A lucid account of the history of Jainism The early Jainas were clever communicators. From sensuous poetry to voluptuous sculptures, tales that were both explicit and explorative, and even games, they employed a range of innovative techniques to explain and transmit their teachings. Sudhamahi Regunathan, a former vice-chancellor of the Jain Vishva Bharati University, takes a leaf out of their book as she writes this introduction to Jainism. Using an array of stories and myths, she starts with a historical account of the first twenty-three Tirthankaras as narrated in the Jaina texts and goes on to delve into the philosophy of the religion. The discussions on the tenets that form the bedrock of Jainism are illuminating -- be it anekanta, the belief in the multi-dimensionality of truth; santhara, the controversial practice of voluntarily embracing death; or the interplay between desire and restraint, which is at the heart of Jainism's simple way of life. Regunathan also highlights the contribution of the Jainas to building a common Indian ethos, and throws light on Jainism's many distinctions. It is a little known fact, for instance, that the first nun was initiated into the Jaina order long before the start of the Christian era. Scholarly yet accessible, The Colours of Desire on the Canvas of Restraint hopes to upturn the popular notion that Jainism is a 'dry' religion as it takes its readers into an austere yet colourful world.

The firstborn of a nomadic couple in Tibet, the child had barely learnt to walk when he was identified as the third reincarnation of Doboom Tulku and taken away from his parents. Inheriting a hermitage and a retinue of office-bearers, this child grew up to become a revered Rinpoche in the Gelukpa tradition. 'I want to demystify the life of a monk,' he declares. 'It was like that of any other.' And yet it obviously was not. In 1959 he had to wear his heaviest robes and leave Tibet by night across snow-capped mountains. He describes his entry into India and the camp where he stayed. From having a hermitage at his command with staff to manage his affairs, Doboom Tulku had to live with weekly food supplies in spartan accommodation. With catastrophic change thrust on him, the young monk has to decide on the course of the rest of his life in exile. Told movingly but unsentimentally and with care and humour, Doboom Tulku's life story is also the extraordinary story of Tibetans, especially those from monastic orders, finding their place and purpose in foreign lands.

English painter John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) communicates his aesthetic vision through his use of color. Throughout his career, he experimented with color as an element with seemingly spatial qualities. His works have an unusual formalism--figures and settings often appear not merely realistic but somewhat hyperreal. Yet paradoxically Waterhouse's works border on the abstract, prioritizing chromatic features over content. They invite us to focus on colors--and through them line, shape, texture and rhythm--in much the same way as works by Kandinsky, Klee, Matisse or Pollock.

Motilal Banarsidas (www.mlbd.co.in, [email protected]) Essays in this volume offer fresh insights into Jain principles of Ahimsa and Anekanta by examining their meaning and historical significance and demonstrating their relevance and role in addressing contemporary issues of intolerance, conflict, violence and war. Contributors to this book bring perspectives from the disciplines of philosophy, religious studies, history and art history.

A thorough overview on more than 830 modern artists.

National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry

Related to ideas of the great, the awe-inspiring and the overpowering, the sublime has been debated for centuries amongst writers, artists, philosophers and theorists and has become a complex yet crucial concept in many disciplines. In this thoroughly updated edition, Philip Shaw looks at: Early modern and post-Romantic conceptions of the sublime in two brand new chapters The legacy of the earliest classical theories, through those of the long eighteenth century to modernist, postmodernist and avant-garde conceptions of the sublime Critical Introductions to major theorists of the sublime such as Longinus, Burke, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Derrida, Lyotard, Lacan and Žižek The significance of the concept through a range of literary readings, including the Old and New Testaments, Homer, Milton and writing from the Romantic period to the present day How the concept of the sublime has affected other art forms such as painting and film, from abstract expressionism to David Lynch’s neo-noir The influence of the sublime on recent debates in the fields of politics, theology and psychoanalysis. Offering historical overviews and explanations, this remarkably clear study is essential reading for students of literature, critical and cultural theory.

³There was little danger of encountering the Bennet sisters ever again.² Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice is beloved by millions, but little is revealed in the book about the mysterious and handsome hero, Mr. Darcy. And so the question has long remained: Who is Fitzwilliam Darcy? Pamela Aidan's trilogy finally answers that long-standing question, creating a rich parallel story that follows Darcy as he meets and falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet. Duty and Desire, the second book in the trilogy, covers the "silent time" of Austen's novel, revealing Darcy's private struggle to overcome his attraction to Elizabeth while fulfilling his roles as landlord, master, brother, and friend. When Darcy pays a visit to an old classmate in Oxford in an attempt to shake Elizabeth from his mind, he is set upon by husband-hunting society ladies and ne'er-do-well friends from his university days, all with designs on him -- some for good and some for ill. He and his sartorial genius of a valet, Fletcher, must match wits with them all, but especially with the curious Lady Sylvanie. Irresistibly authentic and entertaining, Duty and Desire remains true to the spirit and events of Pride and Prejudice while incorporating fascinating new characters, and is sure to dazzle Austen fans and newcomers alike.

Arranged alphabetically from Magdalena Abakanowicz to Tadaaki Kuwayama, this volume provides a biography of the artist, a selected list of exhibitions, a list of public collections that include work by the artist, and more.