India Books

An exploration of the Indian film industry through photographs was definitely not what I expected when I initially purchased this book, but the beauty and drama of the images, made it worth the cost. This book does NOT contain any relevant information (history, films, etc.) on Bollywood; it's a coffee table book. The photos themselves (of film stars to the mania of the theaters and fans) brilliantly capture the dynamics and glamour of the industry and it's trance-like hold over it's millions (if not billions) of fans!!!

A Brilliantly written work on the origins and the evolution of the Bengali and Subcontinental revolutionary nationalist movements that aimed to overthrow the despotic imperialist-fascist occupation forces of the British in the Indian subcontinent. Chronological,lucid and absorbing, the author brings in a tremendous amount of authentic sources to give us life-like impressions of freedom fighters such as the immortal Khudiram Bose. The beginnings of Jugantar and the Anushilan Samiti under Aurobindo Ghose and Pulin are also closely studied (there is more emphasis on Jugantar and Aurobindo Ghose, also see Asok Ray's 'Party of the Firebrand Revolutionaries' for more on the Anushilan Samiti) A whole decade of nationalist endeavour passes before our eyes from the creation of these groups to their attempts to defeat the illegal occupation of the subcontinent. And although these movements would be dealt severe blows, it must not be assumed that they were defeated. Jugantar and Anushilan Samiti continued [as fragments] to fight British occupation.Ultimately their efforts would be justified when another great revolutionary,Bengali statesman and nationalist leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army would provide the impetus for the British withdrawal from the subcontinent in 1947. Indeed it was British Premier Clement Attlee who in 1956 said that it was Netaji and the INA who rocked the very foundations of British rule in the Indian subcontinent and created the revolutionary atmosphere [including inspiring the revolt of the sailors of the British Indian Navy and raising the spectre of the First War of Independence of 1857 which threatened defeat for the occupiers of the subcontinent] which made the situation untenable in 1946-47 for British rule in the subcontinent.[when asked what role had Gandhi or Nehru played in forcing the British withdrawal from the subcontinent, Attlee had smiled and said one word, 'minimal'] This book is a must for background to the Indian Subcontinent's independence movement.

Raghubir Singh is arguably one of India's most well-known photographers and certainly one of the best I have seen in print. Most photographers will shy away from colour but Singh composes beautifully in this medium (and it wouldn't do Bombay justice to shoot it in black and white...) Above and beyong his talent with the lens, he has a very keen eye for the city, and captures the personality of the people who live there: laissez faire, slick, cosmopolitan. A typically Indian book - unabashed and bold - appropriately reflective of its subject matter. Naipaul is an odd choice for designing this work, given his relative distaste for India, but creates the perfect tension to accompany the photographs. In summary, Singh is in prime form in this book, doing what he does best: chronicling the people that define a city.

No doubt you have seen the recent ads for a cheap little cloth bracelet decorated only with the letters "WWBD." They stand for "What Would the Buddha Do?" It's really a good question. So good that for ages it has stalked me everywhere I go.

Haunted by missing answers, but skeptical of the huge number of recent (often Tibetan-derived) Buddha books which now crowd every bookstore, my impulse was to try resurrecting whatever could be known of Indian Buddhism, especially at the time the Buddha was still living and for the century or two thereafter. I flattered myself that I would be blazing a very cunning trail, guaranteed to detour neatly around all the mistakes and errors which would certainly have been grafted onto his "pure" doctrine in the two and a half millennia since the Buddha died.

As I saw it, the challenge was primarily to identify the best translations of the oldest texts. Everything else would surely follow. This led me crashing headlong into the Pali scriptures, and I tore at them with all the finesse and sophistication of a grave robber on his first big heist.

The remarkable treasures found preserved in the Pali canon dazzled me. Indeed they still do. However I have gradually come to understand the significance of such treasures quite differently than I once did. And I have been persuaded (sometimes rather painfully) of the futility, arrogance, and chauvinistic myopia implicit in any attempt to reconstruct a pure, uncontaminated Buddhism on the assumption that others (including whole nations full of traditional practitioners) either lacked the sensitivity required to attract one to "truth," or were intellectually too lazy to reject whatever fallacy they just happened to stumble over.

