India Books

Bauer presents an excellent ethnographic and historical analysis of the changes the people of Dolpo have encountered since 1959, and he demonstrates to us that cultural survival and cultural change are not antithetical to one another. His examination of the resilience and adaptability of Dolpo-pa brings to life the practical importance of local environmental knowledge, human agency, and cultural innovation. As founder of the grass-roots organization DROKPA (meaning "nomad" in Tibetan), Bauer also directs his excellent analytic understanding of pastoralism toward working along with pastoralist populations to respond to the many political, economic, and environmental challenges they face in the 21st century. Very fine research and writing.

High Frontiers makes the landscape and the people of Dolpo come alive. Kenneth Bauer's descriptions are vivid, accurate and heartfelt. His observations in the chapter A Tsampa Western about the filming of Caravan/Himalaya and its impacts on the villagers is timely and thought provoking. One does not need to have an academic background to absorb and enjoy this timely book.

This book has a lot of substance.Unlike other books I have read,this book does not have any fluff or give unnecessary stories.It gives you practical information and tools you can use to stay focused on and achieve your goals.Good companion to Consciously Creating Wealth.Good fortune!

This is such a great little book!! It is so inspirational that I find myself referring to it time and time again.

I couldn't always get the concepts that I read about in other books but this book is written in a story format which not only makes it interesting, it's so easy to understand!

We really are powerful and this book shows that with the right frame of mind you can persuade anyone to do what you want and you can achieve anything you want.

I highly recommend this book!

Hiking in that part of the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California in the early 1940s, I met Robert Barrett on the trail when I was 14 years old. Invited into their home, I spent many hours listening to "Sahib" and "Mem-sahib" talk about the adventures written about in "The Himalayan Letters of Gypsy Davy and Lady Ba." After 60 years, both come alive again in these pages. When I knew them, Katherine Barrett was crippled from severe arthritis, and was barely able to walk. She describes being carried by litter over high passes and swaying footbridges by stout Ladakhi porters. Katherine's clear descriptions of the Himalaya landscape and people balance Robert's unabashed romanticism. Readers are advised to proceed slowly, bookmark the "Caravan Vocabulary," in the back for quick reference, and augment the fold-out maps by going on-line for recent cartography and pictures.

I read this book years ago when I was in college. It was a delightful discovery. This obscure book from the 1920s is a collection of letters, many written for young readers, by an eccentric, enlightened and talented pair of travelers. The Barretts, alias Gypsy Davy and Lady Ba, traveled to exotic locales not as casual tourists but as serious students. This book grew out of a multi-year caravan with pack animals through Ladakh in 1923-24. The letters include vivid descriptions of the area's terrain, the history and the people they met and got to know, including Tibetan monks and Muslim explorers. The adventures tend to be low-key but the setting and content are fascinating in and of themselves. The overall tone reflects a love of life and respect for people of all types. All in all, this book is a rare and precious curio.

The Barretts wrote other books, even more obscure, about travels in other lands, too. After falling in love with this book, I read all I could find and deem them worth a read as well.

The main feature of this book is that Yoshi photographed the jewels of the earth with NO filters or manipulations. The photos are straight 35mm, with many different lenses, but only pure glass laying down the image to film. I have met the author at a book signing and was impressed by his diminutive stature but strength of spirit. I am fortunate to own the first edition of this tome with its ivory clasps and hardboard covers. It will remain a family treasure and inducement for travel for my family.

The English language hasn't invented words sufficient to describe the photographs in this magnificent book. Shirakawa's photographs are so mind-blowing that they almost reach out and grab you and propel you up to the Roof of the World. There are full page and double-page photos galore, and some foldout plates that will literally take your breath away. Shirakawa took his photographs at all hours of the day and night; we see the Himalayas in all their majesty in the muted shades of dawn, glowing crimson and purple at sunset, sharply etched at high noon, snow and ice crystals glittering like an overturned jewel box, and lushly green valleys in the foothills. The book is divided into four sections representing the Nepal, Punjab and Sikkim Himalayas, and the Hindu Kush range in India. The text is absorbing and relates the geographical evolution of the Himalayas, as well as giving us a brief look at the history and culture of the people who live in their shadow. But the text is a pale shadow to the incredible, magnificent pictures. Looking at these awesome photographs, one can almost believe in the existence of Shangri-La.

This is an excellent book. It talks about the various scriptures of Hinduism, the philosophical branches and the practices that a traditional Hindu should follow.

This is perfect, especially for people like me, whose families have very faint memories of following the orthodox traditions. I hope to follow this book as much as I can.

