Books

About the Book:

The Grhya sutras contain rules for customs, ceremonies and sacrifices through which the life of an Indian attains purification. They record a number of popular customs and manners connected with conception, birth, name-giving, first-outing, first-eating, by the child. They include rules for tonsure, initiation, completion of studies, custom of courting, engagement, wedding etc. They are important for the student of comparative history inasmuch as they contain parallels in the manners and customs of Indo-European folks.

This Grhya-sutra belongs to the Jaimini School of Samaveda. It is divided into 2 parts. Part I opens with details of regular sacrifices in which cooked food is offered to the deities. The work proceeds with the description of a ceremony to secure the birth of a male child, description of the Nadimukha Sraddha preceding every sacrament, of parting the hair, ceremony for the new-born child, ceremony of giving name, the first feeding of the babe with solid food, the tonsure of child's head, initiation of the student to the study, twilight devotion, opening of the annual course of study, ending of the term f study, observance of vows, his return home after finishing the course of study, ceremony of marriage, evening and morning sacrifices and the sacrifice of first fruits.

Part II opens with the rite of Sraddha and proceeds with the description of astakas, funeral ceremonies, libations of water, and the collection of bones. It is followed by the detailed account of rites of the house, allaying of prodigies, recitation of the Veda during a fast. It ends with the appeasing of planets malefic to the householder.

After their father is mysteriously abducted by strangers, Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis move with their mother from their comfortable city home to ‘Three Chimney’s, a tiny cottage in the countryside, next to a railway station. Soon the children find enough to amuse themselves with at the station, befriending everybody from the porter and the stationmaster to an old gentleman who waves at them from the 9.15 each day. But the mystery of their father’s disappearance looms large over them. Where is Father? And how does the old gentleman hold the key to the mystery?

Told in simple, lucid prose, Nesbit’s classic is one of the most endearing coming-of-age stories ever written.

Back of the Book

Ceremonial rites and rituals occupy a place of utmost importance in the life of a devout Hindu. In fact, there are no vital actions-birth, initiation, marriage, death etc.-which can be allowed to be performed without its appropriate rite or samskara. The number of samskaras has been fluctuating but was finally fixed at sixteen.

Marriage is the most important and elaborate out of these sixteen samskaras. Manu enjoins that rituals should be performed in the case of a virgin for legalizing the marriage, legitimatizing children and avoiding public scandal.

The mantras used in the nuptial rites being in Sanskrit are beyond the comprehension of not only the average Hindu but even the common priest entrusted with the duty of conducting the rituals. To overcome this difficulty the present book was originally prepared in Hindi and is now translated into English with the mantras etc. Romanized for the benefit of those who do not have adequate knowledge of Hindi, for example especially those whose forefathers had migrated to remote countries during the last one hundred years or so.

Dr. R.C. Prasad, taught English Literature at Patna University for over forty years, during which he wrote scores of books, including biographies and translations, the most outstanding of which was his prose rendering of the Ramacharitamanasa.

About the Book

In all religions of the world which maintain sacrificial rituals and in which the portion offered to Gods is given to fire, that portion is normally offered raw except in Vedic India, where its previous cooking is necessary. The reasons for such a treatment forms the subject matter of this book.

The author, through an exhaustive examination of Vedic, Brahmanic and Srauta Sutric texts, traces the beginning and development of the idea of cooking as transforming energy, from early Vedic hymns to the classical and fully complete sacrifices of the later Brahmanic times.

The work is divided into two major parts: The first, comprising four chapters, follows the emergence and development of the first intuition the rishis had of their use of fire as God of energy; the second part, consisting of the remaining four chapters takes into account four emblematic rituals where heat is especially prominent, discussing, how the presence of heat has worked in shaping those rituals and the spirituality that has arisen from them. An introduction has cast the problem in its human, temporal and geographical conditions, while a conclusion has brought the entire matter to its heavenly accomplishment.

