The Ramayana Revisited PDF Download

Author: Mandakranta Bose
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019516833X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 397

View

Book Description
14 leading 'Ramayana' scholars examine the epic in its myriad contexts throughout South and Southeast Asia. They explore the role the narrative plays in societies as varied as India Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. The essays also expand the understanding of the 'text' to include non-verbal renditions of the epic.

Author: Vipul Maheshwari
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 9389351073
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 202

View

Book Description
Rama, Maryada Purushottam, the king of Ayodhya, banished his beloved queen, in whose chastity he had complete faith, simply because his subjects disapproved of his accepting a wife who had spent a year in the house of her abductor. The king submitted to the will of the people though it broke his heart. Was his stand justified? Could Manthara be held solely responsible for the banishment of Rama and the subsequent death of Dasharatha? Was Ahalya an adulteress or a victim of sexual assault? Did the actions of the serial molester Ravana stand legal scrutiny? Was Lakshmana, a prince of Ayodhya, legally justified in mutilating Surpanakha? Was his elder brother Rama an accomplice in that action? It was said in ancient India, a king who, after having sworn to safeguard his subjects, failed to protect should be executed like a mad dog. Such a provision indicated that sovereignty was based on an implied social contract, and if the king violated the traditional pact, he forfeited his kingship. So, a king had to be just as justice trickled down from the crown. What happens though if the events of yore are retold and characters made to stand trial in today's time? Here is an attempt, unexplored so far, to retell the significant happenings narrated in the Ramayana through the legal prism of the Indian Penal Code. Each chapter comprises a prosecution version, citations of relevant provisions from the IPC, deposition of witnesses and the defence argument. Ramayana Revisited succeeds in bringing in all alternative perspectives, leaving the final judgement to the discretion of the reader.

Author: Ian Almond
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000407136
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 183

View

Book Description
What would world literature look like, if we stopped referring to the “West”? Starting with the provocative premise that the “‘West’ is ten percent of the planet”, World Literature Decentered is the first book to decenter Eurocentric discourses of global literature and global history – not just by deconstructing or historicizing them, but by actively providing an alternative. Looking at a series of themes across three literatures (Mexico, Turkey and Bengal), the book examines hotels, melancholy, orientalism, femicide and the ghost story in a series of literary traditions outside the “West”. The non-West, the book argues, is no fringe group or token minority in need of attention – on the contrary, it constitutes the overwhelming majority of this world.

Author: Freek L. Bakker
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004194045
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290

View

Book Description
In 1897 – only two years after the invention of film – the first feature film about Jesus appeared. This and other films about Jesus became examples for and an inspiration for films on other important religious figures like Rama, Buddha and Muhammad. Although religious leaders did not always approve of these films, they did find a ready audience among believers. This book explores these films and looks at how these films dealt with the fundamental question of portraying an individual thought to have either divine status or a very special and unique status among human beings. This book will thus benefit not only students of religious film but also those studying the portrayal of central religious figures in the contemporary world.

Author: Justin W. Henry
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197636306
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 297

View

Book Description
Ravana, the demon-king antagonist from the Ramayana, the ancient Hindu epic poem, has become an unlikely cultural hero among Sinhala Buddhists over the past decade. In Ravana's Kingdom, Justin W. Henry delves into the historical literary reception of the epic in Sri Lanka, charting the adaptions of its themes and characters from the 14th century onwards, as many Sri Lankan Hindus and Buddhists developed a sympathetic impression of Ravana's character, and through the contemporary Ravana revival, which has resulted in the development of an alternative mythological history, depicting Ravana as king of the Sri Lanka's indigenous inhabitants, a formative figure of civilizational antiquity, and the direct ancestor of the Sinhala Buddhist people. Henry offers a careful study of the literary history of the Ramayana in Sri Lanka, employing numerous sources and archives that have until now received little to no scholarly attention, as well as the 21st century revision of a narrative of the Sri Lankan people-a narrative incubated by the general public online, facilitated by social media and by the speed of travel of information in the digital age. Ravana's Kingdom offers a glimpse into a centuries-old, living Ramayana tradition among Hindus and Buddhists in Sri Lanka-a case study of the myth-making process in the digital age.