I blush to admit how short-sighted, even mean-spirited my initial game-plan was. The chagrin this insight caused me is mitigated slightly by a realization that many others have preceded me down the very same path. A fair number of them have left their sun-bleached bones littering the trail to prove it.

Of course these are not precisely the same "bones" Schopen had in mind when choosing the title for his book "Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks." But his work, along with many of his colleagues (especially Donald S. Lopez, Jr.), is a major source of some of the most persuasive lessons imaginable about what really does constitute a religion, and how an outsider can ever hope to go about comprehending the nature of one. The fact that the intellectual roots of both these authors sink deep into the very Tibetan studies I once avoided chastens me, and has itself helped to redefine my own conceptual horizons.

Schopen argues in particular that it is virtually impossible to develop a comprehensive understanding of any complex human social practice, especially including religion, totally from canonical texts alone. One must, he urges, factor into one's awareness the totality of sources of information available, such as ancient inscriptions, archaeological finds, and even accounts of and about practitioners applying their faith and beliefs in their own daily lives.

To the unsuspecting student, much of what Schopen reveals strikes home with the force of a well-aimed karate chop. A great deal of it goes directly against the grain of what many of us were convinced by our early religious training, in which it tended to be regarded as an article of faith that scriptural evidence was paramount, and all other concepts had to conform to it -- or be summarily discarded.

In stark contrast to this tradition, Schopen demonstrates unequivocally that, compared to the actual practice of Indian Buddhism, much of what the early texts would have us accept as "Buddhist" is at least limited, likely misleading, and perhaps even intentionally distorted. His most fundamental premise is disarming in the actual evidence for what are taken to be established facts in the history of Indian Buddhism. If nothing else, such an exercise makes it painfully obvious that most of those established facts totter precariously on very fragile foundations."

Schopen carefully dissects one after another traditional Western notion about Buddhism. Once he has the bones and muscles laid completely bare, he scrupulously compares archaeological facts against canonical assertions (and later assumptions derived therefrom). He then surgically cuts through more diseased tissue than one would find in the worst inner-city hospital -- and fallacious canonical assertions and assumptions scatter all over the operating room floor, where they remain embarrassingly messy, but no longer so dangerous to the patient.

Schopen establishes that early Indian Buddhism was, for the most part, scattered into numerous doctrinally autonomous communities of Buddhists, in many of which the "orthodox" canon was either irrelevant, altogether unknown, or at last ignored by all but a tiny number of literate, conservative elite.

Schopen's evidence persuades us overwhelmingly that early Buddhism monks (and their numerous, often underestimated nun-counterparts) were far more human in conduct, and far more Indian in outlook, than anything portrayed by the canonical texts. These early clerics seem to have been marked more indelibly by the Hindu heritage in which they had been reared than has usually been conceded. They may all have left home in favor of monastic life, but they still appear to have retained strong emotional ties to their parents, homes and traditional cultural heritage. Schopen's evidence is that they were "concerned -- even preoccupied -- with ritually depositing and elaborately housing the remains of at least some of the local monastic dead," though this particular topic is one about which the Pali canon happens to be inexplicably mute.

Despite heavy scholarly focus on the various Vinayas, the actual lives and practices of these monks and nuns do not ever appear to have been governed very rigidly by any sort of monolithic central text or law, but were subject instead to widely varying mores and customs, dependent largely on the area in which they were located. Many monks seem to have come from well-to-do families, and despite their decision to take holy orders it is not clear that they ever totally renounced all worldly goods. Far from the scriptural portrayal of an "isolated and socially disengaged" clergy, many of them apparently owned (or had access to) property and at least handled money. They were routinely responsible for commissioning and donating impressive and expensive works of art, emphatically including Buddha images (whose evolving cult there is reason to believe the monastic community itself was largely responsible for fostering and encouraging).

