{"title":"Hindu Tradition Series","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"classical-hindu-mythology-a-reader-in-the-sanskrit-puranas","title":"Classical Hindu Mythology","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e The Mahapuranas embody the received tradition of Hindu mythology. This anthology contains fresh translations of these myths, only a few of which have ever been available in English before, thus providing a rich new portion of Hindu mythology. The book is organized into six chapters. \"Origins\" contains myths relating to creation, time, and space. \"Seers, Kings and Supernaturals\" relates tales of rivers, trees, animals, demons, and men, particularly heroes and sages. Myths about the chief gods are dealt with in three separate chapters: Krsna, Visnu, and Siva. The chapter The Goddess presents stories of the wives and lovers of the gods, as well as of Kali, the savage battle goddess. In their introductions, the editors provide a historical setting in which to discuss Hindu mythology as well as a full analysis of its basic sources. The many names are given the original. The editors have provided a thorough glossary to make these names accessible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout The Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eCornelia Dimmitt is an Assistant Professor of Theology at Georgetown University and a Core Faculty Member of the Washington, D.C., Consortium Program in History of Religions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJ.A.B. Van Buttenen Distinguished Service Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Chicago. He is currently translating the full Mahabharata, projected to run eight volumes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003eForeword\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eOf all genres of Sanskrit texts, the Puranas are the most extensive; their combined size is enormous. The amount of academic study they receive is yet not commensurate with this size. Fortunately, recent years have seen increasing academic concern with this textual corpus, and we may be confident that a better understanding of its origin and development will become available in years to come. In spite of this, the Reader prepared by Cornelia Dimmit and J.A.B. Van Buitenen already more than 35 years ago has lost none of its value and utility today. It contains, in English translation, a representative sample of passages from various Puranas, dealing with topics repeatedly dealt with in these texts. An Indian reprint of this work is timely and welcome.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003ePreace\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThere has been a clear need since Heinrich Zimmer's Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization\" for a textbook that would incorporate the classical statements of Hindu mythology, a comprehensive, if not exhaustive, selection of Indian accounts of their own cherished stories. This need has been felt and variously responded to. In recent years R. K. Narayan, in Gods, Demons and Others, t has given an excellent version of his own beloved lore. James Kirk, also with a southern Indian emphasis, has retold some very fine tales in his Stories of the Hindus. In her Hindu Myths, Wendy O'Flaherty has dug more ambitiously into Veda, Epic and Purana with a historical perspective on the vagaries of Hindu mythography In addition, cultural anthropologists have shown more and more interest in the ways little communities relate to a larger network of cultures and even civilizations (\"Great Traditions\"), but their large knowledge about small societies has often found pause before their unfamiliarity with the larger traditions. The historians of Indian art, on the other hand, have built up an architecture of Hindu mythology so magisterial that it has become almost a closed world to the non-specialist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThe authors felt it might be useful to present those who are intrigued by the myths of Indian civilization with representative classical texts. We did not expect to find a single origin for Hindu mythology since sources abound in a variety of media. The Sanskrit Puranas proved particularly useful for our purposes. If their very multitude suggests that there is no single original text for Hindu myths, their common language confirms that there is a single tongue in which their variety was collected. They are not original texts: with every evocative, they make clear that they are told by teachers speaking to students who want to listen. And the very substance of this teaching consists of stories about the gods, or mythology as we understand it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eOf course, the Puranas themselves had their teachers too. The influence of the epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, has been pro- found; and on those teachers, the influence of the Veda is clear, though not always transparent. But we wanted to present the mythology of the Hindu tradition from a period later than the epics, much as it has been received ever since, too often told, perhaps, but miraculously still fresh.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eMoreover, the authors saw no need to duplicate materials that are already available in other translations, notably the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. A Purana reader besides being justifiable in itself has the value of presenting texts not readily available to most people. While tradition ascribed to the Mahabharata a lakh of couplets, or one hundred thousand, to the Puranas it assigns a crore, or ten million. There are translations of some of this material, but not of all the eighteen Great Puranas, let alone the Minor Puranas. Thanks to the generosity of the Kashiraj Trust founded by the Maharaja of Varanasi (Banaras) there are good editions of some of the Puranas; the Visnu and Bhagavata, and to a lesser extent the Markandeya are also well edited. But it cannot be said that the Puranas are an open book even for the specialist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThe sheer mass of the materials imposed limitations on us. We had no intention of reproducing the contents of any single Purana, because each one includes, in addition to mythology a wealth of didactic, legal and moralistic material. In fact, their encyclopedic aspirations cover the breadth of human knowledge for their place and time. In making our selections, we have used the Puranas most popular in the Hindu tradition itself; our chief sources have been the Visnu, Markandeya, Bhagavata, Matsya, Vamana and Karma, and to a lesser extent the Brahmavaivarta, Siva and Garuda. With such an abundance of riches to choose from, the choice on occasion became simply a matter of balance. We could have used the Bhagavata more extensively on Krsna, for example, but since that text has been translated and anthologized often, the Visnu and Brahmavaivarta accounts seemed preferable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eWe intend this book as a reader. Hence we have felt our responsibility to its readers quite strongly Even though tempted we have tried not to interpose a private interpretation between the text and its users. The introductions before each section seek mostly to describe and give guidance to the reader, whom, oratorically, we presume to know very little. We hope to be forgiven for stating the obvious.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThere are some cautions. Some of the Sanskrit text editions used are quite good; some are very poor. While we have attempted to render our texts accurately, there were times when the texts failed us, and an emendation was necessary. The specialist will readily discern the course we have chosen. At the beginning of certain selections, we have sometimes extended the sense of the text in the translation, to facilitate transitions between fragments. And although pleading the exigencies of space is poor justice, at times we have shortened stories because the alternative was to select a shorter but poorer version; the couplets omitted are indicated in the Notes on Sources. Contrariwise, we have not stinted on the variety of names attributed to a single deity, for homogenization here would have impoverished the rich fabric of identities in which each one is clothed. A Glossary of names will, we hope, assist the reader.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003ePractically all the Puranas are composed in a meter called sloka which consists of thirty-two syllables, half of which are free. It is a very easy meter that is best translated into English prose. In the case of a number of cultural terms the English translations can only be approximations. Where even approximations would not do we have kept the Sanskrit word and have explained it either in a footnote or in the Glossary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eWhile both authors stand behind the whole book, the reader needs to know the division of labour between them. The initiative for the book was taken by Cornelia Dimmitt, who located and selected the texts, and who is largely responsible for the content of the introductions. The translation itself has been wholly collaborative.