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The last two decades of Indological research have led to a marked increase in the investigation of logic in India, especially in the earliest period of classical India. A panel of senior and junior scholars from America, Asia, and Europe, all specialists working in this area, was concerned at the 12th World Sanskrit Conference, held in Helsinki in the summer of 2003. This volume contains not only their papers, which address both philosophical and philological matters pertaining to logic as propounded in texts from this period, but also an introduction designed to permit non-specialists, whether non-Indologists or non-philosophers, to learn about Indian logic in its infancy.

The chapter in this volume are a selection of papers presented in the general Philosophy Section at the 12th World Sanskrit Conference in Helsinki, Finland. The first part of the book, Studies in Indian Philosophy, contains nine studies on individual topics and concepts in Indian philosophy from various perspectives: historical-philological, philosophical and comparative. They are inter alia concerned with such fundamental issues as the characteristic signs of the Self, the concept of vijnaptimatrata in Vasubandhu's Yogacara, the notion of unchanging cognition in the writings of the Kashmirian author Ramakantha, the definition of existence according to the late Buddhist philosopher Jnanasrimitra, and the significance of the sadhana catustaya in Vedanta. In the second part of the book, two papers contribute to the study of the textual history of Indian philosophy, with a focus on the Patanjalayogasastra and Candrananda's commentary on the Vaisesikasutra.

Interest for Jain studies has increased considerably in the last decades. Scholars will be thankful to the organizers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference who, for the first time in such a conference, planned a special panel on this field. The ten papers collected in this volume show the importance, abundance and variety of topics that can be considered. Philological analysis still proves useful, whether it concentrates on one particular work or on clusters of texts. A study of the "strategy of narrative" and predication needs a historical approach, kavya literature lends itself to renewed and indepth interpretations. Finally the reader will observe the constant renewal of Jainism, as some new "literary genre" or a new sect are seen to have gained momentum in modern times.

The present volume contains twelve of the sixteen papers presented at the Linsuistics Section of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference (Helsinki, Finland, 13-18 July, 2003). The papers span a wide range of topics and time depth, extending from Common Indo-Iranian all the way to Modern Indo-Aryan.

The problems and tasks addressed in these contributions pertain to the historical phonology of Sanskrit, Vedic morphosyntax, the evolutionary morphosyntax of Indo-Aryan, the syntax of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Old Indo-Aryan etymologies, Iranian loanwords in Sanskrit, ancient Central and South Asian langauge contacts.

"Vyakarana holds an uncontested place of honour in Indology, and Panini's grammar in particular is a basic source in argumentation not only among Paniniyas but also for students of Indian literature and sastras regardless of their particular areas of concentration. In this volume are published thirteen contributions presented in the Vyakarana section of the twelfth World Sanskrit Conference. The papers represent a considerable breadth of interest.

Most of the studies concern technical aspects of Paninian grammar. Several papers deal with facets of Panini's metalinguistic usage and four studies with points concerning derivational procedures and particular sutras related to them. Two papers concentrate on questions of syntax and two other scholars treat subjects of primarily historical interest."

"This volume contains 19 out of the 30 papers presented at the 12th World Sanskrit Conference, some of them revised and updated. They discuss a wide range of topics, including:
* the Atharvaveda in Varanasi * authorities cited in Pratisakhyas and Siksas * Rgvedic religion: Kingship and the Deva-Asura problem * interiorization of ritual and the breaths in the Brahmana system of correspondencies * words signifying 'body' in the Rgveda * the Rgvedic hymn 1.143 * documenting manuscripts of Samavedic texts * a late catalogue of Rgvedic Khilas and Upakkilas * j.F. Staal's 'meaninglessness of ritual' and the nihnavana rite * the vaidika tradition of the Vaikhanasas * gender identity in Rgvedic hymns by female authors * traditional philology and new paradigms for studying of the past * making sense of 'senseless' Brahmana etymologies * the initiation to study (upanayana and punarupanayana) * audio recordings of the four Vedas * the wife (patni) in the Andhra tradition of Soma sacrifices * a forthcoming new edition of the Baudhayanagrhyasutra * the meaning of the priestly reward (daksina) in srauta sacrifices * ephemera of recently performed srauta rituals

The Closing Address of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference is published as an appendix to the volume, which is provided with detailed indexes."

