Yashodhara

A Major Activity Of The Sahitya Akademi Is The Preparation Of An Encyclopaedia Of Indian Literature. The Venture, Covering Twenty-Two Languages Of India, Is The First Of Its Kind. Written In English, The Encyclopaedia Gives A Comprehensive Idea Of The Growth And Development Of Indian Literature. The Entries On Authors, Books And General Topics Have Been Tabulated By The Concerned Advisory Boards And Finalised By A Steering Committee. Hundreds Of Writers All Over The Country Contributed Articles On Various Topics. The Encyclopaedia, Planned As A Six-Volume Project, Has Been Brought Out. The Sahitya Akademi Embarked Upon This Project In Right Earnest In 1984. The Efforts Of The Highly Skilled And Professional Editorial Staff Started Showing Results And The First Volume Was Brought Out In 1987. The Second Volume Was Brought Out In 1988, The Third In 1989, The Fourth In 1991, The Fifth In 1992, And The Sixth Volume In 1994. All The Six Volumes Together Include Approximately 7500 Entries On Various Topics, Literary Trends And Movements, Eminent Authors And Significant Works. The First Three Volume Were Edited By Prof. Amaresh Datta, Fourth And Fifth Volume By Mohan Lal And Sixth Volume By Shri K.C.Dutt.

This collection of poems tells the story of Yashodhara, the wife of Gautama. Legend is that Gautama, the would-be Buddha, was born in the sixth century B.C. as the son of the king of a small warrior tribe of the Sakyas based in the principality of Kapilavastu in southwestern Nepal. At the age of twenty-nine, Gautama left his palace, his wife, and his newly born son, Rahul, to search for love, peace, and salvation. The poems relate the story of Yashodhara in a poetic form that was popular in ancient and medieval India, Sanskrit, and non-Sanskrit literatures. The season-poems follow a strict poetic structure and represent the voice of Yashodhara; the longer narrative poems that interject the season-poems are written in the voice of a contemporary narrator.

This Volume Has Two Parts, Surveys Of All The Languages And Selections From Three Languages Assamese, Bengali And Dogri.

The story of Siddhartha, the future Gautama Buddha, leaving the palace to start his spiritual journey and attain enlightenment has been told innumerable times over the centuries. And yet, have we never wondered why his young wife, Yashodhara, still recovering from the birth of their son nine days ago, sleeps soundly as her husband, the over-protected prince departs, leaving behind his family and wealth and kingdom?In Yashodhara, the gaps of history are imagined with fullness and fierceness: Who was the young girl and what shaped her worldview? When she married Siddhartha at the age of sixteen, did she know her conjugal life would soon change drastically? The Yashodhara we meet in Volga's feminist novel is quick-witted, compassionate and wants to pave a way for women to partake in spiritual learning as equals of men.

Attachment is predominant in mankind. Some see joy in money, some see only grief in money, some see it in licentiousness and some see it in sacrifice. Therefore no one can draw a line where it can be otherwise simply because it is always a subjective issue in everyone’s view and that too how he looks at the issues! Likewise there cannot be any definition of a sin, lust, happiness etc. as we neither do it for virtue nor we do it for sin. We only do what we are made to do at a point of time by happenings around us. A very interesting and engrossing philosophical & mind boggling fiction on the changing relations of a woman–saint–a lover to seek what is the ultimate happiness?

Voyages of Body and Soul: Selected Female Icons of India and Beyond includes scholarly essays and performance/choreographic notes from a diverse range of contributors on the themes of “Mad and Divine: India’s Female Saint-Poets” and “Epic Women of India and Beyond.” The contributors explore the tendency of patriarchal societies to label exceptional saint-poets yearning for the divine as “mad” because of their resistance to normative and acceptable female behavior. Scholars and performers journey across history, with discussions ranging from the 8th century Tamil mystic poet Andal’s divine poetry, to the 16th century saint-poet Meerabai, to figures across the Indian subcontinent, including Kashmir’s Lalleshwari and Maharashtra’s Janabai, who, as a low caste member, joined the sacred path partly to escape caste oppression. The definition of “epic women” in this volume is multi-faceted: from looking at commonly accepted epic figures, such as the iconic Sita from The Ramayana, to examining epic women in politics, to probing dark women with passions of epic proportions, to legendary teachers of the classical dance style of bharatanatyam, to women with monumental courage and creativity across historical time-periods and geographical locations – Ancient Greece, Ancient India, 20th century Mexico, and Myanmar. Voyages of Body and Soul recognizes creative and courageous female saint-poets, and outspoken women in ancient epics and in contemporary times who follow their chosen paths with deep devotion. Their lives and works are models for the human community in the 21st century.

"Buddhism is not just a social philosophy,it is a way of life, A true religion.Buddism offers all that is Needed to be truely religious and spiritual and to attain complete salvation,the nirvan. The teachings of Shakyamuni/Gautam Buddha shows the way of enlightment for peace,happiness,wisdom and awakening.  After attaining enlightment through perssonnal efforts shakyamuni said-  That after becoming perfectely awaken and reching the pure state of enlightment, ’one not loss the awareness of the unity.’ Only then every corner of the mind would be immersed with the blissful light and the thin wall of the conditioned instincts or drives would completely break away.  Tathagat/Buddha fallowed an intellectual way discovered through ‘Karma Yoga’after----wandering here nd there in the jungles.  This kind of walk on a path is open to all.The man is the instrument of his own destiny.  Workout your own salvation with diligence ‘’Be lamps unto youselves.  Buddhism is simply as a humanistic or even atheistic philosophy of faith,in which there is no place for any supernatural entity.  It is search for an answer to the questions of the four pains i.e. the pain of birth,of aging,of illness nd of death. after deep meditation Gautam got the ultimate goal i.e, marga to nibban. It offers a contemporary interpretation on of the way to enlightment."

Published in conjunction with a 2003 exhibition co-organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this hefty, oversize (10x13 catalogue features approximately 160 powerful masterpieces of Indian, Nepalese, Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian art produced over the pa