Indica Books

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : R. Torella 
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 1 December 2011
• Pages : 267
• Weight : 500 g.
• Size : 21.6 x 14.2 x 2.3 cm
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569960
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569962
• Product Code : BK14263

Description:

India’s progressive emergence on the world stage, in terms unimaginable just a few decades ago, obliges us to reconsider its image as nurtured by the West for over two thousand years: a prestigious image maybe, but also greatly reductive, as the privileged home of occult knowledge, ecstasy and asceticism, or — quite the opposite — of fabulous riches and voluptuous pleasures. Rather than getting to know India, the West has preferred to dream of it: one result has been that Indian thought, albeit unanimously celebrated as the seat of the highest wisdom, has not been granted even the smallest place on the great stage of the history of philosophy.
This book presents the thought of pre-modern India first and foremost by outlining the cultural parameters within which it arose and developed, and should be read; often associated with religious experience, but also essentially independent of it; sometimes differing in form and outcome, but more often very close to Western thought, and certainly never “alien”.
“This is a marvellous piece of compact insight in all respects: a summary as well as a fresh view of the whole area, always sound and based on first hand experience with the material. I really mean it when I would like to call it the best modern survey of our field at an extraordinary high level of penetration.”
—Prof. Ernst Steinkellner, University of Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences

About Author:

Raffaele Torella is professor of Sanskrit at University of Rome “Sapienza”, where he has also taught for long Indian Philosophy and Religion, and Indology. His preferred fields of research are Kashmir Shaivism, linguistic speculation, Buddhist epistemology and manuscriptology. Among his main publications, there is the first critical edition and annotated English translation of Utpaladeva’s Ishvarapratyabhijna-karika and Vritti, the fundamental theoretical work of Pratyabhijna philosophy and of Hindu Tantrism as a whole (MLBD, Delhi 2002); the Italian translation of the Shivasutra with Kshemaraja’s commentary (Milan 1999); Eros and Emotions in India and Tibet (Einaudi, Turin 2007; in Italian). He has been the scientific responsible and co-author of the section “Science in India” in the multivolume work History of Science (Rome 2002; in Italian). Along with Bettina Bäumer, he has recently organized the first International Workshop on Utpaladeva at Indian Institute for Advanced study in Shimla (2010).

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Wallace Slater
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 2006
• Pages : 
• Weight : 300 gm.
• Size : 
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8170594790
• ISBN-13 : 978-8170594796
• Product Code : BOOK891

Description:

Yoga is the discovery of the Self and the inspiration of the spirit within. Each step in Raja Yoga is intended to assist the student in developing the moral and ethical foundations necessary for yoga: control of the physical body through postures and diet; pranayama, or breathing techniques; control of the emotions and senses; and control of the mind. "Based on the author's experience and deep study, Raja Yoga is a valuable guide to all beginners of yoga. The student is given the opportunity to discover the path within and the guru to guide one to the true Self."

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Osborne
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 1 December 2011
• Pages : 164
• Weight : 200 g.
• Size : 6.9 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13: 978-9381120002
• ISBN-10: 9381120005
• Product Code: BK14264

Description:

Arthur Osborne found that while academics investigated the causes of historical incidents, their research was limited, for the most part, to obvious physical causes, but they failed to clarify the overarching but hidden principles that, in his eyes, governed actions and made history. In this book he suggests a different approach to history, giving its due importance to spiritual ideas and teachers, and proposing that ideas shape the physical conditions of society more than the other way round. In his own words:
“The purpose of the present book is not so much to suggest any new philosophy or interpretation of history as to draw attention to a rhythm that runs through it, establishing parallels and coincidences large and obvious enough not to be open to dispute. These will be sufficient at least to show that history is not purely haphazard and yet is also not simple progress.”
Arthur Osborne observed that so-called progress was not what it appeared to be and that modern civilization is not necessarily an advance on the discoveries and understanding that ancient civilizations had garnered and demonstrated in their development. He outlined the parallels — not be confused with uniformity — in the different phases through which the great civilizations of mankind passed. In the eighteenth century there was a radical divergence between the West and East, which is being overcome by the surging of a single world civilization.

About Author:

Arthur Osborne (1906-70) is best known for his book Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, one of the first books to make known to the world the south Indian sage Sri Ramana Maharshi, to whom Arthur Osborne devoted the last part of his life. 