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eAn ordered universe is established in the cosmogonic and cosmological myths of the Puranas. Symmetrical in space and time, it supports the social order and values of early Indian society. It is a grand and complex vision, assembled in the course of a long oral tradition, and it synthesizes an entire collection of stories about the origin of the world. As presented in the Puranas, this vision is the foundation of what has become, in the years since their compilation, the Hindu view of the origins and nature of the world in space and time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThere is no single creation myth to be found in the Puranas, but rather a blend of several alternative views of the origins of the cosmos. From the interweaving of various themes, there has been fashioned a complex and almost wholly integrated vision of the primal emergence of phenomenal forms from formless potential. The blending together of different creation myths has been ingeniously and creatively if not always consistently, accomplished. And the at- tempt to reconcile apparently different views of the creative process reveals a distinguishing feature of Puranic style as a whole, perhaps of Hindu thought as a whole: a preference for the synthesis of disparate views into a larger whole rather than the rejection of apparently dissident elements in favour of a single view considered to be exclusively true.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eWhat are the major themes so interwoven in Puranic accounts of world creation? The awakening of Visnu that starts the creative process; a primal egg that contains the universe; the dual principles of Prakrti and Purusa, whose interaction brings about the emergence of phenomena; and the pouring forth of forms from the various parts of the body of an anthropomorphically conceived deity, either Brahma, Purusa or Visnu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003ePerhaps the most prominent creation motif centres on the god Visnu in the form called Narayana (often interpreted to mean \"lying in the waters\"). In the waters, or cosmic ocean which conceals all phenomena in potential sleeps the god resting on a serpent named Ananta, \"endless,\" or Sesa, \"remainder,\" in the positive sense of survivor. The deity is understood to be represented in all three elements of the myth: waters, snake and sleeping god. It is his substance and power that lies at the source of all creation. How then does creative activity proceed from this somnolent scene? The active agent in creation is identified as the god Brahma, who himself derives from Visnu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIn a process reminiscent in a peculiar way of human birth, perhaps a masculine image of bodily reproduction, a lotus grows out of the sleeping Visnu's navel, a lotus that holds within it the god Brahma from whose body subsequently pours forth all the elements of creation as emanations from his own substance. Creation is presented in this myth as the successive appearance of phenomenal forms from within the body of a god, first Visnu, then Brahma, in whom they have lain previously in potentiality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eA second significant motif is that of a golden egg sometimes depicted as self-existent, sometimes the product of Prakrti and Purusa, and sometimes itself the abode of Brahma, the active creator god. This egg rests on the waters of the universal ocean \"swollen with beings\" (Mark. 42.64), all phenomena contained within it, awaiting birth. An analogy with birth from the egg is drawn in various descriptive passages. In \"The Cosmic Egg\" it is the human (or animal) fetal sac that is identified with the mountains, the amniotic fluid with the oceans and rivers of the earth. From this self-arisen egg, the world is produced. And the active agency of its production is identified as the god Brahma, who effects creation by breaking open the egg in the beginning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eA third creation theme involves the cooperation of two eternal elements, Prakrti and Purusa. While these terms take on a philosophical significance elsewhere in Indian tradition, in numerous Puranic passages their creative function is more mythologically pictured. It is hard to avoid the impression (in \"Prakrti and Purusa,\" for example) that the two together produce the egg whose contents are the universe and that they do so in a process like the corning together of sperm (Purusa) and egg (Prakrti) in the conception of human or animal life. In this passage the egg so produced is not broken open to reveal emergent life; instead, it appears that the physical universe of seven concentric spheres of material is located within the unbroken egg, whose invisible motivation is Purusa and whose material substance is Prakrti, both eternal. The whole creation as man knows it, with \"gods, demons, men, islands and so forth, oceans and the entire aggregate of celestial lights\" (Mark. 42.67), i.e. man's perceptual world, continues to exist within this surrounding egg.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eA complex synthesis of the notions of Brahma as an active creative agent along with Prakrti and Purusa as cooperative creators is found in \"The Origin and Nature of Time.\" And here we also find another recurrent theme or major premise of these creation myths: that creation is always recreation, that the cosmos which emerges into existence periodically dissolves into potentiality, and then reemerges into actuality in a cycle that has no beginning and will have no end. The process of the pouring forth of forms eventually reverses itself, and all phenomena are reabsorbed into potentiality: the dissolution of all forms is the inevitable consequence of their manifestation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eEach of these creation themes, then, finds resolution in a corresponding mode of dissolution. Two major modes of dissolution are implied. As Visnu, via Brahma, ceases his inactivity and arises to create, or more literally, to pour forth forms, so Visnu as Rudra or Siva in an excess of activity brings about the furious destruction of all forms and their dissolution back again into the cosmic sea.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIn different terms, Prakrti and PUfU1?a, who in cooperation produce the world, also permit the quiescence and reabsorption of all forms. \"When this whole world goes to dissolution in Prakrti, then it is said by the learned to be reabsorbed into its original nature\" (Mark. 43.3). Just as Brahma is the creative agent for Visnu, so the three gunas, or qualities, like the interwoven strands of a cord, are the agents by which the material world of forms and activity comes forth from the primal interactions of Prakrti and Purusa. In \"The Origin and Nature of Time\" these two themes are combined with each other. Prakrti is agitated, aroused to creative activity through Purusa; then rajas, the quality of passion, in the form of the god Brahma creates the world; sattva, the quality of tranquillity, in the form of the god Visnu supports and protects creation; and tamas, or darkness, in the form of the god Siva (Rudra or Hara) destroys the world. And these three strands of the created web of the world hold within themselves the inevitability of their own dissolution. When they separate once again into their constituent threads, the world no longer hangs together. Note that in both the myth involving Visnu and that which involves Prakrti and Purusa, creation and the created world is pictured in terms of activity; dissolution and the reabsorption of forms are depicted in terms of sleep or complete inactivity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eAnother motif that forms a contributing part of all of the foregoing themes is the literal emergence from, or identification of the forms of the material world with, the body of a god. Both Brahms and Purusa, in different passages, perform this function of substantial cause. In both cases, the human body is the model for creative emanation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIn \"The Origin of the World from Brahma,\" Brahma's breath, head, heart and so forth give rise to the famous seven seers variously identified with the promulgators of the Veda and with the stars of the Little Dipper; demons arise from his buttocks, gods from his face, sheep come from his breast, goats from his mouth, cows from his stomach, horses from his feet and so on; from his four mouths arise the meters, hymns and prayers of the Vedic sacrifices. In \"Purusa, the Cosmic Person\" the four castes derive from Purusa's body; the seven levels of heaven are located in his upper body; and the seven netherworlds in his lower parts. In both cases, it appears that, in a manner similar to that of the cosmic egg, the body of the god continually supports these elements of the universe. This is an ongoing creative activity, not one affected and completed in a past primal scene. Evidently continuing the view of the Rg Vedic hymn X.90, where the cosmos in all its parts is arranged in the body of a deity, this vision remains a powerful image throughout Puranic times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eWhat specific phenomena emerge from these various creations? Three categories of things are described at length: the shape of physical space including heavenly, underworldly and earthly geography, the divisions of time, and the conditions of social and ritual life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTime\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eAn extraordinary vision of the passage of time, from the smallest wink of an eye to the vast length of the lifetime of the creator god Brahma-12,000 thousands of divine years, each of which equals 360 human years, for a total of 4,320,000,000 human years-is depicted in the Puranas. Cosmic existence is equated not only with the body of the god spatially but temporally as well. The universe endures as long as the god lives, then dies as he dies; a periodic dissolution of all forms coincides with the ending of Brahma's life. \"Brahma, the golden embryo, the origin of the gods, without beginning so to speak, resting in the calyx of the world lotus, was born in the beginning. His life span is one hundred years ...