A monumental work, Philosophies of India is divided into three main sections: The Highest Good, a discussion of Eastern and Western thought and their meeting, and of the foundations of Indian Philosophy; The Philosophies of Time, being the philosophies of success, of pleasure, and of duty; finally The Philosophies of Eternity, this forms the major portion of the work, explaining Jainism, Sankhya and Yoga, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Tantra.

Review:

"We of the Occident are about to arrive at a crossroads that was reached by the thinkers of India some seven hundred years before Christ. This is the real reason why we become both vexed and stimulated, uneasy yet interested, when confronted with the con

"The most important Kavyas of Kalidasa-Raghuvamsa and Kumarasambhava-are distinguished by their independence of treatment and excellence of poetical beauty. The Kumarasambhava of Kalidasa varies from the loveliness of spring and the delights of married love to the utter desolation induced by the death of beloved. The subject is unquestionably a daring one: the events which bring about the marriage of Lord Siva to Uma and the birth of Skanda.

The prose order of each sloka has been given in the commentary by using bold type, the words not actually repeated by Mallinatha being enclosed within rectangular brackets. The notes explain allusions, grammatical peculiarities not noticed by Mallinatha, copious extracts from other commentaries being given for this purpose. The book includes text, the commentary of Mallinatha, a literal English translation, notes and introduction.

The hero of this poem is a divine being, and one of the Dhirodatta class. The prevailing sentiments is Sringara, Karuna and Santa, though not very prominent, being accessories to it. The 3rd and the 5th Cantos are a good illustration of Vipralambha, the 4th that of Karuna, the 7th of Vivaha, and the 8th of Sambhoga. The subject of each following canto is hinted at the end of each precedding one.
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"Bana's Kadambari is often appointed as a text-book in the Indian Universities, and owing to the peculiar characteristics of its style, the students often find it is a hard task to translate the intricate passages in it, in spite of the help they receive in the class-room from their Professors. Some editors try to satisfy the needs of their readers by issuing voluminous notes, whose very extent, however, frightens away the student; at any rate it becomes a tire-some task to wade through a bulky book for obtaining light on one's own particular difficulty. Moreover, only a literal and complete translation can solve many of the simpler difficulties of the ordinary student as regards the meanings of individual words and constructions of sentences, which the annotator may have passed over as being easy.

The present translation has been prepared at the request of many students who require some such help. The translation, here offered, is complete, without the omission of a single word or phrase; it is as close as the idiom of the language permits; and particular care has been bestowed upon passages involving puns and suggested senses."

We are not here without a purpose,’ the shaman explained. ‘Our purpose is to fulfil our destiny…All life is light and shadow.’ Like any other place on earth, the territory of the Adis in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh is ‘Pensam’—the ‘in-between’ place. Anything can happen here, and everything can be lived, and ‘the narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm or stormy weather’. A mysterious boy who fell from the sky is accepted as a son of the village and grows up to become a respected elder. A young woman wounded in love is healed by a marriage of which she expected little. A mother battles fate and the law for a son she has not seen since she lost him as an infant. A remote hamlet gets a road, but the new world that comes with it threatens upheaval. And as villages become small towns and towns approximate cities, the brave and patient few guard the old ways, negotiating change with memory and remembrance. An intricate web of stories, images and the history of a tribe, The Legends of Pensam is a lyrical and moving tribute to the human spirit. With a poet’s sense for incident and language, Mamang Dai paints a memorable portrait of a land that is at once particular and universal.

In 1839, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab died and his empire was plunged into chaos. Less than a decade later, weakened by internecine rivalry, Punjab fell into the hands of the British. The ruler who signed away the kingdom and its treasures, including the famed Koh-i-noor diamond, was the eleven-year-old Duleep Singh, the youngest of Ranjit Singh’s acknowledged sons. In this nuanced and poignant novel, tion of his lost legacy turned Duleep into a rebel. He became a Sikh again and sought to return to and lead his people. Navtej Sarna tells the unusual story of the last Maharaja of Punjab. Soon after the British annexed his kingdom, Duleep was separated from his mother and his people, taken under British guardianship and converted to Christianity. At sixteen, he was transported to England to live the life of a country squire—an exile that he had been schooled to seek himself. But disillusionment with the treatment meted out to him and a late realizahe attempt would drag him into the murky politics of nineteenth-century Europe, leaving him depleted and vulnerable to every kind of deceit and ridicule. His end came in a cheap hotel room in Paris, but not before one last act of betrayal and humiliation.