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
  
• By : Mark S.G. Dyczkowski
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition :  2000
• Pages : 58
• Weight : 150 gm.
• Size : 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.2 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 818656912X
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569122
• Product Code: BK14267

Description:

This commentary is by Bhagavadutpala, also known as Utpala Vaisnava, who lived in 10th century Kashmir. It is important both because it is early and especially because it contains copious references to Pancaratra sources - the earliest dateable ones so far recovered.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : H.H. Shankaracharya Swami Swarupananda Sarasvati
• Cover : Hardcover
• Edition :  2009
• Pages : 368
• Weight : 650 g.
• Size : 8.5 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569887
• ISBN-10 : 818656988X
• Product Code : BK14261

Description:

Swami Karpatri (1907-82), a revered contemporary sannyasin of exceptional personality, was renowned for his deep scriptural knowledge, which he used in his many writings and speeches to light up the Hindu orthodox point of view. The two significant articles presented here deal with the meaning of the Linga and the nature of the Great Goddess. Besides doctrinal and mythological clarifications, we find a sophisticated debate about the nature of Sakti between two traditional schools: Nyaya and Mimamsa, which could be compared with those held in the times of Adi Sankara.
This bilingual edition (Hindi–English) presents a new translation — the fruit of a collective work — besides the original text in Devanagari, in the first book by Svami Karpatri published in English. The notes explain the philosophical parts or reveal misleading interpolations and omissions commited by the first translator of these articles, Alain Daniélou.
Prefaced by His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracarya of Dvarakapitha and Jyotispitha, Svami Svarupananda Sarasvati, who was a close companion of Svami Karpatri, this book clarifies many fundamental thoughts of Sanatana Dharma related to Siva and Sakti.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• H.H. Shankaracharya Swami Swarupananda Sarasvati
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2009
• Pages : 368
• Weight : 650 gm.
• Size : 8.5 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 9381120072
• ISBN-13 : 978-9381120071
• Product Code : BK14262

Description:

Swami Karpatri (1907-82), a revered contemporary sannyasin of exceptional personality, was renowned for his deep scriptural knowledge, which he used in his many writings and speeches to light up the Hindu orthodox point of view. The two significant articles presented here deal with the meaning of the Linga and the nature of the Great Goddess. Besides doctrinal and mythological clarifications, we find a sophisticated debate about the nature of Sakti between two traditional schools: Nyaya and Mimamsa, which could be compared with those held in the times of Adi Sankara.
This bilingual edition (Hindi–English) presents a new translation — the fruit of a collective work — besides the original text in Devanagari, in the first book by Svami Karpatri published in English. The notes explain the philosophical parts or reveal misleading interpolations and omissions commited by the first translator of these articles, Alain Daniélou.
Prefaced by His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracarya of Dvarakapitha and Jyotispitha, Svami Svarupananda Sarasvati, who was a close companion of Svami Karpatri, this book clarifies many fundamental thoughts of Sanatana Dharma related to Siva and Sakti.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Mahaprabhu Aghoreshwar Baba Bhagwan Ram
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2012
• Pages : 413
• Weight : 450 gm.
• Size : 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569669
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569665
• Product Code : BK14253

Description:

The Aghoris believe that their tradition was started by Shiva himself, and was propounded further by Jagadguru Dattatreya. Baba Kinaram (1563-1714), a very renowned saint in Banaras, revived the tradition.
The followers of the Aghora path try to cultivate a state of mind and social practice totally non-discriminatory. Seeing the Divine in everything and everybody, they transcend all category distinctions, all prescriptions and proscriptions of the “normal” social structure such as high and low, purity and pollution, pure and impure, or male and female.
In the twentieth century, Aghoreshwar Mahaprabhu Baba Bhagwan Ram (1937-92) was the greatest avadhut in the Aghora tradition. He had an overwhelming spiritual quest ever since his infancy, and attained enlightenment at the age of fourteen or fifteen. He thus became an Aghoreshwar, the highest of all spiritually realized saints in the Aghora tradition, a walking, talking deity, Shiva incarnate. People felt that Baba truly loved everyone who went to him. His life was no longer for his own self; he lived for those who came to him. Hundreds of thousands of devotees, simple villagers, spiritual seekers and high dignitaries would flock around him.
In the holy city of Banaras Baba laid the foundation of Shri Sarveshwari Samooh in 1961, an organization to fight social evils like leprosy, dowry and illiteracy. To fulfil hese goals, Baba started an ashram and a leprosy hospital by the name of Awadhut Bhagwan Ram Kusht Sewa Ashram (The Awadhut Bhagwan Ram Leprosy Service Ashram) at Parao, Varanasi.
Baba’s teachings were imparted more through everyday conversations rather than through sermons. On his advice, his words were compiled into a book that will have the essence of all his messages. Thus was written Aghor Vachan Shastra in Hindi and the present book, its English translation.
Baba Bhagwan Ram is credited to have changed the place that Aughar ascetics occupy in society. While earlier they were regarded as being, literally, on the social fringe, inhabiting cremation grounds, today they have become a part of the mainstream of religious life in Banaras and elsewhere, using the powers of their spiritual practices for social benefit.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Rene Guenon
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : November 1, 2007
• Pages : 142
• Weight : 300 g.
• Size : 5.4 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569115
• ISBN-10 : 8186569111
• Product Code : BK14254