Author: Mark Tully
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446490947
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 324

View

Book Description
Since the Indian economy was liberated from bureaucratic, socialist controls in 1991, it has developed rapidly. A country once renowned for the backwardness of its industries, its commerce and its financial market is now viewed as potentially one of the major world economies of the twenty-first century. But there are many questions which need to be asked about the sustainability of this rapid economic growth and its effect on the stability of the country. Have the changes had any impact on the poor and marginalised? Can India's democracy contain the mounting resentment of those left out of the new economic order? Can a high growth rate be sustained with India's notoriously corrupt and inefficient governance? Can the development of its creaking infrastructure be speeded up? How is India going to feed itself unless agriculture is reformed? This timely book will answer these questions through interviews with industrialists and cricketers, God men and farmers, plutocrats and former untouchables. Full of fascinating stories of real people at a time of great change, it will be of interest to economists, business people, diplomats, politicians, as well as to those who love to travel and who take an interest in the rapid growth of one of the world's largest countries, and what this means to us in the West.

Author: Yuval Noah Harari
Publisher: Signal
ISBN: 077101967X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

View

Book Description
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence. Information is not the raw material of truth, nor is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.

Author: Mary Ellen Snodgrass
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438119062
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 481

View

Book Description
Examines the world's greatest literature about empires and imperialism, including more than 200 entries on writers, classic works, themes, and concepts.

Author: Mark Tully
Publisher: Penguin Books India
ISBN: 0670083895
Category : Economic development
Languages : en
Pages : 281

View

Book Description
Non-Stop India By Mark Tully Jugaar can loosely be translated as muddling through, or making do. This is undoubtedly a valuable talent and has seen India through numerous crises which could have destabilised a country that is less adaptable - four wars, for example. But while jugaar can be seen to have served India well in the past, it has a downside. It has led to a dangerous complacency, the belief that as India has muddled through so many times before, there is no need for urgency in tackling the problems it faces. In Non Stop India veteran journalist Mark Tully draws on his unmatched knowledge of India, garnered from thirty years of living in, and reporting from, the country, to examine how this approach impacts on her much-touted prospects of becoming an economic super-power. From Maoist conflicts to huge industrial houses; from the Tiger project to farmer suicides; from the Ramayana to the remote valleys of the north-east, Tully examines India's myriad negotiations with modernity and her prospects for the next century and beyond. Today, India is likely to become one of the major economies of the twenty- first century. But many unresolved questions remain about the sustainability of such growth and its effect on the stability of the nation. Veteran journalist Mark Tully draws on thirty years of reporting India and travels the length and breadth of the country to find the answers. Have the changes had any impact on the poor and marginalised? How can the development of the country's creaking infrastructure be speeded up to match its huge advances in technology and industry? With a gift for finding the human stories behind the headlines, he looks at the pressing concerns in different areas of life such as governance, business, spirituality and ecology. In revealing interviews with captains of industry and subsistence farmers, politicians and Dalits, spiritual leaders and bandits, Mark Tully captures the voices of the nation. From the survival of India's languages and the protection of wildlife, to the nation's thriving industries and colourful public affairs, Non-Stop India is a testament to India's vibrant history and incredible potential, offering an unforgettable portrait of this emerging superpower at a pivotal moment of its history. About The Author Sir Mark Tully was born in Calcutta, India in 1935. He was the Chief of Bureau, BBC, New Delhi for twenty-two years, was knighted in the New Year's Honours list in 2002 and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2005. Today, his distinguished broadcasting career includes being the regular presenter of the contemplative BBC Radio 4 programme Something Understood. His books include No Full Stops in India, The Heart of India, India in Slow Motion (with his partner and colleague Gillian Wright), and India's Unending Journey. He lives in New Delhi.

Author:
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691182922
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1544

View

Book Description
The concluding volume of a critical English edition of the monumental Indian epic The seventh and final book of the monumental Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki, the Uttarakāṇḍa, brings the epic saga to a close with an account of the dramatic events of King Rāma’s millennia-long reign. It opens with a colorful history of the demonic race of the rākṣasas and the violent career of Rāma’s villainous foe Rāvaṇa, and later recounts Rāma’s grateful discharge of his allies in the great war at Lankā as well as his romantic reunion with his wife Sītā. But dark clouds gather as Rāma makes the agonizing decision to banish his beloved wife, now pregnant. As Rāma continues as king, marvelous tales and events unfurl, illustrating the benefits of righteous rule and the perils that await monarchs who fail to address the needs of their subjects. The Uttarakāṇḍa has long served as a point of social and religious controversy largely for its accounts of the banishment of Sītā, as well as of Rāma’s killing of a low-caste ascetic. This seventh volume in the critical edition and translation of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa includes an extensive introduction and describes the complex reception history of the Uttarakāṇḍa, as well as exhaustive notes and a comprehensive bibliography.