Author: Anne Murphy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136707298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Religious imaginary is a way of conceiving and structuring the world within the conceptual and imaginative traditions of the religious. Using religious imaginary as a reference, this book analyses temporal ideologies and expressions of historicity in South Asia in the early modern, pre-colonial and early colonial period. Chapters explore the multiple understandings of time and the past that informed the historical imagination in various kinds of literary representations, including historiographical and literary texts, hagiography, and religious canonical literature. The book addresses the contributing forces and comparative implications of the formation of religious and communitarian sensibilities as expressed through the imagination of the past, and suggests how these relate to each other within and across traditions in South Asia. By bringing diverse materials together, this book presents new commonalities and distinctions that inform a larger understanding of how religion and other cultural formations impinge on the concept of temporality, and the representation of it as history.
Time, History and the Religious Imaginary in South Asia
Author: Anne Murphy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136707298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Religious imaginary is a way of conceiving and structuring the world within the conceptual and imaginative traditions of the religious. Using religious imaginary as a reference, this book analyses temporal ideologies and expressions of historicity in South Asia in the early modern, pre-colonial and early colonial period. Chapters explore the multiple understandings of time and the past that informed the historical imagination in various kinds of literary representations, including historiographical and literary texts, hagiography, and religious canonical literature. The book addresses the contributing forces and comparative implications of the formation of religious and communitarian sensibilities as expressed through the imagination of the past, and suggests how these relate to each other within and across traditions in South Asia. By bringing diverse materials together, this book presents new commonalities and distinctions that inform a larger understanding of how religion and other cultural formations impinge on the concept of temporality, and the representation of it as history.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136707298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
Religious imaginary is a way of conceiving and structuring the world within the conceptual and imaginative traditions of the religious. Using religious imaginary as a reference, this book analyses temporal ideologies and expressions of historicity in South Asia in the early modern, pre-colonial and early colonial period. Chapters explore the multiple understandings of time and the past that informed the historical imagination in various kinds of literary representations, including historiographical and literary texts, hagiography, and religious canonical literature. The book addresses the contributing forces and comparative implications of the formation of religious and communitarian sensibilities as expressed through the imagination of the past, and suggests how these relate to each other within and across traditions in South Asia. By bringing diverse materials together, this book presents new commonalities and distinctions that inform a larger understanding of how religion and other cultural formations impinge on the concept of temporality, and the representation of it as history.
Kashmir’s Contested Pasts
Author: Chitralekha Zutshi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199089361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
A pioneering and comprehensive study of the historical imagination in Kashmir, this book explores the conversations between the ideas of Kashmir and the ideas of history taking place within Kashmir’s multilingual historical tradition. Analysing the deep linkages among Sanskrit, Persian, and Kashmiri narratives, Kashmir’s Contested Pasts contends that these traditions drew on and influenced each other to imagine Kashmir as far more than simply an unsettled territory or a tourist paradise. By offering a historically grounded reflection on the memories, narrative practices, and institutional contexts that have informed, and continue to inform, imaginings of Kashmir and its past, the book suggests new ways of understanding the debates over history, territory, identity, and sovereignty that shape contemporary South Asia.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199089361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
A pioneering and comprehensive study of the historical imagination in Kashmir, this book explores the conversations between the ideas of Kashmir and the ideas of history taking place within Kashmir’s multilingual historical tradition. Analysing the deep linkages among Sanskrit, Persian, and Kashmiri narratives, Kashmir’s Contested Pasts contends that these traditions drew on and influenced each other to imagine Kashmir as far more than simply an unsettled territory or a tourist paradise. By offering a historically grounded reflection on the memories, narrative practices, and institutional contexts that have informed, and continue to inform, imaginings of Kashmir and its past, the book suggests new ways of understanding the debates over history, territory, identity, and sovereignty that shape contemporary South Asia.