Description:

“Guénon is not an ‘orientalist’ but what the Hindus would call a guru.”
—Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
In the first half of the twenteeth century, a French man, René Guénon (1886–1951), struck the conscience of the Western world by reminding it about the spiritual knowledge that was at the heart of all traditional civilizations but that the modern Western world had completely lost sight of, and urged it earnestly to recover it before it would be too late. A profound knower of Hindu, Islamic, Taoist and other traditions, Guénon expounded, in the same way as A.K. Coomaraswamy with whom he regularly corresponded, the traditional metaphysics which gave a unity beyond the forms to the apparently different traditions of mankind. Though completely ignored by the official academic world, his message inspired quite a few seekers, and more than 50 years after his death his books are regularly republished and his influence grows steadily.
In The Crisis of the Modern World, published for the first time in 1927, Guénon writes a relentless and radical criticism of the modern world, revealing its shallowness and its spiritual destitution when confronted with the traditional civilizations. Eighty years later, his words are still amazingly present and fully valid, but there is something that has definitely changed: the traditional East that Guénon sets against the modern West has disappeared in a great measure as Asia has taken, by its own choice or by the force of circumstances, to the same road than the West. The reflexions of Guenon about the modern world are thus in a big extent applicable to the India of today, in danger of being submerged by the strong flow of modern ways and conceptions and of forgetting the spiritual base that was always the foundation of its civilization and that was the main cause for its unique survival through so many centuries.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Selina Thielemann
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 1 January 1997
• Pages : 290
• Weight : 600 gm.
• Size : 8.7 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569016
• ISBN-10 : 8186569014
• Product Code : BK14255

Description:

Dhrupada is the oldest genre of north Indian vocal music, referred to by Indian musicians and music scholars with high respect as the fundamental style, the ancient and most sacred genre — the quintessence of north Indian art music. Despite its key function in the music history, dhrupada has assumed the role of a museum piece within the rich and colourful tradition of Hindustani classical music. Having been the predominant style at the Mughal court of Akbar in the second half of the sixteenth century, dhrupada suffered continuous decline from the seventeenth century onwards. The tendency started changing only by the middle of the present century when musicians, music scholars and other responsible individuals in India and abroad initiated various activities for the revival of the dhrupada genre. One of the few family traditions who maintained the art of dhrupada singing to the present day is the Mallik tradition associated with the royal court of Darbhanga in northern Bihar. It was founded by two brothers named Radhakrisna and Karttarama around the middle of the eighteenth century. Being among the main exponents of dhrupada of the present, along with the Dagars, the Darbhanga tradition is continued today in two lineages. The most senior living musician of the Darbhanga gharana is Pandit Vidur Mallik of Vrindaban.
The present book offers insights into a variety of aspects of dhrupada performance in Darbhanga style, with focus on the branch of Pandit Vidur Mallik, and including research papers, interviews, and transcriptions of both traditional and modern dhrupada compositions of this tradition. After Indurama Srivastava’s book Dhrupada: A Study of Its Origin, Historical Development, Structure and Present State (published in 1980), the present account is the second book on the subject of dhrupada to be published in English, and it is at the same time the first comprehensive account of dhrupada in the Darbhanga tradition. With the publication of this book, the author wishes to pay tribute to her musical teacher Pt. Vidur Mallik, and to pay her respects to Shri Shrivatsa Goswami, the academic director of Sri Caitanya Prema Sansthana in Vrindaban, for his tireless support for the promotion of dhrupada.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Panditaraja Jagannatha
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : July 2, 2007
• Pages : 130
• Size : 6.9 x 4.8 x 0.3 inches
• Language : English
• Weight : 120 gm.
• ISBN-10 : 8186569626
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569627
• Product Code : BK14256

Description:

Ganga signifies not just a mere stream of water but it stands for the numerous streams of Indian culture, the evolution and the eternal continuity of Indian civilization and the power to redeem the fallen. The visible Ganga is a flow of water, from the point of view of faith and philosophy she is the Goddess Makarasanastha, and at the transcendental level she is considered to be Saccidananda-svarupa Brahmadravarupini
Ganga Lahari is the most known poem in praise of Ganga. Panditaraja Jagannatha, displaying his immense scholarship and mastery of Sanskrit, wrote this stotra, presented here in Sanskrit, English and Hindi, which has become a symbol of the love of Indian culture for this river-goddess.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Rudrani Fakir
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : May 30, 2005
• Pages : 534
• Weight : 750 gm.
• Size : 8.5 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 818656957X
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569573
• Product Code : BK14258

Description:

The reality of modernization and globalization has produced rapid and major changes on the physical and mental landscapes of everyone — often, those most affected see the most deleterious effects. The Goddess and the Slave stands amidst such a people, informed by their age-old wisdoms, and examines the reality of these changes from this grass-roots perspective.
Drawing upon the rich inter-connected levels of meaning within the Fakir culture, especially with respect to the living, breathing paradigmatic Mother — as Nature, as the Goddess to be worshipped and as the mother whose service is her identity — The Goddess and the Slave demonstrates the crisis faced by the unique Baul-Fakir sadhana, by the non-urban Bengali, and by Indian society itself. Standing within the Fakir knowledge paradigm, it examines the effects of development and modernization, of changing identities and realities, of the distortions caused by new needs and attitudes infused into traditional lifestyles and social structures. Rudrani Fakir, as an anthropologist and as a practitioner, uses the Fakir shadhona as a critical tool of understanding, and thereby gives an informed voice to a rich culture within a society in the throes of transition, presenting this objective study through her highly engaged subjective perspective. The result is a cohesive insight into the paradoxical roles of the Mother, and, thereby, into our societies and environments.
The first part of this book outlines the Fakir society and esoteric shadhona, and describes the reception of diverse modern influences into the lives and practices of Fakir men and women. The second part delves into the decline and decay of the eality of the Goddess, the changing status of women and of the true nature of wealth, and draws together the threads of the old knowledge paradigms — esoteric and modern, spoken and wordless, powerless and empowered. Finally, it offers heuristic paradigms, in the form of the Goddess herself, for a different type of thought, wherein the lethal results of fragmented discourse make way for a fruitful engagement — a utopia of realism — of humanity both of and within nature.

About Author:

Rudrani Fakir, born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1955, studied Medical Anthropology at the Bobigny School of Medicine (1997) and received her Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Anthropology on intersecting economic-religious problems of gender in rural Bengal (EHESS, Paris, April 2004). Before engaging herself in a decade of fieldwork in rural Bengal and Bangladesh, she worked as a UN interpreter as well as a consultant for local development missions with the OECD. She has also been professionally active as a musician, as well as with the promotion of early musical traditions in Europe. Her previous publications include Fakir, la quite dun Baul musulman (Paris, 2000).

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : James Mallinson
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 2017
• Pages : 399
• Weight : 350 g.
• Size : 
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569936
• ISBN-1 3: 978-8186569931
• Product Code : BK14259

Description:

The Khecharividya of Adinatha, a Sanskrit text dated to pre-1400 ce, teaches khechari-mudra, one of the most important exercises of hatha-yoga, in which the tongue is inserted above the palate in order to drink the amrita or nectar of immortality dripping from the top of the skull. It is said to bestow immortality, the ability to remain in deep meditation for long periods and the power of flight upon its practitioners. The text has been edited for the first time and has never before been accessible to an English-speaking readership. It is accompanied by an introduction and an extensively annotated translation. The author has drawn on twenty-seven Sanskrit manuscripts and original fieldwork amongst yogins in India to demonstrate how earlier tantric yogic techniques developed and mutated into the practices of hatha-yoga. The work sheds new light on the development of hatha-yoga and explains its practices.

About Author:

James Mallinson has a BA and DPhil in Sanskrit from Oxford and an MA in South Asian ethnography from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He has spent several years living with sadhus and yogins in India, has translated five volumes of Sanskrit poetry for the Clay Sanskrit Library and two yoga texts for YogaVidya.com. He is currently teaching Sanskrit at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and preparing a monograph on the texts and practitioners of traditional hatha-yoga.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : James Mallinson
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2001
• Pages : 80
• Weight : 100 g.
• Size : 6.8 x 4.6 x 0.3 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569227
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569221
• Product Code : BK14260

Description:

Where the Ganges and the Jamna meet people from many, many, different traditions of Hinduism come together. There will be many genuinely holy men, some charlatans, and some obscurantists. But the majority of those who come to bathe in the Sangam will be villagers. The Kumbh is an awe-inspiring demonstration of simple piety and a clear example of the power of myth.
Of course, the Kumbh Mela is a magnificent spectacle too. Millions of people gathered in one place, colourful holy men, naked sadhus, wondrous feats of asceticism, piety on a scale unparalleled anywhere else. But much more than a spectacle, the Kumbh Mela is an experience, an experience for which we have to shed our certainties and our self-confidence to be able to capture its meaning through the power of the imagination.