This book is available online at this site: [...]

Om Sri Gurubhyo Namaha! I have known about the author ever since my childhood. It has been a privilege that i have lived during the same era as him. He is known to have grasped the entire gist of the mankind. Why man? Why mankind? and other stuff. In this book, which happens to be a collection of the speeches he have given during his tours all over the state of Tamil Nadu, India and some other states of India. This book explains as to how a hindu is structured to lead his life. It also explains the various Vedas and the part and parcel of the scriptures that some hindus are still practising in the country. This book has been a very great effort by the people who have translated it so at to bring the wealth of the east to the west. The author i have known to have delivered such exponent speeches at the most simple and lucid language even a lay man on the street can understand. All I would like to say is that " THIS BOOK IS GREAT IN EVERY ASPECT WITH RESPECT TO THE HINDU DHARMA".

If you are interested in Hinduism but would like to approach it from the context of modernity, I believe that Bhaktivinoda Thakur is the gateway for the project. For his time he was a very forward-looking thinker. His theology is quite sophisticated and can serve one to achieve a deeper understanding of Krishna-centered religion. Shukavak Dasa is an incredibly clear and persuasive writer. This book can also serve as a comprehensive introduction to Chaitanya-centered bhakti thought and practice in general.

This books gives very detailed accounting about Bhaktivinoda Thakura's teachings. I would not say that this book gave me new understanding but certainly it is worth to read.

Hindu Scriptures is good for beginners. Another useful link is http://www.hindujagruti.org go to Dharmic Scriptures. This has been compiled by His. Holiness. Dr Jayant Athavale, a popular Saint in India.
Of course fanatical Christians will find it useless.

Wonderful translation and interpretation. For a non hindu, its a nice way to start the study.

Goel has done a great service to hindu society as well as those native civilizations of Europe/America/Africa who have been annihilated by the iconoclastic ideologies masquerading as religions. As usual like any other of his books Shri, Goel makes the point very convincing. When you read this book you will feel the difference. The chapters on monotheism and Icanoclasm are extremely well documented regarding the imposition of ISlam on the peaceful Meccan /Arabian Pre-Islamic Pagans. This book is a must for those people of islamic countries especiallly the Arabs/Persians/Khurasanis/Turks/Pakistanis/Hindustani muslims/Any Indologist/Any Indian who is interested to know the truth about his/her spirtual past. This is not an ordinary book it is an eye-opener. After reading this book the reader will emerge with a new analytical ability in the process of evaluation of human civilizations. A must for every truth seeke

THIS REVIEW BY SITA RAM GOEL Hindu Temples .......VOLUME (I) ************************************* The movement for the restoration of the Ramajanmabhumi Temple at Ayodhya has brought to the fore a suppressed chapter of India's history, namely, the large-scale destruction of temples by the Islamized invaders. This chapter is by no means closed. The Appendix to this book provides details of many temples destroyed by Moslems all over Bangladesh as recently as October-November, 1989.Currently, temples, or whatever had remained of them, are meeting a similar fate in the Kashmir valley.  This chapter, however, though significant, was only a part of the Moslem behavior pattern as recorded by Moslem historians of medieval India. The other parts were:  1) mass slaughter of people not only during war but also after the armies of Islam had emerged victorious;  2) capture of large numbers of non-combatant men, women and children as booty and their sale as slaves all over the Islamic world; 3) forcible conversion to Islam of people who were in no position to resist;  4) reduction to the status of "zimmis" or non-citizens of all those who could not be converted and imposition of inhuman disabilities on them;  5) emasculation of the "zimmis" by preventing them from possessing arms;  6) impoverishment of the "zimmis" through heavy discriminatory taxes and misappropriation of a major part of what the peasants produced;  7) ruination of the native and national culture of the "zimmis" by suppressing and holding in contempt all its institutions and expressions.  Nor is this behavior pattern a thing of the past; it persisted even after the Moslem rule was over. The Moslem revivalist movements in the nineteenth century, particularly in Bengal, tried to repeat, as far as they could, the performance of the medieval Moslem swordsmen and sultans. More recently, after the Islamic state of Pakistan was carved out, Hindus have been forced to leave their ancestral homes, en masse from its western wing and in a continuous stream ofrefugees from its eastern wing, now an independent Islamic state of Bangladesh that came into being with the help of India. Hindu temples and other cultural institutions have more or less disappeared from Pakistan, while they continue to be under constant attack in Bangladesh.  How to understand this behavior pattern so persistently followed over a thousand years under very different conditions and so consistent in its expression? What is its deeper ideological source?  It is rooted in Islam's religious teachings, its theology and its religious laws; it derives from its peculiar conception of momins and kafirs, from its doctrines of Jihad, darul Islam and dar-ul-harb, and from what it regards as the duty of a Moslem state. Hindu India is called upon to make a deeper study of Islam than it has hitherto done. It can neglect this task at its own peril.  The present volume makes no pretence of presenting such a study, but by choice restricts itself mainly to the study of Hindu temples destroyed and desecrated and converted into mosques and khanqahs. (The second volume, with the subtitle 'The Islamic Evidence' by Sita Ram Goel, has already appeared in the Indian market and several copies are on order for our readers in the US) It provides a list of around 2,000 Moslem monuments which stand on the sites of deliberately demolished temples or in the construction of which temple materials have been used. Here and there, it also mentions other theological props and concomitants of the iconoclastic ideology. In the book Ayodhya retains its importance, but it does not occupy the center of discussion. In dealing with its subject, it exercises complete fidelity to truth; unlike secularist and Marxist writers, it does not believe in re-writing and fabricatinghistory. Its aim is to raise the informational level of our people and to make them better aware of the more persistent ideological forces at work.  India's historical study cannot be limited only in the learning and memorizing the names of kings and dates of battles; the backbone of Indian history lies in our heritage symbolized by our temples, vihars and stupas, granthagars or libraries, our ancient customs and rites which have deep meanings. HINDU TEMPLES -- What Happenedto Them, is a good beginning for our people to learn about our ancestors and the kind of life they had to go through under thebestial rule of the Moslems. This book is a must for all Hindus. 