The Scattered Court
Author: Richard David Williams
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226825442
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
Presents a new history of how Hindustani court music responded to the political transitions of the nineteenth century. How far did colonialism transform north Indian music? In the period between the Mughal empire and the British Raj, how did the political landscape bleed into aesthetics, music, dance, and poetry? Examining musical culture through a diverse and multilingual archive, primarily using sources in Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi that have not been translated or critically examined before, The Scattered Court challenges our assumptions about the period. Richard David Williams presents a long history of interactions between northern India and Bengal, with a core focus on the two courts of Wajid Ali Shah (1822–1887), the last ruler of the kingdom of Awadh. He charts the movement of musicians and dancers between the two courts in Lucknow and Matiyaburj, as well as the transregional circulation of intellectual traditions and musical genres, and demonstrates the importance of the exile period for the rise of Calcutta as a celebrated center of Hindustani classical music. Since Lucknow is associated with late Mughal or Nawabi society and Calcutta with colonial modernity, examining the relationship between the two cities sheds light on forms of continuity and transition over the nineteenth century, as artists and their patrons navigated political ruptures and social transformations. The Scattered Court challenges the existing historiography of Hindustani music and Indian culture under colonialism by arguing that our focus on Anglophone sources and modernizing impulses has directed us away from the aesthetic subtleties, historical continuities, and emotional dimensions of nineteenth-century music.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226825442
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
Presents a new history of how Hindustani court music responded to the political transitions of the nineteenth century. How far did colonialism transform north Indian music? In the period between the Mughal empire and the British Raj, how did the political landscape bleed into aesthetics, music, dance, and poetry? Examining musical culture through a diverse and multilingual archive, primarily using sources in Urdu, Bengali, and Hindi that have not been translated or critically examined before, The Scattered Court challenges our assumptions about the period. Richard David Williams presents a long history of interactions between northern India and Bengal, with a core focus on the two courts of Wajid Ali Shah (1822–1887), the last ruler of the kingdom of Awadh. He charts the movement of musicians and dancers between the two courts in Lucknow and Matiyaburj, as well as the transregional circulation of intellectual traditions and musical genres, and demonstrates the importance of the exile period for the rise of Calcutta as a celebrated center of Hindustani classical music. Since Lucknow is associated with late Mughal or Nawabi society and Calcutta with colonial modernity, examining the relationship between the two cities sheds light on forms of continuity and transition over the nineteenth century, as artists and their patrons navigated political ruptures and social transformations. The Scattered Court challenges the existing historiography of Hindustani music and Indian culture under colonialism by arguing that our focus on Anglophone sources and modernizing impulses has directed us away from the aesthetic subtleties, historical continuities, and emotional dimensions of nineteenth-century music.
The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies
Author: Pashaura Singh
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019100412X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1120
Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies innovatively combines the ways in which scholars from fields as diverse as philosophy, psychology, religious studies, literary studies, history, sociology, anthropology, political science, and economics have integrated the study of Sikhism within a wide range of critical and postcolonial perspectives on the nature of religion, violence, gender, ethno-nationalism, and revisionist historiography. A number of essays within this collection also provide a more practical dimension, written by artists and practitioners of the tradition. The handbook is divided into eight thematic sections that explore different 'expressions' of Sikhism. Historical, literary, ideological, institutional, and artistic expressions are considered in turn, followed by discussion of Sikhs in the Diaspora, and of caste and gender in the Panth. Each section begins with an essay by a prominent scholar in the field, providing an overview of the topic. Further essays provide detail and further treat the fluid, multivocal nature of both the Sikh past and the present. The handbook concludes with a section considering future directions in Sikh Studies.
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019100412X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1120
Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies innovatively combines the ways in which scholars from fields as diverse as philosophy, psychology, religious studies, literary studies, history, sociology, anthropology, political science, and economics have integrated the study of Sikhism within a wide range of critical and postcolonial perspectives on the nature of religion, violence, gender, ethno-nationalism, and revisionist historiography. A number of essays within this collection also provide a more practical dimension, written by artists and practitioners of the tradition. The handbook is divided into eight thematic sections that explore different 'expressions' of Sikhism. Historical, literary, ideological, institutional, and artistic expressions are considered in turn, followed by discussion of Sikhs in the Diaspora, and of caste and gender in the Panth. Each section begins with an essay by a prominent scholar in the field, providing an overview of the topic. Further essays provide detail and further treat the fluid, multivocal nature of both the Sikh past and the present. The handbook concludes with a section considering future directions in Sikh Studies.