About Author:

Mark Tully was born in Calcutta and educated in England. He spent over twenty years of his life as BBC Delhi Correspondent and covered many of the major events in South Asia, including the 1971 Bangladesh War, the Indian Emergency, the trial and hanging of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Operation Blue Star, the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, the destruction of the Ayodhya Mosque, and the Bhopal gas disaster. After leaving the BBC he continued to live in Delhi with his partner Gillian Wright and work as a freelance broadcaster, journalist, and writer. He has now written four books on India.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : November 1, 2000
• Language : English
• Pages : 136
• Weight : 300 g.
• Size : 5.6 x 0.3 x 8.6 inches
• ISBN-10: 8186569170
• ISBN-13: 978-8186569177
• Product Code: BK14265

Description:

The Sanskrit Language by P.S. Filliozat has the rare distinction of being both an introductory book and a new ground-breaking study. It is an introductory book because the reader gets an accurate overview of the language, and it is also a new ground-breaking study because Filliozat’s approach harmonizes two different and complementary stands that often have been at war: the Western historical and comparative approach and the indigenous pandit tradition. Sanskrit is described here from these two points of view: what the native speakers knew and felt about their language, and what the foreign scholars did discover in their historical and comparative quest.
In the Indian branch of the Indo-European family of languages, Sanskrit is unique by its antiquity and stability. It has remained a living language over four milleniums. It owes its quality to the efforts of linguistic awareness of the first poets and the learned who used it in the practice of the Vedic religion. Right from the ancient times the grammarian Panini codified the procedures of formation of Sanskrit words. Some centuries later, his commentator Patanjali codified the procedures of interpretation of text. Sanskrit is properly the language generated and interpreted with such codes. The cultured Sanskrit user or pandit is one who has not only learnt the language, but also knows to use it and to analyse it with the same tools. Thus Sanskrit has always been a powerful instrument of culture and intellectual creation. It has been the learned language of pandits, a link language between the diverse regions of the entire Indian subcontinent, the medium of all scientific and technical knowledge, a language of religious teaching and practice. It has spread over the whole of Asia to the East of Iran.

About Author:

Prof. Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat teaches Sanskrit in Paris and conducts researches in several fields of Indology, Sanskrit grammar, poetry and poetics, history of Indian mathematics, Tantra, especially the Sanskrit Shaivagama literature, history of Indian architecture, etc. He has published books and articles in French, English and Sanskrit, on the Grammar of  Panini, the Mahabhashya of Patanjali, Alamkarashastra, Sanskrit poetry, Shaivagama, temple architecture in Karnataka, etc.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition :  2006
• Pages : 117
• Weight : 200 gm.
• Size : 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569610
• ISBN-10 : 8186569618
• Product Code : BK14266

Description:

A simple and clear book for students starting to learn sitar, originally published through the initiative of the International Institute for Comparative Music Studies and Documentation, Berlin. This book explains the basics of sitar and proposes exercises to control the instrument. It contains also photos and illustrations. A very useful book for the serious student of sitar.

About Author:

Acharya Manfred M. Junius, born in Germany in 1929, studied Indian Classical Music and Musicology for eighteen years in various centres of India, and sat at the feet of great masters. He has given many recitals all over India and abroad. Though born a foreigner, he is widely recognized in India as an authority in Indian Classical Music. He is also a qualified Ayurvedic medicine practitioner and teacher.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Frithjof Schuon
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : December 1, 2010
• Pages : 173
• Weight : 300 g.
• Size : 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569535
• ISBN-10 : 8186569537
• Product Code : BK14268

Description:

Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998) is acclaimed as the greatest authority of the twentieth century on the subject of comparative religions. The Transcendent Unity of Religions is a testimony to life as a holistic and sacred phenomenon. Every religion can be likened to a ray of light, emanating from the Divine Source. To transcend religious differences, Schuon explains, we must explore the esoteric nature of the inward-turned spiritual path. On this journey, we can trace the brilliant ray of illumination back to the Divine Oneness that is the basis of all religions. "Superlative ... the most powerful statement of the grand, or better, primordial, tradition. It is original in incorporating what our age for the first time demands: that religion be treated in global terms."--Huston Smith

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : S. Durai Raja Sigam
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition :  2001
• Pages : 170
• Weight : 250 gm.
• Size : 7.1 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569214
• ISBN-10 : 8186569219
• Product Code : BK14269

Description:

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1947-76) was one of the best minds that India has produced in the twentieth century. Son of a Tamil father and an English mother, his life was a living example on how to build bridges between Eastern and Western cultures.
By profession an art critic and a museum curator, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was also a masterful exponent of metaphysics. As much at home with Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas as with Shankara and the other Vedic commentators, familiar with the Scriptures of all the main religions and proficient in many languages, he used to teach metaphysical principles by explaining the symbolism of traditional works. In his writings Coomaraswamy never displays his vast knowledge for the sake of mere erudition, but rather uses his amazing scholarship for a well-crafted plan: to show that below the endless variety of art forms and traditional beliefs a common thread runs deep — the acceptance of the sacred as the ultimate means to validate the multiplicity of everyday experience.
This book is a compilation of quotations from his works and letters, and it constitutes a good introduction to his thought. His theories are here applied to concrete situations, related to the problems of modern India, and could still suggest a third way to avoid both the traps of modern technocracy and the temptation of fundamentalism. It should not surprise us that his views are still relevant to the present situation: his opinions are rooted in truths that are neither political nor historical, neither ideological, or simply religious, nor even merely intellectual. They are rather related to that inner wisdom that embraces, without crushing it, all the distinctiveness of human experience.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Rana P.B Singh
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2011
• Pages : 221
• Weight : 300 gm.
• Size : 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569308
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569306
• Product Code : BK14270

