A graded reader for learners of English (EFL) Level 4 - B1/B2 Intermediate (2) Word count: 7,297 Shuzo is the head priest of a mountain temple in Japan. One night, an unexpected visitor comes to the temple and takes the temple's most precious treasure. Shuzo has to get the treasure back, but it has been passed to a dangerous gang in Osaka. Shuzo can't go to the police, so he has to act alone. He knows his life will be in danger, but he goes to Osaka and finds the treasure. Help comes from a very unexpected person, but will it be enough for him to escape back to the temple with the treasure?
The Square and the Circle of the Indian Arts is a major contribution in Indian art history. More than a book on the theories of arts, it has far-reaching implications for the way one thinks about the future of indology and art history. It provides a model to be emulated for inter-disciplinary research, not only between the arts but also the sciences and the arts. The book begins by re-examining the imagery of the Vedas and the Upanisads, highlighting some aspects of early speculative thought which influenced the enunciation of aesthetic theories, particularly of Bharata in the Natyasastra. The next chapter introduces a new methodology of analyzing the rituals (yajna) as laid down in the Yajurveda and the Satapatha Brahmana, the best way to focus the relationship between the text and the practice. Four chapters follow – one each on drama (natya), architecture (vastu), sculpture (silpa), and music (sangita). Each presents some fundamental concepts of speculative thought, concerned with each of the arts and purposefully correlates these with actual examples both of the past and the present. The afterward to this second edition remains an event not only because the book benefits from the works published since the first edition, but also because it presents the author’s integral vision and her unique adventure into the boundaries of several disciplines. It demonstrates the efficacy of her earlier approach of investigating the imagery and the metaphors as basic to the discourse of the Indian tradition. She proposes a multi-layered cluster of concepts and metaphors which enable one to uncode the complex multi-dimensional character of the Indian Arts. Also significantly she suggests a deeper comprehension of the relevance of the developments in the field of traditional mathematics and biology for the study of the language of form of the Indian Arts.
This beautiful reprint illustrates the V & A's unrivalled collection of South Asian sculpture, putting "Indian temple Sculpture" in its context as an instrument of worship intended to embody powerful religious experience. Author John Guy considers the origin, cosmological meaning and role of sculpture within the temple setting, and reveals the vivid rituals and traditions still in practice today. The book is also an absorbing introduction to the principal iconographic forms in the three traditional religions of the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, with the principal deities presented through their myths and manifestations. John Guy is Senior Curator of South and South-East Art in the Asian Department of the V & A.0.
"Everyone who has ever lived continues to exist on the Flipside and if possible, can be asked direct questions." This is the startling premise of "Hacking the Afterlife" which argues it's possible to obtain "new information" from people no longer on the planet. These "afterlife interviews" are conducted via various mediums, with people under deep hypnosis, or with people fully conscious yet able to access and remember details of previous lifetimes. The reports offer practical advice ("afterlife hacks") on how to navigate our lives and improve our planet.Best selling author of '"Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" (also a film) and "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," (both went to #1 at Amazon kindle) frequent guest on "Coast to Coast," explores the Flipside via mediums and other methods, "interviews" a variety of people who are no longer on the planet. Interviews with someone who claims to be Edgar Cayce "sleeping prophet," three different mediums who claim to be able to speak to Amelia Earhart, "conversations" with Robin Williams, the Artist formerly known as Prince, and a number of people who claim to have known the person known worldwide as the "Alpha and the Omega." The Author explores these accounts with an open mind, and invites the reader to do the same. Quotes for the book from the people who were interviewed:*"This book will have people questioning their own disbeliefs and belief paradigms. It's a translation of the ethers." Edgar Cayce via medium JenniferShaffer.com*"Good luck to you for making the unbelievable claim that there even is an afterlife. " Howard Schultz, friend who passed away recently.*"They should read your book if they want to fly. It makes the reader open up. It's beautiful written music, Rich." The Artist formerly known as Prince Rogers Nelson.*"Two words; "Love, Love." The key ingredient for happiness is to love the love; love love, and then send it to everything." Robin Williams via Jennifer Shaffer.* "Lift this book to your soul. And see what your soul has to say. Hearing the words from the book; don't judge it, just listen to your spirit. It will guide you and tell you that the "unthinkable" is real. Laughing is the best medicine. Don't waste time trying to dig up things." Amelia Earhart (who proves in this book that she died in Saipan during the war)*"More people will be changed by your words than the ones who can't hear what you're saying. It is a challenge frequency that always hurts initally." From the person known as the Alpha and the Omega.
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi motilalbanarsidass.com, [email protected] The Matamata is a Vastusastra, i.e. a treatise on dwelling, and as such, it deals with all the facets of gods' and men's dwellings, from the choice of the site to the iconography of the temple walls. It contains numerous and precise descriptions of villages and towns as well as of temples, houses, mansions and palaces. It gives indications for the selection of proper orientation, correct dimensions, and appropriate materials. It intends to be a manual for the architect and a guidebook for the layman. Well thought of by traditional architects (sthapati-s) of South India, the treatise is of great interest at a time when technical traditions, in all fields, are being scrutinized for their possible modern application. The present bilingual edition prepared by Dr Bruno Dagens contains critically edited Sanskrit text which is an improvement over the earlier edition by the same scholar and published as No.40 of Publications de L'Institut Francaisd' Indologie, Pondicherry. The English translation, also published earlier, has now been revised with copious notes. The usefulness of the edition has been further enhanced by adding an analytical table of contents and a comprehensive glossary. In the series of Kalamulasastra early texts on music, namely, Matralaksanam, Dattilam and Brhaddest, have been published. The medieval texts on music, especially, the Sribastamuktavali (No.3 in the series) and the Nartananirnaya (No.17 in the series), bring us up to the 15th and 16th centuries. In the case of architecture, despite the IGNCA's endeavour to publish portions of the Brhatsamhita, the Agni Purana and the Visnudharmottara-Purana, first, this has not been possible. Instead, our scholars were able to complete work first on a late but important text, namely, Silparatnakosa. We hope that the sections on architecture in the Brhatsamhita, the Agni Purana and the Visnudharmottara-Purana which predate the medieval texts, will be published soon, along with revised and re-edited texts of Manasollasa and Aparajitaprccha. The Mayamatam is the fourteenth and fifteenth volume in the Kalamulasastra series of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).