Women, Religion and the Body in South Asia
Author: Kristin Hanssen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135135759X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
Noted for their haunting melodies and enigmatic lyrics, Bauls have been portrayed as spiritually enlightened troubadours traveling around the countryside in West Bengal in India and in Bangladesh. As emblems of Bengali culture, Bauls have long been a subject of scholarly debates which center on their esoteric practices, and middle class imaginaries of the category Baul. Adding to this literature, the intimate ethnography presented in this book recounts the life stories of members from a single family, shining light on their past and present tribulations bound up with being poor and of a lowly caste. It shows that taking up the Baul path is a means of softening the stigma of their lower caste identity in that religious practice, where women play a key role, renders the body pure. The path is also a source of monetary income in that begging is considered part of their vocation. For women, the Baul path has the added implication of lessening constraints of gender. While the book describes a family of singers, it also portrays the wider society in which they live, showing how their lives connect and interlace with other villagers, a theme not previously explored in literature on Bauls. A novel approach to the study of women, the body and religion, this book will be of interest to undergraduates and graduates in the field of the anthropology. In addition, it will appeal to students of everyday religious lives as experienced by the poor, through case studies in South Asia. The book provides further evidence that renunciation in South Asia is not a uniform path, despite claims to the contrary. There is also a special interest in Bauls among those familiar with the Bengali speaking region. While this book speaks to that interest, its wider appeal lies in the light it sheds on religion, the body, life histories, and poverty.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135135759X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
Noted for their haunting melodies and enigmatic lyrics, Bauls have been portrayed as spiritually enlightened troubadours traveling around the countryside in West Bengal in India and in Bangladesh. As emblems of Bengali culture, Bauls have long been a subject of scholarly debates which center on their esoteric practices, and middle class imaginaries of the category Baul. Adding to this literature, the intimate ethnography presented in this book recounts the life stories of members from a single family, shining light on their past and present tribulations bound up with being poor and of a lowly caste. It shows that taking up the Baul path is a means of softening the stigma of their lower caste identity in that religious practice, where women play a key role, renders the body pure. The path is also a source of monetary income in that begging is considered part of their vocation. For women, the Baul path has the added implication of lessening constraints of gender. While the book describes a family of singers, it also portrays the wider society in which they live, showing how their lives connect and interlace with other villagers, a theme not previously explored in literature on Bauls. A novel approach to the study of women, the body and religion, this book will be of interest to undergraduates and graduates in the field of the anthropology. In addition, it will appeal to students of everyday religious lives as experienced by the poor, through case studies in South Asia. The book provides further evidence that renunciation in South Asia is not a uniform path, despite claims to the contrary. There is also a special interest in Bauls among those familiar with the Bengali speaking region. While this book speaks to that interest, its wider appeal lies in the light it sheds on religion, the body, life histories, and poverty.
Retelling Time
Author: Shonaleeka Kaul
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000439747
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 219
Book Description
Retelling Time challenges the hegemony of colonial modernity over academic disciplines and over ways in which we think about something as fundamental as time. It reclaims a bouquet of alternative practices of time from premodern South Asia, which stem from worldviews that have been marginalized. These practices relate to a range of classical and vernacular genres including alaṃkāra, theravāda, yoga, rāmakathā, tasawwuf, āyāraṃga, purāṇa, trikā-tantra, navya-nyāya, pratyabhijñā, carita, kūṭīyāṭṭam and maṅgala kāvya. These represent multiple languages such as Sanskrit, Persian, Pali, Prakrit, Awadhi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Bengali, as well as diverse streams, from Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sufi Islam to logic, yoga, tantra, theatre, and poetics. Retelling Time questions the modern