Description:

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1947-76) was one of the best minds that India has produced in the twentieth century. Son of a Tamil father and an English mother, his life was a living example on how to build bridges between Eastern and Western cultures.
By profession an art critic and a museum curator, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was also a masterful exponent of metaphysics. As much at home with Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas as with Shankara and the other Vedic commentators, familiar with the Scriptures of all the main religions and proficient in many languages, he used to teach metaphysical principles by explaining the symbolism of traditional works. In his writings Coomaraswamy never displays his vast knowledge for the sake of mere erudition, but rather uses his amazing scholarship for a well-crafted plan: to show that below the endless variety of art forms and traditional beliefs a common thread runs deep — the acceptance of the sacred as the ultimate means to validate the multiplicity of everyday experience.
This book is a compilation of quotations from his works and letters, and it constitutes a good introduction to his thought. His theories are here applied to concrete situations, related to the problems of modern India, and could still suggest a third way to avoid both the traps of modern technocracy and the temptation of fundamentalism. It should not surprise us that his views are still relevant to the present situation: his opinions are rooted in truths that are neither political nor historical, neither ideological, or simply religious, nor even merely intellectual. They are rather related to that inner wisdom that embraces, without crushing it, all the distinctiveness of human experience.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Jagmohan Mahajan
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : May 30, 2008
• Pages : 90
• Weight : 1600 g.
• Size : 17.3 x 11.4 x 0.6 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569715
• ISBN-1 3: 978-8186569719
• Product Code : BK14271

Description:

Form the Jacket

One of the oldest inhabited cities in the world and the holiest in India. Varanasi has attracted pilgrims from all over India for over 2500 years. No account of the travels of Indian visitors and pilgrims to the city, however, is available because of the non-existence of the tradition of recording impressions of such visits by Indians

Nor is there any record of foreign travelers visiting Varanasi until four centuries ago. It was then that travelers form the West started visiting Varanasi on a regular basis, and left animated accounts their visit. Later a number of landscape artists, almost entirely from Britain, began coming to India towards the end of the eighteenth century, and made superb sketches of Varanasi when they visited the city.

The views of Varanasi by the visiting landscape artists gave not only the outside word but also the Indians themselves the first ever visual impression of the scenic splendours of the holy city,. Until then so such visual record existed because of the lack of the genre of landscape painting in an otherwise rich Indian art.

Assembled from public and private art collections in India and abroad, these views are now being published together, along with a short survey of travelers;' accounts of their visit to Varanasi, for the first time.

About the Author

Jagmohan Mahajan has written extensively on British landscape artists in India as also on Ganga. His publications include Picturesque India: Sketches and Travels of Thomas and William Daniell. The Raj Landscape: British Views of Indian Cities and the Ganga Trail: Foreign Accounts of the River Scene.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Swami Lakshman Joo
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : January 1, 2007
• Pages : 207
• Weight : 360 gm.
• Size : 5.6 x 0.5 x 8.6 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569359
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569351
• Product Code: BK14272

Description:

The Vijnana Bhairava is one of the most important Tantras of Kashmir Shaivism as far as the practical aspect of yoga of this school is concerned. It teaches 112 dharanas or ways of centring awareness and entering divine consciousness, which include ordinary and extraordinary experiences, as well as Tantric methods of spiritual practice such as kundalini, mantra and mudra. This ancient text is of great relevanee for a spirituality of our times which has to integrate all aspects of life.
The present edition, translation and commentary is unique since it contains the oral teaching of the last great master of the Kashmir Shaiva tradition, Swami Lakshman Job. In his explanation of the dharanas he gives the deep significance and practical application of various methods of yoga which give direct access to states of higher consciousness.


