Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings

Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings
Author: Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 880
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN:

D. D. Kosambi was a pioneer in Indian studies, introducing new perspectives and interdisciplinary methods. This book collects many of his most important writings, on a wide range of topics, from philology and text editing to religion, historical reconstruction, archaeology, and anthropology. This anthology is the first to give readers easy access to this versatile and influential body of work.

Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings

Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings
Author: Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 837
Release: 2005-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195677300

This Important Book Edited By B.D. Chattopadhyaya Puts Together, For The First Time, The Many Essays, Notes And Reviews Which D.D. Kosambi, An Acknowledged Pioneers Who Introduced New Perspectives And Methods In Indological Studies, Wrote And Published Over A Period Of Almost Thirty Year.

The Concept of Bharatavarsha and Other Essays

The Concept of Bharatavarsha and Other Essays
Author: B. D. Chattopadhyaya
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1438471769

This collection explores what may be called the idea of India in ancient times. Its undeclared objective is to identify key concepts which show early Indian civilization as distinct and differently oriented from other formations. The essays focus on ancient Indian texts within a variety of genres. They identify certain key terms—such as janapada, desa, varṇa, dharma, bhāva—in their empirical contexts to suggest that neither the ideas embedded in these terms nor the idea of Bharatavarsha as a whole are "given entities," but that they evolved historically. Professor Chattopadhyaya examines these texts to unveil historical processes. Without denying comparative history, he stresses that the internal dynamics of a society are best decoded via its own texts. His approach bears very effectively on understanding ongoing interactions between India's "Great Tradition" and "Little Traditions." As a whole, this book is critical of the notion of overarching Indian unity in the ancient period. It punctures the retrospective thrust of hegemonic nationalism as an ideology that has obscured the diverse textures of Indian civilization. Renowned for his scholarship on the ancient Indian past, Professor Chattopadhyaya's latest collection only consolidates his high international reputation.

Contested Representation

Contested Representation
Author: Dhananjay Rai
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2022-07-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1666901342

Popular Hindi cinema has become a significant signpost of contemporaneity due to its construction of social language. Generally, Hindi cinema has been understood through internal (auteur or genre or cinéma verité) and external aspects (consumption spheres and moviegoers’ complex response in the form of catharsis or everydayness mimesis). However, cinema also needs a new way of discerning with respect to ‘Dalit Representation’. The study needs to look at the construction and meaning of the social language of Hindi cinema. Construction refers to exploring factors beyond the film industry responsible for shaping the social language. Meaning entails the exhibition of social language in the form of messages. Herein, relational exploration becomes crucial. The relationship between factors of social language of Hindi cinema and Dalits must be unraveled for understanding the meaning of social language for Dalits. Contested representation encompasses the nature of absence and presence of Dalits in Hindi cinema.

The Oxford India Kosambi

The Oxford India Kosambi
Author: Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 867
Release: 2009
Genre: Arts
ISBN: 9780198060185

The Oxford India Collection is a series which brings together writings of enduring value published by OUP.This book examines rare and scattered essays, notes and reviews of D.D. Kosambi. He introduced pioneering perspectives and methods in Indological studies, written and published over almost thirty years. These writings cover an enormous range: text-edition and philology, religion, historicalreconstruction, archaeology and anthropology, considerations of method, and so on. Together they reflect an integrated framework which, in Kosambi's own characterization, was Marxist. Many of Kosambi's seminal ideas were worked out in great depth in these scholarly articles; published in differentjournals, in India and abroad, they have long remained outside the reach even of experts. By attempting to be a comprehensive anthology, the collection will for the first time enable readers to sample the versatility of Kosambi's work.The introduction by B.D. Chattopadhyaya explores the genesis, range, and significance of Kosambi's writings.

Conquest and Community

Conquest and Community
Author: Shahid Amin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2016-09-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 022637274X

Few topics in South Asian history are as contentious as that of the Turkic conquest of the Indian subcontinent that began in the twelfth century and led to a long period of Muslim rule. How is a historian supposed to write honestly about the bloody history of the conquest without falling into communitarian traps? Conquest and Community is Shahid Amin's answer. Covering more than eight hundred years of history, the book centers on the enduringly popular saint Ghazi Miyan, a youthful soldier of Islam whose shrines are found all over India. Amin details the warrior saint’s legendary exploits, then tracks the many ways he has been commemorated in the centuries since. The intriguing stories, ballads, and proverbs that grew up around Ghazi Miyan were, Amin shows, a way of domesticating the conquest—recognizing past conflicts and differences but nevertheless bringing diverse groups together into a community of devotees. What seems at first glance to be the story of one mythical figure becomes an allegory for the history of Hindu-Muslim relations over an astonishingly long period of time, and a timely contribution to current political and historical debates.