\" (Mark. 43.22). The reckoning of this life-span, however, is exceedingly complex; it amounts to a series of superimposed calendars including daily, weekly, yearly and cosmically patterned calculations. This complicated scheme comprises the temporal conditions under which all created beings (gods, demons, humankind and others) live. And within this scheme can be discerned at least three distinct organizing principles. Just as various discrete creation motifs have been superimposed on the mythical vision of original creation, so have several temporal systems been more or less effectively harmonized with each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003eContents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ctable width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd width=\"25%\"\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd width=\"65%\"\u003ePreface\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd width=\"10%\"\u003exiii\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Puranas: An Introduction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e3\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1 Origin\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e15\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Origin of Brahma from the Lotus in Visnu's Novel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e30\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePrakrti and Purusa\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e31\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Cosmic Egg\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e32\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Origin of the World from Brahma\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e32\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Four Heads of Brahma\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e34\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePurusa, the Cosmic Person\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e35\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Origin and Nature of Time\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e36\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Four Age\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e38\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Kali Age\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e41\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Dissolution of the World in Visnu\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e41\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Dissolution into Prakrti and Purusa\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e43\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Shape of Space\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e45\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Seven Heavens\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e46\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Seven Netherworlds\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e48\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Hells\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e49\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Regions of Earth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e52\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Origin of the Seers and the Manus\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e55\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Manvantaras\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e57\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2 Visnu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e59\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Four Forms of Visnu\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e66\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Twelve Avatiiras of Visnu\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e67\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Twenty-Two Avatiiras of Visnu\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e68\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Avatiiras of Visnu and the Story of\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e69\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAnasuya 69 Matsya, the Fish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e71\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKurma, the Tortoise\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e74\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVaraha, the Boar\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e75\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNarasimha, the Man-Lion\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e76\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAditi and the Birth of Vamana, the Dwarf\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e79\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVamana, the Dwarf, and Bali\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e80\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eParasurama, Rarna with the Axe\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e82\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRama in the Ramayana\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e85\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKrsna in the Mahabharata\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e88\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVaikuntha, Visnu's Celestial City\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e90\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSudarsana, Visnu's Discus\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e91\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBali and Sudarsana, the Discus\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e93\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Churning of the Ocean\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e94\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVisnu and Sri:\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e98\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e3 Krsna\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e100\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eChildhood\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Conception of Krsna\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e106\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Birth of Krsna\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e109\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePutana, the Child-Killer\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e111\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Naughty Children Rama and Krsna: the Move to Vrndavana\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e112\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKaliya, the Snake\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e114\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMount Govardhana\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e116\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConversation with the Cowherds\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e117\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eYouth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKrsna and Radha\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e118\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Theft of the Clothes\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e122\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Rasalila Dance\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e124\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRadha and the Dance\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e127\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Departure of Krsna\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e130\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKamsa\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Plotting of Kamsa\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e131\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Invitation