Raja Nal and the Goddess

Download Raja Nal and the Goddess PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780253111272
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (112 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Raja Nal and the Goddess by : Susan Snow Wadley

Download or read book Raja Nal and the Goddess written by Susan Snow Wadley and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2004-11-17 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "... [T]ells a wonderful story, one much loved in northern India.... fills an important lacuna in the work on oral epic." -- Lindsey Harlan Dhola is an oral epic performed primarily by lower-caste, usually illiterate, men in the Braj region of northern India. The story of Raja Nal, "a king who does not know he is a king," this vast epic portrays a world of complex social relationships involving changing and mistaken identities, goddesses, powerful women, magicians, and humans of many different castes. In this comprehensive study and first extended English translation based on multiple oral versions, Susan Snow Wadley argues that the story explores the nature of humanity while also challenging commonplace assumptions about Hinduism, gender, and caste. She examines the relationship between oral and written texts and the influence of individual performance styles alongside a lyrical translation of the work.

Nomadic Narratives

Download Nomadic Narratives PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107080312
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Nomadic Narratives by : Tanuja Kothiyal

Download or read book Nomadic Narratives written by Tanuja Kothiyal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discusses the emergence of socio-historical identities in the Thar Desert with the mobility of its inhabitants"--

Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines [2 volumes]

Download Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines [2 volumes] PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313349908
Total Pages : 725 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (133 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines [2 volumes] by : Patricia Monaghan

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines [2 volumes] written by Patricia Monaghan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-12-18 with total page 725 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This two-volume set provides a comprehensive guide to the vast array of feminine divine figures found throughout the world. Drawn from a variety of sources ranging from classical literature to early ethnographies to contemporary interpretations, the Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines provides a comprehensive introduction to the ways goddess figures have been viewed through the ages. This unique encyclopedia of over thousands of figures of feminine divinity describes the myths and attributes of goddesses and female spiritual powers from around the world. The two-volume set is organized by culture and religion, exploring the role of women in each culture's religious life and introducing readers to the background of each pantheon, as well as the individual figures who peopled it. Alternative names for important divinities are offered, as are lists of minor goddesses and their attributes. Interest in women's spirituality has grown significantly over the last 30 years, both among those who remain in traditional religions and those who explore spirituality outside those confines. This work speaks to them all.

Nine Nights of the Goddess

Download Nine Nights of the Goddess PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438470711
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Nine Nights of the Goddess by : Caleb Simmons

Download or read book Nine Nights of the Goddess written by Caleb Simmons and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2018-07-11 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Goddesses' Henchmen

Download The Goddesses' Henchmen PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195348346
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Goddesses' Henchmen by : Lindsey Harlan

Download or read book The Goddesses' Henchmen written by Lindsey Harlan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-06-05 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rajputs ruled the vast majority of the kingdoms that were joined together after Indian independence to form the state of Rajasthan, "Land of Kings." An important part of Rajput religion is the worship of "heroes" who have died in battle. This practice has attained new significance in recent years, as right-wing Hindu activists have deployed narratives about heroism in Rajput wars with Muslim emperors. In this book, Lindsey Harlan explores the idea of the Rajput hero. She is particularly interested in the role played by gender in stories about heroes and in their worship. She looks at the differences between female and male storytellers, the relationships of the hero to the women in his tale, and the relationship of the hero to the goddess for whom he is both sacrifice and henchman. She obtains her materials from interviews with Rajput families and their servants, from songfests, from bystanders at shrines, from ritual specialists. Ultimately she shows how heroic traditions encapsulate and express ideals of perfection and masculinity, defined most visibly against the backdrop of domesticity and femininity. More broadly she argues that heroes reflect ever-changing valuations of history, and serve as sources of inspiration for facing contemporary challenges (domestic, communal, national) and concerns about the future.

Feminine Journeys of the Mahabharata

Download Feminine Journeys of the Mahabharata PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030731650
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (37 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Feminine Journeys of the Mahabharata by : Lavanya Vemsani

Download or read book Feminine Journeys of the Mahabharata written by Lavanya Vemsani and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-21 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mahabharata preserves powerful journeys of women recognized as the feminine divine and the feminine heroic in the larger culture of India. Each journey upholds the unique aspects of women's life. This book analytically examines the narratives of eleven women from the Mahabharata in the historical context as well as in association with religious and cultural practices. Lavanya Vemsani brings together history, myth, religion, and practice to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the history of Hindu women, as well as their significance within religious Indian culture. Additionally, Vemsani provides important perspective for understanding the enduring legacy of these women in popular culture and modern society.