This book is an essential reference for those that are involved in researching terrorism. As the below reviewer cites, there is a timeline of key events and an A-Z of terms and organizations, as well as a very extensive bibliography/recommended reading section. I use this book so often, that it no longer has a place on the shelf, it sits on my desk. A very impressive effort on the authors' part. Outstanding.

The Historical Dictionary of Terrorism by Sean Anderson and Stephen Sloan provides a ready reference into the multifaceted topic of terrorism. The authors literally go through the breadth of terrorism from A to Z--including informative entries on groups, concepts, individuals. The work includes an extensive bibliography that is helpful in continuing research on the listed topics. The Dictionary also contains a chronology of significant incidents, ideas and personalities pertaining to terrorism from A.D. 66 to 1994. This 450 page work has been an essential reference tool for me as an analyst and an academic. I have used the Dictionary to refresh my memory of groups and individuals as I write, as well as, before I teach a college class on issues of terrorism. While I would like more depth on some of the entries, the entries provide enough material to answer most of my questions, or at least point me in the right direction. It is one of my most used books in my terrorism library.

I highly recommend this book. It is clearly written, the scholarship is in depth and any serious scholar of modern Indian religions should read it. She clearly demonstrates that eastern and western ideas were fusing in India (particularly in Bengal)during the British Raj, and she shows how this contributed to the development of modern yoga movements. Included are profiles of some of the most influential thinkers and religious leaders in yoga (Vivekananda, Keshab Chandra Sen, Ramakrishna etc.) and detailed analysis of their contributions and influences. This book is a veritable gold mine of information for the religious scholar. Unfortunately, even such a great book has a flaw and I would be remiss not to point it out. She oversetimated the influence that western esotericism had on the formation of the modern yoga traditions and underestimates the influence that already existing Indian philosophies had on the development of yoga. What I think she failed to see was that western esoteric ideas were not transposed onto exisiting Indian religions, but were points of articulation with almost identical strands of mystical thinking in the indigenouse yoga traditions and the philosophy of advaita vedanta. They contained many elements in common, as most mystical traditions do. The crossover of ideas was an act of translation of perspectives between cultures at a level that there were already almost identical metaphysical ideas, namely in the mystical traditions of both. Other than this overstimation, the work is brilliant and should be read by anyone attempting to understand the roots of not only modern yoga, but of new age spirituality and modern Hinduism.

Yoga history is often written by those with strong ties to a particular guru or yogic system. Only recently has truly scholarly attention been focused on this subject. Elizabeth De Michelis has done a meticulous job of presenting her thesis. She shows how a typical Modern Postural Yoga class, her terminology to differentiate modern yoga from classical yoga, is a type of healing ritual of modern secular religion. We gain historical insight in to the development of yoga in the West that explains why many are more interested in postural yoga as an end in itself. I recommend this book as essential to anyone interested in the history of modern yoga.