The most recognized dog in Indian myth is the dog in the Mahabharata that accompanied the Pandavasnot actually a dog but Dharma in disguise. There are, however, several more references to dogs in the classical texts. Mentioned for the first time in the Rg Veda, the eponymous Sarama is the dog of the gods and the ancestor of all dogs. In Sarama and Her Children, the evolution of the Indian attitude towards dogs is traced through the vedas, epics, puranas, dharmashastras and niti shastras. The widespread assumption is that dogs have always been looked down upon in Hinduism and a legacy of that attitude persists even now. Tracing the Indian attitude towards dogs in a chronological fashion, beginning with the pre-Vedic Indus Valley civilization, Bibek Debroy discovers that the truth is more complicated. Dogs had a utilitarian role in pre-Vedic and Vedic times. There were herd dogs, watchdogs and hunting dogs, and dogs were used as beasts of burden. But by the time of the Mahabharata, negative associations had begun to creep in. Debroy argues convincingly that the change in the status of the dog in India has to do with the progressive decline of the traditional Vedic gods Indra, Yama and Rudra (who were associated with dogs), and the accompanying elevation of Vishnu, associated with an increase in brahmana influence. Debroy demonstrates that outside the mainstream caste Hindu influence, as reflected in doctrines associated with Shiva and in Buddhist jataka tales, dogs did not become outcasts or outcastes. Drawing references from high and low literature, folk tales and temple art, Sarama and Her Children dispels some myths and ensures that the Indian dog also has its day.
Catagory: Non Fiction
non fiction main category
Women Of The Tagore Household
The story of an accomplished group of Women who, more than any others, moulded Bengal’s distinct ethos.
The Tagore family has long been the focus of public curiosity. Like its men, the women of this illustrious family have had a great and enduring influence on the life and people of Bengal.
Women of the Tagore Household portrays several generations of connoisseurs, aesthetes and lovers of literature who were nurtured under the umbrella of cultural richness and spiritual freedom that the extended family provided. We meet Rabindranath’s wife Mrinalini and his sister-in-law Kadambari, who had considerable influence on the young poet; the progressive Jnandanandini who sailed alone to England in the nineteenth century, presenting to ordinary women a vision of courage and daring; and Sushama, who broke out of the confines of music, literature and culinary arts to tread the path of women’s empowerment. This book reveals hitherto unknown aspects of
women’s emancipation in Bengal in which the women of the Jorasanko Tagore family were at the forefront-Chandramukhi and Kadambini were the first two female graduates of India, Protiva opened up music and dramatics to women by preparing musical notations for Brahmo sangeet and Hindustani classical music, and Pragya’s prefaces to her cookbooks are still considered storehouses of not only recipes but also homemaking skills.
This engaging narrative, spanning over three hundred years, highlights the Tagores’ influence on the Bengal Renaissance and brings out the special role the Tagore women played in Bengali history and culture.
The Inheritors
Now a strike, led by ageing Marxist trade union leader Hirenmoy Chakroborty, is destabilizing its Calcutta headquarters-and Aruna the bitter, power-hungry sister of Hari Lohia, the head of the dynasty, is using the opportunity to launch a covert takeover of the business with the help of her two ambitious sons. But Hari Lohia, who single-handedly built up Lohia & Co from a tiny jute trader in the crowded alleys of Barabazar to a sprawling global conglomerate, is not willing to let go of his empire so easily. He comes from a family of survivors, ancestors who moved across the country from Rajasthan with nothing and built their fortunes from scratch. And he discovers unlikely allies in this last great battle he has to fight-Anjali, his tough, cynical sister, a fiery opponent of Aruna’s; and Shivani, his beautiful, rebellious daughter who has always been too busy having love affairs to pay attention to her father’s business. Who will lose? Who will win? And most importantly-will the house of Lohia fall like a pack of cards? Moving from the crumbling offices of Calcutta to hedge funds in Hong Kong, from the Mumbai stock market to nineteenth century Rajasthan, and boasting an enormous cast of characters, The Inheritors is quite simply sensational.
Cold Feet
Amisha has found her perfect man and is going to marry him, but suddenly feels the need to push the boundaries of their relationship. Akshara is in love with her best friend, but while he will give her benefits, he won’t give her his love. Ladli has had her heart broken, so she runs away only to find it waiting for her at the other side. Shayna knows what she wants in a man, but the man she wants is nothing like that and finally, the girl who wants Shayna, actually just needs a friend. Cold Feet is the story of the strangely entwined lives of five women who live in Mumbai and deal differently with the same thing, love.