to Rarna and Krsna\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e132\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Hunchbacked Girl\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e133\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Death of Kamsa\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e134\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAdulthood\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Building of Dvaraka\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e138\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Longing of the Cowherd Women for Krsna\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e139\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Abduction of Rukmini\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e140\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePradyurnna and the Fish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e141\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe End of the Yadavas\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e142\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e4 Siva\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e147\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Origin of Rudra, the Howler\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e155\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Birth of Parvati\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e157\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Test of Parvati's Tapas\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e161\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Betrothal of Siva and\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e164\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Wedding of Siva and Parvati\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e167\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDaksa's Insult\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e171\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Destruction of Daksa's Sacrifice\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e174\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCanesa\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e179\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKarttikeya\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e185\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSukra 188\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e188\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Burning of Tripura\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e189\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSunartaka the Dancer\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e198\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Tandava Dance of Siva\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e200\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Dance of Siva in the Sky\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e202\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Sages of the Pine Forest\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e203\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBrahma, Visnu, and the Linga of Siva\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e205\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Skull-Bearer\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e206\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKamadeva, the God of Love\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e209\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Illusions of Siva\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e212\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Weapons of Siva\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e213\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Origin of Women\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e215\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHari-Hara\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e216\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e5 The Goddess\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e219\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Blazing Tower of Splendor\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e227\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSiva and Sakti; the Great Goddess\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e229\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Demons Madhu and Kaitabha\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e232\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Origin of the Goddess from the Gods\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e233\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Death of Mahisa, the Buffalo Demon\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e237\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Birth of Kali and the Final Battle 238\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e238\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBhadrakali and the Thieves\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e240\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSarasvati and King Navaratha\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e241\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e6 Seers, Kings and Supernaturals\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e243\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSeers\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarkandeya and the Cosmic Ocean\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e253\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNarada\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e256\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKandu\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e258\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSuk;a and Kaca\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e262\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAgastya and Vasistha\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e265\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVasistha and Visvamitra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e266\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eKings\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePrthu and the Milking of the Earth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e268\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIla and Sudyumna\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e269\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePururavas and Urvasi\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e271\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHariscandra and His Son\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e273\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHariscandra and Visvam\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e274\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePariksit\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e286\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eYayati\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e288\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVidiiratha\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e292\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSaubhari\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e295\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSakuntala\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e297\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVedic Gods and Demons\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Mandehas at Twilight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e298\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Battle between the Gods and Demons\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e299\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIndra and Vrtra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e303\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDadhici's Bones\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e306\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDiti and the Maruts\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e307\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Seers' Wives\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e308\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSoma\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e310\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePrahlada and Hiranyakasipu\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e312\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIndra and the Ants\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e320\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRivers and Sacred Fords\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Descent of the Ganges River\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e322\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Hermitage of Atri\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e323\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe River Sarasvati and