About the Author

Swami Lakshman Joo (1907-91), also called Swami Lakshmanji Raina or Ishvara Svarupa, was a great yogi from an early age. He embodied a rare unity of a mystic and a pandit, being well-versed in Sanskrit and in the texts of the non-dualistic tradition of Kashmir Shaivism. He was also called the Abhinavagupta of the twentieth century, being the last authority of Kashmir Shaivism, who was teaching scholars and guiding seekers on the spiritual path. He edited several Sanskrit texts and published Hindi translations and commentaries, such as Abhinavagupta’s Gitarthasamgraha Sambapanchashika, Utpaladeva’s Shivastotravali, Abhinavagupta’s Paratrishika Vivarana and others. Some of his teachings and lectures have been published in English: Kashmir Shaivism: The Secret Supreme, The Awakening of Supreme Consciousness, Self Realization in Kashmir Saivism, and in Hindi: Trikashastra-Rahasya Prakriya. His commentary on the Shiva Sutras has already been published.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Rana P.B. Singh
• Cover : Paperback
• Edition : 2003
• Pages : 303
• Weight : 550 g.
• Size : 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186569367
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186569368
• Product Code : BK14273

Description:

This book is the first attempt to describe all the fifteen places with which the Buddha had direct association. Narration of each of these places accounts the mythology, legend, Jataka tales, cultural history, archaeology, field studies and general information. The book is illustrated with 55 photographs and 55 maps and figures, and also contains a description of the main link stations like Varanasi, Allahabad and Gorakhpur. Nearby sites for excursion are also described in the context.
The sequence of the fifteen Buddhist places follows the life cycle and the journeys performed by the Buddha as narrated in the Jatakas and the Tripitaka. Accordingly, the Buddha was born (563 bce) in the garden of Lumbini (1), passed his first 29 years (563-533 bce) in the royal palaces of Kapilavastu (2) and, after abandoning his home and family he ultimately reached Bodh-Gaya (3), where he achieved enlightenment at the age of 35 (528 bce). He did arduous austerities in Gaya (4), then he proceeded to give his first preaching at Sarnath (5) in 529 bce. After this important event, known as “the turning of the wheel of Dharma”, he returned to Bodh-Gaya. After visiting Rajagriha and Nalanda, he very frequently visited Shravasti (6), where he stayed during 24 rainy seasons, performing miracles and gaving sermons. During the 6th (522 bce) and 9th years (519 bce) after enlightenment he stayed at Kaushambi (7). While returning to Bodh-Gaya, to fulfil his promise to King Bimbisara (c. 543-491 bce) he paid a visit to Rajagriha (8) together with a thousand monks of his new order, and gave sermons there. On the request of his two chief disciples Sariputta and Moggallana, the Buddha visited Nalanda (9) several times. Thereafter, the Lord proceeded to Vaishali (10), the capital city of the Lichchhavis, where he gave his last detailed sermons and re-interpreted several of his teachings. Before his final march he stopped at the bank of the Ganga River in Patna (11), in a place called today as Gautama Ghat. While making his final march he stayed a couple of nights at Kesariya (12), followed by his final arrival at Kushinagar (13) where he passed away at the age of eighty (c. 483 bce). In the same year he descended from heaven at Sankisa (14) and gave his final preaching there. Mathura (15) was also visited by the Buddha occasionally, and later developed as the major centre of the Buddhist art and sculpture in the Maurya period.

About the Author

The author, Rana P.B. Singh is Professor of Cultural Geography at the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, and Founding President of the Society of Heritage Planning and Environmental Health, and also of the Society of Pilgrimage Studies. He has been involved in studying, performing and promoting pilgrimages and eco-tourism for the last two decades as a consultant, project director, collaborator, pilgrimage organiser and a wanderer.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Gautam Chatterjee
• Cover : Hardcover
• Edition : April 26, 2012
• Language : English
• Pages : 220
• Weight : 250 gm.
• Size : 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• ISBN-10 : 8186117121
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186117125
• Product Code : BK14274

Description:

This is a creative manifestation of a long, on-going, deepest realization in a Tantric vision, i.e. expanding timeless wisdom in present time, in a dynamic manner, first time encapsulated in this book. This is a creative flash came out from the inmost being of an aspirant of Shiva. The worldwide serious debate on consciousness has now become off-the-cuff interaction in science and philosophy, especially in neuroscience and brain science, and also in metaphysics. The entire conversation has been shifted from experiencing what is without an atom of psychological yesterdays in terms of “recent findings”. The semantic allegory “White Shadow” comprehends all the problems related to pain, evil and existence, epistemological as well as ontological proof of lime consciousness, and elucidates our integral presence in relation to divine tranquillity.
With a great lineage of Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar and Pandit Suniti Kumar Chaturjya, Gautam Chatterjee is, in his childhood, initiated with the benediction of Pt. Gopinath Kaviraj, and has been a close associate of Thakur Jaidev Singh and Pt. Vraj Vallabh Dwivedi in the discipline of Kashmir Shaivism. He is the founder president of Abhinavagupta academy, a centre for consciousness studies in Banaras, developed a lucid way to yoga practices to enrich the richest tradition of monistic Shaivism in Kashi, spiritually and ontologically, and also metaphysically. Engaged in translating Tantraloka a magnum opus by Abhinavagupta from Sanskrit to English (four volumes have been published), Shree Gautam teaches conscious communication in Banaras Hindu University

