Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy and Dissent in India

Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy and Dissent in India

Author: S. N. Eisenstadt

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2011-12-07

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 311085256X

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The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems– both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.


Book Synopsis Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy and Dissent in India by : S. N. Eisenstadt

Download or read book Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy and Dissent in India written by S. N. Eisenstadt and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-12-07 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The series Religion and Society (RS) contributes to the exploration of religions as social systems– both in Western and non-Western societies; in particular, it examines religions in their differentiation from, and intersection with, other cultural systems, such as art, economy, law and politics. Due attention is given to paradigmatic case or comparative studies that exhibit a clear theoretical orientation with the empirical and historical data of religion and such aspects of religion as ritual, the religious imagination, constructions of tradition, iconography, or media. In addition, the formation of religious communities, their construction of identity, and their relation to society and the wider public are key issues of this series.

Siva's Saints

Siva's Saints

Author: Gil Ben-Herut

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-07-02

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 019087886X

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Comprising more than twelve million people and renowned for their resistance to Brahminical values, the Virasaivas are a vibrant and unorthodox religious community with a provocative socio-political voice. The Virasaiva tradition has produced a vast and original body of literature, composed mostly in Kannada, a Dravidian language from south India. Siva's Saints introduces a previously unexplored and central primary work produced in the early thirteenth century, the Ragalegalu. This was the first narrative text written about the incipient devotional tradition dedicated to the god Siva in the Kannada-speaking regions; through stories of the saints, it images the life of this new religious community. The Ragalegalu inaugurated a new era in the production of devotional narratives accessible to wide audiences. Gil Ben-Herut challenges common notions about this tradition in its nascent phases. By closely reading the saints' stories in this text, Siva's Saints takes a more nuanced historical view than commonly-held notions about the egalitarian and iconoclastic nature of the early tradition, arguing instead that early bhakti (devotionalism) in the Kannada-speaking region was less-radical and more accommodating toward traditional religious, social, and political institutions than thought of today. In contrast to the narrowly sectarian and exclusionary vision that shapes later accounts, the Ragalegalu is characterized by an opposite impulse of offering an open invitation to people from all walks of life, and their stories illustrate the richness of their devotional lives. Analysis of this seminal text yields important insights into the role of literary representation of the social and political development of a religious community in a pre-modern and non-Western milieu.


Book Synopsis Siva's Saints by : Gil Ben-Herut

Download or read book Siva's Saints written by Gil Ben-Herut and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-02 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprising more than twelve million people and renowned for their resistance to Brahminical values, the Virasaivas are a vibrant and unorthodox religious community with a provocative socio-political voice. The Virasaiva tradition has produced a vast and original body of literature, composed mostly in Kannada, a Dravidian language from south India. Siva's Saints introduces a previously unexplored and central primary work produced in the early thirteenth century, the Ragalegalu. This was the first narrative text written about the incipient devotional tradition dedicated to the god Siva in the Kannada-speaking regions; through stories of the saints, it images the life of this new religious community. The Ragalegalu inaugurated a new era in the production of devotional narratives accessible to wide audiences. Gil Ben-Herut challenges common notions about this tradition in its nascent phases. By closely reading the saints' stories in this text, Siva's Saints takes a more nuanced historical view than commonly-held notions about the egalitarian and iconoclastic nature of the early tradition, arguing instead that early bhakti (devotionalism) in the Kannada-speaking region was less-radical and more accommodating toward traditional religious, social, and political institutions than thought of today. In contrast to the narrowly sectarian and exclusionary vision that shapes later accounts, the Ragalegalu is characterized by an opposite impulse of offering an open invitation to people from all walks of life, and their stories illustrate the richness of their devotional lives. Analysis of this seminal text yields important insights into the role of literary representation of the social and political development of a religious community in a pre-modern and non-Western milieu.