Kuruksetra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e327\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe River Yamuna\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e329\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Virtue of Varanasi\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e330\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVaranasi and the Yaksa\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e331\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Pilgrimage of Siva to Varanasi\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e334\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCaya\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e336\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePrayaga\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e337\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSupernatural\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Fathers\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e340\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eThe Mothers\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e342\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGaruda\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e345\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDenizens of the Netherworlds\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e347\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGlossary\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e351\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNotes on Sources\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e361\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBibliography of Sanskrit Puranas\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e365\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIndex\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e367\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cornelia Dimmitt, J. A. B. Van Buttenen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41278109810826,"sku":"","price":800.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8583\/1818\/products\/CLASSICALHINDUMYTHOLOGY.jpg?v=1661237176"},{"product_id":"engaged-emancipation-mind-morals-and-make-believe-in-the-moksopaya-yogavasistha","title":"Engaged Emancipation","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eA wide-ranging analysis of the Moksopaya, the Indian literary classic that teaches through storytelling how to enjoy an active, successful, worldly life in a spiritually enlightened way. In the Moksopaya (also known as the Yogavasistha), an eleventh-century Sanskrit poetic text, the great Vedic philosopher Vasi ha counsels his young protégé Lord Rama about the ways of the world through sixty-four stories designed to bring Rama from ignorance to wisdom. Much beloved, this work reflects the philosophy of Kashmir Saivism. Precisely because all worldly pursuits are dreamlike and fiction-like, the human soul must first come to an experience of non-dualistic, mind-only metaphysics, and after attaining this wisdom, promote moral activism. Engaged Emancipation is a wide-ranging consideration of this work and the philosophical and spiritual questions it addresses by philosophers, Sanskritists, and scholars of religion, literature, and science. Contributors allow readers to walk with Rama as his melancholy and angst transform into connectivity, peace, and spiritual equipoise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eCHRISTOPHER KEY CHAPPLE is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University. He is the author or editor of many books, including Yoga and the Luminous: Pataiijali's Spiritual Path to Freedom and Reconciling Yoga: Haribhadra's Collection of View on Yoga, both also published by SUNY Press.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eARINDAM CHAKRABARTI is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa. His books include Mahabharata Now: Narration, Aesthetics, Ethics (coedited with Sibaji Bandyopadhyaya).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Christopher Key Chapple, Arindam Chakraborti","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41556691419274,"sku":"","price":600.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8583\/1818\/products\/ENGAGEDEMANCIPATION.jpg?v=1660387022"},{"product_id":"viraha-bhakti-the-early-history-of-krsna-devotion","title":"Viraha Bhakti","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHardbound Edition (716 Pgs.)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout The Book:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThe Lord Krsna abandoned his earthly mistresses who then spent their days of separation pining for his return. This powerful theme found expression not only in myth but also in the devotion and poetry of a religious culture which evolved in South India. From the fifth century A.D., the Tamils absorbed many elements from the classical traditions of the North, such as yoga, temple worship and Krsna myths, and the results were unique blends of the two civilizations. Viraha-bhakti, as the author styles this type of Krsna religion, imbued the theme of separation with erotic and ecstatic features and evolved as one of the highlights of Indian religion and culture. The present work is a detailed study of the multifarious origins of Viraha-bhakti in South India and its developments up to the point at which it entered the pan-Indian scene.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThe study suggests a revision of the monolithic image of Indian religion implied in much scholarly literature. It differentiates a great variety of interacting traditions and milieux and demonstrates the dynamism of Indian culture. By identifying a specific type of religion and reflecting on its significance, the author attempts, at the same time, to go beyond purely textual and historical considerations. Thus the book will be of interest to any student of Indian religion and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author(s):\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\" style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eFriedhelm Hardy (1943-2004), was a Professor of Indian Religions at Kings College, London. He was a linguist familiar with both classical and modern Indian languages. He was also the author of the prominent work The Religious Culture of India: Power, Love and Wisdom.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Friedhelm Hardy","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41644085870730,"sku":"","price":1450.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8583\/1818\/products\/VIRAHABHAKTI.jpg?v=1660736194"},{"product_id":"the-hindu-rite-of-entry-into-heaven-and-other-essays-on-death-and-ancestors-in-hinduism","title":"The Hindu Rite of Entry into Heaven","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThis book comprises a smorgasboard of essays on death, dying, funeral rituals, ancestor ceremonies, ghosts, and other subjects in the realm of Mrityu, the god of Death, and aparam, the Sanskrit and Telugu word for human End Time. The focus stretches from the Rg Veda to present-day Hinduism, textual and non-textual. The title of the book is that of the first essay, an ethnographic and Vedic\/ Classical Sanskrit textual study of the sapinda ritual that occurs on the twelfth day of a full-scale, textually accurate funeral. That field work was accomplished during a year-long study of funeral rituals in Varanasi, the ancient city of Kasi where it is most auspicious for Hindus to die and be cremated in a final sacrifice of the body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eAbout the Author(s)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eDavid M. Knipe, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is author of Vedic Voices: Intimate Narratives of a Living Andhra Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press 2015), Hinduism: Experiments in the Sacred, and other books, encyclopedia and journal articles. His educational television series of 15 programs, Exploring the Religions of South Asia, is in use in hundreds of universities, colleges, and museums.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"David M. Knipe","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42665518039178,"sku":"","price":875.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8583\/1818\/products\/HINDURITEOFENTRYINTOHEAVEN.jpg?v=1672915861"},{"product_id":"the-mahabharata-and-greek-mythology","title":"The Mahabharata and Greek Mythology","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eAfter the arrival of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, India was in permanent relation with the Mediterranean world. When Rome conquered Egypt and took a special interest in the routes to India, the subcontinent and its inhabitants played a key role as an economic and cultural reference in a globalized world stretching from Western Europe and North Africa to China. In an Indian scenario full of ideological and religious pluralism, interactions, learning and creations, adaptation of new concepts and technological and artistic transfer were an essential part of the emerging cultural and social realities. This book, based on a previous publication in Spanish, defends that in the Mahabharata-one of the most profound, captivating and richest stories of human history and, without a doubt, the most vivid of the world's epics-Greek mythological and epic materials were systematically employed. The employment of these materials by no means takes away from the work's authenticity, instead quite the contrary. The work was no doubt original, new and loaded with significance for the society that gave it birth, for those societies which follow, and to those which, by no accident, the work helped to shape. The acceptance of the intelligent and creative use of Greek materials in the Mahabharata to cover specific artistic and ideological goals does not imply any demerit for their author or authors. On the contrary, it is merely the discovery of an unknown facet of its genius.