The Papers Included In This Book Are An Exhaustive Survey Of The Recent Sanskrit Literature And An Extensive Assessment About Its Relevance To The Contemporary Society. Sanskrit Literature Has Been Made Richer, Both In The Form And Content, By The Authors Of The 20Th Century, Who Are Very Much Open And Alive To The Contemporary Developments And Problems And Who Are Enthusiastic About Introducing Innovative Ideas Into Sanskrit Literature In Order To Enrich It Further. It Was Also Admitted That Still Much Is To Be Done To Widen The Field Of Sanskrit And This Can Be Made Possible By The Participation Of More Number Of Sanskrit Scholars. Havings Its Roots Firmly Struck In The Ground The Eternal And Speaking Tree Of Sanskrit Should Blossom New Flavour And Speaking The Fragrance Of Which Will Be Carried To Every Root And Corner Of The Word.

Research papers presented at various seminars.

On the completion of fiftieth year of Sahitya Akademi.

Challenges prevailing conceptions of what religious ritual does and how it achieves its ends. Religious rituals are often seen as unchanging and ahistorical bearers of long-standing traditions. But as this book demonstrates, ritual is a lively platform for social change and innovation in the religions of South Asia. Drawing from Hindu and Jain examples in India, Nepal, and North America,the essays in this volume, written by renowned scholars of religion, explore how the intentional, conscious, and public invention or alteration of ritual can effect dramatic social transformation, whether in dethroning a Nepali king or sanctioning same-sex marriage. Ritual Innovation shows how the very idea of ritual as a conservative force misreads the history of religion by overlooking ritual’s inherent creative potential and its adaptability to new contexts and circumstances. “The breadth of coverage in Ritual Innovation is extraordinary and refreshing in terms of the types of contemporary ritual practices and practitioners receiving attention, not to mention the geographic spread across South Asia. This book makes a significant contribution to the scholarly literature on South Asian religions and contemporary Hinduism.” — Karline McLain, author of The Afterlife of Sai Baba: Competing Visions of a Global Saint

Contributed papers presented at National Seminar on Future of Indology on January 31-February 1, 2000, chiefly on Sanskrit literature.j

Historically, Kashmir was one of the most dynamic and influential centers of Sanskrit learning and literary production in South Asia. In Poetry as Prayer in the Sanskrit Hymns of Kashmir, Hamsa Stainton investigates the close connection between poetry and prayer in South Asia by studying the history of Sanskrit hymns of praise (stotras) in Kashmir. The book provides a broad introduction to the history and general features of the stotra genre, and it charts the course of these literary hymns in Kashmir from the eighth century to the present. In particular, it offers the first major study in any European language of the Stutikusum=añjali, an important work of religious literature dedicated to the god 'Siva and one of the only extant witnesses to the trajectory of Sanskrit literary culture in fourteenth-century Kashmir. The book also contributes to the study of 'Saivism by examining the ways in which 'Saiva poets have integrated the traditions of Sanskrit literature and poetics, theology (especially non-dualism), and 'Saiva worship and devotion. It substantiates the diverse configurations of 'Saiva bhakti expressed and explored in these literary hymns and the challenges they present for standard interpretations of Hindu bhakti. More broadly, this study of stotras from Kashmir offers new perspectives on the history and vitality of prayer in South Asia and its complex relationships to poetry and poetics.