Eurocentric belief in an empty, homogenous, abbreviated, secular and irreversible time. It proposes instead that that premodern South Asia invested time with cultural function and value, which ranged from the contingent to the transcendent, the quotidian to the cosmic, the fleeting to the eternal, and the social to the spiritual. Accordingly, time was reworked --- stretched, melded, collapsed, recursed, rolled over, and even extinguished. Sacred, social, aesthetic, scientific, fictional, historical, and performative South Asian traditions are seen here in conversation with one other, mediated by an ethical paradigm. Their collective challenge is to decolonize our ways of knowing and being. This book will be of interest to scholars of South Asian history, philosophy of history, anthropology, literature, Sanskrit, post colonial studies, cultural studies, studies of temporality and of the Global South.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000439747
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 219
Book Description
Retelling Time challenges the hegemony of colonial modernity over academic disciplines and over ways in which we think about something as fundamental as time. It reclaims a bouquet of alternative practices of time from premodern South Asia, which stem from worldviews that have been marginalized. These practices relate to a range of classical and vernacular genres including alaṃkāra, theravāda, yoga, rāmakathā, tasawwuf, āyāraṃga, purāṇa, trikā-tantra, navya-nyāya, pratyabhijñā, carita, kūṭīyāṭṭam and maṅgala kāvya. These represent multiple languages such as Sanskrit, Persian, Pali, Prakrit, Awadhi, Malayalam, Kannada, and Bengali, as well as diverse streams, from Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sufi Islam to logic, yoga, tantra, theatre, and poetics. Retelling Time questions the modern Eurocentric belief in an empty, homogenous, abbreviated, secular and irreversible time. It proposes instead that that premodern South Asia invested time with cultural function and value, which ranged from the contingent to the transcendent, the quotidian to the cosmic, the fleeting to the eternal, and the social to the spiritual. Accordingly, time was reworked --- stretched, melded, collapsed, recursed, rolled over, and even extinguished. Sacred, social, aesthetic, scientific, fictional, historical, and performative South Asian traditions are seen here in conversation with one other, mediated by an ethical paradigm. Their collective challenge is to decolonize our ways of knowing and being. This book will be of interest to scholars of South Asian history, philosophy of history, anthropology, literature, Sanskrit, post colonial studies, cultural studies, studies of temporality and of the Global South.
The Routledge Companion to the Life and Legacy of Guru Hargobind
Author: Pashaura Singh
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040106366
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
This companion studies the life and legacy of Guru Hargobind (1590–1644), the Sixth Guru of the Sikh tradition. It highlights the complex nature of Sikh society and culture in the historical and socio-economic context of Mughal India. The book reconstructs the life of Guru Hargobind by exploring the “divine presence” in history and memory. It addresses the questions of why and how militancy became explicit during Guru Hargobind’s spiritual reign and examines the growth of the Sikh community’s self-consciousness, separatism, and militancy as an integral part of the process of empowerment of the Sikh Panth. A unique contribution, this book provides a multidisciplinary paradigm in the reconstruction of Guru Hargobind’s life and legacy. It will be indispensable for students of Sikh studies, religious studies, history, sociology of religion, anthropology, material culture, literary and textual studies, politics, militancy, and South Asian studies.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040106366
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
This companion studies the life and legacy of Guru Hargobind (1590–1644), the Sixth Guru of the Sikh tradition. It highlights the complex nature of Sikh society and culture in the historical and socio-economic context of Mughal India. The book reconstructs the life of Guru Hargobind by exploring the “divine presence” in history and memory. It addresses the questions of why and how militancy became explicit during Guru Hargobind’s spiritual reign and examines the growth of the Sikh community’s self-consciousness, separatism, and militancy as an integral part of the process of empowerment of the Sikh Panth. A unique contribution, this book provides a multidisciplinary paradigm in the reconstruction of Guru Hargobind’s life and legacy. It will be indispensable for students of Sikh studies, religious studies, history, sociology of religion, anthropology, material culture, literary and textual studies, politics, militancy, and South Asian studies.
