Querying the Medieval

Querying the Medieval
Author: Ronald Inden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2000-06-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0195352432

Indologist Ronald Inden has in the past raised questions about the images of a "traditional" or "medieval" India deployed by colonial scholars and rulers--"Orientalists"--and has also argued that a history of "early medieval" India very different from both the colonial and nationalist accounts could be written. This volume is designed as an important first step towards that goal. The authors look closely at three genres of texts that have been crucial to the representations of precolonial India. All three essays challenge not only colonialist scholarship but the attempts by religious nationalists to identify Hinduism as the essence of national identity in India and Buddhism as the essence of nationality in Sri Lanka.

Dhanapāla and His Times

Dhanapāla and His Times
Author: Ganga Prasad Yadava
Publisher: Concept Publishing Company
Total Pages: 304
Release: 1982
Genre: India
ISBN:

Sociocultural evaluation of the works of Dhanapāla, 10th century exponent of Jainism.

Boot, Hooves and Wheels

Boot, Hooves and Wheels
Author: Saikat K Bose
Publisher: Vij Books India Pvt Ltd
Total Pages: 595
Release: 2015-06-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9384464546

The books title has an apparent misnomer—boots were not used in early armies, at least as apparent from temple sculptures which depict bare-bodied and barefooted soldiers. But is it likely to have been true? Or social reasons led to suppression of footgear on temple walls? The book explores these and myriad other questions on the military experience of South Asia, hoping to construct a picture of how men, animals, and equipment were used on South Asian battlefields from the end of the Paleolithic till the dawn of our era. Further, as all that happens on battlefields is no more than the tip of the proverbial iceberg whose submarine mass conceals many cause–effect relationships in a wide variety of fields, the author, adopting a wide fronted approach, examines the evidence of anthropology, literature, mythology, folklore, technology, archaeology, and architecture, to reconstructs the military atmosphere of South Asia beyond the battlefield, which is the aim of this book.

Medieval Indian Mindscapes

Medieval Indian Mindscapes
Author: Evgenii͡a I͡Urʹevna Vanina
Publisher: Primus Books
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 9380607199

Medieval Indian Mindscapes: Space, Time, Society, Man centres on how Indians in pre-colonial times perceived their world. It compares the specific features of their 'mental programmes' with that of their counterparts in other pre-modern societies. While analysing the importance of space in the medieval world view, the book discusses how medieval Indians comprehended their territories and the landscape as 'their own' vis-a-vis the 'alien' space; the development of territorial-cultural and territorial-political identities, and knowledge about other lands and peoples. In a discussion of medieval temporality, the book also studies the ways of perceiving and reckoning time, attitudes to the historical past and the manifold ways of recording it. A special chapter on 'Society' deals with socio-ethical values and behavioural stereotypes of major estate and caste groups like the feudal landlords, priests and officials, merchants and craftsmen, peasants and the lower castes in villages. The book also has a chapter on the medieval Indian perception of Man, his appearance and peculiarities as they pertained to the a≥ behaviour, social status, and the steady development of individuality. Medieval Indian Mindscapes will be of interest to medievalists as well as general readers, keen to know more about the dynamics of pre-modern history and culture.

Who Needs the Past?

Who Needs the Past?
Author: R. Layton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2012-11-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1135090637

This book offers a critique of the all pervasive Western notion that other communities often live in a timeless present. Who Needs the Past? provides first-hand evidence of the interest non-Western, non-academic communities have in the past.

The First Spring

The First Spring
Author: Abraham Eraly
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Total Pages: 954
Release: 2011
Genre: India
ISBN: 0670084786

The Last Hindu Emperor

The Last Hindu Emperor
Author: Cynthia Talbot
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2016
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1107118565

This book traces the genealogy and historical memory of the twelfth-century ruler Prithviraj Chauhan, remembered as the 'last Hindu Emperor of India'.