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A Journey in the World of the Tantras
The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita
This scholarly work presents a comprehensive and authentic exposition of the philosophy of the Bhagavadgita enshrined in the original text by according due consideration to the commentaries of Samkara, Ramanuja and Madhva. In the first part of the book, Dr. Chari makes an indepth study of the selected verses from each adhyaya and discusses their philosophical implications with particular reference to the Vedanta doctrines and connected issues advanced by the commentators while interpreting the crucial verses.
KASI THE SACRED CITY OF LORD SIVA
The Ananda-vana of Indian Art
Confusions in Advaita Vedanta
Decolonizing Indian Studies
The present Indian academic self-understanding of its history and culture is largely Western in origin. This Western intellectual enterprise, however, went hand in hand with a Western political enterprise, i.e the colonzation of India. This raises the question : To what extent, if any, did the two developments influence each other ? It also raises another question : To what extent did West's cultural presuppositions influence its understanding of Indian civilization.
Personal Salvation and Filial Piety
Personal Salvation and Filial Piety offers a complete and fully annotated translation of The Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain, based on a nineteenth-century edition. The translation is preceded by substantial introduction that discusses the origin of the text and the genre to which it belongs and highlights the similarities and differences between the scroll and female saints' lives from medieval Europe.
Lalita-Sahasranama
Sanskrit language indisputably occupies the stage of sanctity among the language used the world over. There are works in this language pertaining to innumerable branches of knowledge that are so varied and rich that they can only be tasted and not studied in detail in a single effort. 'Sanskrit Literature' is vast and engrossing in its variety and form. Of the many great Sanskrit literary works that have come down to us, one is the classic Lalita-sahasranama, the magnum opus of an anonymous writer.
Hindustani Sangeet And a Philosopher of Art
The book is decidedly the very first of its kind. It seeks to weigh some basic facts and concepts of Hindustani sangeet (music, rhythm and Kathak dance) against the art theories of Susanne K. Langer, an eminent aesthetician of the recent past; But now here without meticulious attention to the text of her writings. In the chapter on music, while discussing Langer's emphasis on 'commanding form' in a total performance, the author proposes a quit new defination of raga which seeks to integrate the various points in its traditional characterizations. The third chapter too, which deals with Langer's view of rhythm, is not merely explanatory, but ventures to propose a fresh and fairly defensible definition of rhythm.
Art Beauty and Creativity
The book is an attempt, among other things, to bring together Indian and Western theories of art, and engage them in a constructive debate with one another. In recent philosophical thinking about art, it has been suggested that the concept of art is a local institutional concept. It is institutions located within a culture that determine-so the argument goes- whether and whether it is good or bad art. While this may be true ofthe concept of art, as it taken the shape in modern west, there is, surely, a larger, more global concept of art which links it with our concern, the beauty,which is common to all mankind.The book is an attempt, among other things, to bring together Indian and Western theories of art, and engage them in a constructive debate with one another. In recent philosophical thinking about art, it has been suggested that the concept of art is a local institutional concept. It is institutions located within a culture that determine-so the argument goes- whether and whether it is good or bad art. While this may be true ofthe concept of art, as it taken the shape in modern west, there is, surely, a larger, more global concept of art which links it with our concern, the beauty,which is common to all mankind.