A Storm of Songs

A Storm of Songs

Author: John Stratton Hawley

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2015-03-09

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 0674425286

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India celebrates itself as a nation of unity in diversity, but where does that sense of unity come from? One important source is a widely-accepted narrative called the “bhakti movement.” Bhakti is the religion of the heart, of song, of common participation, of inner peace, of anguished protest. The idea known as the bhakti movement asserts that between 600 and 1600 CE, poet-saints sang bhakti from India’s southernmost tip to its northern Himalayan heights, laying the religious bedrock upon which the modern state of India would be built. Challenging this canonical narrative, John Stratton Hawley clarifies the historical and political contingencies that gave birth to the concept of the bhakti movement. Starting with the Mughals and their Kachvaha allies, North Indian groups looked to the Hindu South as a resource that would give religious and linguistic depth to their own collective history. Only in the early twentieth century did the idea of a bhakti “movement” crystallize—in the intellectual circle surrounding Rabindranath Tagore in Bengal. Interactions between Hindus and Muslims, between the sexes, between proud regional cultures, and between upper castes and Dalits are crucially embedded in the narrative, making it a powerful political resource. A Storm of Songs ponders the destiny of the idea of the bhakti movement in a globalizing India. If bhakti is the beating heart of India, this is the story of how it was implanted there—and whether it can survive.


Book Synopsis A Storm of Songs by : John Stratton Hawley

Download or read book A Storm of Songs written by John Stratton Hawley and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-09 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India celebrates itself as a nation of unity in diversity, but where does that sense of unity come from? One important source is a widely-accepted narrative called the “bhakti movement.” Bhakti is the religion of the heart, of song, of common participation, of inner peace, of anguished protest. The idea known as the bhakti movement asserts that between 600 and 1600 CE, poet-saints sang bhakti from India’s southernmost tip to its northern Himalayan heights, laying the religious bedrock upon which the modern state of India would be built. Challenging this canonical narrative, John Stratton Hawley clarifies the historical and political contingencies that gave birth to the concept of the bhakti movement. Starting with the Mughals and their Kachvaha allies, North Indian groups looked to the Hindu South as a resource that would give religious and linguistic depth to their own collective history. Only in the early twentieth century did the idea of a bhakti “movement” crystallize—in the intellectual circle surrounding Rabindranath Tagore in Bengal. Interactions between Hindus and Muslims, between the sexes, between proud regional cultures, and between upper castes and Dalits are crucially embedded in the narrative, making it a powerful political resource. A Storm of Songs ponders the destiny of the idea of the bhakti movement in a globalizing India. If bhakti is the beating heart of India, this is the story of how it was implanted there—and whether it can survive.

Jainism and Jain Architecture

Jainism and Jain Architecture

Author: Ravish Kumar/ B. K. Das

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2018-01-09

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13: 1387503421

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India is the originator of three principal religion Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Hinduism belief on number of gods, Buddhism belief on Gautam Budha while Jainism Belief on twenty four Tirthankara. The objective of this books is to highlight the basic principal of Jain religion, their ethics and religious evolution in the form of Jain temple Architecture. An attempt have been made to correlate Jainism with the Jain Temple Architecture. A number of monument is existing thorought the country. Some of them with their Architecture features is tried to be incorporated as best example of Jain Architecture for which it is famous in the world. The explanation starts with the kandgiri - udaygiri cave dated about first century B.C. in the form of cave Architecture on the two hills, Khajuraho jain temple, Jal Mandir at Pawapuri, Mana Stambha, samvarsan Temple, Dilwara Temple, Parashnath hill etc. .


Book Synopsis Jainism and Jain Architecture by : Ravish Kumar/ B. K. Das

Download or read book Jainism and Jain Architecture written by Ravish Kumar/ B. K. Das and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-01-09 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India is the originator of three principal religion Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Hinduism belief on number of gods, Buddhism belief on Gautam Budha while Jainism Belief on twenty four Tirthankara. The objective of this books is to highlight the basic principal of Jain religion, their ethics and religious evolution in the form of Jain temple Architecture. An attempt have been made to correlate Jainism with the Jain Temple Architecture. A number of monument is existing thorought the country. Some of them with their Architecture features is tried to be incorporated as best example of Jain Architecture for which it is famous in the world. The explanation starts with the kandgiri - udaygiri cave dated about first century B.C. in the form of cave Architecture on the two hills, Khajuraho jain temple, Jal Mandir at Pawapuri, Mana Stambha, samvarsan Temple, Dilwara Temple, Parashnath hill etc. .

