The Nighantu And The Nirukta Introduction English Translation And Notes

The Nighantus are the glossaries or lists of rare and obscure words occurring in the Vedic hymns. According to Yaska they were collected and classified by the descendants of ancient sages for the easier understanding of the Vedic texts. The Nirukta is a famous work of Yaska. It is the oldest Indian Treatise on Etymology, Philology and Semantics. This being a commentary on the Nighantus, collection of obscure words which tradition ascribes also to Yaska, follows the three-fold division of the contents of the Nighantus. There are three sections in the Nirukta, viz., Naighantuka Kada ( consisting of lists in which Vedic words are collected under certain main ideas), Naigama Kanda or Aikapadika ( containing a list of ambiguous and particularly difficult words of the Vedas) and Daivata- Kanda ( classification of deities according to the three regions: earth, sky and heaven). The book is divided into three parts. These contain Introduction, Translation and Sanskrit Text, accompanied by exegetical and critical Notes, Indices and Appendices.

The Devi-Mahatmya is well-known to both devotees and scholars of the Indian Great Goddess. It is the first comprehensive account of the Goddess in Sanskrit, and it has maintained its centrality in the Goddess (Sakta) tradition to the present day. Like so much in that tradition, however, the text has until now resisted careful study from an historical perspective. It is this study that the present volume accomplishes.The central task here is to explore how an anonymous Sanskrit text articulates a view of ultimate reality as feminine when there is virtually no precedent in the Sanskrit tradition for such a view. To accomplish this task, an appropriate method of scriptural analysis is developed. This involves an examination of Hindu understanding of the Puranas in general, and of the Devi-Mahatmya in particular, along with consideration of several recent scholarly discussions, in India and elsewhere. Subsequently, a comprehensive inquiry into the Goddess's epithets in this text is undertaken, followed by examination of the earlier history of the myths that the Devi-Mahatmya associates with her. The study culminates in translations of the text's hymns, which are annotated so as to indicate the synthesis that is here being accomplished. The resulting illumination of Sanskritized form of Goddess worship is what Daniel H.H. Ingalls calls in his Foreword a notable scholarly achievement.

Papers presented at the 12th World Sanskrit Conference, held at Helsinki during 13-18 July 2003.

Through a detailed analysis of the available cultural and chronological data, this book overturns traditional ideas about the cultural history of India and proposes a different picture instead. The idea of a unilinear development out of Brahmanism, in particular, is challenged.

This romance is one of the best examples of the artificial and ornate style in Sanskrit prose. The title is derived from that of a drama by Bhasa, the Suapnavasavadattam. Subandhu,s translator has genereously -- claimed for him a true melody in the long rolling compound, a sesquipedalian majesty which can never be equalled exept in Sanskrit, a lulling music in the alliteration, and a compact brevity in the paronomasias which are in most cases veritable gems of terseness and twofold appropriateness.