The Classical Upani?ads

The Classical Upani?ads
Author: Signe Cohen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2024-01-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0197654185

The Upani?ads are rich and complex Sanskrit Hindu scriptures dating back to the 8th century BCE and are a staple of world religion courses across the globe. In this volume, Signe Cohen guide readers through on the thirteen "Classical Upani?ads," those generally regarded as the oldest: Bhadrayaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Isa, Kena, Katha, Mundaka, Svetasvatara, Mandukya, Prasna, Kausitaki, and Maitri Upanisad. Where most survey textbooks present a cursory overview of these texts, The Classical Upani?ads: A Guide provides a nuanced but accessible exploration of the Upani?ads that will benefit both scholars, students, and general readers alike. This volume explores the historical, geographical, and social context of the Classical Upani?ads and discusses issues of dating, authorship, and transmission of the texts. Cohen also breaks down central ideas in the Upani?ads, such as atman, brahman, karma, reincarnation, moksa, knowledge, and sacred sounds (mantras). The text also discusses the importance of the Upani?ads for Hinduism and Indian culture, as well as the reception of the Upani?ads in the West. Through exploring these works, their key characters and ideas, and their impact on Hinduism's core beliefs, Cohen provides the reader a thorough but approachable entry into these seminal texts.

Self, Sacrifice, and Cosmos: Vedic Thought, Ritual, and Philosphy

Self, Sacrifice, and Cosmos: Vedic Thought, Ritual, and Philosphy
Author: Lauren M. Bausch
Publisher: Primus Books
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2019-02-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789352903450

The eleven articles in this volume mark a significant advance in Vedic studies. Contributions range widely across critical topics in early, middle, and late Vedic texts and their commentaries, as well as classical themes in contemporary Sanskrit literature. Essays elucidate the explanations and arguments found in Brāhmana texts, the historical and ecological development of Vedic ritual, concepts and underlying messages in Vedic texts, anachronisms in commentarial exegesis, and literary devices in narrative. From a variety of philological, philosophical, ritual, gender, and literary approaches, these articles shed new light on our understanding of these seminal texts of Indian religion and philosophy. This book is dedicated to the life and work of Professor Ganesh Umakant Thite.

Decolonial Travel

Decolonial Travel
Author: Avishek Ray
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2024-11-08
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1040223788

This volume brings together scholarship on indigenous forms of travel to decolonize travel theory. It looks at certain minoritarian-vernacular traveling cults – very rarely examined – that compel us to rethink, on the one hand, the conventional tropes of and rationales for travel; and, on the other hand, notions of (post)coloniality, nationalism and modernity in the context of India. The book illustrates the enduring problematic of the ‘colonial episteme’: how it deploys pervasive categories through which travel practices are sought to be understood, and why such categories are inadequate in accounting for the vernacular traveling cults in question. In studying the vernacular world-making in and through these cults, this book offers critical insights on how they defy the log(ist)ics of the ‘imperial categories’ and why they must be read as expressions of decoloniality. An important contribution to travel studies, the book will be an indispensable resource for students and researchers of South Asian studies, travel theory, Indian literary and cultural studies, cultural history and anthropology, sociology, and decoloniality.

The Rigveda

The Rigveda
Author: Stephanie Jamison
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2020-02-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190633387

The Rigveda is a monumental text in both world religion and world literature, yet outside a small band of specialists it is little known. Composed in the latter half of the second millennium BCE, it stands as the foundational text of what would later be called Hinduism. The text consists of over a thousand hymns dedicated to various divinities, composed in sophisticated and often enigmatic verse. This concise guide from two of the Rigveda's leading English-language scholars introduces the text and breaks down its large range of topics--from meditations on cosmic enigmas to penetrating reflections on the ability of mortals to make contact with and affect the divine and cosmic realms through sacrifice and praise--for a wider audience.

Visions and Revisions in Sanskrit Narrative

Visions and Revisions in Sanskrit Narrative
Author: Raj Balkaran
Publisher: ANU Press
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2023-11-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1760465909

Sanskrit narrative is the lifeblood of Indian culture, encapsulating and perpetuating insights and values central to Indian thought and practice. This volume brings together eighteen of the foremost scholars across the globe, who, in an unprecedented collaboration, accord these texts the integrity and dignity they deserve. The last time this was attempted, on a much smaller scale, was a generation ago, with Purāṇa Perennis (1993). The pre-eminent contributors to this landmark collection use novel methods and theory to meaningfully engage Sanskrit narrative texts, showcasing the state of contemporary scholarship on the Sanskrit epics and purāṇas.

The Cambridge Companion to Religion and War

The Cambridge Companion to Religion and War
Author: Margo Kitts
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 487
Release: 2023-05-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1108858325

This Companion offers a global, comparative history of the interplay between religion and war from ancient times to the present. Moving beyond sensationalist theories that seek to explain why 'religion causes war,' the volume takes a thoughtful look at the connection between religion and war through a variety of lenses - historical, literary, and sociological-as well as the particular features of religious war. The twenty-three carefully nuanced and historically grounded chapters comprehensively examine the religious foundations for war, classical just war doctrines, sociological accounts of religious nationalism, and featured conflicts that illustrate interdisciplinary expressions of the intertwining of religion and war. Written by a distinguished, international team of scholars, whose essays were specially commissioned for this volume, The Cambridge Companion to Religion and War will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of the history and sociology of religion and war, as well as other disciplines.

Women in the History of Linguistics

Women in the History of Linguistics
Author: Professor of French Philology and Linguistics Wendy Ayres-Bennett
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 673
Release: 2021-01-07
Genre: Linguistics
ISBN: 0198754957

This volume offers a ground-breaking investigation into women's contribution to the description, analysis, and codification of languages across a wide range of linguistic and cultural traditions. The chapters explore a variety of spheres of activity, from the production of dictionaries and grammars to language teaching methods and language policy.

The Vedic Origins of Karma

The Vedic Origins of Karma
Author: Herman W. Tull
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1989-08-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 143842244X

In this book, the author seeks access to Karma's origins by following several clues suggested by the doctrine's earliest formulation in the Upanistexts (circa 600-500 B.C.) These clues lead back to the mythical and ritual structures firmly established in the Brahmana texts, texts concerned with the rituals that chronologically and conceptually precede the UpanisThe rise of the karma doctrine is tied to the increasing dominance in late Vedic thought of the cosmic man (Purusa/Prajapati) mythology and its ritual analogue the "building of the fire altar" (agnicayana).

Discovering Indian Philosophy

Discovering Indian Philosophy
Author: Jeffery D. Long
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2024-01-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350324825

Indian Philosophy: An Introduction helps readers discover how the many and varied schools of Indian thought can answer some of the great questions of life: Who are we? How can we live well? How do we tell truth from lies? Accessibly written for readers new to Indian philosophy, the book takes you through the main traditions of thought, including Buddhist, Hindu and Jain perspectives on major philosophical topics from ancient times to the present day. Bringing insights from the latest research to bear on the key primary sources from these traditions and setting them in their full spiritual, historical and philosophical contexts, Indian Philosophy: An Introduction covers such topics as: · Philosophies of action and knowledge · Materialism and scepticism · Consciousness and duality · Religious and cultural expressions The book includes a pronunciation guide to Sanskrit and Indic language terms and a comprehensive guide to further reading for those wishing to take their study further.

The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and India

The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and India
Author: Richard Seaford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108499554

Explains for the first time the genesis and early form of both Indian and Greek philosophy, and their striking similarities.