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This book contains my essays on Brahmins written over a period of ten years. I have given proof for my views from Tamil and Sanskrit literature and other sources. The reason Brahmins were held in high esteem in olden days was their spotless character and honesty. But in course of time, it decreased or disappeared completely in some areas. And they lost the original credibility.
There is a number of problems connected with the study and teaching of any Oriental literature in general and of Tamil literature specifically which have to date been mostly ignored, although they are indispensable for solid knowledge and correct interpretation and understanding of the literature in question. These include problems of authenticity and authorship, of transmission and tradition, writing tools and materials, of relationship of orality to literacy, of Sanskrit to Tamil, the prehistory of Tamil written literature, the numerous texts that have been lost, scholarly lineages and the rediscovery of ancient Tamil literature etc. The book deals with all these problems as well as with some specific Tamil cultural phenomena such as the concept of "threefold Tamil" or the relationship of literature ('marked') to grammar ('marker'), with the derivation of the term "Tamil" and with the history of Tamil literary historiography. It will be indispensable as an introduction to the study of the more than 2000 years of Tamil literary history. By addressing questions which have thus far been almost completely neglected, it has also decisive impact on the interpretative comprehension of Tamil literature and on the teaching of this very rich heritage of verbal art.
Presents the Indian literatures, not in isolation in one another, but as related components in a larger complex, conspicuous by the existence of age-old multilingualism and a variety of literary traditions. --
Spoken by eighty million people in South Asia and a diaspora that stretches across the globe, Tamil is one of the great world languages, and one of the few ancient languages that survives as a mother tongue for so many speakers. David Shulman presents a comprehensive cultural history of Tamil—language, literature, and civilization—emphasizing how Tamil speakers and poets have understood the unique features of their language over its long history. Impetuous, musical, whimsical, in constant flux, Tamil is a living entity, and this is its biography. Two stories animate Shulman’s narrative. The first concerns the evolution of Tamil’s distinctive modes of speaking, thinking, and singing. The second describes Tamil’s major expressive themes, the stunning poems of love and war known as Sangam poetry, and Tamil’s influence as a shaping force within Hinduism. Shulman tracks Tamil from its earliest traces at the end of the first millennium BCE through the classical period, 850 to 1200 CE, when Tamil-speaking rulers held sway over southern India, and into late-medieval and modern times, including the deeply contentious politics that overshadow Tamil today. Tamil is more than a language, Shulman says. It is a body of knowledge, much of it intrinsic to an ancient culture and sensibility. “Tamil” can mean both “knowing how to love”—in the manner of classical love poetry—and “being a civilized person.” It is thus a kind of grammar, not merely of the language in its spoken and written forms but of the creative potential of its speakers.
For over five hundred years, Muslim dynasties ruled parts of northern and central India, starting with the Ghurids in the 1190s through the fracturing of the Mughal Empire in the early eighteenth century. Scholars have long drawn upon works written in Persian and Arabic about this epoch, yet they have neglected the many histories that India’s learned elite wrote about Indo-Muslim rule in Sanskrit. These works span the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire and discuss Muslim-led kingdoms in the Deccan and even as far south as Tamil Nadu. They constitute a major archive for understanding significant cultural and political changes that shaped early modern India and the views of those who lived through this crucial period. Audrey Truschke offers a groundbreaking analysis of these Sanskrit texts that sheds light on both historical Muslim political leaders on the subcontinent and how premodern Sanskrit intellectuals perceived the “Muslim Other.” She analyzes and theorizes how Sanskrit historians used the tools of their literary tradition to document Muslim governance and, later, as Muslims became an integral part of Indian cultural and political worlds, Indo-Muslim rule. Truschke demonstrates how this new archive lends insight into formulations and expressions of premodern political, social, cultural, and religious identities. By elaborating the languages and identities at play in premodern Sanskrit historical works, this book expands our historical and conceptual resources for understanding premodern South Asia, Indian intellectual history, and the impact of Muslim peoples on non-Muslim societies. At a time when exclusionary Hindu nationalism, which often grounds its claims on fabricated visions of India’s premodernity, dominates the Indian public sphere, The Language of History shows the complexity and diversity of the subcontinent’s past.
This book is a sequel to my earlier publication Hinduism in Sangam Literature. I am continuing the topic ‘Tamil Hindu Encyclopedia’ from part 16. Hinduism was practiced in day-to-day life with great enthusiasm. It is very visible in the 2000 year old Sangam poems. According to historians, the Puranas took the current shape in the Gupta Age. But Sangam poems are earlier than that. If it is the correct dating, then the first evidence for several Puranic anecdotes come from Sangam literature. It is amazing to see that the southern most part of India had practiced Hinduism in minute detail with great enthusiasm.
