A New Face of Durga
Author: Na Caṇmukaliṅkan
Publisher: Virago Press
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKStudy with special reference to Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
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The Making of Goddess Durga in Bengal: Art, Heritage and the Public
Author: Samir Kumar Das
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: 2021-05-21
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9811602638
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines the making of the Goddess Durga both as an art and as part of the intangible heritage of Bengal. As the ‘original site of production’ of unbaked clay idols of the Hindu Goddess Durga and other Gods and Goddesses, Kumartuli remains at the centre of such art and heritage. The art and heritage of Kumartuli have been facing challenges in a rapidly globalizing world that demands constant redefinition of ‘art’ with the invasion of market forces and migration of idol makers. As such, the book includes chapters on the evolution of idols, iconographic transformations, popular culture and how the public is constituted by the production and consumption of the works of art and heritage and finally the continuous shaping and reshaping of urban imaginaries and contestations over public space. It also investigates the caste group of Kumbhakars (Kumars or the idol makers), reflecting on the complex relation between inherited skill and artistry. Further, it explores how the social construction of art as ‘art’ introduces a tangled web of power asymmetries between ‘art’ and ‘craft’, between an ‘artist’ and an ‘artisan’, and between ‘appreciation’ and ‘consumption’, along with their implications for the articulation of market in particular and social relations in general. Since little has been written on this heritage hub beyond popular pamphlets, documents on town planning and travelogues, the book, written by authors from various fields, opens up cross-disciplinary conversations, situating itself at the interface between art history, sociology of aesthetics, politics and government, social history, cultural studies, social anthropology and archaeology. The book is aimed at a wide readership, including students, scholars, town planners, heritage preservationists, lawmakers and readers interested in heritage in general and Kumartuli in particular.
Tales of Durga
Author: SUBBA RAO
Publisher: Amar Chitra Katha Pvt Ltd
Published: 1971-04-01
Total Pages: 35
ISBN-13: 8189999354
DOWNLOAD EBOOKGoddess Durga is the fierce form of Devi who, as shakti, is considered the personification of Universal energy. According to the Devi Bhagavata, the universe is but her manifestation. The worship of Durga is believed to be more than 4,000 years old in India.
The Politics of Reconstruction and Development in Sri Lanka
Author: Eva Gerharz
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-04-03
Total Pages: 201
ISBN-13: 1317692802
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSri Lanka’s conflict and peace processes have gained global attention during recent years. This book presents a comprehensive insight into the politics of reconstruction and development in Sri Lanka, focussing on the ceasefire which was negotiated between the Government of Sri Lanka and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2002 and which lasted until 2006. Based on extensive empirical fieldwork, the book provides a unique ethnographic account of this specific historical period of peace. It explains how development was shaped by interplay and cooperation, but also by the disparities and conflicts between a variety of local and intervening actors, including local organizations and civil society, LTTE, Government of Sri Lanka, international development cooperation and the Tamil diaspora. Starting from an interdisciplinary viewpoint, the author integrates findings from development sociology with new perspectives on transnationalization and the migration-development-nexus. This provides a fine grained analysis of the emerging development visions and perspectives in relation to transnationalization and global interconnectedness. Making an innovative contribution by linking the analysis of local reconstruction with contemporary phenomena of transnationalization, diasporization, and globalization, this book will appeal to those with an interest in Sociology, Social Anthropology and Political Science.
Nava Durga
Author: Nalini Ramachandran
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2020-10-19
Total Pages: 96
ISBN-13: 935305981X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDurga, as this powerful warrior-goddess is known, Has nine special forms-each one unique, not just a clone. Shailaputri, Brahmacharini and Chandraghanta, Kushmanda and Skandamata, Katyayani and Kaalratri, Maha Gauri and Siddhidatri . . . They are the Nava Durga, Worshipped during Navaratri, The festival of nine nights and nine days That's celebrated across India and the world in myriad ways To praise the goddesses and their glory. This is their story!
Nine Nights of the Goddess
Author: Caleb Simmons
Publisher: SUNY Press
Published: 2018-08-01
Total Pages: 376
ISBN-13: 143847069X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKExplores the contemporary nature and the diverse narratives, rituals, and performances of the Navar?tri festival. Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navarātri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navarātri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.
Too Much and Not the Mood
Author: Durga Chew-Bose
Publisher: FSG Originals
Published: 2017-04-11
Total Pages: 241
ISBN-13: 0374535957
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn entirely original portrait of a young writer shutting out the din in order to find her own voice
Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing for the Goddesses of Bengal
Author: Rachel Fell McDermott
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2011
Total Pages: 392
ISBN-13: 0231129181
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAnnually during the months of autumn, Bengal hosts three interlinked festivals to honor its most important goddesses: Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri. While each of these deities possesses a distinct iconography, myth, and character, they are all martial. Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri often demand blood sacrifice as part of their worship and offer material and spiritual benefits to their votaries. Richly represented in straw, clay, paint, and decoration, they are similarly displayed in elaborately festooned temples, thronged by thousands of admirers. The first book to recount the history of these festivals and their revelry, rivalry, and nostalgic power, this volume marks an unprecedented achievement in the mapping of a major public event. Rachel Fell McDermott describes the festivals' origins and growth under British rule. She identifies their iconographic conventions and carnivalesque qualities and their relationship to the fierce, Tantric sides of ritual practice. McDermott confronts controversies over the tradition of blood sacrifice and the status-seekers who compete for symbolic capital. Expanding her narrative, she takes readers beyond Bengal's borders to trace the transformation of the goddesses and their festivals across the world. McDermott's work underscores the role of holidays in cultural memory, specifically the Bengali evocation of an ideal, culturally rich past. Under the thrall of the goddess, the social, political, economic, and religious identity of Bengalis takes shape.
Sin is the New Love
Author: Abir Mukherjee,
Publisher: Sristhi Publishers & Distributors
Published: 2018-08-10
Total Pages: 178
ISBN-13: 9387022323
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAhi is an aspiring publisher and wishes to make it big someday. When her favourite author’s autobiography lands on her table – which has confessions of his heinous crimes, illegal businesses and few eminent others as his partners in crime – she doesn’t know if it’s real or someone’s trap. It could get her a big breakthrough, but little does she know that it would turn her world upside down completely. Her morbid curiosity pulls her into the depth of a conspiracy. She finds herself in the centre of various mishaps and murders, as if someone wants to lead the way. Driven by her childhood friend Samim’s encouragement, and watched over by the ever so charming ACP Rathore, she has to jeopardize her life to find the brutal truth of her past. Touching, thrilling and deeply mysterious, Sin is the New Love is the journey of a girl who stumbles upon the truth about her origin while chasing her dream.
Shadow Born
Author: James Axler
Publisher: Gold Eagle
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 316
ISBN-13: 0373638833
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDOMINION PLAGUE Earth remains the tortured battleground of near-immortal aliens. But these god kings never anticipated unified resistance from a group of humans possessing the tenacity and spirit to reclaim their planet. In the ongoing war for independence, the Cerberus fighters forge an epic showdown, as evil shape-shifts and unfurls its grand design.... UNSTOPPABLE JUGGERNAUT The madness surrounding entombed secrets of an ancient race puts Kane and his allies on a death chase across the African subcontinent. Facing relentless attack from winged hell beasts and marauding militia, the rebels are forced into an unholy alliance with a deadly foe. Only the dark goddess spawned of humanity's most brutal overlord can challenge a superhuman interloper and navigate an ancient ziggurat that guards a nightmare. The price for miscalculation will be paid in blood--with the eternal damnation of the human race.