About the Author:

Born in Roma (Italia), Uma Marina Vesci received her education in Roma itself, graduating in Ancient History and Archaeology with a thesis on: " the use of Musical Instruments in the religious Life of Ancient Greece". Further, she specialized in History of Religions with a thesis on: "God, Man and Salvation in the Spiritual change in the VI century B.C. from China to Greece". At the end of 1963 she won a scholarship to India where she continued her studies centered on Hinduism and especially on Vedic texts. Since then she has continuously lived in India to the present with support from various scholarships and fellowships in B.H.U. (Varanasi), Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Simla, at center of Advanced study in Philosophy, Visva Bharati(Shantiniketan), and in the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre in Delhi and Varanasi. In this last capacity she has taught comparative religions for a short while in Patiala at the Dept. of Religious Studies. Dr. Vesci has contributed many articles on Indological subjects to numerous international journals and has lectured widely.

About the Book:

Vasubandhu, one of the most famous Mahayana Buddhist Philosophers, wrote works on a vast variety of subjects. This collection of translations includes the Vada-Vidhi, a work on logic; the Panca-skandhaka-prakarana, which deals with the 'aggregates' making up 'personality'; the Karmasiddhi-prakarana, which in explaining psychic continuity, also attacks many features of earlier Buddhist Psychology; the famous Vimsatika and Trimsika, which take Buddhist psychology into hitherto unexplored areas; the Madhyanta-Vibhaga-bhasya, one of the most profound books for Mahayana realization; and the Tri-svabhava-nirdesa which shows a way for ridding consciousness of ensnaring mental constructions. A glossary of key words is included, as are the texts of those works which survive in Sanskrit. Each translation is prefaced by an explanatory introduction and is followed by notes. These include also references to other Indian philosophical systems and occasional comparisons with modern Western psychology systems, particularly where the latter seem inadequate in comparison with Vasubandhu's Yogacara.

About the Author:

Stefan Anacker, born in the USA of Swiss parents, received his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis., USA) in Buddhist Studies. He has also studied Sanskrit and Old Kannada at the University of Mysore. At present he is a research scholar living in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Since 1948 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), upon the recommendation of the General Assembly of the United Nations, has been concerned with facilitating the translation of the works most representative of the culture of certain of its Member States, and, in particular, those of Asia.

One of the major difficulties confronting this programmer is the lack of translators having both the qualifications and the time to undertake translations of the many outstanding books meriting publication. To help overcome this difficulty in part, UNESCO’s advisers in this field (a panel of experts convened every other year by the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies), have recommended that many worthwhile translations published during the 19th century, and now impossible to find except in a limited number of libraries, should be brought back into print in low-priced editions, for the use of students and of the general public. The experts also pointed out that in certain cases, even though there might be in existence more recent and more accurate translations endowed with a more modern apparatus of scholarship, a number of pioneer works of the greatest value and interest to students of Eastern religions also merited republication.

This point of view was warmly endorsed by the Indian National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi), and the Indian National Commission for UNESCO.It is in the spirit of these recommendations that this work from the famous series “Sacred Books of the East” is now once again being made available to the general public as part of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works.

From the Jacket:

In this book the author discusses the place of science in rituals and mantras. Using structural analysis he show that rituals in general, whether religious, political, social or otherwise have common structural patterns. These patterns are shared by poetry, music, dance and gymnastics, but not by language. Consideration of animal rituals and pathological (compulsive) rituals leads him to propose a general theory which unifies all ritual-like activities. He also introduces the concept of ritual instinct which can be make the theory simpler and more elegant. He shows how knowledge can divided into science, non-science and pseudo-science to understand the true status of such strange phenomena as miracles, supernatural powers, siddhis, samadhi, rebirth and ESP.

About the Author:

Jayant Burde received his M.Sc. degree in mathematics from Bombay University and a law degree from Bangalore University. He is also a Certificated Associated of the Indian Institute of Bankers. He was in business before he joined a bank where he worked for nearly 20 years. His published papers contain mathematical models in finance, costing and organizational structure.