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCultural contacts between India and the Hellenistic world have interested scholars virtually from the beginning of modern Indology. This interest has at present almost come to a standstill. Scholars may be willing to consider Indian influence on the Mediterranean world and elsewhere (Buddhism, for example, spread far and wide outside India), but frown upon influence in the opposite direction. Indologists tend to look upon India as an isolated culture, and try to\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eunderstand its different features as the results of indigenous developments. The presence of\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHellenistic elements in Indian astronomy, or in early Buddhist art, is reluctantly accepted, but\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eattempts to see Hellenistic influence on the Indian theatre, or on Indian philosophy, are rejected or reasoned away.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAnd yet, the relationship between India and the Hellenistic world was not symmetrical. There\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003enever was an Indian political entity in or near the Mediterranean, but there was a strong Greek\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003epolitical presence right next to, and to some extent on the Indian subcontinent during the formative period of classical Indian culture. And the end of a Greek political presence did not signal the end of a Greek cultural presence. Emperor Asoka used Greek in some of his inscriptions, and Greek was still used many centuries later, for example on Kusana coins. Seen this way, it would be surprising if Greek culture had not exerted an influence on classical Indian culture.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe present book takes up the question where other scholars had left, or rather abandoned, it. As\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eits title indicates, it focuses on the influence of Greek mythology on the Mahabharata. The Iliad\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ein particular has many themes in common with the Mahabharata, so much so that influence from the\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eformer on the latter is, in the opinion of its author,beyond doubt. Obviously this claim will have to be examined by other specialists, but it is equally clear that it cannot be discarded lightly. If accepted, this claim will have a bearing on Indian studies in general, more in particular on Mahabharata studies, and most specifically on the vexed question of the composition of this text.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fernando Wulff Alonso, Andrew Morrow","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42671256010890,"sku":"","price":1450.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8583\/1818\/products\/MAHABHARATAANDGREEKMYTHOLOGY.jpg?v=1673259407"},{"product_id":"india-and-the-hellenistic-world","title":"India and the Hellenistic World","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThe author has planned Graeco-Indian relations throughout their history in three volumes. According to this India in Early Greek Literature is the first volume, and present volume, India and the Hellenistic World is second, while third volume is India and the Roman West . In the first volume the author has discussed the Greek accounts of India and the relations between India and Greece until Alexander’s Indian campaign. Later authors, like Megasthenes, were mentioned only when their information was relevant for this purpose. In present volume focus is on the Hellenistic period in the narrow sense of the word, from Alexander to the rise of Roman Imperial hegemony.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThe main object is to collect, explain and discuss the relevant passage in Greek and Latin literature in their relation to Greek and Roman society and literary traditions as well as to then existing information about India and other Asian countries, in some cases Africa too. The methods are philological, but author has also made an earnest attempt to find out and utilize the new evidence offered by such disciplines as archaeology, epigraphy, and numismatics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eKLAUS KARTTUNEN (born 12\" February, 1951) is the Professor of South Asian and Indo-European Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has specialised in the relations between the Indian subcontinent and the western world, particularly the classical antiquity of the Greek and Roman sources. Another major interest of Karttunen is the history of Indology and of Oriental Studies at large — he has already published in Finnish a major book on the latter subject and is preparing a bio-bibliography of deceased Indologists. Karttunen has taken part in Parpola's Samavedic research program and is preparing an edition of a Jaiminisamaprayoga, a medieval handbook of domestic rituals in Sanskrit belonging to the Tamil Jaiminiiya school.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eHis publications include, Short Sanskrit Grammar (1984), India in Early Greek Literature (1989), Humor in Ancient India: Three playlet (2000), Vidyavavandanam: Essays in Honour of Asko Parpola (edited with Asko Parpola, 2001), Rigveda : Ancient Indian Selection of Hymns (2003), and History of Indological Studies (edited volume of 12th WSC papers, MLBD, 2015).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003ePREFACE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIn 1989, when I published my doctoral dissertation, entitled \/ndia in Early Greek Literature I had no clear idea as to how exactly I would go on with my Graeco-Indian studies. Soon enough, however, I decided to go on where I had stopped, chronologically, and discuss Graeco-Indian relations throughout their history. In this plan, India in Early Greek Literature is the first volume, and now I present volume Two, India and the Hellenistic World. In the first volume I have discussed the Greek accounts of India and the relations between India and Greece until Alexander’s Indian campaign. Later authors, like Megasthenes, were mentioned only when their information was relevant for this purpose. This time my focus is on the Hellenistic period in the narrow sense of the word, from Alexander to the rise of Roman Imperial hegemony. I am presently working on volume Three, India and the Roman West, which I hope to be able to conclude within a few years. If all goes well a fourth volume on late Antiquity will conclude the series. A side issue of this is a separate volume dealing with the Yonas and Yavanas (both originally signifying Greeks) in Indian literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThe main object of my plan is to collect, explain and discuss the relevant passages in Greek and Latin literature in their relation to Greek and Roman society and literary traditions as well as to the then existing information about India and other Asian countries, in some cases Africa too. My methods are philological, but I have also made an earnest attempt to find out and utilize the new evidence offered by such disciplines as archaeology, epigraphy, and numismatics. The importance of the new finds in Central Asia\/Afghanistan\/Pakistan, in South India\/Sri Lanka, and to a lesser degree in Egypt is so great that it cannot be ignored even in a philological study. I can only beg the pardon of specialists in these fields — many of whom have actually been very helpful — if I have blundered somewhere because of my ignorance of some finer points of methodology. Often I have had to give in to the sheer impossibility of keeping strict chronological boundaries. We are not always able to decide what belongs to the Hellenistic (in the narrow sense) or the Roman period, or both, and there is some necessary overlapping between the present volume and the future book about Rome. This can be seen especially in chapters IV and V, where all information culled from the literature of the Roman period has been included and only late authors like Cosmas are deemed too late. Reviewers are welcome to reproach me, but this seemed to be the only reasonable course of action. After all. much of what has been said e.g. by Pliny and Aelianus without any reference to the source, clearly hails from the Hellenistic period, but here too it is impossible to draw a clear boundary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eOf course, I could have modified my title in order to make it correspond more closely to all the chapters of the book, but then I would probably have ended up with something very complicated. And though some critics seem to appreciate it, J do not like to return to the colophon-like titles of many lines in length that were used in the 16th century (when they actually represented the first phase in an evolution from mediaeval colophon to modem title). And even allowing myself these slips from strict chronology, I shall have enough interesting questions to discuss in the next book, India and the Roman West. To balance the two volumes I have also left the vexed question of possible influences or interaction in the sphere of philosophy and religion to the next volume. Those colleagues who would like to know my opinion as to whether Scepticism was influenced by Indian philosophy, or Pasupata by Greek philosophy, will thus have to wait.