Amaruka

Beginning in the sixth century C.E. and continuing for more than a thousand years, an extraordinary poetic practice was the trademark of a major literary movement in South Asia. Authors invented a special language to depict both the apparent and hidden sides of disguised or dual characters, and then used it to narrate India's major epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, simultaneously. Originally produced in Sanskrit, these dual narratives eventually worked their way into regional languages, especially Telugu and Tamil, and other artistic media, such as sculpture. Scholars have long dismissed simultaneous narration as a mere curiosity, if not a sign of cultural decline in medieval India. Yet Yigal Bronner's Extreme Poetry effectively negates this position, proving that, far from being a meaningless pastime, this intricate, "bitextual" technique both transcended and reinvented Sanskrit literary expression. The poems of simultaneous narration teased and estranged existing convention and showcased the interrelations between the tradition's foundational texts. By focusing on these achievements and their reverberations through time, Bronner rewrites the history of Sanskrit literature and its aesthetic goals. He also expands on contemporary theories of intertextuality, which have been largely confined to Western texts and practices.

Volume III in this series presents some of the most celebrated classical writers of India, including Sudraka, Visnusarman, Kalidasa, Pravarasena, Amaruka, Bharavi, Subandhu and Visakhadatta. A new analysis and appreciation of their poetry, drama and fiction is offered, in the light of Indian literary criticism, especially of the important critical works only recently recovered from scattered manuscripts. During the disastrous later middle ages (about the thirteenth century and later), most of the earlier literature was destroyed by invading fanatics and plunderers. In order to offer a more complete picture of the early medieval literature, an effort has been made here to resurrect, from the critics and elsewhere, such once famous writers as Sarvasena, Candragomin, Matrgupta, Mentha and Brahmayasas, together with what is known of the mysterious `Vikramaditya`. To provide some social background to such aspects of criticism as trends in the characterisation of heroes, the history of the period (+200 to +600) is briefly touched on at the beginning of some of the chapters. The sculpture photographed on the dust jacket, courtesy of the National Museum, New Delhi, is believed to represent a scene from the Toy Cart, though it seems more likely to be from some earlier play.

6 Vol. Set, Book pub dates 1988-1994

The present work is an analytical account of classical Sanskrit literature in its historical perspective. It is divided into six books, containing several chapters, each dealing with a particular branch of Sanskrit learning. The work is full of references; the footnotes refer to a variety of sources, legendary, inscriptional, numismatic, architectural and literary. The writer has exploited all the relevant material of the journals, catalogues, annals, reports and other documents in discussing the vexed problems of the date, place, genealogy of the authors and the literary tendencies of their compositions. His methodology of literary criticism is rationalistic and bears the stamp of the modern scientific age. The elaborate index, the critical introduction, the exhaustive bibliography, the list of abbreviations, the table of transliteration and a supplement are the most useful additions to this interesting and instructive work of literary history.

This latest edition of The Pearson General Studies Manual continues to provide exhaustive study material for the General Studies paper of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination. This student-friendly book has been completely revised, thoroughly updated and carefully streamlined and is strictly exam-centric. In this new edition, a large number of new boxes and marginalia—with additional and relevant information—have been added to provide cutting-edge information to the aspirant. Readers will find that important facts and information have been presented in the form of well-structured tables and lists.

A twenty-four-year-old Aditi Mukherjee realizes that through deep meditation she is able to transfer her soul into the body of any other person in her proximity for a limited amount of time. Her friends Nura and Cyrus help her to use her abilities to eliminate crime and corruption. Along the way she also has to deal with moral and ethical questions regarding the use of her powers. Meanwhile, in Mumbai, Robin Pinto’s car collides with another vehicle. After the collision Robin finds himself in the body of a nearby beggar and discovers the corpses of his family and himself near the crashed car. Days later, he gets reason to believe that the collision was no accident. He must find out the one responsible for his family’s death while dealing with the curse of constantly switching from the body of one person to another, with no body of his own. Millennia before these events Shri Adi Shankaracharya, learns to exercise similar soul-transfer powers. But what connects these three?

Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industry in the West, attracting housewives and hipsters, New Agers and the old-aged. But our modern conception of yoga derives much from nineteenth-century European spirituality, and the true story of yoga’s origins in South Asia is far richer, stranger, and more entertaining than most of us realize. To uncover this history, David Gordon White focuses on yoga’s practitioners. Combing through millennia of South Asia’s vast and diverse literature, he discovers that yogis are usually portrayed as wonder-workers or sorcerers who use their dangerous supernatural abilities—which can include raising the dead, possession, and levitation—to acquire power, wealth, and sexual gratification. As White shows, even those yogis who aren’t downright villainous bear little resemblance to Western assumptions about them. At turns rollicking and sophisticated, Sinister Yogis tears down the image of yogis as detached, contemplative teachers, finally placing them in their proper context.

A legendary book on Shankara Bhagavatpada, covering every aspect of Shankara - Life and Teachings.