Sarja is a 11years old, sad, and angry boy. At 11, he looks big and strong for his age. His kind mother, Geeta is a rural Indian archetype: the overworked, stressed-out, barely-keeping-it-together single mother. His father is in prison for multiple robbery cases. The villagers are cold and overbearing, and his schooldays are made hellish by bullies. If this wasn’t enough, he has nightmares and uncanny callings from an age-old monstrous peepal tree that stands ominously on his way to school. The legend is that a monster called Brahma Rakshas, living under this tree, for years unknown to people, lures kids with the black devil fruits and then makes them wrestle until one dies. And, one stormy night, the legend comes true when Sarja meets the Brahma Rakshas. Set in a fictional village of Deogiri, a small haven of human civilization, away from the din of city life, thiss story is a coming-of-age story of a young boy who goes on an adventure ride filled with riddles and monster wrestling.

Cold War Genres explores post-independence Hindi literature, framing it within the sociopolitical backdrop of Nehruvian India during the early Cold War. The book underscores the pivotal role of Hindi's claims to be a national language following independence, which fostered a unique moment of literary innovation. Central to its narrative is the work of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh, a pivotal figure in modern South Asian literature. Using Muktibodh's poetry, criticism, and fiction as a primary example, the book shows how literary form shapes a response to the internal contradictions of 1950s India, one that must be read in light of both the antinomies of Hindi literature and North India as well as the aesthetic debates and emerging ideas of global space during this time. Cold War Genres therefore functions as a lens to evaluate questions of genre and form shared by a range of literary cultures in the mid-twentieth-century decolonizing world. This book features extensive translations from Muktibodh's poetry and prose, including full translations of two poems "Brahmarākṣas" (The Brahman Demon) and "Aṃdhere meṃ" (In the Dark).

A beautifully realized synthesis of the ancient tradition of Advaita Vedanta and Tantra.

It happened Under a Tamarind Tree! An entire Family that lived, loved, and was wiped out by a single dreaded disease! An Old House that tells its own stories, in its own unique style! A ‘Curse’ that wields power over generations! A young woman who visits her Ancestral home, looking for answers to the questions left behind by her mother. Does she find them? Are certain questions better left, unasked?

The book has 6 chapters dealing with Ramanuja's birth in 1017 AD in Sriperumputhoor near Kancheepuram in Tamilnadu, his early years, his arrival in Srirangam, his multifaceted and ceaseless activity to streamline the affairs and worship of the Srirangam temple, his authoring of Sreebhashyam, a commentary to the Brahma Sutra of Sage Vyasa, his enunciation of the Visishtadvaitha School of Philosophy, his pilgrimage all over India, his flight to Tirunarayanapuram near Melkote in Karnataka to escape from the murderous attempt by the ruling Chola king, his consecration of the Panchanarayana Kshetras in Karnataka during his stay in Tirunarayanapuram and his acceptance into the community of Vaishnavas a. A large number of people were not allowed to enter and worship in Vaishnavite temples. The book also covers his return to Srirangam after the death of the Chola king and his establishment of 74 Simhasanadhipathis to continue his work after his passing away at the end of 120 tumultuous years. A translation of Vedanta Desikan's Yatiraja Sapthathi into English prose is an additional attractive feature of this book.

India is a treasure-trove of folktales born out of the customs and traditions of the country. Sometimes these tales are retold in its different regions, while imparting the local flavour to them. The mobility of the folktales can be attributed to the pilgrims and travellers journeying from one part of the country to another. They rested at night in dharamsalas or inns, often attached to temples, where they mingled among themselves and with the local people. More often than not, folktales are passed on from grandmother to grandchildren so vividly that they are impressed in the listener's memory forever. They are delightful and fascinating to the young as well as the old. The same story even when heard repeatedly does not lose its interest as it appeals to the fantasies, the make-beliefs and the primitiveness in us. These beautiful folktales of India were on the verge of extinction when a project of compilation of 21 volumes consisting of folktales of different regions was launched by Sterling. These folktales have been gleaned from the larger collection.

The following book is a collection of folklore from South India. In the words of the editor, the stories are characterized by: "...craft and cunning are more generally rewarded than virtue, and stupidity condemned." Titles featured include 'The Story of the Three Deaf Man', 'The Soothsayer's Son', and 'Mr. Won't Give and Mr. Won't Leave'.

This book examines depression as a widely diagnosed and treated common mental disorder in India and offers a significant ethnographic study of the application of a traditional Indian medical system (Ayurveda) to the very modern problem of depression. Based on over a year of fieldwork, it investigates the Ayurvedic response to the burden of depression in the Indian state of Kerala as one of the key processes of the local appropriation or glocalization of depression. More broadly, Lang considers: What happens with the category of depression when it leaves the West and travels to South Asia? How is depression appropriated in a South Asian society characterized by medical pluralism? She explores on the level of ideas, institutions and materialities how depression interacts with and changes local worlds, clinical practice and knowledge and subjectivities. As depression travels from ‘the West’ to South India, its ontology, Lang argues, multiplies and thus leads to what she calls ‘depression multiple’.