They Sing the Wedding of God

Download They Sing the Wedding of God PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476602131
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (766 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis They Sing the Wedding of God by : John Napier

Download or read book They Sing the Wedding of God written by John Napier and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rajasthan, India, a caste of musicians and mendicants, the Nath-Jogis, sing stories of kings who renounce their thrones to become wandering mendicants. They also sing of a god, Mahadeva, Shiva, who must abandon his world-renouncing life and marry, thus establishing the very caste that tells his story. This is the first detailed ethnomusicological study of the music of this caste, examining how the existential questions of the sung stories—of the conflict between loyalty to families or communities and the transcending desire to renounce the material world—are articulated in musical performances in which the caste’s own ethnography is inscribed. Discussing the relationship between the performed repertoire and the caste’s identity, the contexts of performance and ways in which familiar stories are effectively retold, the book offers a transcription, translation and musical and ethnographic analysis of one performance, by Kishori Nath, and shows how the questions the performances project are not merely speculative acts of self-identification but also challenges to audiences to consider their own responses.

Poetics of Conduct

Download Poetics of Conduct PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231139217
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Poetics of Conduct by : Leela Prasad

Download or read book Poetics of Conduct written by Leela Prasad and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leela Prasad's riveting book presents everyday stories on subjects such as deities, ascetics, cats, and cooking along with stylized, publicly delivered ethical discourse, and shows that the study of oral narrative and performance is essential to ethical inquiry. Prasad builds on more than a decade of her ethnographic research in the famous Hindu pilgrimage town of Sringeri, Karnataka, in southwestern India, where for centuries a vibrant local culture has flourished alongside a tradition of monastic authority. Oral narratives and the seeing-and-doing orientations that are part of everyday life compel the question: How do individuals imagine the normative, and negotiate and express it, when normative sources are many and diverging? Moral persuasiveness, Prasad suggests, is intimately tied to the aesthetics of narration, and imagination plays a vital role in shaping how people create, refute, or relate to "text," "moral authority," and "community." Lived understandings of ethics keep notions of text and practice in flux and raise questions about the constitution of "theory" itself. Prasad's innovative use of ethnography, poetics, philosophy of language, and narrative and performance studies demonstrates how the moral self, with a capacity for artistic expression, is dynamic and gendered, with a historical presence and a political agency.

Tellings and Texts

Download Tellings and Texts PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Open Book Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1783741023
Total Pages : 566 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (837 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Tellings and Texts by : Francesca Orsini

Download or read book Tellings and Texts written by Francesca Orsini and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining materials from early modern and contemporary North India and Pakistan, Tellings and Texts brings together seventeen first-rate papers on the relations between written and oral texts, their performance, and the musical traditions these performances have entailed. The contributions from some of the best scholars in the field cover a wide range of literary genres and social and cultural contexts across the region. The texts and practices are contextualized in relation to the broader social and political background in which they emerged, showing how religious affiliations, caste dynamics and political concerns played a role in shaping social identities as well as aesthetic sensibilities. By doing so this book sheds light into theoretical issues of more general significance, such as textual versus oral norms; the features of oral performance and improvisation; the role of the text in performance; the aesthetics and social dimension of performance; the significance of space in performance history and important considerations on repertoires of story-telling. The book also contains links to audio files of some of the works discussed in the text. Tellings and Texts is essential reading for anyone with an interest in South Asian culture and, more generally, in the theory and practice of oral literature, performance and story-telling.