The friendship between Renuka, a Bengali poet, and Rachel, an American missionary, lies at the heart of this novel. Two women from entirely different backgrounds, they share a bond that overcomes the barriers of nationality, race and religion. Both are exiled to a hill station, which is populated with provincial and prudish memsahibs, who adjust their recipes to compensate for the altitude and substitute ingredients from home. While Rachel's husband works at a psychiatric hospital in the plains, in Ranchi, she looks after their sons who attend a mission school in the hills. While editing a cookbook, Rachel begins to realize the contradictions within her community. She also discovers the seductive voice of Renuka's poetry ... Renuka, Stephen Alter's fourth novel, builds to a startling climax, while uncovering hidden truths about love, sexuality and passion.

Jaya's life comes apart at the seams when her husband is asked to leave his job while allegations of business malpractice against him are investigated. Her familiar existence disrupted, her husband's reputation in question and their future as a family in jeopardy; Jaya, a failed writer, is haunted by memories of the past. Differences with her husband, frustrations in their seventeen-year-old marriage, disappointment in her two teenage children, the claustrophia of her childhood-all begin to surface. In her small suburban Bombay flat, Jaya grapples with these and other truths about herself-among them her failure at writing and her fear of anger. . . Shashi Deshpande gives us an exceptionally accomplished portrayal of a woman trying to erase a 'long silence' begun in childhood and rooted in herself and in the constraints of her life

If you know the answer and do not respond, your head will shatter into pieces!’ In a land of glorious kings, bloodthirsty demons and talking spirits, was born the lore of Vikram and the Vetal. After a series of mysterious events, King Vikramaditya carries the vetal, a witty ghost, on a long journey through death's playground. The vetal narrates the most fascinating tales and asks the most puzzling riddles, leaving Vikram completely stumped. Deepa Agarwal's beautiful translation brings age-old wisdom alive through the vetal's wondrous stories that are bound to confound and captivate readers even today.

The story of Tapti Gaina is intimately linked with the lives of two men, her husband and his brother. Exploring caste, student politics, the freedom struggle and the Emergency, Brothers traces the history of the Gaina family, beginning with their village origins across the emerging metropolis of Ajmer and ending at the height of political power in Jaipur. It is a masterful portrayal of ambition, desire, betrayal and anguish, enacted against the shifting terrain of family dynamics.

Of the seven books that comprise the Valmiki Ramayana, the Uttara Kanda is the final and perhaps the most problematic: Rama banishes his beloved Sita into the forest; Rama kills Shambuka, a low caste man practising austerities that are above his station; Rama is reunited with his sons during a sacrifice at which he loses his wife forever; Rama watches over the death of his devoted brother Lakshmana who knowingly submits to a curse that will take his life. In Uttara, Arshia Sattar exquisitely captures the heady delights of the original text in all its sensuous, colourful detail—frenzied battles, simmering intrigue, lustful demons and the final and tragic act in Rama and Sita's love story. But the Uttara Kanda raises more questions than it answers, and Sattar’s accompanying essays skillfully explore the shattering consequences of Rama’s actions even as they unravel the complex moral universe of the Ramayana.

It was death at first sight . . . Miss Ripley-Bean was sitting on a bench beneath the deodars, having a quiet moment to herself, when suddenly two shadows, larger than life, appeared on the outside wall; they were struggling with each other. Only afterwards, when a dead body was discovered, did Miss Ripley-Bean realize she had witnessed a murder – and that the murderer had seen her . . . In this marvelous collection of brand-new stories set in the Mussoorie of a bygone era, Ruskin Bond recounts the deliciously sinister cases of a murdered priest, an adulterous couple, a man who is born evil, and the body in the box bed; not to forget the strange happenings involving the arsenic in the post, the strychnine in the cognac, a mysterious black dog, and the Daryaganj strangler. As the elderly Miss Ripley-Bean, her Tibetan terrier Fluff, her good friend Mr Lobo, the hotel pianist, and Nandu, the owner of the Royal, mull over the curious murders, the reader will be enthralled and delighted – until the murderer is finally revealed.

