The Past Before Us PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download The Past Before Us PDF full book. Access full book title The Past Before Us by Romila Thapar. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Romila Thapar
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674726510
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 778
Get Book Here
Book Description
The claim that India--uniquely among civilizations--lacks historical writing distracts us from a more pertinent question: how to recognize the historical sense of societies whose past is recorded in ways very different from European conventions. Romila Thapar, a distinguished scholar of ancient India, guides us through a panoramic survey of the historical traditions of North India, revealing a deep and sophisticated consciousness of history embedded in the diverse body of classical Indian literature. The history recorded in such texts as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is less concerned with authenticating persons and events than with presenting a picture of traditions striving to retain legitimacy amid social change. Spanning an epoch from 1000 BCE to 1400 CE, Thapar delineates three strains of historical writing: an Itihasa-Purana tradition of Brahman authors; a tradition composed mainly by Buddhist and Jaina monks and scholars; and a popular bardic tradition. The Vedic corpus, the epics, the Buddhist canon and monastic chronicles, inscriptional evidence, regional accounts, and literary forms such as royal biographies and drama are all scrutinized afresh--not as sources to be mined for factual data but as genres that disclose how Indians of ancient times represented their own past to themselves.
Author: Romila Thapar
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674726510
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 778
Get Book Here
Book Description
The claim that India--uniquely among civilizations--lacks historical writing distracts us from a more pertinent question: how to recognize the historical sense of societies whose past is recorded in ways very different from European conventions. Romila Thapar, a distinguished scholar of ancient India, guides us through a panoramic survey of the historical traditions of North India, revealing a deep and sophisticated consciousness of history embedded in the diverse body of classical Indian literature. The history recorded in such texts as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is less concerned with authenticating persons and events than with presenting a picture of traditions striving to retain legitimacy amid social change. Spanning an epoch from 1000 BCE to 1400 CE, Thapar delineates three strains of historical writing: an Itihasa-Purana tradition of Brahman authors; a tradition composed mainly by Buddhist and Jaina monks and scholars; and a popular bardic tradition. The Vedic corpus, the epics, the Buddhist canon and monastic chronicles, inscriptional evidence, regional accounts, and literary forms such as royal biographies and drama are all scrutinized afresh--not as sources to be mined for factual data but as genres that disclose how Indians of ancient times represented their own past to themselves.
Author: Lewis Rowell
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226730344
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428
Get Book Here
Book Description
Offering a broad perspective of the philosophy, theory, and aesthetics of early Indian music and musical ideology, this study makes a unique contribution to our knowledge of the ancient foundations of India's musical culture. Lewis Rowell reconstructs the tunings, scales, modes, rhythms, gestures, formal patterns, and genres of Indian music from Vedic times to the thirteenth century, presenting not so much a history as a thematic analysis and interpretation of India's magnificent musical heritage. In Indian culture, music forms an integral part of a broad framework of ideas that includes philosophy, cosmology, religion, literature, and science. Rowell works with the known theoretical treatises and the oral tradition in an effort to place the technical details of musical practice in their full cultural context. Many quotations from the original Sanskrit appear here in English translation for the first time, and the necessary technical information is presented in terms accessible to the nonspecialist. These features, combined with Rowell's glossary of Sanskrit terms and extensive bibliography, make Music and Musical Thought in Early India an excellent introduction for the general reader and an indispensable reference for ethnomusicologists, historical musicologists, music theorists, and Indologists.
Author: Romila Thapar
Publisher: Penguin Books India
ISBN: 9780143029892
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 592
Get Book Here
Book Description
A Largely Rewritten Version Of A Classic History Of Early India Concerned Not Only With The Past But Also With The Interaction Of The Past And The Present. Romila Thapar S Penguin History Of Early India Brings To Life Many Centuries Of The Indian Past. Dynastic History Provides A Chronological Frame But The Essential Thrust Of The Book Is The Explanation Of The Changes In Society And Economy. The Mutation Of Religious Beliefs And Practices, The Exploration Of Areas Of Knowledge In Which India Excelled, Its Creative Literature, Are All Woven Into A Historical Context. In This Version, The Opening Chapters Explain How The Interpretations Of Early Indian History Have Changed. Further, Although The Diversity Of Sources And Their Readings Are Well Known, Nevertheless, This Narrative Provides Fresh Readings And Raises New Questions. Romila Thapar Gives A Vivid And Nuanced Picture Of The Rich Mosaic Of Varied Landscapes, Languages, Kingdoms And Beliefs, And The Interaction Between These That Went Into The Making Of A Remarkable Civilization.
