The History of the Book in South Asia covers not only the various modern states that make up South Asia today but also a multitude of languages and scripts. For centuries it was manuscripts that dominated book production and circulation, and printing technology only began to make an impact in the late eighteenth century. Print flourished in the colonial period and in particular lithographic printing proved particularly popular in South Asia both because it was economical and because it enabled multi-script printing. There are now vibrant publishing cultures in the nation states of South Asia, and the essays in this volume cover the whole range from palm-leaf manuscripts to contemporary print culture.
It is perhaps commonplace to say that India is one of the world's richest and most enticing cultures. One thousand years have passed since Albiruni, arguably the first "Indologist", wrote his outsider's account of the subcontinent and two hundred years have passed since the inception of Western Indology. And yet, what this monumental scholarship has achieved is still outweighed by the huge tracts of terra incognita: thousands of works lacking scholarly attention and even more manuscripts which still await careful study whilst decaying in the unforgiving Indian climate. In September 2009 young researchers and graduate students in this field came together to present their cutting-edge work at the first International Indology Graduate Research Symposium, which was held at Oxford University. This volume, the first in a new series which will publish the proceedings of the Symposium, will make important contributions to the study of the classical civilisation of the Indian sub-continent. The series, edited by Nina Mirnig, Péter-Dániel Szántó and Michael Williams, will strive to cover a wide range of subjects reaching from literature, religion, philosophy, ritual and grammar to social history, with the aim that the research published will not only enrich the field of classical Indology but eventually also contribute to the studies of history and anthropology of India and Indianised Central and South-East Asia.
The last ten years have seen interest in Jainism increasing, with this previously little-known Indian religion assuming a significant place in religious studies. Studies in Jaina History and Culture breaks new ground by investigating the doctrinal differences and debates amongst the Jains rather than presenting Jainism as a seamless whole whose doctrinal core has remained virtually unchanged throughout its long history. The focus of the book is the discourse concerning orthodoxy and heresy in the Jaina tradition, the question of omniscience and Jaina logic, role models for women and female identity, Jaina schools and sects, religious property, law and ethics. The internal diversity of the Jaina tradition and Jain techniques of living with diversity are explored from an interdisciplinary point of view by fifteen leading scholars in Jaina studies. The contributors focus on the principal social units of the tradition: the schools, movements, sects and orders, rather than Jain religious culture in abstract. Peter Flügel provides a representative snapshot of the current state of Jaina studies that will interest students and academics involved in the study of religion or South Asian cultures.
"Against High-Caste Polygamy offers a complete, annotated translation of Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar's first book arguing against the practice of high-caste Kulin marriage in Bengal. The translation is based on the text of the first edition of Bahuvivaha rahita haoya uchita ki na etadvishayaka vichara, published from the Sanskrit Press in 1871 (Samvat 1928); henceforth simply Bahuvivaha. I have relied on the version of the text as found in the second volume of Gopal Haldar's Vidyasagar-rachanasamgraha, as well as on a digitized version of the 1871 first edition available online"--
Derived from papers presented at an international symposium held at the Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies in the Institute of English Studies in the University of London and at the British Library, London in 2004.
Tantravarttika is the magnum opus of Kumarila Bhatta, a seventh century thinker and greatest exponent of the Purva Mimamsa system. Founder of the Bhatta school of Mimamsa, he was a native of South India. This work is a commentary on a part of Kumarila's commentary on Purvamimamsa Sutra of Jaimini and Sabara-svamin's Bhasya, mainly in prose, running from Adhyaya I, Pada II to the end of Adhyaya III. This is a unique work showing the deep scholarship of the author. Here Kumarila has shown his mastery over other schools of thought as well. His other works are Slokavartika, a commentary on I. 1 of the Purvamimamsa Sutra of Jaimini. This great work was translated for the first time into English by Dr. Ganganatha Jha and published in Bibliotheca Indica Series, of which this is a reprint.The translator, Dr. Ganganatha Jha. (1871) was a versatile scholar. He was a Professor of Sanskrit in the old Muir Central College Allahabad, then the Principal of the government Sanskrit College, Banaras and then the vice-Chancellor of the Allahabad University for nine years. Though engaged in all these multifarious duties he was able to write more than fifty works on different Indian philosophical systems. In addition to the tantravarttika, he also translated Kumarila's Slokavarttika and Sabara's Bhasya into English. He was the first scholar to write a thesis on 'The Prabhakara School of Purvamimamsa'IntroductionThe Introduction to a book like the Tantra-Vartika is expected to contain (1) an account of the Author and (2) a brief account of the contents of the work. As regards (1), I have secured a contribution from my esteemed friend, Pandit Gopinath Kaviraj of the Sanskrit College, Benares, which is given below. As regards (2), I have nothing very much to add to what I have already said in my work on the Prabhakara School of Purva Mimansa. I have how
