Organized Naga military activity originally flourished under state patronage. During the latter half of the sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth century, a number of bands of fighting ascetics formed into akharas with sectarian names and identities. The Dasnami Sannyasis constitute perhaps the most powerful monastic order which has played an important part in the history of India. The cult of the naked Nagas has a long history. The present volume aims to explore new findings which are available in various archives and repositories in order to fill up the lacuna in Jadunath Sarkar’s work on the subject as elaborated in the present introduction. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

There was complete darkness in the room. Rumi and Shekhar shuddered on seeing the sadhus with ash on their bodies and matted hair engaged in silent meditation. The desire to know about Naga sadhus had drawn them there. Some sadhus were meditating; some were chanting loudly, some seemed to be doing silent meditation. Those sadhus were doing penance in the bone-chilling cold in the snowy solitude. Long matted hair was wrapped around their heads. The face was rough; the whole existence was covered with flames of anger - unperturbed, neutral and free from worldly troubles. One would think twice before stepping into this lonely world, but those who have passion, courage to do something, what fear do they have? The life of Shiva devotees and armed Naga Sadhus was no less than an unsolved mystery for them. They are seen in thousands in Kumbh and then suddenly disappear. Who are Naga Sadhus, how is their life and why are they called Dharmarakshak warriors - know all this in this interesting and completely new style novel.

Madhu Natisar Nath is a Rajasthani farmer with no formal schooling. He is also a singer, a musician, and a storyteller. At the center of A Carnival of Parting are Madhu Nath's oral performances of two linked tales about the legendary Indian kings, Bharthari of Ujjain and Gopi Chand of Bengal. Both characters, while still in their prime, leave thrones and families to be initiated as yogis—a process rich in adventure and melodrama, one that offers unique insights into popular Hinduism's view of world renunciation. Ann Grodzins Gold presents these living oral epic traditions as flowing narratives, transmitting to Western readers the pleasures, moods, and interactive dimensions of a village bard's performance. Three introductory chapters and an interpretive afterword, together with an appendix on the bard's language by linguist David Magier, supply A Carnival of Parting with a full range of ethnographic, historical, and cultural backgrounds. Gold gives a frank and engaging portrayal of the bard Madhu Nath and her work with him. The tales are most profoundly concerned, Gold argues, with human rather than divine realities. In a compelling afterword, she highlights their thematic emphases on politics, love, and death. Madhu Nath's vital colloquial telling of Gopi Chand and Bharthari's stories depicts renunciation as inevitable and interpersonal attachments as doomed, yet celebrates human existence as a "carnival of parting."

This 2006 book is an innovative study of warrior asceticism in India from the 1500s to the present.

History Men is the story of the intersecting lives of three deeply committed historians: Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870-1958), who was an expert on the Mughal period; G.S. Sardesai (1865-1959), whose works were on the Marathas; and Raghubir Sinh (1908-1991), who studied the Rajputs. How the three became close friends and joint workers; how they wrote about the great confrontations between the Mughals, Rajputs and Marathas; how their long association exposed continuing conflicts of interpretation and explanation; and how, together, they illuminated a historical moment make for a story worth telling.A narrative built from original research based on the correspondence and the published and unpublished writings of the three scholars, this is also a portrait of rich friendships, of the minutiae of the lives of these historians, and their fierce commitment to historical research as they addressed the significant questions of the age they lived in. Anyone who is interested in the making of historical narratives will find History Men a compelling read.

This Pioneering Biography Interprets Dayanand In His Time As An Integral Part Of The Vigorouns Atmosphere Of 19Th Century India, Influencing The Ideas Of His Age And Being Influenced By Them.

_______________ 'Splendid and fascinating ... Teltscher has made remarkable use of her source material, aided by the constantly perceptive and witty tone of Bogle's own writings' - Patrick French, Sunday Times 'It is hard to imagine this fascinating story being told with greater sensitivity or skill' - Sunday Telegraph 'Teltscher is a remarkable new historian ... wholly original' - William Dalrymple 'Thrilling and fascinating ... Letters, journals and documents are woven into the flowing narrative, which is wonderfully vivid and evocative' - Jenny Uglow _______________ An unlikely meeting between a young Scotsman and the Panchen Lama gives birth to a remarkable friendship In 1774 British traders longed to open relations with China so they sent a young Scotsman, George Bogle, as an envoy to Tibet. Bogle became smitten by what he saw there, and struck up a remarkable friendship with the Panchen Lama. This gripping book tells the story of their two extraordinary journeys across some of the harshest and highest terrain in the world: Bogle's mission, and the Panchen Lama's state visit to China, on which British hopes were hung. Piecing together extracts from Bogle's private papers, Tibetan biographies of the Panchen Lama, the account of a wandering Hindu monk and the writings of the Emperor himself, Kate Teltscher deftly reconstructs the momentous meeting of these very different worlds.