In dramatic contrast to what the Pali Vinaya would lead us to believe -- and directly contrary to a central and most fundamental Buddhist principle regarding the illusory nature of any immortal ego, personality or soul -- Schopen shows that the early monks certainly acted as though the Buddha's personality or entity survived his death and that, in his relics, stupas (and eventually sculptures), he continued to be present among them as though he were still full of life and even in need of suitable living accomodations. Surviving legal documents prove that these relics were thought fit to receive and own property -- and in their own name.

Unless one has made a habit of reading in the most far-flung and highly specialized journals and books about philosophy and religion, it is unlikely he will ever before have encountered any of the twelve papers collected in "Bones, Stones & Buddhist Monks." Despite their scholarly origins, however, these works turn out for the most part to be readable and reasonably user-friendly. Schopen writes with vigor, conviction and passion, but still has a sense of humor and is willing to help the reader by choosing interesting and comprehensible illustrations and examples.

Schopen takes no prisoners, and the reader must be prepared to have his most cherished beliefs and suppositions challenged -- even assaulted. I guarantee that, though Schopen may not exactly smash -- he is at least likely to put a dent in -- nearly every icon in sight, even including poor old T.W. Rhys Davids, whom I used to regard as the father-of-it-all, but who now (along with this long-suffering wife Caroline) seems to have become the fall-guy for so much of what went wrong in Western Buddhist scholarship.

As hard-nosed as he may occasionally get, Schopen does not write to discourage. Of course he admonishes the reader to be critical of sources, to consider all relevant evidence, and to reject any idea for which a suitable factual rationale cannot be found. However his intention is to affirm the search for truth, and to obect to that would be inexcusably perverse.

Come to think of it, this is awfully close to a stance the Buddha himself was known to take -- and the standard of proof to which he thought a new idea ought to

Although I am a practising Thevardian Buddhist , I find this book on Tibetan Iconography and symbolism very interesting It have decipher the ancient secrets of the Tibetan and made it easy to comprehend to every lay Buddhist I strongly recomend this book to any inspiring Tibetan Buddhist learner

The _Kamasutra_ is a misunderstood book, and it has been misunderstood largely because of the censors who have given it a reputation for naughty depictions of sexual variety and athleticism. Not only was the original book without illustrations, it describes only eighteen positions for lovemaking, most of them quite within the realm of execution by non-gymnasts. It has nothing to do with tantric sex and much to do with civilized behavior. It describes an idealized way of life rather than being a practical sex manual for its time or for our own (the excellent _The Guide to Getting It On!_ is much more fun and informative for current purposes). The wild sex that the word "kamasutra" now promises (courtesy of those, especially the censors, who have enabled its sensationalizing) isn't a theme in the book itself. According to James McConnachie in _The Book Of Love: The Story of the Kamasutra_ (Metropolitan Books), the sex in the book is mannered and moral. How the book got the reputation as a repository for sensational sex secrets is McConnachie's elegantly-told tale, and it is fascinating, reaching back to the third century and all the way up into our own.

The author of the _Kamasutra_ was one Vatsyayana, who described himself as a white-haired scholar and thus long past sexual distractions. He was interested in rescuing a sexual tradition from an increasingly ascetic third-century India. Vatsyayana describes the life and surroundings of a smart, young urbanite with plenty of money and leisure. There are seven books within the _Kamasutra_, only one of which has to do with the surprisingly moderate bedroom acrobatics. When eighteenth century translators were eager to go to work on the text, it was surprisingly hard to find a full text to work with. When the text was discovered and gathered, the job was done under the inspiration of Sir Richard Burton, who was quite interested in shocking his fellow Britons into what he felt was a more open discussion of sex. Burton was not, as many assume, the translator, although he was the guiding genius of the project. He provided notes, and his notoriety guaranteed that the text would not be printed in some obscure academic journal. McConnachie writes that not only did Burton ensure the text would be well circulated within his erotomaniac circle, it was his "status as a great explorer and Orientalist that lent the _Kamasutra_ authenticity as a piece of anthropological archaeology, offering a fig-leaf cover of at least semi-respectability." When it was published in 1883, it was in an expensive edition, to avoid charges of corrupting the working classes while it had a good run among their betters.