Climate Change and the Art of Devotion

Download Climate Change and the Art of Devotion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 029574538X
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (957 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Climate Change and the Art of Devotion by : Sugata Ray

Download or read book Climate Change and the Art of Devotion written by Sugata Ray and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the enchanted world of Braj, the primary pilgrimage center in north India for worshippers of Krishna, each stone, river, and tree is considered sacred. In Climate Change and the Art of Devotion, Sugata Ray shows how this place-centered theology emerged in the wake of the Little Ice Age (ca. 1550–1850), an epoch marked by climatic catastrophes across the globe. Using the frame of geoaesthetics, he compares early modern conceptions of the environment and current assumptions about nature and culture. A groundbreaking contribution to the emerging field of eco–art history, the book examines architecture, paintings, photography, and prints created in Braj alongside theological treatises and devotional poetry to foreground seepages between the natural ecosystem and cultural production. The paintings of deified rivers, temples that emulate fragrant groves, and talismanic bleeding rocks that Ray discusses will captivate readers interested in environmental humanities and South Asian art history. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/climate-change-and-the-art-of-devotion

Contradictory Lives

Download Contradictory Lives PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199396841
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Contradictory Lives by : Lisa I. Knight

Download or read book Contradictory Lives written by Lisa I. Knight and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-10 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the popular imagination, Bauls in West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh are depicted as a sect of musical mendicants with flowing hair clad in ocher-colored clothes and carrying a one-stringed instrument. Their popularity stems from their mystical songs and their carefree, whimsical behavior. Somewhat less celebrated are Baul beliefs and practices: they are fiercely opposed to the caste system and sectarianism and, at least in the context of their sexo-yogic rituals and philosophy, extol women over men. Despite the importance of women among Bauls, scholarly and popular discourses on Bauls marginalize Baul women by depicting the ideal Baul as male and as unencumbered by social constraints and worldly concerns. For Baul women, these ideals pose distinct challenges to their position and reputation as women in rural Bengal, where gendered norms limit womens actions. However, as musical performers hoping for patronage, behaving as a Baul can ensure their livelihood. This book shows how Baul women interpret and respond to these various constructions of gender and Baul identity and suggests that Baul women are encumbered actors. It argues that Baul women negotiate their identity, position, and life choices in light of contradictory expectations of appropriate behavior for Bengali women and for Bauls. It demonstrates that Baul women draw on the very tools of their encumbering to create for themselves a meaningful life and a more just society. As they sing, wander, take renunciation, and raise a family, they expand ideas about both women and Bauls in Bengal. --Publisher description.

Storytime in India

Download Storytime in India PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253041643
Total Pages : 545 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Storytime in India by : Helen Priscilla Myers

Download or read book Storytime in India written by Helen Priscilla Myers and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-14 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An American ethnomusicologist and her Indian collaborator recount their experiences researching Bhojpuri wedding songs in India. Stories are the backbone of ethnographic research. During fieldwork, subjects describe their lives through stories. Afterward ethnographers come home from their journeys with stories of their own about their experiences in the field. Storytime in India is an exploration of the stories that come out of ethnographic fieldwork. Helen Priscilla Myers and Umesh Chandra Pandey examine the ways in which their research collecting Bhojpuri wedding songs became interwoven with the stories of their lives, their work together, and their shared experience reading The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope. Moving through these intertwined stories, the reader learns about the complete Bhojpuri wedding tradition through songs sung by Gangajali and access to the original song recordings and their translations. In the interludes, Pandey reads and interprets The Eustace Diamonds, confronting the reader with the ever-present influence of colonialism, both in India and in ethnographic fieldwork. Interwoven throughout are stories of the everyday, highlighting the ups and downs of the ethnographic experience. Storytime in India combines the style of the Victorian novel with the structure of traditional Indian village tales, in which stories are told within stories. This book questions how we can and should present ethnography as well as what we really learn in the field. As Myers and Pandey ultimately conclude, writers of scholarly books are storytellers themselves and scholarly books are a form of art, just like the traditions they study.

The Oral Epic

Download The Oral Epic PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000409201
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Oral Epic by : Karl Reichl

Download or read book The Oral Epic written by Karl Reichl and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-26 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the performance of oral epics and explores the significance of performance features for the interpretation of epic poetry. The leading question of the book is how the socio-cultural context of performance and the various performance elements contribute to the meaning of oral epics. This is a question which not only concerns epics collected from living oral tradition, but which is also of importance for the understanding of the epics of antiquity and the Middle Ages which originated and flourished in an oral milieu. The book is based on fieldwork in the still vibrant oral traditions of the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and Siberia. The discussion combines fieldwork with theory; it is not limited to Turkic epics but branches out into other oral traditions.

Is the Goddess a Feminist?

