Manohar Publishers and Distributors

09 October, 2012

Back to The Roots: Essays on Performing Arts of India

By- Jiwan Pani

Jiwan Pani was born on 13 February 1933 in a Brahmin family from Baripada in the Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. From his early years he showed a keen interest in music, dance and theatre. His first poem was published when he was only fourteen years old. Later his lyrics began to be widely sung by the common man and were freely adopted by film makers. His film on the Ravanachhaya, the shadow puppet theatre of Orissa, and his video-films on the Mayurbhanj Chhau have all been widely acclaimed and are expressions of his master craftsmanship. There was no aspect of Indian art and aesthetics that he was not familiar with.

Back to the Roots is a collection of Jiwan Pani’s articles which have been put together themewise. This book reflects his wide-ranging interests: the cult of Jagannatha, an individualistic and an in-depth study of the Geetagovinda, the Oriya systems of music as the third school along with Carnatic and Hindustani, his numerous scripts for dance-dramas, tele-serials and films, his deep study and understanding of Hindu and Buddhist systems of philosophy. These articles only go to prove that Jiwan Pani was a leading scholar of traditional Indian performing arts and Indian aesthetics.

This handsome volume with numerous photographs is a celebration of the true vidwan that Jiwan Pani was.

List of Illustrations; Foreword; Dharma is Not Religoin; Yajna for the Eyes; The Doctrine of Natya Guru-Shishya Parampara; The Rasa Theory; The Six Limbs of Dance; The System and Tradition of Odissi Music; Krishna in Odissi Dance; The Tradition of Mahari Dance; Ballad Singing Traditions of Orissa; Tradition and Innovation in Odissi; Krishna in Indian Dance; Kavitt—The Poetry of Dance; Indian Folk Theatre; The Chhau Dances; Shadow Theatre: The Ancient Movie.

Jiwan Pani joined the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1970. In December 1983 he was appointed the Director of the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, and continued to hold the post until he retired in 1994. The Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi conferred on him an award for his outstanding study of the performing arts of Orissa. His in-depth studies of Chhau and Oddissi dance forms, and puppets and masks of India are truly pioneering works. In 1997 Jiwan Pani received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his Oriya translation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poems. One of the leading poets and lyricists in Oriya, he has published a collection of poems in Oriya, a monograph on the Ravanachhaya, another on the Purulia Chhau dance.

ISBN 978-81-7304-560-8 2004 124p. Rs.495/Pounds 35

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An Oriental Biographical Dictionary: Founded on Materials Collected by the Late Thomas William Beale (A New Edition Revised and Enlarged)

By- Henry George Keene

An Oriental Biographical Dictionary is founded on materials collected by Late Thomas William Beale. This new edition expanded and revised by Henry George Keene is a classic reference guide of Oriental history tradition and personalities. Full of fascinating details. The concise dictionary is of some worth particularly because it is by and large free of the polemics of the colonial era.

Thomas William Beale a clerk in the office of the Board of Revenue, N.W.P.: a learned scholar, who assisted Sir H.M. Elliot in his work on the Muhammadans in India: he wrote the Miftah-ul-Tawarikh this work and died at a great age at Agra in 1875.

ISBN 81-7304-525-9 2004 432p. Rs.795/Pounds 75

Agricultural Incentives in India: Past Trends and Prospective Paths Towards Sustainable Development

By- Bruno Dorin and Thomas Jullien (eds)

This book gathers twelve papers which sustained the discussions and conclusions of an Indo-French seminar organized by the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH, New Delhi) on 3 and 4 April 2000 at the India International Centre (IIC, New Delhi).

The objective of this meeting was rather ambitious and sensitive: to debate the relevance and sustainability of a nearly forty-years old system of public incentives to Indian agriculture, mainly subsidies to water, electricity and fertilizers.

The sensitivity of the subject, as also its pertinence, is rooted in the difficult challenge that India had to take up since the early 1990s: to liberalize and open to the world its domestic market in order to bypass some inefficiencies or failures of its mixed economy, without selling of in the process its decision-making independence, as well as some social and environmental objectives peculiar to the subcontinent or to the world community.

Bruno Dorin, Ph.D. in economics and postgraduate in agricultural engineering and management, was Director and Researcher of the CSH (1995-2000). He lived 8 years in India where he conducted various research programmes on contemporary Indian economy and society. He works now for the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD, Montpellier, France).

