Rites and Customs
Dancing With Siva
Darsan Seeing The Divine Image in India
Hindu Dharma
This book presents its core essentials and their implictions for the current times and differentiates it from other religious traditions. It focuses more on its timeless aspects independent of the ebb and flow of history. In addition, it emphasizes Dharma's implications for a life centered on deep and universal spiritual quest.
Hindu Samskaras
The Hindu Samskaras give expression to aspirations and ideals of the Hindus. They aim at securing the welfare of the performer and developing his personality. They go back to a hoary antiquity. The Vedas, the Brahmanas, the Grhyasutras, the Dharmasutras, the Smrtis and other treatises describe the rites, ceremonies and customs here and there but they do not present them in their historical evolution.
How to Become a Hindu
In the Company of Gods
Kumbha Mela
Philosophical Foundation of Hinduism
Religions Of The World Hinduism
Sakta Contribution to Varanasi
This book incorporates a good number of paperrs on multiple aspects of Sakta traditions practised in Varanasi continuing from hoary past to-date. Beside philosophical, religious and cultural leanings the contents expose the iconographic, ritualistic and artistic rendering of the Divine Mother. Kasi or Varanasi has been a stronghold of religious and spiritual fervour, and several religious sects have contributed to its present texture. Saktism has also been a forceful current in the cultural stream of this holy city. This is evidenced by several Devi temples, Sakti-pithas, yantras, fairs and festivals associated with the worship of Mother-Goddess.
Subaltern Saints in India
The present era of complexity, anxiety and moral turpitude is in need of spiritual solace and God's grace more than ever before. The established frameworks of religion have not entirely been successful in streamlining the rapport between the marker and the creation. The emergence and progression of bhakti saints is a significant pointer in this direction. Living exemplary, realized lives on their own terms mostly in opposition to the given frame of life, the bhakti saints heralded a new possibility of the egalitarian order without any bigotry or dogmatism.
The Bridge to the Three Holy Cities
The study of holy places and pilgrimages to them is treated in the Hindu tradition as a sub-field, called tirtha, of the Dharmasastra. The Tristhalisetu or "Bridge to the Three Holy Cities" of Narayana Bhatta, written in Varanasi in the 16th century A.D., is recognized as the standard and most authoritative text of the voluminous tirtha literature.
The Origins & Development of Classical Hinduism
The late A. L. Basham was one of the world's foremost authorities on ancient Indian culture and religion. Modelled on his monumental work The wonder that was india, this account of the origins and development of classical Hinduism represents a life time of reflection on the subject, and offers an intriguing introduction to one of richest of all Asian traditions.The Origins of Classical Hinduism clarifies much of Hinduism's enduring mystique. Offering an especially helpful bibliography, numerous illustrations of Hidu art never before published, and a lucid, accessible style, this book is much reading for anyone who has ever been intrigued by this fascinating religion.
The Sacred Marriage of A Hindu Goddess
Moving beyond traditional understanding of the catagory of ''sacred marriage'' derived from studies of the ancient Near East, Harman reveals that sacred marriage in India functions as a devotional metaphor for Hindu devotees, a way understanding how deities act toward one another and toward who worship them. Combining sdystematic textual study with descriptive fieldwork, Harman offers us an original and perceptive exploration of the relationship between the human and the divine in Hindu life.
The Tyagaraja Cult in Tamilnadu
Tyagaraja is a Somaskanda and the first visual representation of this composite deity can be traced to the time of pallava rule. The concept of Somaskanda is unique to Tamilnadu. The Cola monarchs were devotees of Tyagaraja. The book analyses the Tyagaraja Cult from three perspectives: as a religious synthesiser, socio-cultural integrator and legitimiser of the ideologies of the State.