Download Is the Goddess a Feminist? PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780814736197
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (361 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Is the Goddess a Feminist? by : Alf Hiltebeitel

Download or read book Is the Goddess a Feminist? written by Alf Hiltebeitel and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2000-11 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American and Indian scholars of religion, anthropology, women's studies, and psychology look at the complex relationship between the living worship of female divinities and women in India. In keeping with the multiplicity, especially of Hinduism but also Buddhism and Jainism, the anthology presents a number of sometimes conflicting views rather than a consistent account. Only authors are indexed. c. Book News Inc.

Dancing with Devtas: Drums, Power and Possession in the Music of Garhwal, North India

Download Dancing with Devtas: Drums, Power and Possession in the Music of Garhwal, North India PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351946390
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (519 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Dancing with Devtas: Drums, Power and Possession in the Music of Garhwal, North India by : Andrew Alter

Download or read book Dancing with Devtas: Drums, Power and Possession in the Music of Garhwal, North India written by Andrew Alter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Central Himalayan region of Garhwal, the gods (devtas) enjoy dancing. Musicians - whether ritual specialists or musical specialists - are therefore an indispensable part of most entertainment and religious events. In shamanistic ceremonies, their incantations, songs and drumming 'make' the gods possess their mediums. In other contexts, such as dramatic theatrical renditions of stories of specific deities, actors 'dance' the role of their character having become possessed by the spirit of their character. Through the powerful sounds of their drumming, musicians cause the gods to dance. Music, and more particularly musical sound, is perceived in Garhwal as a powerful force. Andrew Alter examines music and musical practice in Garhwal from an analytical perspective that explores the nexus between musical sounds and performance events. He provides insight into performance practice, vocal techniques, notions of repertoire classification, instruments, ensembles, performance venues, and dance practice. However, music is not viewed simply as a system of organized sounds such as drum strokes, pitch iterations or repertoire items. Rather, in Garhwal, the music is viewed as a system of knowledge and as a system of beliefs in which meaning and spirituality become articulated through potent sound iterations. Alter makes a significant contribution to the discipline of ethnomusicology through a detailed documentation of musical practice in the context of ritual events. The book offers a traditionally thorough historical-ethnographic study of a region with the aim of integrating the local field-based case studies of musical practices within the broader Garhwali context. The work contains invaluable oral data, which has been carefully transliterated as well as translated. Alter blends a carefully detailed analysis of drumming in conjunction with the complex ritual and social contexts of this sophisticated and semantically rich musical practice.

The Hegemony of Heritage

Download The Hegemony of Heritage PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520968883
Total Pages : 461 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Hegemony of Heritage by : Deborah L. Stein

Download or read book The Hegemony of Heritage written by Deborah L. Stein and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. The Hegemony of Heritage makes an original and significant contribution to our understanding of how the relationship of architectural objects and societies to the built environment changes over time. Studying two surviving medieval monuments in southern Rajasthan—the Ambika Temple in Jagat and the Ékalingji Temple Complex in Kailaspuri—the author looks beyond their divergent sectarian affiliations and patronage structures to underscore many aspects of common practice. This book offers new and extremely valuable insights into these important monuments, illuminating the entangled politics of antiquity and revealing whether a monument’s ritual record is affirmed as continuous and hence hoary or dismissed as discontinuous or reinvented through various strategies. The Hegemony of Heritage enriches theoretical constructs with ethnographic description and asks us to reexamine notions such as archive and text through the filter of sculpture and mantra.

Say to the Sun, "Don't Rise," and to the Moon, "Don't Set"

Download Say to the Sun,

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019935765X
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Say to the Sun, "Don't Rise," and to the Moon, "Don't Set" by :

Download or read book Say to the Sun, "Don't Rise," and to the Moon, "Don't Set" written by and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pastoralist traditions have long been extraordinarily important to the social, economic, political, and cultural life of western India. The Marathi-language oral literature of the Dhangar shepherds is not only one of the most important elements of the traditional cultural life of its region, but also a treasure of world literature. This volume presents translations of two lively and well-crafted examples of the ovi, a genre typical of the oral literature of Dhangars. The two ovis in the volume narrate the stories of Biroba and Dhuloba, two of these shepherds' most important gods. Each of the ovis tells an elaborate story of the birth of the god-a miraculous and complicated process in both cases-and of the struggles each one goes through in order to find and win his bride. The extensive introduction provides a literary analysis of the ovis and discusses what they reveal about the cosmology, geography, society, and political arrangements of their performers' world, as well as about the performers' views of pastoralists and women.