The Concept of Hero in Indian Culture

The Concept of Hero in Indian Culture

By- Heidrun Bruckner, Hugh van Skyhawk, Claus Peter Zoller (Eds.)

The concept of the hero (via, sura nayaka) is of crucial importance in Indian civilization, from the Vedic to the present times. The contributors to this volume include scholars of times. The contributors to this volume include scholars of Indology history, religion, literature, politics and anthropology.

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’ in oral folk epics (van Skyhawk Shankaranarayana), Tamil 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.

Heidrun Bruckner is Professor of Indology and South Asian Studies at the University of Wurzurg.

Hugh van Skyhawk is Associate Professor (Privatdozent) of Indology and History of South Asian Religions at the Institute of Indology of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz.

Claus Peter Zoller is Associate Professor of Hindi at the University of Oslo.

ISBN  81-7304-710-3    2007   308p.   Rs.795/ pounds 65

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