From the Beginning of Time

From the Beginning of Time
Author: Ganesh Swaminathan
Publisher: Notion Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2020-10-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1648507328

The Puranas, as suggested by their name, describe events deep in the earth’s past. Finding a complete cosmology in the ancient Puranic texts that is mostly aligned to the view of cutting-edge science is almost incredible. This book attempts to do so – through an exploratory analysis. The narrative is pieced together by exploring familiar stories from the Puranas in great depth. In the well-known story of the Descent of Ganga, the extra-terrestrial origin of Earth’s waters has been described in amazing detail. The story of the birth of the Sun God Martanda bears a striking resemblance to the origin of the sun. The Churning of the Milk Ocean recounts the re-appearance of the Moon. The book delves into many such stories along with external evidence to come up with a compelling chronicle of our Universe. The book shows the Puranic texts in a fascinating new light. It also serves as a primer to the general interest reader by tackling some of the questions that modern science is grappling with in its study of the cosmos.

In Light of India

In Light of India
Author: Octavio Paz
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 222
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780156005784

Paz looks at the people and landscapes of India, based on his years with the Mexican embassy, offering a collection of essays on Indian history, culture, art, politics, language, and philosophy.

The Science of the Rishis

The Science of the Rishis
Author: Vanamali
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2015-01-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1620553872

A complete introduction to Sanatana Dharma, the spiritual science of the Hindu sages • Examines how many core concepts of Hinduism, including Brahman, Atman, bhakti, karma, and reincarnation, relate to modern science • Explores the scientific discoveries of the rishis, ancient Vedic sages, and how they have only recently been rediscovered by Western scientists • Reveals the concepts of quantum physics hidden within the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the Puranas Called “the scientists of Hinduism,” the rishis of ancient India were the scribes of the Vedas. They developed the spiritual science of Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma, as their way of ensuring the constant renewal and progress of India’s spiritual tradition and culture. Sanatana Dharma permeates every aspect of Hindu culture, from religion to the arts to the sciences. Woven within its Vedic texts lie all of the essential concepts of quantum physics and other modern scientific discoveries. Providing a complete introduction to the science of Sanatana Dharma, Vanamali reveals how the core concepts of Hinduism, including Brahman, Atman, bhakti, karma, and reincarnation, relate to modern science and how the scientific discoveries of the ancient rishis have been recently rediscovered by the West. She examines the scientific principles within the classic stories and texts of India, including the Vedas, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the Puranas. Within the teachings of the ancient Puranic sages and saints such as Valmiki and Vyasa and legendary physicians and mathematician-philosophers such as Aryabhatta and Varahamihir, the author reveals great scientific truths--not those believed by the ancient world, but truths still upheld by modern science, particularly quantum physics. She explores Desha and Kaala (Space and Time), Shankara and his philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, and the Hindu sciences of mathematics, astronomy, and Vedic astrology. In illustrating the scientific basis of Hinduism and the discoveries of its sages, Vanamali provides a window into the depths of this most ancient spiritual way of life.

Women and the Puranic Tradition in India

Women and the Puranic Tradition in India
Author: Monika Saxena
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2018-09-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429826397

This book analyses the diverse ways in which women have been represented in the Purāṇic traditions in ancient India – the virtuous wife, mother, daughter, widow, and prostitute – against the socio-religious milieu around CE 300–1000. Purāṇas (lit. ancient narratives) are brahmanical texts that largely fall under the category of socio-religious literature which were more broad-based and inclusive, unlike the Smṛtis, which were accessible mainly to the upper sections of society. In locating, identifying, and commenting on the multiplicity of the images and depictions of women’s roles in Purāṇic traditions, the author highlights their lives and experiences over time, both within and outside the traditional confines of the domestic sphere. With a focus on five Mahāpurāṇas that deal extensively with the social matrix Viṣṇu, Mārkaṇḍeya Matsya, Agni, and Bhāgavata Purāṇas, the book explores the question of gender and agency in early India and shows how such identities were recast, invented, shaped, constructed, replicated, stereotyped, and sometimes reversed through narratives. Further, it traces social consequences and contemporary relevance of such representations in marriage, adultery, ritual, devotion, worship, fasts, and pilgrimage. This volume will be of interest to researchers and scholars in women and gender studies, ancient Indian history, religion, sociology, literature, and South Asian studies, as also the informed general reader.

History of Classical Sanskrit Literature

History of Classical Sanskrit Literature
Author: Madabhushi Krishnamachariar
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
Total Pages: 1294
Release: 1989
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9788120802841

The present work is an analytical account of classical Sanskrit literature in its historical perspective. It is divided into six books, containing several chapters, each dealing with a particular branch of Sanskrit learning. The work is full of references; the footnotes refer to a variety of sources, legendary, inscriptional, numismatic, architectural and literary. The writer has exploited all the relevant material of the journals, catalogues, annals, reports and other documents in discussing the vexed problems of the date, place, genealogy of the authors and the literary tendencies of their compositions. His methodology of literary criticism is rationalistic and bears the stamp of the modern scientific age. The elaborate index, the critical introduction, the exhaustive bibliography, the list of abbreviations, the table of transliteration and a supplement are the most useful additions to this interesting and instructive work of literary history.