Locating Pleasure in Indian History

Locating Pleasure in Indian History
Author:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2021-07-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 939051388X

Locating Pleasure in Indian History is one of the first works on the subject of the 'discourse of pleasure' in Indian history and culture. A rigorous, source-based work, it examines the cultural practices and the underlying philosophic matrix of pleasures, big or small. It recovers the production and consumption of beauty, desire and gratification in the world of pleasure, pleasurable pursuits and pleasant experiences of viewing, performing, thinking, debating, cooking, eating, listening, writing, creating and procreating. The contributions retrieve the discourse of pleasure in visual and literary cultures-in elite and popular spheres, including the public and private domains of the bazaar, the temple, the household, the court and the garden. Further, it is examined in the urbane art of Mathura, Ravana's palace in the art of 7th CE western Deccan, the suratkhana of Rajput royalty or domestic pleasures of women in the labyrinths of the Puranas. With over 40 photographs, it historicises ideological and experiential conundrums thrown up by the idea of pursuing alimentary, carnal and even pious desires in visual and literary cultures. The reflexivity inherent in the work of artists, poets, dramatists and even shastrins is brought out through moments of pleasure and counter-pleasure as revealed through anecdotes, narratives, artefacts and objects of aesthetic gratification.

Delights and Disquiets of Leisure in Premodern India

Delights and Disquiets of Leisure in Premodern India
Author:
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2023-12-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 9394701346

Leisure is a corollary to pleasure. Essays in this historical exploration trace how leisure and recreation were often imagined and celebrated during premodern times, from the ancient to the precolonial period. This book takes into account the differential access to leisure and pleasure based on class and gender where masculinity is projected through manly sports and femininity though beauty and indulgence in the projection of recreation, entertainment and luxury. The counter-discourse representing labour for those who cater for this leisure is invisibilized as is their transactional nature. The volume dwells on the attitudes, prescribed and proscribed, and brings to the fore the differences across religious ideologies such as Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jaina and Muslim in various periods. Further it looks at leisure in the various classes and cultural spaces such as the elite, women, the king in the bed chamber, the court with dancing girls, public areas such as orchards and gardens and performance spaces.

Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia

Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia
Author: Dhar, Parul Pandya
Publisher: SAGE Publishing India
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2022-11-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 9354795579

Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia unravels the fascinating history of cultural interactions, of outstanding and universal significance, between India and Southeast Asia, with special emphasis on artistic expressions. India's connections with Southeast Asian countries, namely, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are seen not only in trade and commerce but also in cultural and religious exchanges. Such histories are well-documented in their monuments, icons, narratives, inscribed artefacts, texts, and ritual paraphernalia. The first part of the book offers an overview of the nature of cultural and artistic interactions and the trade routes that facilitated an exchange of ideas, objects, people, and knowledge systems since ancient times. The second part addresses issues relating to architectural forms, motifs, and mobility across long distances and time periods. The final segment includes essays that discuss narratives and iconographies arising from cross-cultural artistic exchanges. With contributions by eminent scholars and over 170 colour photographs, maps, and illustrations, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding connected histories, which play a key role in revitalizing cultural connectivity and people-to-people contacts between India and Southeast Asia.

The Cambridge World History of Sexualities: Volume 2, Systems of Thought and Belief

The Cambridge World History of Sexualities: Volume 2, Systems of Thought and Belief
Author: Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 806
Release: 2024-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108901298

Volume II focuses on systems of thought and belief in the history of world sexualities, ranging from early humans to contemporary approaches. Comprising eighteen chapters, this volume opens with a chapter on the evolutionary legacy and then delves into the sexualities of ancient Egypt, the Near East, Greece, and Rome, continuing with pre-modern South Asia, China, and Japan, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. Chapters include an examination of sexuality in the religious traditions of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and also look at more recent approaches, including scientific sex, sexuality in socialism and Marxism, and the intersections between sexuality, feminism, and post-colonialism.