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eA large part of this work was written in Freiburg in Germany, where I had the opportunity to spend two periods, in 1991\/92 and 1994\/95 as an Alexander von Hum- boldt scholarship holder. My deepest thanks go therefore to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. They not only financed my stay in Germany, but were ready to help in many kinds of material problems connected with my work. The rest of the work has been financed by the Finnish Academy. From January 1994 I have been a full-time Research Fellow of the Academy and in this position J am also able to continue with the next volume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eNext my thanks are due to my generous host in Freiburg, Professor O. von Hiniiber, who has, in addition to the free use of his Department and personal library, read a large part of a preliminary version of the manuscript and offered very valuable comments. Especially I have benefited from his profound knowledge of MIA. Some parts of this book and related matters I have been able to discuss in guest lecture (in Cracow, Gothenburg, Groningen, Halle, Lyons, Naples, Rome, St. Petersburg, Stockholm), in sessions of the South Asian Archaeology Conferences (in Berlin, Helsinki and Cambridge) and in the Finnish Society of Classical Philology, and I have often re- ceived valuable comments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eA great number of colleagues have sent me their publications or given their advice. Especially I should like to mention here U. P. Arora (Bareilly), O. Bopearachchi (Paris), P. Callieri (Rome and Bologna), M. R. Cimino (Rome), P. Daffina (Rome), A. Dihle (Heidelberg), H. Falk (Berlin), E. Garzilli (Perugia), T. Marszewski (Cracow), H. P. Ray (Delhi), J. Sachse (Wroclaw), J.-F. Salles (Lyons), R. Salomon (Seattle), F. F. Schwarz (Graz), M. Taddei (Rome and Naples), and D. P. E. Weerakkody (Peradeniya). My thanks can no longer reach P. H. L. Eggermont (1914-1995).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eWithout the help of J. Vasil’kov (St.Petersburg) and A. Vigasin (Moscow) several important Russian contributions would have been missing from my sources. Special mention must also be made of J.-F. Salles for offering a preprint of De Romanis’ book, and of Stefan Faller (Freiburg), who helped greatly with sources concerning Sri Lanka. It was with hesitation that I wrote my chapter about Sri Lanka as I know that both Mr. Faller’s dissertation and Dr. Weerakkody’s monograph on the subject will be appearing shortly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eI must also thank my friends Bertil Tikkanen and Martti Leiwo for talking and listening. I have often obtained wider perspectives in the meetings of the Finnish Society of the History of Learning. Mr. Pertti Seppala has kindly helped me to quote uniformly in the Pinyin system the few Chinese names mentioned, and my brother, Krister Karttunen, has checked numerous botanical names for chapter V.1. Michael Cox, Lic. Theol., has kindly checked and patiently corrected my English and in addition offered his advice about the few Hebrew words discussed by me. Finally I must express my deepest thanks to my wife Tuula, and my two sons, Einar and Reino. While for me the work often involved so much fun and enjoyment, they could only see the hard side of it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Klaus Karttunen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42933310423178,"sku":"","price":1000.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8583\/1818\/files\/IndiaandtheHellensticWorld.jpg?v=1684156239"},{"product_id":"hindu-mythology-and-the-critique-of-sacrifice-the-head-beneath-the-altar","title":"Hindu Mythology and The Critique of Sacrifice","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eHindu Mythology and The Critique of Sacrifice\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Head Beneath the Altar\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIn the beginning, says the ancient Hindu text the Rig Veda, was man. And from man's sacrifice and dismemberment came the entire world, including the hierarchical ordering of human society. The book presents a wide-ranging study of Hindu texts read through the lens of Rene Girard's mimetic theory of the sacrificial origin of religion and culture. For those interested in Girard and comparative religion, the book also performs a careful reading of Girard's work, drawing connections between his thought and the work of theorists like Georges Dumez11 and Girogio Agamben. Brian Collins examines the idea of sacrifice from the earliest recorded rituals through the flowering of classical mythology and the ancient Indian institutions of the duel, the oath, and the secret warrior society. He also uncovers implicit and explicit critiques in the tradition, confirming Girard's intuition that Hinduism offers an alternative anti-sacrificial worldview to the one contained in the gospels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\"In this lucid and vividly written book, Collins illuminates his analysis of violence and sacrifice in Hinduism with a highly original concept of the meaning of violence and sacrifice more generally. Building on works by (and against) Rene Girard, he shows what a more nuanced Girardian theory would look like bases upon Hindu rather than Christian data.\" -WENDY DONIGER\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\"Collins ably reviews and succinctly assesses that vast heritage or Indian thinking on the sacrifice, attending to both indigenous and Western scholarly sources. This resultant study both honors Girard's many contributions and, with respect to the Indian context, pushes beyond them. It greatly widens, beyond the Christian West, our necessary conversation about religion, violence, and the heritage of sacrifice in today's global web of religious and secular societies.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003eForeword\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe writings of Rene Girard have been and remain a challenge and source of inspiration for scholars of sacrifice and of violence in religion. Unfortunately, Girard did not write much about India, in spite of its rich and well-documented sacrificial tradition. Girard's ideas have therefore not received the attention they deserve among scholars of Indian religions. This may change with Brian Collins' book, which presents a well-informed yet critical analysis of Indian religious practices in the light of Girard's theory. We can only hope that this book will open up new horizons in the study of Indian religion.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\u003ccenter\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI wander afield, thriving in sturdy thought, Through unlatched haunts of the Pie rides, Trodden by step of none before. I joy To come on undefiled fountains there, To drain them deep; I joy to pluck new flowers, To seek for this my head a signal crown From regions where the Muses never yet Have garlanded the temples of a man: First, since I teach concerning mighty things, And go right on to loose from round the mind The tightened coils of dread religion; Next, since, concerning themes so dark, I frame Songs so pellucid, touching all throughout ... -Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, Book I, \"The Infinity of the Universe\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eIndia is the birthplace of the religious traditions of Buddhism, Hindu-ism, Jainism, and Sikhism. It has served as a pilgrimage place and source of spiritual renewal for Chinese monks in the fifth century, Tibetan royalty in the tenth century, and the Western counterculture since at least the early twentieth century. India's gift to the world, in the words of the nineteenth century Hindu reformer Swami Vivekananda, is religion.' But India is also the site of some of the last century's worst episodes of violent conflict, including the bloody 1947 partition of India and Pakistan and the successive wars between the two nations over the next 2.5 years; the political murders of Mahatma Gandhi (by a Hindu), India Gandhi (by her Sikh bodyguards), and Rajiv Gandhi (by a Tamil separatist); the deadliest man-made ecological disaster in history at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in 