A Catalogue of the Tamil Books in the Library of the British Museum

A Catalogue of the Tamil Books in the Library of the British Museum
Author: L D Barnett
Publisher: Legare Street Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-07-18
Genre:
ISBN: 9781022678804

An annotated bibliography of the Tamil-language books held in the collection of the British Museum. Pope and Barnett provide detailed descriptions of each book, as well as historical and cultural context for the Tamil literary tradition. This book is an essential reference work for scholars of South Asian literature and Tamil studies. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Law of Cause and Effect in Ancient Java

The Law of Cause and Effect in Ancient Java
Author: Jan Fontein
Publisher:
Total Pages: 124
Release: 1989
Genre: History
ISBN:

Paperback. This volume contains an English translation of the Mah&a ̄karmavibhanga, based upon a Chinese translation by Gautama Dharmaprajna of 582 A.D. The contents of the Mah&a ̄karmavibhanga have been illustrated on the reliefs of the hidden base of Candi Borobudur (Central Java, 9th Century A.D.) and the Chinese text contains many variae lectiones which help to clarify the intent of the sculptors. Chapter 3 re-examines the characteristics of the text and the manner in which the themes have been laid out on the walls. Chapter 4 deals with the language of gestures, as seen at Borobudur.This is the first work in English to deal with the identification of the reliefs. It contains many new identifications which provide an insight into the methods of illustration adopted by the sculptors. Contrary to the generally accepted view, neither the text nor the reliefs emphasize bad behavior resulting in negative karma; instead it deals with negative and po

Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”

Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”
Author: Sujung Kim
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2019-11-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0824881737

This ambitious work offers a transnational account of the deity Shinra Myōjin, the “god of Silla” worshipped in medieval Japanese Buddhism from the eleventh to sixteenth centuries. Sujung Kim challenges the long-held understanding of Shinra Myōjin as a protective deity of the Tendai Jimon school, showing how its worship emerged and developed in the complex networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”—a “quality” rather than a physical space defined by Kim as the primary conduit for cross-cultural influence in a region that includes the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the East China Sea, and neighboring coastal areas. While focusing on the transcultural worship of the deity, Kim engages the different maritime arrangements in which Shinra Myōjin circulated: first, the network of Korean immigrants, Chinese merchants, and Japanese Buddhist monks in China’s Shandong peninsula and Japan’s Ōmi Province; and second, that of gods found in the East Asian Mediterranean. Both of these networks became nodal points of exchange of both goods and gods. Kim’s examination of temple chronicles, literary writings, and iconography reveals Shinra Myōjin’s evolution from a seafaring god to a multifaceted one whose roles included the god of pestilence and of poetry, the insurer of painless childbirth, and the protector of performing arts. Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” is not only the first monograph in any language on the Tendai Jimon school in Japanese Buddhism, but also the first book-length study in English to examine Korean connections in medieval Japanese religion. Unlike other recent studies on individual Buddhist deities, it foregrounds the need to approach them within a broader East Asian context. By shifting the paradigm from a land-centered vision to a sea-centered one, the work underlines the importance of a transcultural and interdisciplinary approach to the study of Buddhist deities.