This book contains articles on various subjects. If you look at the contents page, you will get an idea of the range of subjects I have dealt with. But the main focus is on two books Amarakosa, the Sanskrit dictionary cum thesaurus and Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira, an encyclopaedia in Sanskrit. The commentaries on Amarakosa give us enormous information. But not all the commentaries are available in English. I have collected as much information as possible through a Sanskrit scholar.
This book on Nation Building and Local Leadership is a unique one without a parallel. It has evolved from the first ever Ph. D. thesis in India on the subject of Nation Building (submitted and approved for the award of Ph. D. from the JNU, New Delhi, in 1977). This book contains: (a) Theoretical justification for the study of nation building and local leadership; (b) Conceptual analysis of the concept and process of Nation building; (c) A review of Nation building in India from the phase of the nationalist movement till 1977 from a historical perspective; (d) Empirical study on the image of nation building held by the local leaders in Tamil Nadu and Kerala selected for this study; (e) Conceptual analysis of the empirical findings from the behavioral study of the local leaders studied; and (f) Valuable and up-to-date profile of the important socio- political leaders of Kerala and Tamil Nadu given as Annexure at the end of the book. The book is a source of information and insights to those interested in understanding the dynamics of political evolution in Tamil Nadu and Kerala since the middle of the 20th century till now, including both teachers and students of fields like Political Science, Public Administration and Public policy formulation. The book provokes well-meaning political leaders of the day to ask and answer the question "Are we doing and accomplishing and what we are expected to be doing and accomplishing?". The author holds the academic qualifications of M.A.(First Class) in Political Science from the M.S. University, Baroda); M. Phil and Ph.D. in Political Studies from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; M.B.A. (with Distinction) from the University of Leeds, U.K.; and E.K.S. from the Mewes System, Frankfurt, Germany. He has worked as a faculty member in JNU, New Delhi, SGU, Surat, and IMG (since 1976 till retirement in 2008). After retirement he worked as Professor and Director of the Head, Dept. of Management Studies in the MBA Department, Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam, followed by being Dean, Marian Academy of Management Studies, Kothamangalam, and as Professor and Head of the Department of Management Studies in the Viswajyothi College of Engineering and Technology (VJCET), Vazhakulam, Kerala, India. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Kerala. Through four study tours to the USA, he has been able to improve his comparative understanding of the management of people and organizations. For several years, he was a member of the American Political Science Association, American Society for Public Administration, and American Management Association. He is a Life Member of the Indian Institute of Public Administration and the Quality Circle Forum of India. He is also an ardent student of Yoga and the Indian traditions in value management. He can be contacted through: [email protected]
Stuart Blackburn takes the reader inside a little-known form of shadow puppetry in this captivating work about performing the Tamil version of the Ramayana epic. Blackburn describes the skill and physical stamina of the puppeteers in Kerala state in South India as they perform all night for as many as ten weeks during the festival season. The fact that these performances often take place without an audience forms the starting point for Blackburn's discussion—one which explores not only this important epic tale and its performance, but also the broader theoretical issues of text, interpretation, and audience. Blackburn demonstrates how the performers adapt the narrative and add their own commentary to re-create the story from a folk perspective. At a time when the Rama story is used to mobilize political movements in India, the puppeteers' elaborate recitation and commentary presents this controversial tale from another ethical perspective, one that advocates moral reciprocity and balance. While the study of folk narrative has until now focused on tales, tellers, and tellings, this work explores the importance of audience—absent or otherwise. Blackburn's elegant translations of the most dramatic and pivotal sequences of the story enhance our appreciation of this unique example of performance art.
Composed by three poet-saints between the sixth and eighth centuries A.D., the Tevaram hymns are the primary scripture of the Tamil Saivism, one of the first popular large-scale devotional movements within Hinduism. Indira Peterson eloquently renders into English a substantial portion of these hymns, which provide vivid and moving portraits of the images, myths, rites, and adoration of Siva and which continue to be loved and sung by the millions of followers of the Tamil Saiva tradition. Her introduction and annotations illuminate the work's literary, religious, and cultural contexts, making this anthology a rich sourcebook for the study of South Indian popular religion. Indira Peterson highlights the Tevaram as a seminal text in Tamil cultural history, a synthesis of pan-Indian and Tamil civilization, as well as a distinctly Tamil expression of the love of song, sacred landscape, and ceremonial religion. Her discussion of this work draws on her pioneering research into the performance of the hymns and their relation to the art and ritual of the South Indian temple. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.