Fourteen-year-old Zoon Razdan is witty, intelligent and deeply perceptive. She also has a deep connection with magic. She was born into it. The house that she lives in is fantastical—life thrums through its wooden walls—and she can talk to everything in it, from the armchair and the fireplace to the books, pipes and portraits! But Zoon doesn’t know that her beloved house once contained a terrible force of darkness that was accidentally let out by one of its previous owners. And when the darkness returns, more powerful and malevolent than ever, it is up to her to take her rightful place as the Guardian of the house, and subsequently, Kashmir.

Everything that you’ve always loved about Ruskin Bond is back. His mesmerizing descriptions of nature and his wonderful way with words—this is Ruskin Bond at his finest. Read on as Rusty tells the story of his grandfather’s relationship with the trees around him, who’s convinced that they love him back with as much tenderness as he loves them.

What makes a fanatic? A fundamentalist? What makes communities that have lived together for years suddenly discover a hatred for each other? New Delhi, in the year 2000. Staff meetings, lesson modules, a half-hearted little affair with a colleague—this is the bland but comfortable life of Shiv Murthy, a history teacher in an open university. But disruption and change are on their way—an outspoken young woman with a broken knee comes into his life and turns it upside-down; then Hindu zealots attack his writings on Basava, the reformer-poet. When fundamentalism lands on his own doorstep, Shiv discovers that the ideas he has inherited—about history, nations and patriots—are liable to shrink day by day. The time of siege is not exclusively Indian—prejudice speaks different languages but has the same destructive message: 'Only trust those of your kind' With love, lust and a perverted nationalism at his heels, Shiv is forced to confront the demands of his times and choose a direction for the future. But first, he must come to terms with his own incomplete past, his fears, and his obsession with a woman who will give him the strength he seeks.

A masaledaar mix of fact and fiction, action and emotion, drama and passion—these strange, funny, intriguing tales from small-town Uttar Pradesh have been passed orally from one generation to the next. They are likely to make one exclaim, ‘This couldn’t have happened!’ even as the narrators swear they are nothing but pure fact. The bizarre chronicle of a lazy daughter-in-law, the court clerk who loved eating chaat, two cousins inseparable even in death, a blind teacher who fell in love with a woman with beautiful eyes and other wild tales from Bareilly, Lucknow, Hapur, Badaun, Sapnawat and Pilibhit, places big and small, in that fascinating part of India called Uttar Pradesh.

Nadia and Saeed are two ordinary young people attempting to do an extraordinary thing—to fall in love—in a world turned upside down. Theirs will be a love story but also a story about how we live now and how we might live tomorrow, of a world in crisis and two human beings travelling through it. Civil war has come to the city that Nadia and Saeed call home. Before long they will need to leave their motherland behind—when the streets are no longer useable and the unknown is safer than the known. They will join the great outpouring of people fleeing a collapsing city, hoping against hope, looking for their place in the world

Skims the murky world of dispossessed youth while sporting a spare, swift style’—The Hindu Sathi is a young soda-seller in a run-down cinema hall in a small town. Ill-paid and always weary, he finds relief from everyday tedium in marijuana and his friends—vulnerable, desperate young men who work around the movie hall. An intense and tender friendship with one of the men sustains Sathi, until a train of events casts the meagre certainties of his days and nights into disarray. Slick, visceral and startlingly inventive, Current Show unfolds in a manner that simulates rapid cinematic cuts. Murugan’s keen eye and crackling prose plumb the dark underbelly of small-town life, bringing Sathi’s world and entanglements thrillingly to life.

A profound meditation on the human quest for faith and inner peace The early 1960s, also known as the golden age of Indian cinema. Satyan Kumar, reigning screen god, moves from Mumbai to the Madras film industry. There he meets Gopalan, a middling studio writer. An inexplicable connection forms between the two men across the chasms of class and language. But just as an enduring bond springs up, tragedy intervenes. Gopalan’s son mysteriously dies and his wife’s dementia acquires homicidal overtones. Both men flounder as they try to understand their roles in these seemingly random events that radically transform their lives. In spare unburnished prose, Ashokamitran examines the finite human capacity to deal with pain and sorrow and the need for redemption if life is to go on. And in so doing, he etches a fascinating portrait of the times, with a cast of characters that includes, among others, Pandit Nehru and Meher Baba, the silent mystic. Brilliantly translated from the Tamil original by N. Kalyan Raman, Manasarovar establishes Ashokamitran as one of the most outstanding writers of contemporary Tamil literature.