The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in HIstorical Outline

The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in HIstorical Outline PDF Author: D D Kosambi
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000653471
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
First published in 1965, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline is a strikingly original work, the first real cultural history of India. The main features of the Indian character are traced back into remote antiquity as the natural outgrowth of historical process. Did the change from food gathering and the pastoral life to agriculture make new religions necessary? Why did the Indian cities vanish with hardly a trace and leave no memory? Who were the Aryans – if any? Why should Buddhism, Jainism, and so many other sects of the same type come into being at one time and in the same region? How could Buddhism spread over so large a part of Asia while dying out completely in the land of its origin? What caused the rise and collapse of the Magadhan empire; was the Gupta empire fundamentally different from its great predecessor, or just one more ‘oriental despotism’? These are some of the many questions handled with great insight, yet in the simplest terms, in this stimulating work. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, South Asian studies and ethnic studies.

The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in HIstorical Outline

The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in HIstorical Outline PDF Author: D D Kosambi
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000653471
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in 1965, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline is a strikingly original work, the first real cultural history of India. The main features of the Indian character are traced back into remote antiquity as the natural outgrowth of historical process. Did the change from food gathering and the pastoral life to agriculture make new religions necessary? Why did the Indian cities vanish with hardly a trace and leave no memory? Who were the Aryans – if any? Why should Buddhism, Jainism, and so many other sects of the same type come into being at one time and in the same region? How could Buddhism spread over so large a part of Asia while dying out completely in the land of its origin? What caused the rise and collapse of the Magadhan empire; was the Gupta empire fundamentally different from its great predecessor, or just one more ‘oriental despotism’? These are some of the many questions handled with great insight, yet in the simplest terms, in this stimulating work. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, South Asian studies and ethnic studies.

Classifying the Universe

Classifying the Universe PDF Author: Brian K. Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195060546
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
This is a comprehensive examination of the 'varna' system - a classificatory scheme laid out in the classical Hindu Vedic literature and thought to underlie the concept of caste, which continues to exert a powerful and pervasive influence over Indian life.

Who Were the Shudras?

Who Were the Shudras? PDF Author: Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789360804701
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Ancient Indian Social History

Ancient Indian Social History PDF Author: Romila Thapar
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
ISBN: 9788125008088
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
A collection of papers that interprets afresh, known facts about the early period of Indian history up to the end of the first millennium AD. The papers discuss several associated themes such as society and religion, social classification and mobility and the study of regional history. A useful reference book for postgraduate students of History.

The Structure of Ancient Indian Society

The Structure of Ancient Indian Society PDF Author: Genʼichi Yamazaki
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Caste
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description


India: A Civilization of Differences

India: A Civilization of Differences PDF Author: Alain Daniélou
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620550326
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
A collection of Daniélou's writings that builds a bold and cogent defense of India's caste system • Looks at the Hindu caste system not as racist inequality but as a natural ordering of diversity • Reveals the stereotypes of Indian society invented to justify colonialism • Includes never-before-published articles by the internationally recognized Hindu scholar and translator of The Complete Kama Sutra (200,000 copies sold) In classical India social ethics are based on each individual's functional role in society. These ethics vary according to caste in order to maximize the individual's effectiveness in the social context. This is the definition of caste ethics. The Indian caste system is not a hierarchy with some who are privileged and others who are despised; it is a natural ordering, an organizing principle, of a society wherein differences are embraced rather than ignored. In the caste system it is up to the individual to achieve perfection in the state to which he or she is born, since to a certain extent that state also forms part of a person's nature. All people must accomplish their individual spiritual destinies while, as members of a social group, ensuring the continuity of the group and collaborating in creating a favorable framework for all human life--thereby fulfilling the collective destiny of the group. The notion of transmigration provides an equalizing effect on this prescribed system in that today's prince may be reborn as a woodcutter and the Brahman as a shoemaker. In India: A Civilization of Differences, Daniélou explores this seldom-heard side of the caste debate and argues effectively in its favor. This rare collection of the late author's writings contains several never-before-published articles and offers an in-depth look at the structure of Indian society before and after Western colonialism.

Structure of Hindu Society

Structure of Hindu Society PDF Author: Bose
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
ISBN: 9788125008552
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This book appears in English translation more than a quarter of a century after its first appearance in Bengali. The lucid and scholarly translation from the original Bangla Hindu Samajer Goran has been done by Andre Beteille. Prof. Beteille s introduction analyses the qualities of Bose s mind and work, especially as illustrated in this book and his preface to this revised edition enriches this valuable study. The author has undertaken an ambitious task in which he has attempted to identify the organising principles of Hindu society, the factors which ensured its continuity for centuries, and the forces by which it is ultimately weakened. This book is impressive in its design. It brings together, within a single framework, approaches which are ordinarily practised separately by ethnographers, Indologists and social historians.

The Educational Heritage of Ancient India

The Educational Heritage of Ancient India PDF Author: Sahana Singh
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 194758653X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
Just a thousand years ago, India was dotted with universities across its length and breadth, where international students flocked to gain credentials in advanced education. This illustrated book describes how these multi-disciplinary centers of learning existed in several forms such as forest universities, brick-and-mortar universities and temple universities. It examines the funding for these citadels of learning and their graduation ceremonies. The process by which India’s ancient systems of education helped to fuel a knowledge revolution around the world with its manuscripts, forming the basis for monographs and academic papers, is explained with references. The marauding incursions by Muslim invaders, which disrupted the idyllic world of university learning in India, followed by European colonization, which led to further erosion and degeneration of India’s traditional learning systems, have been taken up in some detail. Readers will get a snapshot view of India's education system down the ages from ancient to modern times.

Early Medieval Indian Society

Early Medieval Indian Society PDF Author: Ram Sharan Sharma
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
ISBN: 9788125025238
Category : INDIA, ANCIENT
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
The book analyses the transition from the ancient to the medieval period in polity, economy, the caste system and culture. It examines the form of peasant protest and the reasons for their failure and infrequency. The author also examines the development of tantrism and the mentality that feudalism created.

Breaking India

Breaking India PDF Author: Rajiv Malhotra
Publisher: Bright Sparks
ISBN: 9788191067378
Category : Caste
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book focuses on the role of U.S. and European churches, academics, think-tanks, foundations, government and human rights groups in fostering separation of the identities of Dravidian and Dalit communities from the rest of India. It is the result of five years of research, and uses information obtained in the West about foreign funding of these Indian-based activities. The research tracked the money trails that start out claiming to be for education, human rights, empowerment training and leadership training, but end up in programs designed to produce angry youths who feel disenfranchised from Indian identity. The book reveals how outdated racial theories continue to provide academic frameworks and fuel the rhetoric that can trigger civil wars and genocides in developing countries. The Dravidian movement's 200-year history has such origins. Its latest manifestation is the Dravidian Christianity - movement that fabricates a political and cultural history to exploit old faultlines. The book explicitly names individuals and institutions, including prominent Western ones and their Indian affiliates. Its goal is to spark an honest debate on the extent to which human rights and other empowerment projects are cover-ups for these nefarious activities.