Glimpses of Mughal Society and Culture

Glimpses of Mughal Society and Culture
Author: Ishrat Haque
Publisher: Concept Publishing Company
Total Pages: 168
Release: 1992
Genre: Literature and society
ISBN: 9788170223825

The Study Seeks To Analyse The Attitudes And Relationships, The Value System And The Socio-Religious Outlook In The Mughal Society As Reflected In The Urdu Literature. Besides Discussing Eighteenth Century Indian Background, It Takes A Close Look At Well-Known Poets, The Monarchy, The Nobility, Mysticism, Syncretism, Islam And Urban Life.

Historiography, Religion, and State in Medieval India

Historiography, Religion, and State in Medieval India
Author: Satish Chandra
Publisher: Har-Anand Publications
Total Pages: 258
Release: 1996
Genre: History
ISBN: 9788124100356

The Present Work Starts With The Theme Of Decentring Of History And How, In The Context Of Decolonization And Goes On To Assess The Impact Of Central Asian Ideas And Institutions On Indian History During The 10Th To 14Th Centuries, And The Growing Concept Of Historiography In The Country. The Book Also Discusses The Concept And Evolution Of Different Types Of Islamic States In India-Orthodox, Moderate, Liberal And Secularist.

The Bhakti Movement

The Bhakti Movement
Author: P. Govinda Pillai
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2022-10-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1000780392

This is a Comprehensive Survey of the Bhakti Movement as it sprang in South India to spread across the subcontinent in independent and multifarious manifestations yet marked with amazing commonalities. Spanning a period of 11 centuries starting from the 6th CE, the movement encompassed in its sweep a vast range of dimensions; Social, political, economic, religious, cultural, linguistic, ethical and philosophical. Among the multifarious movements which contributed to the formation of India and its Culture, the Bhakti was undoubtedly the most pervasive and persistent, says the author. Besides its sweep and depth, what proved most remarkable about the movement was that it arose almost everywhere from the masses who belonged to the lowest class and castes. Though spirituality was its leitmotif, Bhakti proved to be a stirring song of the subaltern in their varied expressions of resistance and revolt. A seemingly conservative phenomenon became a potent weapon against entrenched hierarchies of orthodoxy and oppression, in a wonderful dialectical expression. This qualifies Bhakti movement to be reckoned on a par with European renaissance as it marked a massive upsurge in the societal value system to directly impact a range of fields like arts, politics, culture or religion. Even as he takes note of the elements of reactionary revivalism that also marked the Bhakti movement, the author convincingly argues that those of renaissance and progress far outweighed the former.

Subaltern Saints in India

Subaltern Saints in India
Author: Meenakshi Jha
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2022-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 8120842995

The present era of complexity, anxiety and moral turpitude is in need of spiritual solace and God's grace more than ever before. The established frameworks of religion have not entirely been successful in streamlining the rapport between the maker and the creation. The emergence and progression of bhakti saints is a significant power in this direction. Living exemplary, realised lives on their own terms mostly in opposition to the given frame of life, the bhakti saints heralded a new possibility of the egalitarian order without any bigotry or dogmatism. The book undertakes a probe into the specific contributions made by two hitherto neglected sections of the Indian society, namely women and Sudras. The precepts and lives of these subaltern saints reiterate the possibility of personal salvation and social regeneration, having transformative potential for breaking the barriers of iniquitous, hierarchical structures.

Divine Sounds from the Heart—Singing Unfettered in their Own Voices

Divine Sounds from the Heart—Singing Unfettered in their Own Voices
Author: Rekha Pande
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2010-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443825255

Recent years have seen a sea change in the way history is written and also in the way our conceptions of the past are being rewritten. In traditional historiography, women’s articulation is often marginalized and dominated by male voices. Through centuries of patriarchal control, women negotiated many layers and levels of existence working out different forms of resistance which have often gone unnoticed. Bhakti was one such medium. Religion provided the space in the medieval period and women saints embraced bhakti to define their own truths in voices that question society, family and relationships. For all these women bhaktas, the rejection of the male power that they were tied to in subordinate relationship became the terrain for struggle, self assertion and alternative seeking. Most of these women lived during the period from 12th to 17th Century. While the dominant mode of worship in bhakti was prostration to a deity like a feudal lord, the women bhaktas’ idea of God as a lover, a husband and a friend came as a breath of fresh air. The individual outpourings and the voices of these women, who had the courage to sing unfettered in their own voices, refused to melt in the din of the feudal scene which was largely patriarchal. This book will be useful to scholars interested in Feminist History, Comparative Religion and Asian Studies. The sensitive and rigorous research will be of great help to young scholars interested in embarking on a journey to discover religious history, especially with regards to women’s history in the South Asian context.

India and Indonesia

India and Indonesia
Author: J. C. Heesterman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 180
Release: 1989-06
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9789004083653

Hindu Pasts

Hindu Pasts
Author: Vasudha Dalmia
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2017-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438468059

Challenges the monolithic view of Hindusim in the nineteenth century, and instead offers a vision of India that contains a rich multiplicity of Hinduisms, women’s stories, and cultural histories. In her introduction to Hindu Pasts—which showcases her work as a scholar of social, literary, and religious history—Vasudha Dalmia outlines the central ideas which thread her writings: first, to understand in greater historical depth the relationship between body language, religion, and society in India, as well as the ever-changing role of its religious and social institutions; second, to recognize that the Hindu tradition, which colonials and nationalists tend to see as monolithic, is in fact a multiplicity of distinct and semi-autonomous strands.