Reimagining Asoka

Author : Patrick Olivelle
Publisher : OUP India
ISBN 13 : 9780198078005
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Reimagining Asoka written by Patrick Olivelle and published by OUP India. This book was released on 2012-03-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through recent advances made in archaeology, epigraphy, and numismatics, this volume explores the material, social, and ideological aspects of Asoka's reign. It also examines the making of the cultural memory of Asoka, and the relationship between the past and the present.

Author : Ashok Khanna
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9387471217
Total Pages : 178 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ashoka, the Visionary written by Ashok Khanna and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ungainly in appearance, disliked by his father, the king, but nurtured by his mother, Ashoka worked to elicit his elders' approval. At the age of 18, his father sent him to quell a rebellion that his brother, the crown prince, had failed to do. His success propelled him to be appointed as viceroy of a province. There he met Devi, a beautiful, devout Buddhist. With the death of his father, supported by the chief minister, Ashoka was crowned the new king. Ashoka ruled the Indian subcontinent from 269 bce to 232 bce. After the Kalinga War, a turning point for Ashoka, his devotion to Buddha's teachings became unconditional, and he based his governance on its precepts of non-violence, tolerance and compassion. His support for Buddhism helped it grow from a small sect to a world religion. When it spread to Asia, his model of Dharmaraj was emulated as exemplary kingship by many Asian rulers through history. Prime Minister Nehru, in The Discovery of India, described Ashoka as 'a man who was greater than any king or emperor'. He worked to incorporate Ashoka's secular approach and considerate administration in India's Constitution. As a young democracy, India must adopt both Ashoka's and Nehru's vision of compassionate governance to mature as a nation.

Author : Romila Thapar
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199088683
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas written by Romila Thapar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic provides a comprehensive account of the hstory of the Mauryas with a special emphasis on the reign and activities of Aśoka. It examines the sources, socio-economic conditions, administration, Dhamma, foreign relations, and the decline of the Mauryas. This edition comes with a new Pre-word which updates research on the subject.

Author : Nayanjot Lahiri
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674915259
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ashoka in Ancient India written by Nayanjot Lahiri and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the third century BCE, Ashoka ruled an empire encompassing much of modern-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. During his reign, Buddhism proliferated across the South Asian subcontinent, and future generations of Asians came to see him as the ideal Buddhist king. Disentangling the threads of Ashoka’s life from the knot of legend that surrounds it, Nayanjot Lahiri presents a vivid biography of this extraordinary Indian emperor and deepens our understanding of a legacy that extends beyond the bounds of Ashoka’s lifetime and dominion. At the center of Lahiri’s account is the complex personality of the Maurya dynasty’s third emperor—a strikingly contemplative monarch, at once ambitious and humane, who introduced a unique style of benevolent governance. Ashoka’s edicts, carved into rock faces and stone pillars, reveal an eloquent ruler who, unusually for the time, wished to communicate directly with his people. The voice he projected was personal, speaking candidly about the watershed events in his life and expressing his regrets as well as his wishes to his subjects. Ashoka’s humanity is conveyed most powerfully in his tale of the Battle of Kalinga. Against all conventions of statecraft, he depicts his victory as a tragedy rather than a triumph—a shattering experience that led him to embrace the Buddha’s teachings. Ashoka in Ancient India breathes new life into a towering figure of the ancient world, one who, in the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, “was greater than any king or emperor.”

Author : Devika Rangachari
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 9392099339
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Mauryas written by Devika Rangachari and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-12-13 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From c. 324 BCE to c. 185 BCE, the Mauryas controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent with efficiency and administrative finesse. Beginning with the origins of Magadha in the sixth century BCE, this definitive book on the Mauryas captures the drama, the colourful betrayals and the intrigues of the Mauryan dynasty in Magadha, starting with its enigmatic founder, Chandragupta Maurya, and his even more enigmatic mentor, Chanakya/ Kautilya, who helped him to get the throne. Chandragupta’s son and heir, Bindusara, is an extremely shadowy, elusive figure in the historical narrative of the Mauryas. Sandwiched between his well-known father and his even more well-known son, Ashoka, Bindusara has slipped through the cracks of known history. Yet the little bits of evidence that we glean about him from varied sources suggest a ruler of power and foresight. A man of eclectic and whimsical tastes, even, who ensured that his heir would inherit a vaster empire than he did. Ashoka, Bindusara’s son, was not only the most powerful Mauryan ruler but also one of the best-known monarchs in Indian history. There are several wildly imaginative tales that document his transition from Ashoka the Fierce to Ashoka the Contrite, consequent on the battle of Kalinga in c. 261 BCE where, horrified at the bloodshed, he underwent a radical personal and spiritual transformation and documented this fact all over his empire through inscriptions on pillars and rocks that have endured till today—a brilliant, pioneering method of communication. An incisive wit and humour makes Devika Rangachari’s The Mauryas sparkle even when it is disentangling grave accounts of significant battles or tedious details of city planning. Culling details from secular and religious literary traditions, Graeco-Roman accounts and archaeological evidence to elucidate this lesser-known period of our ancient past, The Mauryas concludes with an analysis of the enduring legacy of this remarkable dynasty and its strong resonances in our present.