Prapathaka 5 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka in the Andhra recension is an ancient commentary on the Pravargya ritual. This commentary, the Pravargya Brahmanaí, is here translated and annotated. The Introduction contains a study of the Pravargya ritual, which is 'One of the few rituals that has been explicitly referred to in the Rgveda (usually under the name "Gharma"). "The abstract and spiritual nature of what is probably the main purpose of the ritual - the participants should acquire the lustre of the sun ñ the simple means by which it can be performed and the way the main implement, the pot which is heated red-hot, is worshipped, give it a special place in the vast assortment of Vedic rites. The Sanskrit text of the Pravargya Brahmana of the Taittiriyas has been given along with the translation. The present work was prepared under the guidance of Professor Dr. H.W. Bodewitz (Utrecht), and is an elaboration of an essay written by the author in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of 'doctorandus' at the University of Utrecht, 1987.

About the Book:

Devotion is dedication of the self to the All Serene. To Rabindranath Tagore, it is more than mere dedication. It is a vrata to be I perfect unison with the Vratapati, the Lord of askance in sincerity, purity and poignance.

To be christened with the spirituality of Tagore in the most intrinsic and poignant pattern is to muse and re-muse his devotional songs, and in doing so, one cannot but discover within oneself the lotus-land of spiritual excellence. Indeed, somewhere in the heartland of everyone lurks the unending beckoning of the All Beautiful.

Here are a hundred devotional songs of Rabindranath representing prayer and worship with diverse dimensions of joy, sorrow, awakening, introspection, aspiration, resolution and so on to encounter the All Beautiful.

Hitherto unknown to the national and the global lovers appreciators of Tagore due to language-constraints, A Hundred Devotional Songs of Tagore, the first of its kind in India and abroad, might be a resourceful and thrilling companion to the study of and quest for devotion.

About the Author:

MOHIT CHAKRABARTI, D. Litt., is a teacher of English at Visva-Bharti University, Santiniketan. He has participated in so many national and international conferences and has been a regular contributor in a number of journals of repute. Besides being a contributor to children's literature in English and Bengali he is a regular contributor to the studies and researches being to the studies and researches being held on Rabindranath Tagor, Mahatama Gandhi and Swami Vivekanand. He has a number of books to his credit and has also got National Award.

About the Translation:

Translating the songs of Rabindranath Tagore is undeniably a very challenging but thrilling task. Care is taken to be justified to the original as far and as best as possible. One cannot but admit the constraints related to translating a few typical words, phrases and idiomatic expressions, where a judicious approach to retain the nuances called forth is undertaken. At the same time, the imagery patterns of Tagore in each song have been given due importance in the task of translation.

About the Book

Many thousands of people throughout the world claim to practise some from of yoga, but the philosophical background of this ancient discipline is frequently either neglected or subjected to oversimplification and misrepresentation. This has been especially true of hatha-yoga (literally, the 'forceful yoga'), the tradition most performance of posture (asanas), cleansing practices (karmani or kriyas) and techniques that involve altering the breathing rhythm and flow of 'vital energy' (pranayama). In this study, philosopher and hatha practitioner Mikel Burley places the soteriological system of hatha-yoga within its proper context, drawing attention to its continuity with Vedic religion, its initiatory pedagogical structure, and to the theoretical underpinnings of hatha practice. In particular, he examines the complex notion of a 'subtle bodily matrix' - comprising vital channels (nadis), centres (cakras) and forces (prana)-which is so crucial to the discipline, this matrix being held to form, as it were, a bridge between the gross physical and mental spheres.

Use in made of a wide range of source materials, including seminal texts in the hatha tradition such as the Hatha-Yoga-Pradipika and Gheranda-Samhita, as well as primary and secondary works from related streams of Indian thought. The author's approach is both scholarly and accessible, making the study suitable for specialists, practitioners and general readers alike.

Hatha-yoga is concerned with the most fundamental of matters: the development of an ethical and spiritually-oriented appreciation of humanity, the cultivation of maximal health and perceptual acuity, and the quest for Self-realization. Absorbing and penetrating, Hatha-Yoga: Its Context, Theory and Practice makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of this subject.

