India Index
The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry By W. G. Archer
During the twentieth century, a certain type of Indian painting began to fascinate the West. Unlike Mughal art, it was a product of Hindu courts in Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills and unlike Mughal painting, its chief concern was with the varied phases of romance. Ladies would be shown brooding in their chambers as storm clouds mounted in the sky.
The Song Celestial Or Bhagavad-Gita Translated by Sir Edwin Arnold
This famous and marvellous Sanskrit poem occurs as an episode of the Mahabharata, in the sixth--or "Bhishma"--Parva of the great Hindoo epic. It enjoys immense popularity and authority in India, where it is reckoned as one of the ``Five Jewels,"--pancharatnani--of Devanagiri literature.
More Jataka Tales, Re-told by Ellen C. Babbitt
"The Jataka tales, regarded as historic in the Third Century B. C., are the oldest collection of folk-lore extant. They come down to us from that dim far-off time when our forebears told tales around the same hearth fire on the roof of the world. Professor Rhys Davids speaks of them as "a priceless record of the childhood of our race. The same stories are found in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, and in most European languages. "
Tales of Bengal By S. B. Banerjea
"That "east is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet," is an axiom with most Englishmen to whom the oriental character seems an insoluble enigma. This form of agnosticism is unworthy of a nation which is responsible for the happiness of 300,000,000 Asiatics. It is not justified by history, which teaches us that civilisation is the result of the mutual action of Europe and Asia; and that the advanced races of India are our own kinsfolk."
Folklore of the Santal Parganas by by Cecil Henry Bompas
"The Santals are a Munda tribe, a branch of that aboriginal
element which probably entered India from the North East. At the
present day they inhabit the Eastern outskirts of the Chutia
Nagpore plateau.
Originally hunters and dwellers in the jungle they are still but
indifferent agriculturists. Like the Mundas and Hos and other
representatives of the race, they are jovial in character, fond
of their rice beer, and ready to take a joke. "
Folklore of the Kolhan by by Cecil Henry Bompas
"The Kolhan forms the western half of the district of Singhbhum in Chota Nagpur. The Hos or Larka Hos who form the bulk of the inhabitants are a branch of the Mundas of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. They are one of those Kolarian tribes of which the Santals are perhaps the best known. I have collected some of the Folklore stories current among them, the recollection of which would, however, appear to be dying out."
Vikram and The Vampire by Sir Richard F. Burton
"The Baital-Pachisi, or Twenty-five Tales of a Baital is the
history of a huge Bat, Vampire, or Evil Spirit which inhabited
and animated dead bodies.
It is an old, and thoroughly Hindu, Legend composed in Sanskrit,
and is the germ which culminated in the Arabian Nights, and which
inspired the "Golden
Ass" of Apuleius, Boccacio's "Decamerone," the "Pentamerone,"
and all that class of facetious fictitious literature. "
The Mahabharata Translated By Romesh C. Dutt
The scene of the Epic is the ancient kingdom of the Kurus which flourished along the upper course of the Ganges; and the historical fact on which the Epic is based is a great war which took place between the Kurus and a neighbouring tribe, the Panchalas, in the thirteenth or fourteenth century before Christ.
Twenty Two Goblins. Translated from the Sanskrit by Arthur W. Ryder
"On the bank of the Godavari River is a kingdom called the
Abiding Kingdom. There lived the son of King Victory, the famous
King Triple-victory, mighty as the king of the gods. As this king
sat in judgment, a monk called Patience brought him every day one
piece of fruit as an expression of homage. And the king took it
and gave it each day to the treasurer who stood near. Thus twelve
years passed.
Now one day the monk came to court, gave the king a piece of
fruit as usual, and went away. But on this day the king gave the
fruit to a pet baby monkey that had escaped from his keepers, and
happened to wander in. And as the monkey ate the fruit, he split
it open, and a priceless, magnificent gem came out. When the king
saw this, he took it and asked the treasurer: "Where have you
been keeping the fruits which the monk brought? I gave them to
you." "