Irawati Karve studies the humanity of the Mahabharata`s great figures, with all their virtues and their equally numerous faults. Sought out by an inquirer like her, whose view of life is secular, scientific, anthropological in the widest sense, yet appreciative of literary values, social problems of the past and present alike, and human needs and responses in her own time and in antiquity as she identifies them... Seen through her eyes the Mahabharata is more than a work which Hindus look upon as divinely inspired, and venerate. It becomes a record of complex humanity and a mirror to all the faces which we ourselves wear.
This monograph approaches the Mahābhārata as a single work of literature, and the method is that of close textual study. Key verses are quoted in the original Sanskrit and in English translation. The title problem has been recognised before, but no detailed solution has been forthcoming. The monograph’s objective is to try to articulate a Mahābhārata theology of time. In Chapter 1, the monograph’s argument and synchronic methodology are summarised. In Chapter 2, the cycle of four yugas (world-ages) is outlined and discussed on the basis of the textual evidence. Each yuga is shorter and less moral than the last, and between them they constitute a repeating 12,000-year cycle. In Chapter 3, the Mahābhārata war is shown to be located at the junction between the third and fourth yugas. The idea of God Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa descending to improve the world is introduced, and the title question is properly posed: Why does God’s descent as Kṛṣṇa (to make the Mahābhārata war happen) inaugurate the worst yuga? In Chapter 4, the various descents (avatāras, ‘crossings-down’) of God Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa are discussed. Also discussed is a theory suggesting that the passage between yugas always requires a divine descent to effect it. The limitations of this theory are described and an alternative sketched. In Chapter 5, two general functions of divine descent are identified: to improve the world morally by killing demons, and to help the personified Earth by reducing the human weight upon her. These two functions are correlated with the two extremities of the four-yuga cycle, between which time oscillates. But the Mahābhārata war is not located at either extremity. Central to the monograph is a survey and discussion of the reasons given for this particular descent. These passages combine the two functions of divine descent, neither of which is entirely appropriate to this moment. It is argued that the descent here represents what happens over the course of the whole cycle. The discussion draws on Vedic literature, touches on gender issues, and shows how the two functions play out in the story of the war. In Chapter 6, the progress of the fourth yuga is tracked through the Mahābhārata’s various characters and then the ancient audience, who would anticipate the start of the next cycle. It is hypothesised that this was to occur through the long-term action of the Mahābhārata, as more and more people would put into practice the teachings presented by Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavadgītā. The Kṛṣṇa avatāra would thus inaugurate the worst yuga because the seed planted there takes time to ripen. Chapter 7 reflects summarily upon the monograph’s explorations, the theory of divine descent, and the text’s theology of time. By employing a resolutely synchronic methodology the monograph makes a significant contribution on an important and latterly overlooked issue.
A dazzling and eloquent reworking of the Mahabharata, one of South Asia's best-loved epics, through nineteen peripheral voices. With daring poetic forms, Karthika Naïr breathes new life into this ancient epic. Karthika Naïr refracts the epic Mahabharata through the voices of nameless soldiers, outcast warriors and handmaidens as well as abducted princesses, tribal queens, and a gender-shifting god. As peripheral figures and silent catalysts take center stage, we get a glimpse of lives and stories buried beneath the dramas of god and nation, heroics and victory - of the lives obscured by myth and history, all too often interchangeable. Until the Lions is a kaleidoscopic, poetic tour de force. It reveals the most intimate threads of desire, greed, and sacrifice in this foundational epic.
Theatres of Independence is the first comprehensive study of drama, theatre, and urban performance in post-independence India. Combining theatre history with theoretical analysis and literary interpretation, Aparna Dharwadker examines the unprecedented conditions for writing and performance that the experience of new nationhood created in a dozen major Indian languages and offers detailed discussions of the major plays, playwrights, directors, dramatic genres, and theories of drama that have made the contemporary Indian stage a vital part of postcolonial and world theatre.The first part of Dharwadker's study deals with the new dramatic canon that emerged after 1950 and the variety of ways in which plays are written, produced, translated, circulated, and received in a multi-lingual national culture. The second part traces the formation of significant postcolonial dramatic genres from their origins in myth, history, folk narrative, sociopolitical experience, and the intertextual connections between Indian, European, British, and American drama. The book's ten appendixes collect extensive documentation of the work of leading playwrights and directors, as well as a record of the contemporary multilingual performance histories of major Indian, Western, and non-Western plays from all periods and genres. Treating drama and theatre as strategically interrelated activities, the study makes post-independence Indian theatre visible as a multifaceted critical subject to scholars of modern drama, comparative theatre, theatre history, and the new national and postcolonial literatures.