About the Author

Mikel Burley was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1972. He has studied philosophy, both Eastern and Western, at the University of Essex and Western, at the University of Essex and the University of Nottingham, and has travelled widely in India and Nepal. He currently teaches hatha-yoga and Indian philosophy for the Devon School of Yoga, and has had articles published in several magazines and journals, including introductory series on Indian philosophy and Patanjali's Yoga-Sutra in Yoga and Health magazine.

About the Book :This essay describes the 'Asvamedha' rite and its symbolism to explain distinctive aspects of the Vedic sacrifice system. Several questions related to the Asvamedha are posed and answered in the context of Vedic epistemology. This rite has three important functions: (i) it presents an equivalence of the naksatra year to the heaven, implying that it is a rite that celebrates the rebirth of the Sun; (ii) it is symbolic of the conquest of Time by the king, in whose name the rite is performed; and (iii) it is a celebration of social harmony achieved by the transcendence of the fundamental conflicts between various sources of power. Numbers from another Vedic rite, the Agnicayana; help in the understanding of several of its details.

About the Author : SUBHASH KAK is an acclaimed scientist, historian and Vedic scholar, Currently a professor at Louisiana State University, he has authored thirteen books and more than 200 research papers in the fields of information theory, neural networks and Indic studies.

This volume explores the delicate subject of gender and religion with honesty and clarity focusing on one of mankind's earliest and most textually-rich religious traditions: Vaishnavism, Steven J. Rosen has brought together eight essays by leading academics, poets and practitioners, who shed light on the lives and teachings of specific female saints throughout history. This book also examine the general priciples regarding the worship of Krishna and how such principles impact on the lives of both men and women.

Atharva - Veda means 'the Veda of the Atharvan' or 'the knowledge of Magic Formulas'. Originally, however, the word meaning 'fire priest', dates back to the Indo-Iranian period. It is a collection of 731 hymns, which contain about 6,000 verses, in the recension which is best preserved. The great importance of the Atharva - Veda Samhita lies in the very fact that it is an invaluable source of knowledge of the real popular belief as yet uninfluenced by the priestly religion, of the faith in numberless spirits, imps, ghosts, and demons of every kind, and of the witchcraft, so eminently important to ethnology and for the history of religion.

This work includes in the first place, critical notes upon the text, giving the various readings of the manuscripts, and not alone of those collated by Whiney in Europe, but also of those of the apparatus used by S. P. Pandit in the great Bombay edition; second, the readings of Paippalada of Kashmere version, furnished by the late Professor Roth; further, notice of the corresponding passages in all the other Vedic texts, with report of the various readings; the data of the Hindu scholiast respecting authorship, divinity, and metre of each verse; also references to the ancillary literature, especially to the well-edited Kausika and Vaitana Sutras, with account of the ritualistic use therein made of the hymns or parts of hymns, so far as this appears to cast any light upon their meaning; also, extracts from the printed commentary; and finally, a simple literal translation with introduction and indices.

William Dwight Whitney (1827-1894) studied Sanskrit for three years in Germany, and gained wide reputation for his scholarship in this field. At Yale University, he became professor of Sanskrit in 1854, adding comparative philology in 1869. He became secretary to the American Oriental Society in 1857 and its president in 1884. He was editor-in-chief of the first edition of the respected Century Dictionary, published in 1889.

Whitney revised definitions for the 1864 edition of Webster’s American Dictionary, and in 1869 became a founder and first president of the American Philological Association. He wrote metrical translations of the Vedas, and numerous papers on the Vedas and linguistics, many of which were collected in the Oriental and Linguistic Studies Series (1872-74). He wrote several books on language, and grammar textbooks of English, French, German, and Sanskrit.

The first volume of Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar contains a discussion of the place of the Agnicayana in the Vedic srauta tradition, its textual loci, traditional and modern interpretations of its origins and significance and an overview of the Nambudiri Vedic tradition. The bulk of the volume, written in close collaboration with C.V. Somayajipad and M. Itti Ravi Nambudiri, is devoted to a detailed description of the 1975 twelve-day performance, richly illustrated with tipped-in photographs, mostly in colour and almost all by Adelaide de Menil. There are numerous text illustrations, tables and maps. The mantras are published in Devanagari and translation.

