by Ruchira Paul
Travelers to India came from all corners of the world through the ages for different reasons. The very first modern humans probably came there in order to escape harsh climate conditions elsewhere in the world. Latter day visitors arrived with varied objectives in mind. Some came seeking material fortune, some for spiritual enlightenment and others merely out of curiosity. A few who came, took what they wanted and left. Others came to conquer and decided to stay and make India their home. Then there were mercenary visitors who looked at India as a vast revenues source for enriching themselves and their own native lands while also seeing an opportunity to instill their religious and “civilizing” values on a foreign nation. They too decided to stay but never thought of India as home. India still attracts visitors from across the world. Most come as tourists to check out its numerous and varied natural and historical vistas (there is always the Taj Mahal). Some may
Alberuni s Impressions of Brahminical Society in India
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This book visits the sites of India’s civilisations to reimagine 4,000 years of history
Namit Arora combines the evidence gleaned from travel and research to draw informed conclusions in ‘Indians: A Brief History of a Civilisation’. 6 hours ago Clockwise from top left: Historical sites at Dholavira, Nagarjunakonda, Hampi, and Patliputra. | Dholavira: Rahul Zota / CC BY-SA 4.0; Nagarjunakonda: Sabyk2001 / CC BY-SA 3.0; Hampi: Hawinprinto / CC BY-SA 4.0; Patliputra Manoj / Public Domain
The book
Indians: A Brief History of a Civilisation offers an unusual saunter through more than 4,000 years of India’s history. The milestones on the journey on which Namit Arora takes us are wondrous yet oft-ignored locales including Dholavira, Pataliputra, Nagarjunakonda, Nalanda, Khajuraho, Hampi and Varanasi.
Unveiling worldview of early Indians & what disappeared
By IANS |
Published on
Mon, Mar 1 2021 11:42 IST |
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Unveiling a worldview of early Indians - and what has disappeared.. Image Source: IANS News
New Delhi, March 1 : Here is an original, riveting and extensively researched social and cultural history of India. Namit Arora s A brief History of a Civilization (Penguin) takes the reader through nearly 5,000 years of India s history, revealing the worldview of early Indians at various times and what of it lives on and what has disappeared among modern Indians.
What do we really know about the Aryan migration theory and why is that debate so hot? Why did the people of Khajuraho carve erotic scenes on their temple walls? What did the monks at Nalanda eat for dinner? Did our ideals of beauty ever prefer dark skin?
What the ruins of the original Nalanda university tell us about an old civilisation of India
An excerpt from ‘Indians: A Brief History of a Civilisation’, by Namit Arora. The ruins of the ancient Nalanda University. | Mrityunjay.nalanda / CC BY-SA 3.0
Our knowledge of Nalanda comes from three kinds of primary sources: archaeology, epigraphy (the study of inscriptions) and texts that survived in foreign lands after Buddhism and its texts disappeared from India by the mid-second millennium. Our chief sources for Nalanda are the writings of Xuanzang and Yijing, who spent two to three and ten years there, respectively. They’ve left us a portrait of its life in the seventh century, including its physical spaces, practices and rhythms of daily life, finances, curriculum and other features of its monastic community.
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