The Social Space of Language

The Social Space of Language
Author: Farina Mir
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520262697

poetics of belonging in the region. --Book Jacket.

The Interwar World

The Interwar World
Author: Andrew Denning
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 735
Release: 2023-08-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 100091948X

The Interwar World collects an international group of over 50 contributors to discuss, analyze, and interpret this crucial period in twentieth-century history. A comprehensive understanding of the interwar era has been limited by Euro-American approaches and strict adherence to the temporal limits of the world wars. The volume’s contributors challenge the era’s accepted temporal and geographic framings by privileging global processes and interactions. Each contribution takes a global, thematic approach, integrating world regions into a shared narrative. Three central questions frame the chapters. First, when was the interwar? Viewed globally, the years 1918 and 1939 are arbitrary limits, and the volume explicitly engages with the artificiality of the temporal framework while closely examining the specific dynamics of the 1920s and 1930s. Second, where was the interwar? Contributors use global history methodologies and training in varied world regions to decenter Euro-American frameworks, engaging directly with the usefulness of the interwar as both an era and an analytical category. Third, how global was the interwar? Authors trace accelerating connections in areas such as public health and mass culture counterbalanced by processes of economic protectionism, exclusive nationalism, and limits to migration. By approaching the era thematically, the volume disaggregates and interrogates the meaning of the ‘global’ in this era. As a comprehensive guide, this volume offers overviews of key themes of the interwar period for undergraduates, while offering up-to-date historiographical insights for postgraduates and scholars interested in this pivotal period in global history.

Foucault and the Kamasutra

Foucault and the Kamasutra
Author: Sanjay K. Gautam
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2016-06-22
Genre: Education
ISBN: 022634844X

Gautam has here laid out the first serious reading of Michel Foucault in relation to key Sanskrit texts, and--what may be a surprise to many--he has written the first book-length work in English on the nature and origin of the Kamasutra. Gautam also takes up the Natyasastra (the Kamasutra's twin), locating in the first the themes of sexual-erotic pleasure, and locating in the second the classical Indian view of theater, music, dance, and aesthetic pleasure. The book shows how closely intertwined the history of erotics in ancient Indian culture is with the history of theater-aesthetics. Foucault provides a framework for opening up the intellectual horizon of Indian thought; it is his distinction between ars erotics (erotic arts) and scientia sexualis (science of sexuality) that fuels Gautam's exploration of the courtesan as symbol of both erotic and aesthetic pleasure, particularly in her role as a wife to her patron, which entails the morphing of erotics into a form of theater. The scope broadens ambitiously, to an inquiry on the nature of knowledge formation, erotics, theater, and gender relations in premodern Indian society and culture--as they converged on the historical figures of the courtesan and her male counterpart, the dandy. Gautam's twining of aims and subjects--Foucault's western philosophy of pleasure and India's classic text on eros (anchored in art and aesthetics)--transforms both the modern and the ancient texts with new understandings, and as new forms of investigating erotics and subjectivity itself.

Savagery and Colonialism in the Indian Ocean

Savagery and Colonialism in the Indian Ocean
Author: Satadru Sen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2009-12-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135183074

This book examines savagery and the savage as dynamic components of colonialism in South Asia. Focusing on the colonial discourses of race, criminality, civilization, and savagery, it illuminates and historicizes the processes by which the discourse of savagery was expressed in the Andamans, British India, Britain and the wider empire.

A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India

A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India
Author: Upinder Singh
Publisher: Pearson Education India
Total Pages: 708
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 9788131716779

A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India is the most comprehensive textbook yet for undergraduate and postgraduate students. It introduces students to original sources such as ancient texts, artefacts, inscriptions and coins, illustrating how historians construct history on their basis. Its clear and balanced explanation of concepts and historical debates enables students to independently evaluate evidence, arguments and theories. This remarkable textbook allows the reader to visualize and understand the rich and varied remains of India s ancient past, transforming the process of discovering that past into an exciting experience.