The Dance of Siva: Religion, Art and Poetry in South India (Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions)

Review

"David Smith has written a wide-ranging study of Siva's Dance of Bliss. Perceptive and scholarly, the work deals not only with the iconography of the Dancing Siva, but with the temple architecture and worship at Cidambaram, the god's major South Indian Temple....an illuminating tour de force." Choice

Product Description

The Dance of Siva is a complete account of Siva's Dance of Bliss, which is based on a remarkable Sanskrit poem written by Umapati Sivacarya about 1300 AD. Siva is one of the two main gods of Hinduism. The book deals with the famous Chola Nataraja bronze--today the best-known Hindu image, the key location of Siva's Dance in South India, and the temple of Cidambaram. Dr. Smith explores all aspects of Nataraja and the Goddess, and the temple, its priests and ritual. Relevant contemporary art from Cidambaram and neighboring sites illuminates the text.

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From the Ocean of Painting: India's Popular Paintings, 1589 to the Present

From Library Journal

Western museums are filled with examples of Indian painting from the Mughal period. But they represent only one facet of Indian art history. This survey, the companion to a traveling exhibition, brings to light neglected living traditions from across the continent. Rossi (painting and drawing, Art Inst. of Chicago) has amassed popular images used in the context of daily life. Many of them have never been appreciated or widely collected outside India. Often these works are devotional, produced in large quantities by individuals from hereditary castes. Whether they are designed for private worship in the home, used as props for professional storytellers, or meant to commemorate a pilgrimage, they have a narrative quality never far removed from Indian spirituality. Rossi is careful to include paintings from the Hindu, Muslim, and Jain traditions as well as local hero-god folklore. The book is informative, well researched, and accessible, and there are few titles available on the subject. Recommended for its thoroughness and balance.?Susan M. Olcott, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Informative, well researched, and accessible."--Library Journal

"This beautiful book offers a look at 400 years of [a] wealth of visual material. "--Hungry Mind Review

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Mahanirvana Tantra

Product Description

THE Indian Tantras, which are numerous, constitute the Scripture (Shastra) of the Kaliyuga, and as such are the voluminous source of present and practical orthodox "Hinduism." The Tantra Shastra is, in fact, and whatever be its historical origin, a development of the Vaidika Karmakanda, promulgated to meet the needs of that age. Shiva says: "For the benefit of men of the Kali age, men bereft of energy and dependent for existence on the food they eat, the Kaula doctrine, O auspicious one! Is given" (Chap. IX., verse 12). To the Tantra we must therefore look if we would understand aright both ritual, yoga, and sadhana of all kinds, as also the general principles of which these practices are but the objective expression. Yet of all the forms of Hindu Shastra, the Tantra is that which is least known and understood, a circumstance in part due to the difficulties of its subject-matter and to the fact that the key to much of its terminology and method rest with the initiate. The present translation is, in fact, the first published in Europe of any Indian Tantra.

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