The second volume, edited with the assistance of Pamela MacFarland, contains contributions by an international galaxy of scholars on archeology, the pre-Vedic Indian background, geometry, ritual vessels, music, Mudras, Mimamsa, a survey of Srauta traditions in recent times, the influence of Vedic ritual in the Homa traditions of Indonesia, Tibet, China, Japan and related topics. There are translations of the relevant Srauta Sutras of Baudhyayana (together with Caland's text) and the Jaiminiya (with Bhavatrata's commentary) as well as the Kausitaki Brahmana; and a survey of the project with an inventory of the films and tape recordings made in 1975.

About the Book: 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 text is in four sections, of which only the last three were published in the Anandasrama edition of 1915. The first or 'General' Section, the Samanya-praghattaka, which was not included in that edition, discusses the concept, definition, and characteristic features of tirthas, and prescribes in detail the procedures and practices of a pilgrimage. The present volume consists of a critical edition of the text of the Samanyapraghattaka and an annotated translation. This text contains a wealth of information for the study of the pilgrimage tradition in Hinduism.

About the Author: Richard Salomon was born in New York City in 1948. He is presently Assistant Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Washington, USA. He studied Sanskrit at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving the Degree of Ph. D. with Distinction from the latter institution in 1975. He has taught Sanskrit at the University of Pennyslvania, Minnesota, and Washington, and conducted research at Calcutta University, the University of Chicago, and Visvabharati (Santiniketan). He has published various papers and monographs on Sanskrit and Prakrit language and literature, Indian epigraphy, Paleography, and numismatics, and ancient Indian history.

The Cult of Jagannatha: Myths and Rituals offers a new approach to Orissan ethnography. In sharp contrast with dominant explanations, centred on tribal influences and the history of aryanisation, this book provides extensive evidence on the importance of religious orthodoxy. The transition from the coastal to the inland regions of Orissa is characterised by sharp demographic and sociological discontinuities. Such regional differences are probably a reflection of aryanisation. Ethnological accounts have most commonly relied on the historical reconstruction of this process. It has been assumed that native communities exercised a decisive influence on the traditions that flourished in the delta plain, especially those related to its vital centres-the city of Puri and the temple of Jagannatha. Myths and rituals show that sacrificial symbolism is at the core of Puri's religious system. Explicitly associated with an inaugural asvamedha (the Vedic horse sacrifice), the building of the great temple is still seen as a transformation of the brick-fire altar. These correlations are further supported by an impressive web of orthodox representations, both Vedic and Hindu. This acknowledgement of orthodoxy takes us back to the so-called singularities of local traditions. How to interpret the iconographic "specificity" of Puri's deities? What status should be attributed to the Sudra ritualists of the great temple? The present book provides new answers to these old questions. Puzzling as it may appear, the "strangeness" of Orissan ethnography is a particular-yet extremely coherent-expression of Indian traditions.

These two Brahmanas are actually Suresvara`s exposition of Sankara`s Bhasya on the first chapter of the Brhadaranyakopanisad. They form a sequal to his almost independent treatise, The Sambandhavartika, wherein he has dwelt upon the doctrine that ritual is also useful to one in one`s effort to attain lineration for it purifies first the intellect and then the individual self, thereby paving way to the rise of the knowledge about the reality to liberation.

About the Author: Dr. K.P. Jog (M.A., Ph.D., Bombay) is a renowned Vedic scholar. He has retired as Professor of Vedic Sanskrit and General Editor of Sanskrit Dictionary Project of Deccan College of Pune. A National Lecturer in Sanskrit for the year 1984-85, he is now Director of M.M. P.V. Kane Research of the Asiatic Society of Bombay. He has edited Jayantaswamin's Vimalodayamala, a Grhya text of Asvalayana School; translated into Marathi (prose) the Meghaduta, the Virataparvan and edited Lokamanya Tilak's notes on the Brahmasutra (for Kesari Publication: Samagra Tilak). He has contributed many articles on Vedic, Vedantic, Poetical and literary topics.