Author : Amitav Acharya
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520390989
Total Pages : 333 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Bridging Two Worlds written by Amitav Acharya and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-01-03 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of China and India could be the most important political development of the twenty-first century. What will the foreign policies of China and India look like in the future? What should they look like? And what can each country learn from the other? Bridging Two Worlds gathers a coterie of experts in the field, analyzing profound political thinkers from these ancient regions whose theories of interstate relations set the terms for the debates today. This volume is the first work of its kind and is essential reading for anyone interested in the growth of China and India and what it means for the rest of the world. "This brilliant volume shines a light on the two great civilizations that will once again drive world history. No volume could be more timely, more relevant, and more needed than this one." - KISHORE MAHBUBANI, Distinguished Fellow, Asia Research Institute, NUS, and author of The Asian 21st Century "With the recently elevated economic and political power of China and the great potential of India in the twenty-first century, interdisciplinary dialogue and engagement such as is found in this book is necessary for contemporary debates in political theory and international relations." - KUIYI SHEN, Professor of Asian Art History, Theory, and Criticism, University of California, San Diego"

Author : Olga Kubica
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000868524
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Greco-Buddhist Relations in the Hellenistic Far East written by Olga Kubica and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-04-14 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary view of the relationship between the Greeks and Buddhist communities in ancient Bactria and Northwest India, from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the fall of the Indo-Greek kingdom circa 10 AD. The main thesis of this book is the assumption that, despite the presence of mutual relationships and interactions between the Greeks and Buddhist inhabitants of the Hellenistic Far East, the phenomenon known conventionally as "Greco-Buddhism" never truly occurred. The individual chapters of this book provide an analysis of the main sources for Greco-Buddhist relations, mainly textual, but also archaeological and numismatic. The methods of philological and historical research are used in combination with postcolonial approaches to the study of the Greeks in India drawing from sociological research on ethnicity and intercultural relations. It is a rich source of information for anyone interested in Greco-Buddhist relations and is a great starting point for further research in this area. This volume is a valuable resource for students and scholars working on the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, both classicists and those working on early Indian history, as well as those working on cultural exchange in the Hellenistic world.

Author : Laurent de Sutter
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1509545433
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book After Law written by Laurent de Sutter and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-02-03 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Law is the most sacred fetish of our time. From radicals to conservatives, there is no militant, activist or thinker who would consider doing without it. But the history of our fascination with law is long and complex, and reaches deeper into our culture than we might think. In After Law, Laurent de Sutter takes us on a journey to uncover the sources of our fascination. He shows that at a certain moment in our history a choice was made to treat law as a decisive feature of civilization, but this choice was neither obvious nor necessary. Other political, social, religious or cultural possibilities could have been chosen instead – from ancient Egypt to Mesopotamia, from medieval Japan to China, from Islam to Judaism, other cultures have devised sophisticated tools to help people live together without having to deal with norms, rules and principles. This is a lesson worth reflecting on, especially at a time when the rule of law and the functioning of justice are increasingly showing their sinister side – and their impotence. Is there life beyond law?

Author : Chenyang Li
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019759848X
Total Pages : 361 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Virtue of Harmony written by Chenyang Li and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-29 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a time marked by profound polarisation, this volume draws our attention to a virtue that is of key importance in many non-Western cultures but is largely neglected in modern Western thought: the virtue of harmony. The book comprises 13 chapters that examine harmony from a particular cultural or disciplinary perspective. A broad variety of cultural traditions are represented, including the Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, Judaist, Greek, Christian, Islamic, African, and Native American traditions, as well as different disciplinary approaches, such as philosophy, religious studies, linguistics, psychology, and political theory. This book is suitable for general readers, students, as well as researchers interested in this flourishing topic of research.

Author : Michael K. Jerryson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199362386
Total Pages : 761 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism written by Michael K. Jerryson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 761 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an incredibly diverse religious system, Buddhism is constantly changing. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism offers a comprehensive collection of work by leading scholars in the field that tracks these changes up to the present day. Taken together, the book provides a blueprint to understanding Buddhism's past and uses it to explore the ways in which Buddhism has transformed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The volume contains 41 essays, divided into two sections. The essays in the first section examine the historical development of Buddhist traditions throughout the world. These chapters cover familiar settings like India, Japan, and Tibet as well as the less well-known countries of Vietnam, Bhutan, and the regions of Latin America, Africa, and Oceania. Focusing on changes within countries and transnationally, this section also contains chapters that focus explicitly on globalization, such as Buddhist international organizations and diasporic communities. The second section tracks the relationship between Buddhist traditions and particular themes. These chapters review Buddhist interactions with contemporary topics such as violence and peacebuilding, and ecology, as well as Buddhist influences in areas such as medicine and science. Offering coverage that is both expansive and detailed, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism delves into some of the most debated and contested areas within Buddhist Studies today.