About the Author

With a great lineage of Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar and Pandit Suniti Kumar Chaturjya, Gautam Chatterjee is, in his childhood, initiated with the benediction of Pt. Gopinath Kaviraj, and has been a close associate of Thakur Jaidev Singh and Pt. Vraj Vallabh Dwivedi in the discipline of Kashmir Shaivism. He is the founder president of Abhinavagupta academy, a centre for consciousness studies in Benaras, developed a lucid way to Yoga practices to enrich the richest tradition of monistic Shaivism in Kashi, spiritually and ontologically, and also metaphysically. Engaged in translating 'Tantraloka' a magnum opus by Abhinavagupta from Sanskrit to English (four volumes have been published), Shree Gautam teaches conscious communication in Banaras Hindu University.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : Dr. Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee
• Cover : Hardcover
• Edition : April 26, 2012
• Pages : 220
• Weight : 250 g.
• Size : 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Language : English
• ISBN-10 : 8186117121
• ISBN-13 : 978-8186117125
• Product Code : BK14275

Description:

Yogacharya Dr. Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee was invited as the sole representative from India to participate in the Parliament of World Religions held at Val St. Hugon, France in 1997 convened by Dalai Lama and sponsored by UNO, UNESCO, UNCHR. At this Parliament of World Religions, he upheld the tenets of Sanatana yogadharma to the world with a clarion voice. His brilliant exegesis on the subject of love, peace and solidarity one world, one religion, one God, one man at the Parliament of World Religions received tumultous applause. All those present at this Parliament like representatives from all religions; scientists; philosophers; journalists; the audience; being spellbound by his profound wisdom and eloquence, conferred on him paens of praise. French newspapers commented on him to be a “wise worthy dignified sage”; “a seer”; “a visionary”, etc.
A civic reception graced by luminaries from all walks of life was accorded to him on 10 June 1998 in Calcutta.

About the Author

Yogacharya Vacaspati Dr. Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee, author of this book was born in 1933 in West Bengal. The sudden demise of his mother when he was away in service intensely agonized him. He grew averse to material pursuits and became spiritually inclined. He received initiation in Kriyayoga in April 1961. He reached the pinnacle of Kriyayoga within a short span. His three Gurus were stalwarts in this discipline. His first Guru was Sri Annada Charan Sastri (Bhattacharya) disciple of Panchanan Bhattacharya, an elevated disciple of Yogiraj Sri Shama Churn Lahiree. After Sastrirji’s demise, Dr. Chatterjee obtained initiation from Sundarlal Lala of Varanasi, disciple of Sri Harinarayan Paladhi. who was the disciple of Yogiraj and later from Sri Satyacharan Lahiri, grandson of Yogiraj. Today Yogacharya Vacaspati Chatterjee is acknowledged as a World Kriyayoga Master.
Being an ardent devotee of Sanatana Dharma's Polestar, Yogiraj Shama Churn Lahiree and to propagate His ideals and tenets before the masses so that they derive the right path, the right enlightenment, he has penned many books in Bengali, illustrating the science of Kriyayoga. Most of his books have been published in Indian languages like Hindi, Oriya, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati. Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese editions are awaiting publication. Purana Purusha Yogiraj Sri Shama Churn Lahiree has been published in French also. His other books (English editions) are also awaiting publication. He has authored quite a number of articles delineating the science hence rationality of Kriyayoga.
He has founded “Yogiraj Shyamacharan Sanatan Mission” and the temple of Yogiraj at Kakdwip, West Bengal, India with the objective that mankind can derive the Kriyayoga revived by Yogiraj. He has organized philanthropic activities through this Mission. To further Yogiraj-consciousness he has travelled throughout India and in many places in the Orient and Occident. People irrespective of caste, creed, colour, nation, language, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, untouchables, renouncers, are all coming under his aegis and are finding in him their haven and panacea for all evils. He has a large following throughout India and abroad like USA, England, France, Spain, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Bangladesh, etc.

Specification:

• Publisher : Indica Books
• By : R T H Griffith
• Cover : Hardcover
• Language : English
• Edition : 2002
• Pages : 
• Weight : 750 gm.
• Size : 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• ISBN-10: 8171101364
• ISBN-13: 978-8171101368
• Product Code: BK14276

Description:

The present edition of Yajurveda with English version of Mahidhara and Uvata's commentary by Griffith has become conspicuous with the salient feature, the old usage of English version has been replaced by the corresponding modern usage in order that the contents of the translation may be easily made out even by a layman. For instance, the old pronominal forms like, thy, thou, thee, thine, etc. have been replaced by the corresponding terms in modern English. The old English usage of verbal forms has also been supplanted with the corresponding usage in modern English.