SRI RAMACARITAMANASA of Tulasidasa is the single most popular book of the Hindus, which, for over four centuries, has greatly appealed equally to the rich and the poor, the educated and the illiterate, the old and the young, and the scholar and the common man. Keeping in mind people's ever-increasing quest for the epic, this unique edition of the Ramacaritamanasa with verse to verse Hindi and English translation along with Tulasidasa's original text has been prepared. The translation rendered by an accomplished scholar maintains the intrinsic richness of the original. Special care has been taken for making it useful to the Indian brethren living abroad to whom the dialect of Tulasidasa's original may be somewhat incomprehensible. There has been a long-standing demand from the vast Indian community settled abroad for a standard and authentic edition of the Ramacaritamanasa. The present edition has been designed to meet their requirement by using the most modern printing and processing techniques to make it a work of international standard. A special feature of this edition is the inclusion of Lavakushakanda, Shri Hanumanchalisa and Shri Ramashalaka Prashnavali. The mode of its recitation is given as a separate appendix. Adding to its uniqueness is the inclusion of important section containing Indian, European and American scholars' criticisms on Tulasidasa's Ramacaritamanasa. A glossary of important proper nouns and epithets is given at the end.

About the Author: DR. R. C. PRASAD was University Professor of English in Patna University where he taught for about three decades. He was an eminent author, translator and editor. He had a good number of books to his credit.

These relations are analysed in the context of Yajna dominated Vedism and Puja dominated Hinduism of the author discovers the semantics and structure of the Natyasastra's rites, reconstructs the logic and symbolic meaning of the ritual events. He gives a detailed review of the ancient dramatic forms described in the Natyasastra. He traces the original links between theatrical tradition and the cult of Puja. The book proposes a new conception of the origin of Hindu culture.

The Astavakra Gita is a unique text among the world's contemplative classics dealing systematically with the mystical experiences of the Self on its way to transcendence, peace and bliss. There are few ancient treatises in East or West which evince such profound and lively concern with the Supreme Self as the ultimate reality, embodied in mystical insight and experience, and written with such spiritual imagination and poetic fervour. Astavakra Gita (The Song of the Self Supreme) contains the Sanskrit text of Astavakra Gita (both in Nagari and Roman script), its English translation, Exegesis and Glossarial Index. It presents in twenty chapters the substance of Astavakra's teaching in respect of the Cosmic Self in the form of his dialogue with Janaka, the magnificent king of Videha. The teaching is based on the Upanisadic creed of Absolute monism (Advaitavada) that identifies the Self with the non-dual Ultimate Reality. But the contribution of Astavakra is also immense, for he has introduced the element of emotional experience or the mystical feeling as the means for realizing the non-dual nature of the Self. Written in a lucid style and dealing systematically with the subject matter, the book, it is hoped, will hold a unique position among the contemplative classics of the world.

This book has identified ''the good of all'' as the single most important criterion of excellence of any socio-spiritual approach to life's problems-particularly in the context of the conflict-ridden society of today. The comprehensive coverage of this criterion, as presented in this study, has strong links with (like Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati) three life-sustaining streams of thought. The first stream refers to the lokasamgraha-message of the Gita which has been formulated in that scripture from ten different but inter-connected angles. The second stream refers to the jagmangal-message of the Manas which is simpler to grasp and which can also be explained from the same ten angles as are applicable to the Gita. The third stream refers to the repeated expressions of the concern for ''the good of all'' which began with the Vedas and which continued as an integral part of the Indian tradition--a steady source which strengthened the calls of the Gita and Manas also. By putting all these ideas together and by maintaining the interest of the readers, this book has opened the door to a new field of study and research, viz. the Indian contribution to the theory and practice of ''the good of all.''

The present work is a collection of selected poems written by the 13th cent. poet-saint Sri Jnanesvara. His devotional Lyrics are called 'Abhangas'. Herein one hundred and ten devotional poems of his called abhangas, have been selected for translation and study.