Frederick Eden Pargiter

Frederick Eden Pargiter
Author: Ananda Bhattacharyya
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2019-10-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000760936

The Sundarban stretches from the brackish waters of the broad Hooghly on the west, to the fresh waters of the still broader Meghna to the east; the turbid waters of the Bay of Bengal on its southern limits, to the zamindari or pargana lands on its northern extremity and includes in its southern fringes the dense natural mangrove forests, it is famous for. The revenue history of Sundarbans is linked up with its riverine and coastal networks to its strategic location at the head of the Bay of Bengal which made it a natural protective barrier for the densely populated city of Calcutta. The massive transformation combined with the changed physical structure of Sundarban influenced society and economy on the one hand and invited settlers to establish their control in that region on the other. The text of Pargiter focuses on the revenue history of a larger part of Sundarbans, viz., Jessore, Khulna, Bakarganj and some parts of 24-Parganas since the inception of the colonial rule in Bengal. It has also been shown how the colonial administrators took various types of measures for collecting revenue by the way of land reclamation. The introductory note by the editor analyses the revenue settlement policies which had been implemented on different occasions to ensure the revenue maximization policies of the British Raj on the one hand and to establish an human settlement in the deltaic region on the other. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Crossing the Lines of Caste

Crossing the Lines of Caste
Author: Adheesh A. Sathaye
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2015-05-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190273127

What does it mean to be a Brahmin, and what could it mean to become one? Over the years, intellectuals and dogmatists have offered plenty of answers to the first question, but the latter presents a cultural puzzle, since normative Brahminical ideology deems it impossible for an ordinary individual to change caste without first undergoing death and rebirth. There is, however, one notable figure in the Hindu mythological tradition who is said to have transformed himself from a king into a Brahmin by amassing great ascetic power, or tapas: the ornery sage Visvamitra. Through texts composed in Sanskrit and vernacular languages, oral performances, and visual media, Crossing the Lines of Caste examines the rich mosaic of legends about Visvamitra found across the Hindu mythological tradition. It offers a comprehensive historical analysis of how the "storyworlds" conjured up through these various tellings have served to adapt, upgrade, and reinforce the social identity of real-world Brahmin communities, from the ancient Vedic past up to the hypermodern present. Using a performance-centered approach to situate the production of the Visvamitra legends within specific historical contexts, Crossing the Lines of Caste reveals how and why mythological culture has played an active, dialogical role in the construction of Brahmin social power over the last three thousand years.

Frederick Eden Pargiter

Frederick Eden Pargiter
Author: Frederick Eden Pargiter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781003005698

The Sundarban stretches from the brackish waters of the broad Hooghly on the west, to the fresh waters of the still broader Meghna to the east; the turbid waters of the Bay of Bengal on its southern limits, to the zamindari or pargana lands on its northern extremity and includes in its southern fringes the dense natural mangrove forests, it is famous for. The revenue history of Sundarbans is linked up with its riverine and coastal networks to its strategic location at the head of the Bay of Bengal which made it a natural protective barrier for the densely populated city of Calcutta. The massive transformation combined with the changed physical structure of Sundarban influenced society and economy on the one hand and invited settlers to establish their control in that region on the other. The text of Pargiter focuses on the revenue history of a larger part of Sundarbans, viz., Jessore, Khulna, Bakarganj and some parts of 24-Parganas since the inception of the colonial rule in Bengal. It has also been shown how the colonial administrators took various types of measures for collecting revenue by the way of land reclamation. The introductory note by the editor analyses the revenue settlement policies which had been implemented on different occasions to ensure the revenue maximization policies of the British Raj on the one hand and to establish an human settlement in the deltaic region on the other. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Publications

Publications
Author: Oxford Historical Society (Oxford, England)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 650
Release: 1894
Genre: Oxford (England)
ISBN:

Sarasvatī, Riverine Goddess of Knowledge

Sarasvatī, Riverine Goddess of Knowledge
Author: Catherine Ludvík
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2007
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004158146

Drawing on textual and art historical sources, this book traces the conceptual and iconographic development of the Indian riverine goddess of knowledge Sarasvati from sometime after 1750 B.C.E. to the seventh century C.E.

Rethinking the Local in Indian History

Rethinking the Local in Indian History
Author: Kaustubh Mani Sengupta
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2021-08-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000425525

This volume looks at the concept of the ‘local’ in Indian history. Through a case study of Bengal, it studies how worldwide currents—be it colonial governance, pedagogic practices or intellectual rhythms—simultaneously inform and interact with particular local idioms to produce variegated histories of a region. It examines the processes through which the idea of the ‘local’ gets constituted in different spatial entities such as the frontier province of the Jangal Mahal, the Sundarbans, the dry terrain of Birbhum-Bankura-Purulia and the urban spaces of Calcutta and other small towns. The volume further discusses the various administrative as well as amateur representations of these settings to chart out the ways through which certain spaces get associated with a particular image or history. The chapters in the volume explore a variety of themes—textual representations of the region, epistemic practices and educational policies, as well as administrative manoeuvres and governmental practices which helped the state in mapping its people. An important contribution in the study of Indian history, this interdisciplinary work will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of science and technology studies, history, sociology and social anthropology and South Asian studies.