Author: Romila Thapar
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520242258
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 598
Get Book Here
Book Description
This new book represents a complete rewriting by the author of her A History of India, vol. 1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 542-544) and index.
Author: Dwijendra Narayan Jha
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Book Presents A Lucid Survey Of Major Developments In The Ancient And Early Medieval Periods Of Indain History. It Discusses Issues Like The Antiquity And Authorship Of The Harappan Civilization, The Original Home Of The Aryans And The Salient Features Of Their Life, The Emergence Of Caste System And The Process Of State Formation Culminating In The Establishment Of The Maurya Empire. Challenging The Stereotype Of An `Unchanging` India And The Myth Of The `Golden Age`, The Book Not Only Underlines The Changes In Its Cocial Structure Over Centuries But Also Devotes Much Space To India`S Contact With The Outside World Leading To The Enrichment Of Its Culture. Moreover, It Pays Adequate Attention To The Transformation Of India From Pre-Feudal To Feudal Society And To The Discussion Of The Contours Of Feudal Culture.
Author: Romila Thapar
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141949767
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 503
Get Book Here
Book Description
A history of India upto 1300 AD introducing the beginnings of India's cultural dynamics
Author: Brian Black
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791480526
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Get Book Here
Book Description
This groundbreaking book is an elegant exploration of the Upanisads, often considered the fountainhead of the rich, varied philosophical tradition in India. The Upaniṣads, in addition to their philosophical content, have a number of sections that contain narratives and dialogues—a literary dimension largely ignored by the Indian philosophical tradition, as well as by modern scholars. Brian Black draws attention to these literary elements and demonstrates that they are fundamental to understanding the philosophical claims of the text. Focusing on the Upanisadic notion of the self (ātman), the book is organized into four main sections that feature a lesson taught by a brahmin teacher to a brahmin student, debates between brahmins, discussions between brahmins and kings, and conversations between brahmins and women. These dialogical situations feature dramatic elements that bring attention to both the participants and the social contexts of Upanisadic philosophy, characterizing philosophy as something achieved through discussion and debate. In addition to making a number of innovative arguments, the author also guides the reader through these profound and engaging texts, offering ways of reading the Upaniṣads that make them more understandable and accessible.
Author: Dilip K. Chakrabarty
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199088144
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377
Get Book Here
Book Description
This book charts the flow of India's grass-roots archaeological history in all its continuities and diversities from its Palaeolithic beginnings to AD 300. The second edition includes a new afterword which discusses all new ideas and discoveries in Indian archaeology in the past one decade.
Author: Bhavani Raman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226703274
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Get Book Here
Book Description
Historians of British colonial rule in India have noted both the place of military might and the imposition of new cultural categories in the making of Empire, but Bhavani Raman, in Document Raj, uncovers a lesser-known story of power: the power of bureaucracy. Drawing on extensive archival research in the files of the East India Company’s administrative offices in Madras, she tells the story of a bureaucracy gone awry in a fever of documentation practices that grew ever more abstract—and the power, both economic and cultural, this created. In order to assert its legitimacy and value within the British Empire, the East India Company was diligent about record keeping. Raman shows, however, that the sheer volume of their document production allowed colonial managers to subtly but substantively manipulate records for their own ends, increasingly drawing the real and the recorded further apart. While this administrative sleight of hand increased the company’s reach and power within the Empire, it also bolstered profoundly new orientations to language, writing, memory, and pedagogy for the officers and Indian subordinates involved. Immersed in a subterranean world of delinquent scribes, translators, village accountants, and entrepreneurial fixers, Document Raj maps the shifting boundaries of the legible and illegible, the legal and illegitimate, that would usher India into the modern world.
Author: Upinder Singh
Publisher: Pearson Education India
ISBN: 9788131716779
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 708
Get Book Here
Book Description
A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India is the most comprehensive textbook yet for undergraduate and postgraduate students. It introduces students to original sources such as ancient texts, artefacts, inscriptions and coins, illustrating how historians construct history on their basis. Its clear and balanced explanation of concepts and historical debates enables students to independently evaluate evidence, arguments and theories. This remarkable textbook allows the reader to visualize and understand the rich and varied remains of India s ancient past, transforming the process of discovering that past into an exciting experience.
