Querying the Medieval
Querying the Medieval

Author: Ronald Inden

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2000-06-08

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0195352432

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Indologist Ronald Inden has in the past raised questions about the images of a "traditional" or "medieval" India deployed by colonial scholars and rulers--"Orientalists"--and has also argued that a history of "early medieval" India very different from both the colonial and nationalist accounts could be written. This volume is designed as an important first step towards that goal. The authors look closely at three genres of texts that have been crucial to the representations of precolonial India. All three essays challenge not only colonialist scholarship but the attempts by religious nationalists to identify Hinduism as the essence of national identity in India and Buddhism as the essence of nationality in Sri Lanka.

Dhanapāla and His Times
Dhanapāla and His Times

Author: Ganga Prasad Yadava

Publisher: Concept Publishing Company

Published: 1982

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sociocultural evaluation of the works of Dhanapāla, 10th century exponent of Jainism.

Boot, Hooves and Wheels
Boot, Hooves and Wheels

Author: Saikat K Bose

Publisher: Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

Published: 2015-06-01

Total Pages: 595

ISBN-13: 9384464546

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The books title has an apparent misnomer—boots were not used in early armies, at least as apparent from temple sculptures which depict bare-bodied and barefooted soldiers. But is it likely to have been true? Or social reasons led to suppression of footgear on temple walls? The book explores these and myriad other questions on the military experience of South Asia, hoping to construct a picture of how men, animals, and equipment were used on South Asian battlefields from the end of the Paleolithic till the dawn of our era. Further, as all that happens on battlefields is no more than the tip of the proverbial iceberg whose submarine mass conceals many cause–effect relationships in a wide variety of fields, the author, adopting a wide fronted approach, examines the evidence of anthropology, literature, mythology, folklore, technology, archaeology, and architecture, to reconstructs the military atmosphere of South Asia beyond the battlefield, which is the aim of this book.

Medieval Indian Mindscapes
Medieval Indian Mindscapes

Author: Evgenii͡a I͡Urʹevna Vanina

Publisher: Primus Books

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 9380607199

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Medieval Indian Mindscapes: Space, Time, Society, Man centres on how Indians in pre-colonial times perceived their world. It compares the specific features of their 'mental programmes' with that of their counterparts in other pre-modern societies. While analysing the importance of space in the medieval world view, the book discusses how medieval Indians comprehended their territories and the landscape as 'their own' vis-a-vis the 'alien' space; the development of territorial-cultural and territorial-political identities, and knowledge about other lands and peoples. In a discussion of medieval temporality, the book also studies the ways of perceiving and reckoning time, attitudes to the historical past and the manifold ways of recording it. A special chapter on 'Society' deals with socio-ethical values and behavioural stereotypes of major estate and caste groups like the feudal landlords, priests and officials, merchants and craftsmen, peasants and the lower castes in villages. The book also has a chapter on the medieval Indian perception of Man, his appearance and peculiarities as they pertained to the a≥ behaviour, social status, and the steady development of individuality. Medieval Indian Mindscapes will be of interest to medievalists as well as general readers, keen to know more about the dynamics of pre-modern history and culture.

Who Needs the Past?
Who Needs the Past?

Author: R. Layton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-11-12

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 1135090637

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book offers a critique of the all pervasive Western notion that other communities often live in a timeless present. Who Needs the Past? provides first-hand evidence of the interest non-Western, non-academic communities have in the past.

The Last Hindu Emperor
The Last Hindu Emperor

Author: Cynthia Talbot

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1107118565

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book traces the genealogy and historical memory of the twelfth-century ruler Prithviraj Chauhan, remembered as the 'last Hindu Emperor of India'.