Topic
Kamashastra
About: Kamashastra is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 16 publications have been published within this topic receiving 185 citations. The topic is also known as: kāṃaśāstra.
Papers
TL;DR: In the age of Hindu identity politics (Hindutva) inaugurated in the 1990s by the ascendancy of the Indian People's Party (Bharatiya Janata Party) and its ideological auxiliary, the World Hindu Council (Vishwa Hindu Parishad), Indian cultural and religious nationalism has been promulgating ever more distorted images of India's past as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: “Toutes les civilisations sont mortelles” (Paul Valery) In the age of Hindu identity politics (Hindutva) inaugurated in the 1990s by the ascendancy of the Indian People’s Party (Bharatiya Janata Party) and its ideological auxiliary, the World Hindu Council (Vishwa Hindu Parishad), Indian cultural and religious nationalism has been promulgating ever more distorted images of India’s past. Few things are as central to this revisionism as Sanskrit, the dominant culture language of precolonial southern Asia outside the Persianate order. Hindutva propagandists have sought to show, for example, that Sanskrit was indigenous to India, and they purport to decipher Indus Valley seals to prove its presence two millennia before it actually came into existence. In a farcical repetition of Romantic myths of primevality, Sanskrit is considered—according to the characteristic hyperbole of the VHP—the source and sole preserver of world culture. The state’s anxiety both about Sanskrit’s role in shaping the historical identity of the Hindu nation and about its contemporary vitality has manifested itself in substantial new funding for Sanskrit education, and in the declaration of 1999 ‐2000 as the “Year of Sanskrit,” with plans for conversation camps, debate and essay competitions, drama festivals, and the like. 1 This anxiety has a longer and rather melancholy history in independent India, far antedating the rise of the BJP. Sanskrit was introduced into the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India (1949) as a recognized language of the new State of India, ensuring it all the benefits accorded the other fourteen (now seventeen) spoken languages listed. This status largely meant funding for Sanskrit colleges and universities, and for a national organization to stimulate the study of the language. With few exceptions, however, the Sanskrit pedagogy and scholarship at these institutions have shown a precipitous decline from preIndependence quality and standards, almost in inverse proportion to the amount of funding they receive. Sanskrit literature has fared no better. From the time of its founding in 1955, the Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters) has awarded prizes in Sanskrit literature as one of the twenty-two officially acknowledged literary languages. But the first five of these awards were given for
108 citations
Book•
3 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an effective rendering of the original Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, stressing on the art of statecraft and wealth generation, and putting down the doctrine that a king must practice in his personal life, and while discharging his official duties in order to be an effective ruler.
Abstract: It explains the practice of trade and commerce in the Mauryan era, where a monarch was the apex of administration. The Arthashastra was one of the earliest books on the subject of political economy, and explained the art of creating and preserving wealth and other such economic concepts. The ancient book not only holds the views of Chanakya, but also the ideas and thoughts of the learned men of that time. The book also talks about leadership, and puts down the doctrine that a king must practice in his personal life, and while discharging his official duties in order to be an effective ruler. In Arthashastra: The Science of Wealth, the author provides an effective rendering of the original work, stressing on the art of statecraft and wealth generation.
20 citations
TL;DR: In contrast to the received view of Sanskrit as being a ritual language par excellence, opposed at every step to the domestic sphere and everyday life, Sanskrit revivalists treat Sanskrit as a mother tongue, figuring the home as the primary site for the creation of an "everyday Sanskrit" world and the mother as a primary agent of this process of Sanskritizing the domestic spheres.
Abstract: This paper examines the ways in which Sanskrit revivalists in contemporary India imagine social contexts for the production and reproduction of Sanskrit speech. In contrast to the received view of Sanskrit as being a ritual language par excellence, opposed at every step to the domestic sphere and everyday life, Sanskrit revivalists treat Sanskrit as a “mother tongue,” figuring the home as the primary site for the creation of an “everyday Sanskrit” world and the mother as the primary agent of this process of Sanskritizing the domestic sphere. “Domesticating Sanskrit,” the process of bringing the elevated ritual language down into everyday life, at the very same time “Sanskritizes the domestic,” that is, ritually transforms or elevates the home into a “Sanskrit home.” Moving outward from the Sanskritized domestic sphere, activists also imagine other contexts in which one could use Sanskrit, which nonetheless conforms to a notion of a Sanskrit interiority or domesticity. [India, Sanskrit, language revival, mother tongue, middle class, ritual]
19 citations
Book•
1 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this article, Shonaleeka Kaul examines nearly a thousand years of Sanskrit kavyas to see what India's early historic cities were like as living, lived-in entities, and discovers that they were vibrant and teeming with variety and life.
Abstract: In "Imagining the Urban", Shonaleeka Kaul turns to Sanskrit literature to discover the characteristics - both physical and social - of ancient Indian cities. Kaul examines nearly a thousand years of Sanskrit kavyas to see what India's early historic cities were like as living, lived-in entities, and discovers that they were vibrant and teeming with variety and life. As much about Sanskrit literature as about urban spaces - insofar as that literature reveals significant aspects of the Indian urban past - "Imagining the Urban" shows that Sanskrit literature is a rich source for historical understanding. Advocating the kavyas as an important historical source, Kaul provides a fresh view of the early city and shows distinctive ways of thought and behavior that relate to tradition, morality, and authority. With its provocative new questions about early Indian cities and ancient Indian texts, this book will be an essential read for scholars of urban history, Sanskrit writings, and South Asian antiquity.
13 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2014 | 2 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2012 | 2 |
| 2010 | 2 |
| 2008 | 1 |