The Sikh World
Author: Pashaura Singh
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0429848382
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 669
Book Description
The Sikh World is an outstanding guide to the Sikh faith and culture in all its geographical and historical diversity. Written by a distinguished team of international contributors, it contains substantial thematic articles on the dynamic living experiences of the global Sikh community. The volume is organised into ten distinct sections: History, Institutions, and Practices Global Communities Ethical Issues Activism Modern Literature and Exegesis Music, Visual Art, and Architecture Citizenship, Sovereignty, and the Nation State Diversity and its Challenges Media Education Within these sections, interdisciplinary themes such as intellectual history, sexuality, ecotheology, art, literature, philosophy, music, cinema, medicine, science and technology, politics, and global interactions are explored. Integrating textual evidence with Sikh practice, this volume provides an authoritative and accessible source of information on all topics of Sikhism. The Sikh World will be essential reading to students of Sikh studies, South Asian studies and religious studies. It will also be of interest to those in related fields, such as sociology, world philosophies, political science, anthropology, and ethics.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0429848382
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 669
Book Description
The Sikh World is an outstanding guide to the Sikh faith and culture in all its geographical and historical diversity. Written by a distinguished team of international contributors, it contains substantial thematic articles on the dynamic living experiences of the global Sikh community. The volume is organised into ten distinct sections: History, Institutions, and Practices Global Communities Ethical Issues Activism Modern Literature and Exegesis Music, Visual Art, and Architecture Citizenship, Sovereignty, and the Nation State Diversity and its Challenges Media Education Within these sections, interdisciplinary themes such as intellectual history, sexuality, ecotheology, art, literature, philosophy, music, cinema, medicine, science and technology, politics, and global interactions are explored. Integrating textual evidence with Sikh practice, this volume provides an authoritative and accessible source of information on all topics of Sikhism. The Sikh World will be essential reading to students of Sikh studies, South Asian studies and religious studies. It will also be of interest to those in related fields, such as sociology, world philosophies, political science, anthropology, and ethics.
The Materiality of the Past
Author: Anne Murphy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199916276
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326
Book Description
Anne Murphy offers a groundbreaking exploration of material representations of the Sikh past, showing how objects, as well as historical sites, and texts, have played a vital role in the production of the Sikh community as an evolving historical and social formation from the eighteenth century to the present. Drawing together work in religious studies, postcolonial studies, and history, Murphy explores how 'relic' objects such as garments and weaponry have, like sites, played dramatically different roles across political and social contexts-signifiers of authority and even sovereignty in one; collected, revered, and displayed with religious significance in another-and are connected to a broader engagement with the representation of the past that is central to the formation of the Sikh community. By highlighting the connections between relic objects and historical sites, and how the status of sites changed in the colonial period, she also provides crucial insight into the circumstances that brought about the birth of a new territorial imagination of the Sikh past in the early twentieth century, rooted in existing precolonial historical imaginaries centered in place and object. The life of the object today and in the past, she suggests, provides unique insight into the formation of the Sikh community and the crucial role representations play in it.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199916276
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326
Book Description
Anne Murphy offers a groundbreaking exploration of material representations of the Sikh past, showing how objects, as well as historical sites, and texts, have played a vital role in the production of the Sikh community as an evolving historical and social formation from the eighteenth century to the present. Drawing together work in religious studies, postcolonial studies, and history, Murphy explores how 'relic' objects such as garments and weaponry have, like sites, played dramatically different roles across political and social contexts-signifiers of authority and even sovereignty in one; collected, revered, and displayed with religious significance in another-and are connected to a broader engagement with the representation of the past that is central to the formation of the Sikh community. By highlighting the connections between relic objects and historical sites, and how the status of sites changed in the colonial period, she also provides crucial insight into the circumstances that brought about the birth of a new territorial imagination of the Sikh past in the early twentieth century, rooted in existing precolonial historical imaginaries centered in place and object. The life of the object today and in the past, she suggests, provides unique insight into the formation of the Sikh community and the crucial role representations play in it.
Bodies of Song
Author: Linda Hess
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199374171
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 489
Book Description
Machine generated contents note: -- Transliteration -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1. "You Must Meet Prahladji!"--2. Oral Tradition in the Twenty-first Century: Observing Texts -- 3. "True Words of Kabir": Adventures in Authenticity -- 4. In the Jeweler's Bazaar: Malwa's Kabir -- 5. Oral Tradition in the Twenty-first Century: Exploring Theory -- 6. A Scorching Fire, A Cool Pool -- 7. Fighting over Kabir's Dead Body -- 8. Political/Spiritual Kabir -- References -- Index
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199374171
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 489
Book Description
Machine generated contents note: -- Transliteration -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1. "You Must Meet Prahladji!"--2. Oral Tradition in the Twenty-first Century: Observing Texts -- 3. "True Words of Kabir": Adventures in Authenticity -- 4. In the Jeweler's Bazaar: Malwa's Kabir -- 5. Oral Tradition in the Twenty-first Century: Exploring Theory -- 6. A Scorching Fire, A Cool Pool -- 7. Fighting over Kabir's Dead Body -- 8. Political/Spiritual Kabir -- References -- Index