Thomas Jullien, postgraduate in economics, was Research Assistant at the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH, New Delhi) in 1999-2000. He works now for the Institute de Stratégies Patrimoniales of the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (INA-PG, Paris).

ISBN 978-81-7304-589-9 2004 334p. Rs.950/Pounds 70

A Memoir on the Indian Surveys

By- C.R. Markham

The object of this classic memoir is to furnish a general view of all the surveying and other geographical operations in India from their first commencement in order that, in reading reports of current work, ready means of reference to the previous history of each branch of the subject may be at hand. In case it is desired to follow up an enquiry into the details of any particular operation or series of operations, the references in the footnotes have been made as copious as possible.

Sir Clements Robert Markham (20 July 1830 – 30 January 1916) was an English geographer, explorer and writer. He was secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) between 1863 and 1888, and later served as the Society’s president for a further 12 years. Markham also served as a geographer to the India Office. He was a prolific writer as his publications include: A Memoir of an Indian Survey.

ISBN 978-81-7304-526-4 2004 512p. Rs.895/Pounds 70

07 October, 2012

Mobile and Marginalized Peoples: Perspectives from the Past

By- Rudolf C. Heredia and Shereen F. Ratnagar (eds.)

The specific themes covered in this volume are modernization and the victimization of the disadvantaged; nomadic pastoralism and tribal organization as separate from the state; the rise of chiefships or states in regions where it was pastoralism rather than agriculture that produced wealth; artisanal mobility and the kinds of crafts produced by pastoralists; the desertions of agrarian settled regions in the past; the forms of incorporation of tribal society into feudal states; shifting cultivation and its relationships with peasantry and local markets; and the gradual changes effected in pastoral society in early Tamilakam.

This volume is based on a symposium sponsored by the Social Science Centre, which is engaged in action-oriented participatory research on issues of current concern. Its publications include Tribal Education for Community Development (1989); and Tribal Identity and Minority Status: The Katkari Nomads in Transition (1994).

Rudolf C. Heredia has a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Chicago and is the founder of the Social Science Centre, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

A Professor of Archaeology, Shereen F. Ratnagar specializes in the bronze age and areas such as urbanization and early economics, and has also written on pastoralists in prehistory.

ISBN 81-7304-497-X 2003 236p. Rs.500/Pounds 40

Military Costume and Accoutrements in Ancient India

By- Uma Prasad Thapliyal

The study of military costume and accoutrements in ancient India have not engaged the desired attention of scholars. Even important treatises on warfare have simply glossed over the subject.

An in-depth study, however, reveals an intimate connection between warfare and the military costume. Armour was devised at an early date to protect the body from arrow-shot, spear thrust or sword-cut. Even war elephants and horses were protected by armour. The shield was meant to ward off an attack at close quarters. The make, shape and size of armour or shield was again determined by the nature of threat to be encountered.

The choice of accoutrements was largely determined by the type of the weapons carried by the warrior. The scabbard was devised to carry a sword and a quiver to keep arrows. A waist-band and cross-belt were worn to tie-up the sword and quiver respectively. The art of war also influenced the choice of military costume. The Scytho-Ku¦ŒÄa mounted archer used coat, trousers and boots as these suited their tactics of war. The Indian soldiers tied up their loose dhoti in a manner so that no loose ends dangled below to impede the military maneuver.

This volume tries to explore the relationship between military costume and warfare through the ages and will be of immense interest to scholars of Indian military history.

ISBN 978-81-7304-955-2 2012 165p. Rs.695/Pounds 35

05 October, 2012

Medieval India 3: Researches in the History of India

By- B.L. Bhadani (ed.)

This volume offers varied but comprehensive studies relating to Medieval Indian History and Culture from the twelfth to the eighteenth century. Based on extensive use of contemporary sources (including those hitherto unknown), the essays cover political, social, economic, cultural and environmental issues both at the macroscopic and microscopic levels.

It contains fifteen essays, contributed by scholars associated with the Centre of Advanced Study, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University as well as those who belong to other institutions in the country.

B.L. Bhadani is Chairman, Department of History and Coordinator of the Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. He has delved deep in Rajasthani sources pertaining to medieval period.

ISBN 978-81-7304-942-2 2012 308p. Rs.950/Pounds 50