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This compilation of original research articles highlight the important cross-regional, cross-chronological, and comparative approaches to political and economic landscapes in ancient South Asia and its neighbors. Focusing on the Indus Valley period and Iron Age India, this volume incorporates new research in South Asia within the broader universe of archaeological scholarship. Contributions focus on four major themes: reinterpreting material culture; identifying domains and regional boundaries; articulating complexity; and modeling interregional interaction. These studies develop theoretical models that may be applicable researchers studying cultural complexity elsewhere in the world.
This book represents a comprehensive study of 'The Bejewelled Buddha' considering stylistic as well as iconographic issues. A crucial moment in the Buddha's life seems to have been referred to through this image, namely, the sojourn on Mount Meru, where the Buddha sat on Indra's seat and taught all the gods. By occupying the seat of the king of the gods he was able to endorse the royal function of this deity; this becomes particularly evident in the late fifth century, and probably reflects the dramatic situation that the Buddhist community was confronted with, i.e. the political power essentially fostering the Hindu religion and social structure. Hence, the Buddha is depicted as a perfect a...
In Revelation in the Qur’an Simon P. Loynes presents a semantic study of the Arabic roots n-z-l and w-ḥ-y in order to elucidate the modalities of revelation in the Qur’an. Through an exhaustive analysis of their occurrences in the Qur’an, and with reference to pre-Islamic poetry, Loynes argues that the two roots represent distinct occurrences, with the former concerned with spatial events and the latter with communicative. This has significant consequences for understanding the Qur’an’s unique concept of revelation and how this is both in concord and at variance with earlier religious traditions.
John Cort explores the narratives by which the Jains have explained the presence of icons of Jinas (their enlightened and liberated teachers) that are worshiped and venerated in the hundreds of thousands of Jain temples throughout India. Most of these narratives portray icons favorably, and so justify their existence; but there are also narratives originating among iconoclastic Jain communities that see the existence of temple icons as a sign of decay and corruption. The veneration of Jina icons is one of the most widespread of all Jain ritual practices. Nearly every Jain community in India has one or more elaborate temples, and as the Jains become a global community there are now dozens of ...
In the book titled Birth of the State, readers learn what researchers nowadays think about the rise and stabilization of the oldest statehood in the original civilization centres of the Old World - Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China. The scholar takes them through essential economic, political and spiritual changes caused in those societies by the rise and stabilization of the first states. The overviews are completed with a comprehensive view of the entire theme, attempting to provide a balanced view of the rise of the oldest states not only as a question of economy, politics or power, but also as exceeding the basic threshold in the spiritual sphere. The book allows the very founders and cultivators of the oldest state units to speak: in the moments when their work seemed to be on the verge of total collapse, they spoke to their contemporaries urging them to defend the ideals that formed the basis of their civilizations. The book is intended for university students as well as others interested in the rise and development of the oldest states of the humankind.
Interdisciplinary in approach, this volume explores and deciphers the symbolic value and iconicity of the built environment in the Arab Gulf Region, its aesthetics, language and performative characteristics. Bringing together a range of studies by artists, curators and scholars, it demonstrates how Dubai appeared - at least until the financial crisis - to be leading the construction race and has already completed a large number of its landmark architecture and strategic facilities. In contrast, cities like the Qatari capital Doha still appear to be heavily ’under construction’ and in countries like the Sultanate of Oman, ultra-luxury tourism projects were started only recently. While the...
In this pioneering book, Asko Parpola traces the Indo-Iranian speakers from the Aryan homeland north of the Black Sea through the Eurasian steppes to Central, West and South Asia, presenting new ideas on the origin and formation of the Vedic literature and rites, and the great Hindu epics.