Centuries ago, the roaring sea was the only answer for the quest of the new. Voyages made landscapes and people. Each expedition constructed a new history of land and new versions of cultures. Some took the yoke of imperialism through these sea routes; some a mission of knowledge and cultural symbiosis. Arab Geographers’ Knowledge of Southern India is a construction of India from the narratives of famous Arab travelers. A fresh perception on the land of many cultures and some iconic navigators whose mission it was to pollinate knowledge and culture.
Seeing the radiant face of Ma Anandamayi and hearing her laughter you guess that she is an incarnation of Joy. Touched by the caress of Her glance you know that her heart is overflowing with love for all beings. Listening to Her teaching so simple and clear you understand that She is in possession of all Wisdom. But one cannot say whether it is Joy, Love or Wisdom that is the source of all this for with Her all therr are inextricably and indissolubly mingled one coluld not exist without the others. The joy which Ma anandmayi lives is not that which we know in worldly life, where pleasure and pain, hope, regret and disillusionment, attraction and repulsion follow on each other's heels, born one of another. Nor is it an egocentric calm of stoic rigidity that erects around itself an rampart of indifference. Hers is an overflowing, irrepressible joy that expresses itself in gaiety, that knows no obstacles, because it is deeply rooted in the Absolute, beyond the dualities of good and evil, of 'I' and 'not-I', of pleasant and unpleasant, because its unshakable base is Love and Wisdom.
In this classic work George Hourani deals with the history of the sea trade of the Arabs in the Indian Ocean from its obscure origins many centuries before Christ to the time of its full extension to China and East Africa in the ninth and tenth centuries. The book comprises a brief but masterly historical account that has never been superseded. The author gives attention not only to geography, meteorology, and the details of travel, but also to the ships themselves, including a discussion of the origin of stitched planking and of the lateen fore-and-aft sails. Piracy in the Indian Ocean, day-to-day life at sea, the establishment of ancient lighthouses and the production of early maritime guides, handbooks, and port directories are all described in fascinating detail. Arab Seafaring will appeal to anyone interested in Arab life or the history of navigation. For this expanded edition, John Carswell has added a new introduction, a bibliography, and notes that add material from recent archaeological research.
This volume examines Western India’s contributions to the spread of ideas, beliefs and other intangible ties across the Indian Ocean world. The region, particularly Gujarat and Bombay, is well-established in the Indian imaginary and in scholarship as a mercantile hub. These essays move beyond this identity to examine the region as a dynamic place of learning and a host of knowledge, tracing the flow of knowledge, aesthetic sensibilities, values, memories and genetic programs. Contributors traverse the fields of history, anthropology, agriculture, botany, medicine, sociology and more to offer path-breaking perspectives on Western India’s deep socio-cultural impact across the centuries. Western India emerges as a pivotal region in the maritime world as a transmitter of knowledge.
The spread of Islam eastward into South and Southeast Asia was one of the most significant cultural shifts in world history. As it expanded into these regions, Islam was received by cultures vastly different from those in the Middle East, incorporating them into a diverse global community that stretched from India to the Philippines. In Islam Translated, Ronit Ricci uses the Book of One Thousand Questions—from its Arabic original to its adaptations into the Javanese, Malay, and Tamil languages between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries—as a means to consider connections that linked Muslims across divides of distance and culture. Examining the circulation of this Islamic text and its varied literary forms, Ricci explores how processes of literary translation and religious conversion were historically interconnected forms of globalization, mutually dependent, and creatively reformulated within societies making the transition to Islam.
Highlighting diverse types of market places and merchants, this book situates the commercial scenario of early India (up to c. ad 1300) in the overall agrarian material milieu of the subcontinent. The book questions the stereotypical narrative of early Indian trade as exchanges in small quantity, exotic, portable luxury items and strongly argues for the significance of trade in relatively inexpensive bulk commodities – including agrarian/floral products – at local and regional levels and also in long distance trade. That staple items had salience in the sea-borne trade of early India figures prominently in this book which points out that commercial exchanges touched the everyday life of a variety of people. A major feature of this work is the conspicuous thrust on and attention to the sea-borne commerce in the subcontinent. The history of Indic seafaring in the Indian Ocean finds a prominent place in this book pointing out the braided histories of overland and maritime networks in the subcontinent. In addition to three specific chapters on the maritime profile of early Bengal, the third edition of Trade and Traders in Early Indian Society offers two new chapters (14 and 15) on the commercial scenario of Gujarat, dealing respectively with an organization of merchants during the early sixth century ad and with the long-term linkages between money-circulation and overseas trade in Gujarat c. ad 500-1500). A new preface to the Third Edition discusses the emerging historiographical issues in the history of trade in early India. Rich in the interrogation of a wide variety of primary sources, the book analyses the changing perspectives on early Indian trade by taking into account the current literature on the subject.
By exploring themes of fragility, mobility and turmoil, anxieties and agency, and pedagogy, this book shows how colonialism shaped postcolonial projects in South and Southeast Asia including India, Pakistan, Burma, and Indonesia. Its chapters unearth the contingency and contention that accompanied the establishment of nation-states and their claim to be decolonized heirs. The book places key postcolonial moments - a struggle for citizenship, anxious constitution making, mass education and land reform - against the aftermath of the Second World War and within a global framework, relating them to the global transformation in political geography from empire to nation. The chapters analyse how futures and ideals envisioned by anticolonial activists were made reality, whilst others were discarded. Drawing on the expertise of eminent contributors, The Postcolonial Moment in South and Southeast Asia represents the most ground-breaking research on the region.
This volume explores the historical trajectory of the spread of Islam in South Asia and how the engagements of the past have played a crucial role in the making of the present outfits of South Asian Islam. Islam in South Asia has maintained a distinct role while imbibing cultural, social, ethnic, folk, and artistic networks of the subcontinent in diverse echelons. In an unequivocal analysis, this volume showcases the visible varieties of Islam from an array of regional cultural, ethnic, and vernacular groups. While many characteristics remain distinct in different provinces or regions of South Asia, similarities are palpable in etiquettes, customary laws, art, and architecture. More than regional differences, various ethnic groups from all poles of the Indian subcontinent have paved the way for the dissimilar landscapes of Islam, in tandem with differences in language, culture, and festivals. The case studies in this book exhibit forms of cultural pluralism in the communities, which have helped in building a cohesive community. Part of the ‘Global Islamic Cultures’ series that looks at integrated and indigenized Islam, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of religion, religious history, theology, study of Islamic law and politics, cultural studies, and South Asian Studies. It will also be useful to general readers who are interested in world religions and cultures.
This book explores past expressions of the Jewish interest in Hinduism in order to learn what Hinduism has meant to Jews living mainly in the 12th through the 19th centuries. India and Hinduism, though never at the center of Jewish thought, claim a place in its history, in the picture Jews held of the wider world, of other religions and other human beings. Each chapter focuses on a specific author or text and examines the literary context as well as the cultural context, within and outside Jewish society, that provided images and ideas about India and its religions. Overall the volume constructs a history of ideas that changed over time with different writers in different settings. It will be especially relevant to scholars interested in Jewish thought, comparative religion, interreligious dialogue, and intellectual history.