Bargaining with a Rising India

Bargaining with a Rising India

Author: Amrita Narlikar

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-03-20

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 0191612057

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The need to negotiate effectively with India is only growing as its power rises. Understanding the negotiating culture wherein India's bargaining behaviour is embedded forms a crucial step to facilitate this process. In the literature on international negotiation, experimental studies point to specific behavioural characteristics of Indian negotiators. Empirical analyses confirm these findings, and many suggest that the sources of India's negotiation behaviour are deep-rooted and culture-specific, going beyond what standard explanations of interest group politics, partisan politics, or institutional politics would suggest. But there are very few works that trace these sources. Extensive sociological and anthropological, and comparative political studies remain confined to their own fields, and do not develop their implications for Indian foreign policy or negotiation. There is a conspicuous lack of works that attempt to unpack the "negotiating culture" variable using literary sources. This book aims to fill both these gaps. It focuses on India's negotiating traditions through the lens of the classical Sanskrit text, the Mahabharata, and investigates the continuities and changes in India's negotiation behaviour as a rising power.


Book Synopsis Bargaining with a Rising India by : Amrita Narlikar

Download or read book Bargaining with a Rising India written by Amrita Narlikar and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-03-20 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The need to negotiate effectively with India is only growing as its power rises. Understanding the negotiating culture wherein India's bargaining behaviour is embedded forms a crucial step to facilitate this process. In the literature on international negotiation, experimental studies point to specific behavioural characteristics of Indian negotiators. Empirical analyses confirm these findings, and many suggest that the sources of India's negotiation behaviour are deep-rooted and culture-specific, going beyond what standard explanations of interest group politics, partisan politics, or institutional politics would suggest. But there are very few works that trace these sources. Extensive sociological and anthropological, and comparative political studies remain confined to their own fields, and do not develop their implications for Indian foreign policy or negotiation. There is a conspicuous lack of works that attempt to unpack the "negotiating culture" variable using literary sources. This book aims to fill both these gaps. It focuses on India's negotiating traditions through the lens of the classical Sanskrit text, the Mahabharata, and investigates the continuities and changes in India's negotiation behaviour as a rising power.

Societies and Military Power

Societies and Military Power

Author: Stephen Peter Rosen

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2019-05-15

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1501744798

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A work with broad implications for theories of comparative strategic behavior and civil-military relations, Societies and Military Power uses the long history of the armies of India as a basis for analyzing whether the character of a given society affects the amount of military power that can be generated by the armies that emerge from that society. By examining the changing relationship between ruling elites in the Indian subcontinent and their armed forces, the book shows that divisions within society are mirrored within the military, even within the contemporary professional military. Stephen Peter Rosen explores the proposition that cultural explanations don't sufficiently account for changes in military power, whereas social structure does. He suggests also that the dynamics of civil-military relations in a non-Western setting are not explicable without social-structural insight. He concludes that the comparative study of strategic behavior and military organization has lacked a sound foundation, which the social-structural explanation offered in this book begins to provide.


Book Synopsis Societies and Military Power by : Stephen Peter Rosen

Download or read book Societies and Military Power written by Stephen Peter Rosen and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-15 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A work with broad implications for theories of comparative strategic behavior and civil-military relations, Societies and Military Power uses the long history of the armies of India as a basis for analyzing whether the character of a given society affects the amount of military power that can be generated by the armies that emerge from that society. By examining the changing relationship between ruling elites in the Indian subcontinent and their armed forces, the book shows that divisions within society are mirrored within the military, even within the contemporary professional military. Stephen Peter Rosen explores the proposition that cultural explanations don't sufficiently account for changes in military power, whereas social structure does. He suggests also that the dynamics of civil-military relations in a non-Western setting are not explicable without social-structural insight. He concludes that the comparative study of strategic behavior and military organization has lacked a sound foundation, which the social-structural explanation offered in this book begins to provide.

The Many Colors of Hinduism

The Many Colors of Hinduism

Author: Carl Olson

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 0813540682

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This is an introductory text providing a balanced view of the rich religious tradition of Hinduism, acknowledging the full range of its many competing and even contradictory aspects.


Book Synopsis The Many Colors of Hinduism by : Carl Olson

Download or read book The Many Colors of Hinduism written by Carl Olson and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an introductory text providing a balanced view of the rich religious tradition of Hinduism, acknowledging the full range of its many competing and even contradictory aspects.

Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights

Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights

Author: Thomas Banchoff

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-03-01

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0199711070

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Are human rights universal or the product of specific cultures? Is democracy a necessary condition for the achievement of human rights in practice? And when, if ever, is it legitimate for external actors to impose their understandings of human rights upon particular countries? In the contemporary context of globalization, these questions have a salient religious dimension. Religion intersects with global human rights agendas in multiple ways, including: whether ''universal'' human rights are in fact an imposition of Christian understandings; whether democracy, the ''rule of the people,'' is compatible with God's law; and whether international efforts to enforce human rights including religious freedom amount to an illicit imperialism. This book brings together leading specialists across disciplines for the first major survey of the religious politics of human rights across the world's major regions, political systems, and faith traditions. The authors take a bottom-up approach and focus particularly on hot-button issues like human rights in Islam, Falun Gong in China, and religion in the former Soviet Union. Each essay examines the interaction of human rights and religion in practice and the challenges they pose for national and international policymakers.


Book Synopsis Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights by : Thomas Banchoff

Download or read book Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights written by Thomas Banchoff and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are human rights universal or the product of specific cultures? Is democracy a necessary condition for the achievement of human rights in practice? And when, if ever, is it legitimate for external actors to impose their understandings of human rights upon particular countries? In the contemporary context of globalization, these questions have a salient religious dimension. Religion intersects with global human rights agendas in multiple ways, including: whether ''universal'' human rights are in fact an imposition of Christian understandings; whether democracy, the ''rule of the people,'' is compatible with God's law; and whether international efforts to enforce human rights including religious freedom amount to an illicit imperialism. This book brings together leading specialists across disciplines for the first major survey of the religious politics of human rights across the world's major regions, political systems, and faith traditions. The authors take a bottom-up approach and focus particularly on hot-button issues like human rights in Islam, Falun Gong in China, and religion in the former Soviet Union. Each essay examines the interaction of human rights and religion in practice and the challenges they pose for national and international policymakers.

Knowledge and Religion in Early Modern Europe

Knowledge and Religion in Early Modern Europe

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-03-22

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 900423148X

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The interplay between knowledge and religion forms a pivotal component of how early modern individuals and societies understood themselves and their surroundings. Knowledge of the self in pursuit of salvation, humanistic knowledge within a confessional education, as well as inherently subversive knowledge acquired about religion(s) offer instructive instances of this interplay. To these are added essays on medical knowledge in its religious and social contexts, the changing role of imagination in scientific thought, the philosophical and political problems of representation, and attempts to counter Enlightenment criteria of knowledge at the end of the period, serving here as multifaceted studies of the dynamics and shifts in sensitivity and stress in the interplay between knowledge and religion within evolving early modern contexts.


Book Synopsis Knowledge and Religion in Early Modern Europe by :

Download or read book Knowledge and Religion in Early Modern Europe written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The interplay between knowledge and religion forms a pivotal component of how early modern individuals and societies understood themselves and their surroundings. Knowledge of the self in pursuit of salvation, humanistic knowledge within a confessional education, as well as inherently subversive knowledge acquired about religion(s) offer instructive instances of this interplay. To these are added essays on medical knowledge in its religious and social contexts, the changing role of imagination in scientific thought, the philosophical and political problems of representation, and attempts to counter Enlightenment criteria of knowledge at the end of the period, serving here as multifaceted studies of the dynamics and shifts in sensitivity and stress in the interplay between knowledge and religion within evolving early modern contexts.

The Bhagavata Purana

The Bhagavata Purana

Author: Ravi Gupta

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2013-04-02

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0231149980

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The Bhāgavata Purāna is a versatile Hindu sacred text containing more than 14,000 Sanskrit verses. Finding its present form around the tenth century C.E., the work inspired several major north Indian devotional traditions as well as schools of dance and drama, and continues to permeate popular Hindu art and ritual in both India and the diaspora.


Book Synopsis The Bhagavata Purana by : Ravi Gupta

Download or read book The Bhagavata Purana written by Ravi Gupta and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bhāgavata Purāna is a versatile Hindu sacred text containing more than 14,000 Sanskrit verses. Finding its present form around the tenth century C.E., the work inspired several major north Indian devotional traditions as well as schools of dance and drama, and continues to permeate popular Hindu art and ritual in both India and the diaspora.