India's Ancient Past

India's Ancient Past
Author: R.S. Sharma
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2006-10-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199087865

This book presents a complete and accessible description of the history of early India. It starts by discussing the origins and growth of civilizations, empires, and religions. It also deals with the geographical, ecological, and linguistic backgrounds, and looks at specific cultures of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Vedic periods, as well as at the Harappan civilization. In addition, the rise of Jainism and Buddhism, Magadha and the beginning of territorial states, and the period of Mauryas, Central Asian countries, Satvahanas, Guptas, and Harshavardhana are also analysed. Next, it stresses varna system, urbanization, commerce and trade, developments in science and philosophy, and cultural legacy. Finally, the process of transition from ancient to medieval India and the origin of the Aryan culture has also been examined.

Encountering The Adivasi Question

Encountering The Adivasi Question
Author: P. Bandhu
Publisher: Studera Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2019-08-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9385883925

The main problem facing most Adivasi groups in the country is displacement and loss of their own original habitats and livelihood through ‘development’ projects like dams, tourism and wildlife sanctuaries. By generally categorising them as girijan (mountain dwellers), vanavasis (forest dwellers), or tribal (with its connotations of primitive and backward), or even the popular jangli (wild), in official parlance and in the mass media, they are robbed of their identity, dignity and rights as among the first peoples of this subcontinent, who earlier enjoyed economic and political freedom and autonomy in the form of self-rule. All over India the process of uprooting indigenous people from their rich culture is on – the disruption of a way of life, fundamental to which is the belief that it is not the earth which belongs to man, but man who belongs to the earth.

Religion, Landscape and Material Culture in Pre-modern South Asia

Religion, Landscape and Material Culture in Pre-modern South Asia
Author: Tilottama Mukherjee
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2023-02-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000847292

This book highlights emerging trends and new themes in South Asian history. It covers issues broadly related to religion, materiality and nature from differing perspectives and methods to offer a kaleidoscopic view of Indian history until the late eighteenth century. The essays in the volume focus on understanding questions of premodern religion, material culture processes and their spatial and environmental contexts through a study of networks of commodities and cultural and religious landscapes. From the early history of coastal regions such as Gujarat and Bengal to material networks of political culture, from temples and their connection with maritime trade to the importance of landscape in influencing temple-building, from regions considered peripheral to mainstream historiography to the development of religious sects, this collection of articles maps the diverse networks and connections across regions and time. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, archaeology, museum and heritage studies, religion, especially Hinduism, Sufism and Buddhism, and South Asian studies.

Trade and Traders in Early Indian Society

Trade and Traders in Early Indian Society
Author: Ranabir Chakravarti
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2020-06-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000170128

Highlighting diverse types of market places and merchants, this book situates the commercial scenario of early India (up to c. ad 1300) in the overall agrarian material milieu of the subcontinent. The book questions the stereotypical narrative of early Indian trade as exchanges in small quantity, exotic, portable luxury items and strongly argues for the significance of trade in relatively inexpensive bulk commodities – including agrarian/floral products – at local and regional levels and also in long distance trade. That staple items had salience in the sea-borne trade of early India figures prominently in this book which points out that commercial exchanges touched the everyday life of a variety of people. A major feature of this work is the conspicuous thrust on and attention to the sea-borne commerce in the subcontinent. The history of Indic seafaring in the Indian Ocean finds a prominent place in this book pointing out the braided histories of overland and maritime networks in the subcontinent. In addition to three specific chapters on the maritime profile of early Bengal, the third edition of Trade and Traders in Early Indian Society offers two new chapters (14 and 15) on the commercial scenario of Gujarat, dealing respectively with an organization of merchants during the early sixth century ad and with the long-term linkages between money-circulation and overseas trade in Gujarat c. ad 500-1500). A new preface to the Third Edition discusses the emerging historiographical issues in the history of trade in early India. Rich in the interrogation of a wide variety of primary sources, the book analyses the changing perspectives on early Indian trade by taking into account the current literature on the subject.