The concept of hero in Indian culture
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The concept of hero in Indian culture
（South Asian studies, no. 44）
Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2007
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Note
"South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University"--P. facing t.p
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The concept of the hero (vira, sura nayaka) is of crucial importance in Indian civilization, from the Vedic to the present times. The authors of the papers in this volume include scholars of Indology, history, religion, literature, politics and anthropology. They explore the concept of the hero in written and oral sources, in different historical epochs and regions of India, from the Himalayas to the South. Most of the contributions were originally written for a seminar organised by Gunther Dietz-Sontheimer at Heidelberg. He particularly stressed the continuities of the concept of hero in various realms of Indian culture, including folk religion. Strength, courage, fearlessness, self-confidence, righteousness, providing protection, special powers and feats, often a miraculous birth and a premature violent death, self-sacrifice or martyrdom are some of the features that heroes studied in the present volume share.
Papers study 'The Birth of the Hero in Ancient India', including Vedic gods as well as the Jina and the Buddha (Bollee), 'Heroes and Kings' (Jansen), 'Kings as Heroes' in the Sanskrit carita literature (Thapar), and 'Himalayan heroes' (Zoller), as well as heroes in oral folk epics (van Skyhawk, Shankara-narayana),Tarnil folk narrative (Ferro-Luzzi), modern literature (Gatzlaff; Oesterheld) and Sanskrit drama (Byrski). Other papers deal with political leadership (Shelke), with Hanuman as Mahavira (Duncan) and 'From Sacrificer to Hero' (Sakharov). This is an indispensable volume for the scholars of Indian religion and culture.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- A Note on the Birth of the Hero in Ancient India
- The Hero in Sanskrit Drama
- Hanuman Mahavirasvami
- Two Clever Heroes of Tamil Folk Narrative
- Kali -- A Hero between Tradition & Progress
- Hero & King
- The Frustrated Hero
- From Sacrificer to Hero
- The Hero in the Junjappa Epic
- Leadership in Maharashtra during the British Raj
- On Heroes in the Karakoram
- Of Kings as Heroes
- Heroes in the Caritra-Bakhar, Povada & Akhyana of Seventeenth & Eighteenth Century Maharastra
- Himalayan Heroes
- Index.
by "Nielsen BookData"