Pirate publishers, however, had a field day with the text immediately after it was issued, and were especially interested in leaving out everything but the "good" bits, and putting in pictures. With attempts of suppression, it lead a shadowy life as a forbidden book and has been associated in most people's minds with pornography. When the ban against Lady Chatterley collapsed in 1960, it became an over-the-counter commodity. McConnachie praises a scholarly one from 2002, although the Burton edition will always be a landmark, and will always be in print and timely. Furthermore, we have The Bedside Kama Sutra or Red-Hot Sex the Kama Sutra Way, or Deepak Chopra's version (I'm no prude, but I am too inhibited to think of even looking into that one), not to mention a couple of examples of pop-up book versions ("even if the bits that pop up are not necessarily those you'd expect", McConnachie jokes). The book has escaped from grubby, clandestine shelves in dark bookshops, but usually in ways that transformed it from its original content and purpose. McConnachie has written an amusing and instructive history of an important text and its sometimes preposterous interpretations and social effects.

The Brahma Sutras along with the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita form the Triple Canons of Vedanta (Prasthana Traya). The best commentary for these were written by Adi Sankara, the 7th century saint/ philosopher of India. The Brahma Sutras use logic to discuss and prove the concept of Brahman and Advaita Vedanta. Hence it is referred to as Nyaya Prasthana (Nyaya- logic; Prasthana- Canon).

There are many translations of Adi Sankara's commentary and I find this the most readable. Swami Vireswarananda has placed notes based on Sankara's commentary and this makes it an easy read and so I recommend this book highly.

There are four main divisions in this book: The first chapter or division deals with the concept of Brahman (or the Ultimate Reality). The second chapter systematically and logically criticizes other philosophical systems like nyaya, sankhya, yoga, purva mimasa etc. The third chapter deals with the process of obtaining knowledge of Brahman. The fourth chapter further deals in depth about Self-Realization.

Adi Sankara's commentary is superb and he logically presents and discusses advaita-vedanta.

If you are interested in a modern book which uses recent scientific advances to prove advaita-vedanta, I recommend this book by John Dobson for further reading: Beyond Space and Time

About the Book :
The Brahmanas held the highest position in society under the religious system rooted in the Vedas. But when the orthodox Brahmanas, under various social pressures, were gradually losing their hold, the liberal section of the Brahmanas, who were mostly followers of the semi-Vedic system of religion, came forward to play their part in the changing society. The neo-Brahmanas, slowly but surely brought a change in the social outlook in their favour. Gradually, the Brahmanas were re-installed in their high altar of power. In this book, an attempt has been made to show, on the basis of inscriptions, how the Brahmanas penetrated into different fields of activities, a quality which contributed to their coming back to power.

Contents :
Preface
Acknowledgement
Chapter 1 : The Vedas and the Brahmanas
Chapter 2 : Study of Other Subjects and Growth of Various Professions Among the Brahmanas
Chapter 3 : Sacrificial Activities and the Brahmanas
Chapter 4 : Gifts and the Brahmanas
Chapter 5 : Gotras and the Brahmanas
Chapter 6 : Regional Distribution of the Brahmanas
Chapter 7 : Temples and Temple Priests
Chapter 8 : Some Degraded Brahmanas
Bibliography
Index

I've had the privlege to have Mr. Simpson as a high school math teacher, and I can say that he simply makes the cleverest and wittiest puzzles ever. It's reflected in his series of IQ paperbacks. Of course I'm a bit biased, but hey, at these prices, you can't go wrong!

- A satisfied reader and pupil,
L.H.

Very few books on African music come with their own cd and the viewpoint of an anthropologist as well as a musician, but Rob Flaes' BRASS UNBOUND is a unique ticket exploring both the history of African music's colonial influences and the stature and influence of brass bands on African sounds.