The Vedas
A Bad Character
She is twenty, restless in Delhi. He is a few years older and has travelled the world. They meet in a cafe and they fall in love. In a dark, cool flat they have sex and do drugs. And then they travel the city. From the drug dens of Paharganj to the building sites of Noida, through the wastelands of Mehrauli and the dargah in Nizamuddin charged with plaintive song, the two play out their love story to its black end.
A Bad Character is a novel about a young woman finding her sexuality and herself against the backdrop of a dangerous city. It is the great novel of Delhi, capturing its beauty, its history and its violence like no other recent novel and it is a vivid account of a young woman coming of age. Written with passionate, lyrical intensity, A Bad Character is a haunting and utterly memorable novel.
The Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the greatest stories ever told. Though the basic plot is widely known, there is much more to the epic than the dispute between Kouravas and Pandavas that led to the battle in Kurukshetra. It has innumerable sub-plots that accommodate fascinating meanderings and digressions and it has rarely been translated in full, given its formidable length of 80,000 shlokas or couplets. This magnificent 10-volume unabridged translation of the epic is based on the Critical Edition compiled at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
The final volume ends the instructions of the Anushasana Parva. The horse sacrifice is held and Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti, Vidura and Sanjaya leave for the forest. Krishna and Balarama die as the Yadavas fight among themselves. The Pandavas leave on the great journey with the famous companion – Dharma disguised as a dog. Refusing to abandon the dog, Yudhishthira goes to heaven in his physical body and sees all the Kurus and the Pandavas are already there.
Every conceivable human emotion figures in the Mahabharata, the reason why the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination. In this lucid, nuanced and confident translation, Bibek Debroy makes the Mahabharata marvellously accessible to contemporary readers.
The Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the greatest stories ever told. Though the basic plot is widely known, there is much more to the epic than the dispute between Kouravas and Pandavas that led to the battle in Kurukshetra. It has innumerable sub-plots that accommodate fascinating meanderings and digressions, and it has rarely been translated in full, given its formidable length of 80,000 shlokas or couplets. This magnificent 10-volume unabridged translation of the epic is based on the Critical Edition compiled at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
*
The final volume ends the instructions of the Anushasana Parva. The horse sacrifice is held, and Dhritarashtra, Gandhari, Kunti, Vidura and Sanjaya leave for the forest. Krishna and Balarama die as the Yadavas fight among themselves. The Pandavas leave on the great journey with the famous companion-Dharma disguised as a dog. Refusing to abandon the dog, Yudhishthira goes to heaven in his physical body and sees all the Kurus and the Pandavas are already there.
*
Every conceivable human emotion figures in the Mahabharata, the reason why the epic continues to hold sway over our imagination. In this lucid, nuanced and confident translation, Bibek Debroy makes the Mahabharata marvellously accessible to contemporary readers.
The Hanging of Afzal Guru
A comprehensive, sensitive view of one of the most controversial hangings of modern India
On 13 December 2001, the Indian Parliament was attacked by a few heavily armed men. Eleven years later, we still do not know who was behind the attack, nor the identity of the attackers. Both the Delhi high court and the Supreme Court of India have noted that the police violated legal safeguards, fabricated evidence and extracted false confessions. Yet, on 9 February 2013, one man, Mohammad Afzal Guru, was hanged to ‘satisfy’ the ‘collective conscience’ of society.
This updated reader brings together essays by lawyers, academics, journalists and writers who have looked closely at the available facts and who have raised serious questions about the investigations and the trial. This new version examines the implications of Mohammad Afzal Guru’s hanging and what it says about the Indian government’s relationship with Kashmir
Listening to Grasshoppers
In eleven powerful, and closely argued, linked essays, Arundhati Roy takes a hard look at the underbelly of the PBI – World’s largest democracy. Beginning with the state-backed killing of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, she writes about how ‘progress’ and genocide have historically gone hand in hand; about the murky investigations into the 2001 attack on the PBI – Indian Parliament; about the dangers of an increasingly powerful and entirely unaccountable judiciary; and about the collusion between large corporations, the government and the mainstream media. The volume ends with an account of the August 2008 uprising in Kashmir and an analysis of the November 2008 attacks on Mumbai.
‘The Briefing’, included as an appendix, is a compelling fictional text that brings together many of the issues central to the collection.