The Perfect Wife (Stridharmapaddhati)

The Perfect Wife (Stridharmapaddhati)
Author: Tryambakayajvan
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Total Pages: 404
Release: 1995
Genre: Hindu literature, Sanskrit
ISBN: 9780140435986

Tryambakayajvan Is Almost Certainly The Famous Tryambakarayamakhin (Ad 1665-1750), Minister To Two Of The Maratha Kings Of Thanjavur (Sahaji And Serfoji). Famous In His Own Right As A Scholar Of Religious Law, He Is Described In A Contemporary Text As A Learned Minister, The Performer Of Vedic Sacrifices, And A Patron Of Scholars. In The Stridharmapaddhati, Tryambaka Summarizes For His Eighteenth-Century Audience A Tradition That Was Then Already Over A Thousand Years Old. The Treatise Advocates Conformity And Tryambaka Is Interested In Women Not As Individuals But As Parts That Fit Into And Strengthen The Whole. That Whole, For Him, Is Dharma. The Work Is, In Itself, An Admission Of The Power Of Non-Conformist Women To Wreck The Entire Edifice Of Hindu Society. For, When Women Are 'Corrupted', All Is Lost. Translated From The Sanskrit By I. Julia Leslie

The Goddess Lakṣmī

The Goddess Lakṣmī
Author: P. Pratap Kumar
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1997
Genre: Lakshmi (Hindu deity).
ISBN: 9780788501999

What is the status of the Goddess Laksmi in relation to her consort Vishnu in South Indian Vaisnavism? In some Hindu sub-traditions the Goddess is seen as a mediator between devotees and God. Other traditions put the Goddess on a par with her male counterpart. In yet other traditions she is worshiped as an independent deity in her own right. South Indian Vaisnavism views the Goddess in all of these ways, and theological debates on these issues have flourished. In clarifying these debates and the assumptions behind them the author contributes not only to the interpretive study of South Indian Vaisnavism, but also to an understanding of gender issues in the study of religion.

Theory and Practice of Yoga

Theory and Practice of Yoga
Author: Knut A. Jacobsen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 494
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047416333

This collection of original essays provides fascinating insights into yoga as a historical and pluralistic phenomenon flourishing in a variety of religious and philosophical contexts. They cover a wide variety of traditions and topics related to Yoga: Classical Yoga, Sāṃkhya, Tantric Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, the Guru, Indic Islamic traditions of Yoga, Yoga and asceticism in contemporary India, and the reception of Yoga in the West. The essays are written by eighteen professors in the field of the history of religions, most of them former graduate students of Gerald James Larson, Larson is Rabindranath Tagore Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, Bloomington, Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, an internationally acclaimed scholar on the history of religions and philosophies of India, and one of the world's foremost authorities on the Samkhya and Yoga traditions. The publication is in honour of him.

Understanding Mantras

Understanding Mantras
Author: Harvey P. Alper
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Total Pages: 554
Release: 1991
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9788120807464

Urban Pollution

Urban Pollution
Author: Eveline Dürr
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2010
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9781845456924

Re-examining Mary Douglas' work on pollution and concepts of purity, this volume explores modern expressions of these themes in urban areas, examining the intersections of material and cultural pollution. It presents ethnographic case studies from a range of cities affected by globalization processes such as neoliberal urban policies, privatization of urban space, continued migration and spatialized ethnic tension. What has changed since the appearance of Purity and Danger? How have anthropological views on pollution changed accordingly? This volume focuses on cultural meanings and values that are attached to conceptions of 'clean' and 'dirty', purity and impurity, healthy and unhealthy environments, and addresses the implications of pollution with regard to discrimination, class, urban poverty, social hierarchies and ethnic segregation in cities.

Cleansing Pavam

Cleansing Pavam
Author: Damaris Lüthi
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2016
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3643908059

Environmental squalor is a salient feature of Indian cities, standing in surprising contrast to clean private settings. This study of ideas and practices relating to cleanliness in a South Indian town found that im/purity concepts pertaining to hygiene are closely related to so-called ritual ideas of purity and pollution and are nearer to orthodox beliefs than to germ theories. The danger of dirt is less its direct threat to health but its impact on social status and on the mood of deities, who penalize with misfortune. Cleanliness is crucial for private well-being; public pollution is obsolete. Dissertation. [Subject: South Asian Studies, Sociology]