First of a new epic fantasy series inspired by an ancient Sanskrit epic and Indian mythology, Upon a Burning Throne evokes the expansive world-building and complex twists of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy, and Ken Liu's The Dandelion Dynasty series.
Scar on the Stone is the first anthology of Bosnian poetry in English to have appeared since the outbreak of war and genocide following the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992. It brings together fourteen of the country's most distinguished poets, chosen on the basis of artistic merit alone, but drawn from all creeds - Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic - and none, and from all three jurisdictions of the new federation.The book begins with one of the greatest modern poets of the Balkans, Mak Dizdar (1917-1971), and ends with a selection of younger poets whose work emerged powerfully during the siege of Sarajevo. The result is a Janus-faced volume of rare breadth: one which evokes both the hidden peacetime Bosnia of Yugoslav Communism and the land ravaged by the worst war crimes on European soil since the Second World War. In a compelling introduction, editor Chris Agee relates literature to history, setting Scar on the Stone in the context of the rich, complex polyphony that is Bosnia. The translators are themselves leading poets from Britain, Ireland and America, including Harry Clifton, David Constantine, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Ted Hughes, Kathleen Jamie, Ruth Padel, Charles Simic, Ken Smith and John Hartley Williams. Mak Dizdar and some of the younger poets are translated by Francis R. Jones, whose translations of Ivan V. Lalic and Vasko Popa have been widely acclaimed.
A young widow of a drug overdose victim disappears from Goa. Three years later, a British National claims to know her whereabouts minutes before departing for London Heathrow. The Police of two states is pressed into a joint manhunt. ‘They Go to Sleep’ is a racy thriller on police procedure and criminal psychology. In the year 2043, when nobody sends a letter anymore, an unlikely candidate decides to write about his springtime memories that are soon going to be erased. When his identity gets revealed, the impact on several individuals and the society at large assumes epic proportions. ‘A Man of Letters’ is a science fiction with humane emotions at its core. A promising poet meets his muse on board a train. They share a captivating conversation but forget to ask each other’s name. Will they be able to meet again in an Indian metro? ‘What’s In a Name?’ is a humorous look at everything Bengali: gossip, fish, cutlets and the Kolkata Book Fair. These three stories are joined by nine equally exhilarating tales of ordinary people and the choices that they make under extraordinary circumstances. The compilation will surely compel the readers to keep their midnight lamps burning.
The Sanskrit Puranas and epics are replete with stories of the avatars, incarnations of the god Visnu in various forms to rid the universe of malevolent forces and to restore the proper cosmic balance. As Narasimha, half-man half-lion, Visnu finds a loophole in the pact of invulnerability the demon Hiranaipu has received from god Brahma, and rends the demon apart with his claws. As the brahmin dwarf, Vamana, Visnu deceives the demon Bali with his diminutive appearance and thwarts Bali's attempt to gain universal sovereignty. After carefully analyzing the myths of Vamana and Narasimha, Deborah Soifer grounds her study in the textual history of each avatar and its myth, in their religious contexts, and in the intricate cosmology of the classical period of Hinduism. Contrasting the bestial persona of Narasimha with Vamana's priestly appearance and his associations with early cosmologic themes, she finds complementarity and significance in this pair as they are viewed in the larger context of periodic cosmic destructions and recreations. While focusing primarily on these two mythological figures, Soifer's work explores the relationship between dharma and the 'devious' acts of gods; the interplay between cosmic and 'sociocosmic' levels of reality; and the relationship between cosmology, theology, and soteriology in a religious worldview.
