Shanti Lal Nagar
42 books
Though the scholars in the country have tried to trace the genesis of the Ramayana from the Vedic and post-Vedic literature, with the fragments of the story of Rama found scattered in these texts, but the most important job in the composition of the story of Rama was done by the sage Valmiki, who happened to be the foremost of the Indian Sanskrit poets. He composed the work on the basis of the brief of Rama’s story provided to him by the sage Narada, as ...
The Ramayana or the story of Rama, has been dominating the Indian religious scene from the time immemorial. Before composition of the work of poetic excellence by the sage Valmiki, who is considered to be the pioneer of the same, the story was available in fragments in different parts of the country. Though the sage Valmiki was inspired by the sage Narada for composing the Ramayana but Valmiki had to collect several fragments of the story from various regions of ...
Ever since the creation of the universe, the sun has been illumining it and has impressed not only the human race but also all other creatures. His name occurs in the records of the Kassites and Mitanni but in the Indian context, he enjoys an important position in the Vedic as well as the post-Vedic literature. In the epics some of the others claimed their origin to the Sun. The Buddhist and Jain literature too provided him an important place in their respective ...
India is the holy land of several gods and goddesses, who had been dominating the Indian religious scene, ever since the dawn of the civilization on earth. Some of them disappeared from the Indian religious horizon as rapidly as they had mushroomed, while others faded out of human memory in due course of time. But still there had been certain deities, who remained relevant from the earliest times to the present day facing all the natural, climatic, religious, ...
The great Saga Vyasa – the writer of the epic of Mahabharata and the Puranas was an eminent writer of his times, the parallel of whom is difficult to be found in the religious history of India. Inspite of his composing his epic of Mahabharata comprising of a lac of verses, it is believe that he still felt, dissatisfied and intended to create further literature. With this end in view he composed the Harivamsa which is believe to be an appendix to the great ...
Ever since the dawn of civilization on earth, India has been known as the sacred land or a Punya country, who had been dominating the Indian religious thought from the time immemorial. These seers were revered by the people irrespective of the caster or creed. Such saints and seers have live in the public memory for centuries together and are being revered during the modern times.Rev. Sai Baba happens to be one holy seer, who having once been patronized by the ...
The Genesis of the Buddhist art in India, is traceable in the stone art of Bharhut dating back to the second century B.C. followed by the art of the Buddhist stupa at Sanchi (1st century B.C.) the Art of Mathura and Amaravati dating back to a century or two later. Numerous stone artefacts relating to the life of the Buddha were discovered from these sites. The early tradition of the Buddhist art and Bharhut and Sanchi does not project Buddha in human form. He is ...
Jainism has to its credit a large number of religious treatises enshrining besides the other religious practices, the lives and teachings of the Tirthankaras, twenty-four in number, besides other minor deities. The iconography of these Jaina deities, some of which owe their origin to the Brahmanical faith is quite complex in nature. The iconography of these deities has been discussed at length, correlating it with the development of Jaina sculptural art from the ...
Soon after the dawn of Jainism on Indian sub-continent, which happens to be its cradle-land, the image worship was introduced in the faith. These articles of the religious faith were established in many of the Jaina shrines in the country. But consequent to the onslaught of the foreign invaders, several of the religious edifices had been destroyed and the vandalism of the sculptural art became quite rampant. The artefects that could be saved from vandals were ...
The boar, a wild animal of considerable strength and speed, has been known the world over from the time immemorial, as evidenced from the ancient texts as well as archaeological sources. Initially it was a hunting animal possibly meant for human consumption, but gradually it entered the contemporary religious thought in various countries of the globe. The Indian evidence portraying reverence to the animal is comparatively later than that of the other countries of ...
The science of Botany is associated with mankind ever since the advent of the human race in the universe. The early Indian texts go further and claim that botanical species emerged on earth three (yugas) ages earlier than the emergence of man on earth. This statement has a veiled suggestion to the fact that vegetation or plant life is an inescapable part of human life. Soon man, who had been surrounded by the plant-life around him, discovered the various usages ...
Ever since the composing of Ramayana by Valmiki, the story was adopted by subsequent writers/poets of Sanskrit as well as the regional languages in the country. This work is the English translation of the Ramavataracarita originally composed in Kashmiri language, which is sure to appeal the readers.
Of the various Ramayana works which came up after the Valmiki Ramayana, the Adbhut Ramayana happens to be one of them. The work is also attributed to the Sage Valmiki and contains twenty seven cantos as a sequel to the Ramayana and portrays the earlier part of the story, highlighting the real nature of Sita, who also appears in the terrific form having killed that Ravana, who had a thousand heads, whom Rama was unable to kill. This work presents the text of the ...
Ever since the dawn of civilization in the country, several deities emerged on the Indian religious scene; while some of them vanished into oblivion as suddenly as they had mushroomed, some of them left an indelible impression in the minds of the people and are adored in one form or the other even during the modern times. Hanuman happens to be one such deity. Though scholars have tried to trace the presence of Hanuman in the Vedic literature in the form of ...
Ever since the dawn of civilization on earth several Gods and Goddesses had been dominating over the Indian religious horizon from time to time in the past. While some of them faded out in oblivion after the short period, there were others who dominated the Indian religious scene and the minds of the people for a long time. But still there were certain divinities, claiming sometimes their origin from the Vedic age continued to dominate the minds of the people for ...
India is the land of religion, and several deities had been dominating over the Indian religious horizon fro the time immemorial. While some of them disappeared as rapidly as they mushroomed over the Indian religious scene, some of them went into oblivion with the passage of time but some of them established their so strong a foot-hold that their popularity went on increasing with the passage of time. Krsna happens to be one of them. He is considered to be the ...
India is the country predominantly having the religious background and several deities have influenced the people from the time immemorial. Some of them, having the remote origin dominated the Indian religious scene for sometime, while some of them continued their influence over the contemporary society for a limited period and were rejected by the society or made them to disappear as rapidly as they had mushroomed over the Indian religious horizon. Still there ...
The story of Rama has been dominating the Indian religious scene from the time immemorial. Though the scholars have tried to trace out the genesis of the story in fragments from the Vedic literature, but it goes to the credit of the Adikavi Valmiki to compose the theme in the form of a definite story of poetic excellence. With the composition of the work of Valmiki, its popularity went on increasing. Not only the same was played in audio-visual or performing ...
Several deities have been dominating the Indian religious scene from time immemorial. While some of them were in animal forms like tortoise, fish and others, some of them appeared in human forms, like Vamana, Parasurama, Rama and Krsna. Still others came to be adored in composite forms like Varaha (boar), Narasimha, etc. Hanuman had been one of them who could be placed in animal as well as the composite. In the former case he has been claimed in several texts to ...
In the religious history of India, the worship pf Sakti or the following of the Tantric have their own importance. The Yoginis are adored as a form of Sakti-Kaula worship in the country. The females who achieve the divine spiritual knowledge with the following of the Yogic practices are called the yoginis. Besides the Yoginis, several other centres of Sakti-worship known as Saktipitha have been mentioned in the Puranas, some of which give their number as 108 or ...