Professor Lal has provided an introduction on the history and aesthetic theory of Sanskrit drama, individual prefaces for each play, a phonetic guide to the pronunciation of the Indian names, and a selective bibliography.

In this highly original study of sexuality, desire, the body, and women, Liz Wilson investigates first-millennium Buddhist notions of spirituality. She argues that despite the marginal role women played in monastic life, they occupied a very conspicuous place in Buddhist hagiographic literature. In narratives used for the edification of Buddhist monks, women's bodies in decay (diseased, dying, and after death) served as a central object for meditation, inspiring spiritual growth through sexual abstention and repulsion in the immediate world. Taking up a set of universal concerns connected with the representation of women, Wilson displays the pervasiveness of androcentrism in Buddhist literature and practice. She also makes persuasive use of recent historical work on the religious lives of women in medieval Christianity, finding common ground in the role of miraculous afflictions. This lively and readable study brings provocative new tools and insights to the study of women in religious life.

Vāsavadattā, a classical Sanskrit romantic tale.

A free-verse translation of Bhasa's Sanskrit play dating back to 400 B. C. Accompanied by directorial notes of Mrinalini Sarabhai, along with line drawings of the mudras or hand gestures essential to the authenticity of expression in Sanskrit plays, with the original and the translation on facing pages.

The 'Brihakatha', or Lord Shiva's narrative to his wife Parvati, is featured in Gunadhya's epic composition 'Katha Sarita Sagara' in Sanskrit. Somadeva's adaptation retains the storyline, with Lord Shiva substituting for Lord Kubera, the God of Wealth. C H Tawney, blending pure Hindu mythology with Buddhist and tantric beliefs, translated the story into English as The Ocean of a Story, which runs 12 volumes and includes footnotes. Shiva's Own Story is a condensed version of Tawney's work. The setting of the stories is India in the 10th and 11th centuries, when the country was composed of many small kingdoms and fiefdoms. There was no dearth of monarchs with dynastic ambitions. The king was usually advised by an intelligent and devoted Brahman minister. The heir apparent, the crown prince, had a circle of friends, mostly sons of the king's ministers, who became part of the cabinet when the prince became king. Intrigue was rife and matrimonial alliances were often a strategy to expand the kingdom. In a country where illiteracy is still formidable, storytelling is a means of promoting and propagating religious and moral culture.

The Present Volume Deals With The First Nine Hundred Years Of The Medieval Period Of Indian Literary History.A History Of Indian Literature Is An Account Of The Literary Activities Of The Indian People Carried Through In Many Languages And Under Different Social Conditions. It Is The Story Of A Multilingual Literature, A Plurality Of Linguistic Expressions And Cultural Experience And Also Of The Remarkable Unity Underlying Them.

This book is a collection of the most beloved stories, teachings and parables attributed to Gautama Buddha, enlightened teacher and sage who lived and taught in the northeastern part of ancient India. Since the narrative of the Buddha’s life was retold across cultures and across times, it is only natural that the facts mingled with various legends and folk stories, thus creating an invaluable source of wisdom that is not only inspirational, but also utterly entertaining.