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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Hinduism
This study revisits one of the most extensive examples of the
spread of ideas in the history of civilization: the diffusion of
Indian religious and political ideas to Southeast Asia before the
advent of Islam and European colonialism. Hindu and Buddhist
concepts and symbols of kingship and statecraft helped to
legitimize Southeast Asian rulers, and transform the political
institutions and authority of Southeast Asia. But the process of
this diffusion was not accompanied by imperialism, political
hegemony, or "colonization" as conventionally understood. This book
investigates different explanations of the spread of Indian ideas
offered by scholars, including why and how it occurred and what
were its key political and institutional outcomes. It challenges
the view that strategic competition is a recurring phenomenon when
civilizations encounter each other.
The present book is a collection of essays written at different
points of time and published in reputed journals and books. What
blends them together is the use of the primary source material in
the form of a vast compendium of Puranic literature (backed by
epigraphic, archaeological and anthropological data), which has
been utilized to arrive at conclusions pertaining to changes in
Indian society and religion during the later half of first
millennium AD when the major Puranas were being compiled. The
period represents a watershed in Indian history, for it marked a
transition from a commercially viable economic order to a closed
feudal economy. The social and religious dimensions of the
brahmanical system were particularly impacted by such a transition
resulting in some innovative forms of restructuring. It has been
the purpose behind most of the present articles to reassess and
utilize the available Puranic evidence for getting fresh insights
into the rationale and precise nature of these changes. The key
areas of thrust in these articles are changes in material culture,
awareness and mode of dealing with environmental issues, gender
based differentiation, recent ritual formations such as Mahadana
and Tirthas as well as the utilization of myth as a mode of
expressing historical reality.
This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It
contains classical literature works from over two thousand years.
Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore
shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the
cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical
literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the
mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from
oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of
international literature classics available in printed format again
- worldwide.
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