1985; the periodic outbreaks of communal violence against Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians; and the nuclear armament of India and Pakistan. Religion, in addition to India's gift to the world, is also often the scapegoat for India's violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eHindu mythology reflects this mixture of otherworldly spiritualism and worldly violence. Like most mythologies, it is full of images of cosmic wars, apocalyptic destruction, and tragic heroes. But it is also the repository of as many stories about courtly love, self-sacrifice, ethical quandaries, and sophisticated philosophical edifices to rival (or even surpass) Augustine and Aquinas. And unlike Greek or Scandinavian mythology, Hindu mythology is also connected to a living religious tradition and helps to define the religious identity of hundreds of millions of Hindus. As scholars of Hinduism have learned, one is far more likely to draw protests when writing about Ganega or Siva than when writing about Loki or Aphrodite. Indeed, as we shall see, scholars of Hindu mythology have recently found themselves enmeshed or implicated in India's religious conflicts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eMany books have been written about the violence of religion, the religions of India, and the violence of the religions of India. But Rene Girard, who has spent the last four decades thinking and writing about religion and violence, has had virtually nothing to say about it until his lectures on the Sanskrit Brahmanas at the Bibliotheque nationale de France in October of zoo\/. This book will make a study of those lectures, published in English in zoxi as Sacrifice, in light of the rest of Girard's work, current Ideological scholarship, and primary texts from the Hindu tradition. Along the way, we will also visit the work of Girard's predecessors, heirs, rivals, and critics, examine some well-known and some frequently overlooked Hindu myths and rituals, and take some sidelong glances into Christian theology, contemporary philosophy, and Greek, Iranian, and Scandinavian literature. In the end, we will come to some conclusions about what it means for him and for us that Girard has finally turned to India so late in his long and distinguished career and how a Girardian reading of Hindu myth might contribute to a new universal history built on humanity's shared future rather than its dif-fused pasts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom Mimetic Theory to Hinduism..\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThis book has two separate but related aims. First, I want to see to what extent Rene Girard's \"mimetic theory\" of the sacrificial origin of religion and culture can enrich our understanding of Hinduism. More specifically, I am interested in using Girard's theory and the hypotheses it engenders to under-stand what is happening in Indian myth and ritual between 5oo B.C.E. and 500 C.E., a time frame roughly covering the periods of religious development that Axel Michaels calls the epochs of \"Vedic Religions,\" \"Ascetic Reform-ism,\" and \"Classical Hinduism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eThis is a rather large stretch of history that covers some significant changes, including the development of the Indian state, the successive rise and fall of Hindu and Buddhist empires, and cultural impact from Central Asian newcomers. But this book is about Hindu myth, not Indian history. While I will be referring to historical events occasionally to provide context, my primary mode of analysis will be textual, not historical, proceeding from Brian K. Smith's argument that \"Hinduism is the religion of those humans who create, perpetuate, and transform traditions with legitimizing reference to the authority of the Veda. \"3 Accordingly the Veda will always be in the background of my analysis, and more so the commentarial tradition of the Brahmanas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eI will also be spending a significant amount of time on the later heroic epic the Mandbharata, sometimes granted the honorary title of \"Fifth Veda.\" For the benefit of the nonspecialist, it may be useful at this point to explain exactly what a Veda and a Brahman are. Both of these words have multiple overlapping meanings that can confuse those encountering Indian religions for the first time. \"Veda\" is a Sanskrit word that means \"knowledge\" and is cognate with the English wit and the German wisent. It refers to a class of revealed canonical literature that has the status of ultimate authority in the later Hindu tradition, which is why calling the Mahabharata the \"Fifth Veda\" is so significant. But the Veda also refers more specifically to the top \"layer\" of the Vedic literary tradition, the four original Vedic Sarnhitas. In this book, when the term appears in italics and is preceded by Rag, Yajur, Scima, or Atharva, I am speaking of one of the four Sarnhitas, or \"collections,\" that comprise the top layer of the Veda and when I use the term without ital-ices, I am referring to the class of Vedic literature as a whole. The Brahmanas are commentarial texts belonging to the second layer of this Vedic corpus. Unfortunately, the word \"Brahmard also refers to the class of priests responsible for passing on the Vedic tradition and performing its rites. To avoid confusion on this point, I will abandon transliteration when using the latter sense of the word and use \"Brahmanas\" to refer to the texts and \"Brahmins\" to refer to the people.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003eTo make matters worse, there is another word that is synonymous with Veda in the collective sense: iruti. gruti or \"heard\" texts, unlike those of the smrti or \"remembered\" variety, are apauruseya, that is, \"without human [authorship];' and thus the ultimate and unquestionable authority over men and even gods, at least according to some schools of thought. Though the texts have no authors per se, they were revealed, through ecstatic states brought on by the ingestion of the sacred soma juice, to Vedic priest-poets who then memorized them and passed them along orally. An array of ingenious mnemonic devices aided the oral transmission of knowledge in ancient India and kept the integrity of the texts remarkably intact. As proof, Ideologists have discovered separate oral traditions hundreds of miles apart that have maintained the same text word for word over a period of centuries without losing or changing a syllable. The Vedic scholar Michael Witzel has called the Vedic oral tradition, \"something like a tape-recording of ca.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brian Collins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42981152981130,"sku":"","price":800.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8583\/1818\/files\/HinduMythologyandtheCritique.jpg?v=1685106828"},{"product_id":"the-patityagramanirnaya-a-puranic-history-of-some-brahman-communities","title":"The Patityagramanirnaya","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is well known to scholars to Sanskrit literature that being a Brahman carries many obligations and restriction. Much of the extensive literature on Dharma describes these obligations and restrictions in great detail. It is less clear from this literature whether and to what extent breaking these rules has consequences in the real world for transgressing Brahmans. Are these rules mere intellectual play, nothing but a way to mislead the outside world into thinking that Brahmans are entitled to their claimed privileges? Or are Brahmans really expected to live up to these high expectations, at the risk of losing their privileges altogether? Levitt's The Patityagramanirnya: A Puranic History of some Brahman Communities throws new light on these questions. Though a SAnskrit text, it deals with a number of villages, some of them identifiable in modern India, that are inhabited by \"fallen\" Brahmans, Brahmans that have lost their exalted state, allegedly on account of transgressions committed in the past. The new status of these fallen Brahmans is that of untouchables. The edition and translation done here treats communities of polluted brahmanas of untouchable status in the Karnataka region of South India. Such groups, however, can be found throughout India with surprising frequency. As has been pointed out by many Anthropologists, purity and pollution are features of Hinduism that shade South Asian behavior and society. That there are entire groups of brahmanas throughout India whose pollution has led to untouchability has not been dealt with adequately to date. We might note that there are a number of indications that the stories in the Patityagramanirnaya are historical in natureóthis in a Sanskrit literature not noted for many historical writings.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Stephan Hillyer Levitt","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42989666369674,"sku":"","price":795.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8583\/1818\/files\/Patityagramanirjaya.jpg?v=1685715019"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.motilalbanarsidass.com\/en-us\/collections\/hindu-tradition-series.oembed","provider":"Motilal Banarsidass","version":"1.0","type":"link"}