Made into a powerful, award-winning film in 1970, this important Kannada novel of the sixties has received widespread acclaim from both critics and general readers since its first publication in 1965. As a religious novel about a decaying brahmin colony in the south Indian village of Karnataka, Samskara serves as an allegory rich in realistic detail, a contemporary reworking of ancient Hindu themes and myths, and a serious, poetic study of a religious man living in a community of priests gone to seed. A death which stands as the central event in the plot brings in its wake a plague, many more deaths, live questions with only dead answers, moral chaos, and the rebirth of one man. The volume provides a useful glossary of Hindu myths, customs, Indian names, flora, and other terms. Notes and an afterword enhance the self-contained, faithful, and yet readable translation.

This book treats two representative Hindu rituals of contemporary India, Puja (offering service) and Samskara (initiation rituals at important occasions of life). Samskara rites are performed at significant junctures of an individual`s life, from birth to death, by the individual`s family. Puja rites, rather than being performed in relation to the life cycle of an individual in a family, are more deeply related to the annual rituals of the cult to which an individual or the person`s family belongs. Persons may go to a temple and request priests to perform puja rites, or they may perform them themselves at home. For people living in India, Puja and Samskara are not at all uncommon. Puja rites are performed everywhere-at temples, in private homes, on street corners-and although in recent times families observing all the traditional Samskara rites have declined in number, almost all Hindu families still perform the major Samskaras. it is difficult, however, for those living outside India to know how these rites are performed. Hence, this book presents a large number of photographs that enable readers to gain an accurate grasp of them and indicates the place of ritual in the total structure of religion.

Samskara is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of modern world literature, a book to set beside Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North. Taking its name from a Sanskrit word that means “rite of passage” but also “moment of recognition,” it begins when Naranappa, an inhabitant of a small south Indian town and a renegade Brahmin who has scandalously flouted the rules of caste and purity for years, eating meat, drinking alcohol, marrying beneath him, mocking God, unexpectedly falls ill and dies. The question of whether he should be buried as a Brahmin divides the other Brahmins in the village. For an answer they turn to Praneshacharyah, the most devout and respected member of their community, an ascetic who also tends religiously to his invalid wife. Praneshacharyah finds himself unable to provide the answer, though an answer is urgently needed since as he wonders and the villagers wait and the body festers, more and more people are falling sick and dying. But when Praneshacharyah goes to the temple to seek a sign from God, he discovers something else entirely—unless that something else is also God. Samskara is a tale of existential suspense, a life-and-death encounter between the sacred and the profane, the pure and the impure, the ascetic and the erotic.

Ceremonial rites and rituals occupy a place of utmost importance in the life of a devout Hindu. In fact, there are no vital actions- brith, initiation, marriage, death etc- which can be allowed to be performed without its appropriate rite or samskara. The number of samskaras has been fluctuating but was finally fixed at sixteen. Marriage is the most important and elaborate out of these sixteen samskaras. Manu enjoins that rituals should be performed in the case of virgin for legalizing the marriage, legitimatizing children and avoiding public scandal. The mantras used in the nuptial rites being in Sanskrit are beyond the comprehension of not only the average Hindu but even the common priests entrusted with the duty of conducting the rituals. To overcome this difficulty the present book was originally prepared in Hindu and is now translated into English with the mantras etc. Romanized for the benefit of those who do not have adequate knowledge of Hindi, for example especially those whose forefathers had migrated to remote countries during the last one hundred years or so.

Samskars make living easier, better and fuller, if performed as they should, with right earnestness. Lord Sri Krishna declared in the Gita: “That person easily succeeds in both the physical and spiritual realms (worlds) whose Samskars have been duly completed and that has achieved control over senses. The book 16 Hindu Samskars incorporates all the Samskars that make a person refined and cultured, to grow from inside and to enable one to lead a pious, complete, healthy, happy, pleasant and prosperous life. If all the Samskars are performed and the patterns and rules obeyed then life of a person would be worth living, blissful, and pure enough to get bliss and salvation, and that person would be a worthy citizen able to make the earth a better place for all living beings and to ensure continuity of life. Read 16 Hindu Samskars, learn about them and be Samskari.

Science in Religious Samskaras is a Book where the Science Behind Rituals are Explained in a very Simple and on Scientific Basis, it is a Literary Work which will bring Cultural Awareness Among People, It will help the upcoming Generations live in Sound Society. Samskaras Carry an individual towards Perfection. They cause Significant changes in the lifestyle of a man, whether or not he is aware of it. They also help shape the Personality Making the Individual Better. when a Human Being subjected to Samskaras from He / She is in the womb, will turn out to be a perfect human Being. This Book contains with interpretations and Explanations of Sacramental factors from birth to Death will carry the reader towards profound Knowledge. ​​​​​​​This Book has been Written after Scrutinizing all manuscripts that had not seen the light Earlier, in old research Institutes and libraries. ​​​​​​​This Books Explains the type of Samskaras and why we need them.

Sanskrit Non-Translatables is a path-breaking and audacious attempt at Sanskritizing the English language and enriching it with powerful Sanskrit words. It continues the original and innovative idea of nontranslatability of Sanskrit, first introduced in the book, Being Different. For English readers, this should be the starting point of the movement to resist the digestion of Sanskrit into English, by introducing loanwords into their English vocabulary without translation. The book presents a thorough mechanism of the process of digestion and examines the loss of adhikara for Sanskrit because of translating its core ideas into English. The movement launched by this book will resist this and stop the programs that seek to turn Sanskrit into a dead language by translating all its treasures to render it redundant. It discusses fifty-four non-translatables across various genres that are being commonly mistranslated. It empowers English speakers with the knowledge and arguments to introduce these Sanskrit words into their daily speech with confidence. Every lover of India’s sanskriti will benefit from the book and become a cultural ambassador propagating it through routine communications.

Bereavement and Final Rites in Hindu Tradition. Religious ceremonies during mourning period. Vedic insights into Life, death and God in Hinduism.

Spanning the gamut from "Aaron" to "Zwingli," this dictionary includes nearly 3,000 entries written by about sixty authors, all of whom are specialists in their various theological and religious disciplines. The editors have designed the dictionary especially to aid the introductory-level student with instant access to definitions of terms likely to be encountered in, but not to substitute for, classroom presentations or reading assignments. - Publisher.