongoing roles of the Thugs in fiction and film from Frankenstein to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The Ocean of Story

The Ocean of Story PDF Author: Somadeva Bhaṭṭa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Folk literature
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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The Ocean of Story

The Ocean of Story PDF Author: Somadeva Bhaṭṭa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Folk literature
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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The Alchemical Body

The Alchemical Body PDF Author: David Gordon White
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226894997
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Beginning in the fifth century A.D., various Indian mystics began to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly reserved for a class of demigods, revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike, who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the Rasa Siddhas, medieval India's alchemists, who sought to transmute their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal grid of the subtle body. For India's medieval Siddhas, these three conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality, supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular cults. In The Alchemical Body, David Gordon White excavates and centers within its broader Indian context this lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources, he demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood when viewed together. Human sexual fluids and the structures of the subtle body aremicrocosmic equivalents of the substances and apparatus manipulated by the alchemist in his laboratory. With these insights, White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of the entire sweep of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in Indian yoga, alchemy, and the medieval beginnings of science.

Encyclopedia of Hinduism

Encyclopedia of Hinduism PDF Author: Constance Jones
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 0816075646
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 593

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Book Description
An illustrated A to Z reference containing more than 700 entries providing information on the theology, people, historical events, institutions and movements related to Hinduism.

Lost Knowledge

Lost Knowledge PDF Author: Benjamin B. Olshin
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004352724
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Book Description
Lost Knowledge: The Concept of Vanished Technologies and Other Human Histories examines the idea of lost knowledge, reaching back to a period between myth and history. It investigates a peculiar idea found in a number of early texts: that there were civilizations with knowledge of sophisticated technologies, and that this knowledge was obscured or destroyed over time along with the civilization that had created it. This book presents critical studies of a series of early Chinese, South Asian, and other texts that look at the idea of specific “lost” technologies, such as mechanical flight and the transmission of images. There is also an examination of why concepts of a vanished “golden age” were prevalent in so many cultures. Offering an engaging and investigative look at the propagation of history and myth in technology and culture, this book is sure to interest historians and readers from many backgrounds.

The Mādhavanidāna and Its Chief Commentary, Chapters 1-10

The Mādhavanidāna and Its Chief Commentary, Chapters 1-10 PDF Author: Gerrit Jan Meulenbeld
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004645594
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 721

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Publications

Publications PDF Author: Folklore Society (Great Britain)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Folklore
Languages : en
Pages : 906

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The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia [2 volumes]

The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia [2 volumes] PDF Author: Ulrich Marzolph
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 185109640X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 950

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Book Description
The most comprehensive treatment of the Arabian Nights ever published, with more than 800 detailed encyclopedic entries and a wealth of authoritative essays and resources. The tales of the Arabian Nights have long been the focus of scholarly research and critique, but no English language work has ever attempted an all-embracing treatment of them. The fruit of years of research, The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia is the first comprehensive reference work introducing both the Arabian Nights and the context of their genesis and aftermath in Near Eastern, European, and world culture. Editors Ulrich Marzolph, one of the world's foremost scholars of Near Eastern narrative culture, and Richard van Leeuwen, a prominent scholar of the Arabian Nights, present detailed, authoritative, and up-to-date research on virtually all aspects of the tales, including major protagonists, themes, important translations, textual history, adaptations, reworkings, works inspired by the Arabian Nights, and aspects of literary theory, and provide extensive bibliographies for each tale. In addition to the 800+ encyclopedic entries and numerous essays, the work introduces research that has not previously been published, making it an invaluable resource to scholars, educators, students, and the general public, as well as an essential addition to the core collection of academic and public libraries.