| Weight | 0.85 kg |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 0297829831 |
| Format | |
| Publication Date | 2000 |
| Pages | 484 |
| Author | |
| Publisher | |
| Language |
GEM IN THE LOTUS
THE SEEDING OF INDIAN CIVILISATION
₨ 1,570
Out of stock
₨ 1,570
Out of stock
| Weight | 0.85 kg |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 0297829831 |
| Format | |
| Publication Date | 2000 |
| Pages | 484 |
| Author | |
| Publisher | |
| Language |
This authoritative work sheds light on the religious world of the Kalasha people of the Birir valley of the Pakistani district of Chitral, focusing on their winter feasts which culminate in a great winter solstice festival. The Kalasha represent the last example of the pre-Islamic cultures of the Hindu Kush/Karakorum, but are also the only observable example, worldwide, of an archaic Indo-European religion. Cacopardo addresses the historical and cultural context of the area and, referencing an array of relevant literature, offers comparisons with the Indian world and the religious folklore of Europe. Interdisciplinary and based on extensive field research, Pagan Christmas is the first extended ethnographic study devoted to this little known Kalasha community and represents a standard international reference source on the anthropology, ethnography and history of religions of Pakistan and Central South Asia. Augusto S. Cacopardo has conducted anthropological research in Pakistan under the aegis of the Institute Italianoper l’Africa e l’Oriente and is Professor of Ethnography at the University of Florence. His publications include the monograph Gates of Perstian: History, Religion and Society in the Hindu Kush (2001), co-authored with his brother Alberto M.
Cacopardo.
This remarkable record of Marcel Kurpershoek expedition and encounters in the Saudi Arabian desert in the late 1980s details his search for the living chronicle of Saudi Arabia—the oral poetry of the Bedouins. In the vast desert, Kurpershoek discovered poets who composed verses celebrating bravery and feats of arms, especially those of the poet ad-Dindan—proof of the authenticity of the pre-Islamic tradition in Arabian oral poetry. Part travelogue, and part book of poems, this book offers valuable insight into contemporary and traditional Saudi society.
A lot of excellent research exists in the West on the roots of the Indo – European group of languages. But no attempt has been made in Urdu and Persian to compile etymologies. However, Sanskrit dictionaries, like Arabic ones, are based on roots.
Therefore it is possible in some cases to relate Western Indo-European roots to Sanskrit ones. That is what Khaled Ahmed has done in this book.
It is different from other works on etymology in that it enlists words common to Eastern and Western language groups. Barring early philologists like Muller and Jones, no one has so far tried to look at this shared aspect.
This is the unexplored field of discovery and consequent excitement that this book wishes to share with readers. For instance, kana is “reed” in Punjabi; so is it in Greek. In the Western group, Greekkana has given rise to words like “canal”, “channel’, “Canon”, etc. In Skand Gupt, which is the name of an Indian king, skand means “jump” in Persian, skand means the same; in English “ascend”, the root skand means “jump”.
In Harsha, another Indian king, the root hr means “hair” rising under a sensation of joy; in Persianharas, it means “hair” rising under a sensation of fear; in English, “horror” means “hair” rising under a sensation of terror. This is the kind of verbal adventure the book promises.
This book will be of use to specialists in search of more shared words across the East-West divide of the Indo-European languages. It is also guaranteed to excite the common reader of language.
