A cultural and intellecual history of Ancient India.
Sitting down with the Bhagavad Gita at the age of sixteen opened many new channels in my mind. Ever since, for the best part of thirty years, I have been searching for a book on Indian thought that ties it all up, coherently and succinctly.
Write the book you want to read, they say—and this, here, is it.
While covering all the important areas (see contents list below), you will learn:
- How the Vedic gods are related to the Greek and Roman ones.
- The secret of the self that even the gods were desperate to learn.
- How to stop suffering, according to the Buddha.
- How to achieve enlightenment, according to the Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains.
- How the swastika came to be appropriated by the Nazis.
- How Gandhi’s non-violence is rooted in Indian philosophy.
- Why the Kama Sutra is about a lot more than sex.
- What yoga’s actually about—not even my yoga teacher knew this.
- How the Gupta Golden Age led to the invention of zero, chess, and nose jobs.
- And much, much more.
Contents List
Preface
Introduction: A Picture of India
1. The Indus Valley Civilization
2. The Aryans and their Vedas
3. Vedic Gods: Indra, Agni, Soma, and the Rest
4. Sanskrit and the Grammar of Panini
5. The Upanishads
6. Brahman and Brahma
7. Atman, or the Self
8. Karma, Samsara, Moksha, Yoga
9. Life of the Buddha
10. Buddhist Philosophy
11. The Jataka Tales
12. The Panchatantra
13. Jainism, Ahimsa, and Gandhi’s Satyagraha
14. The Mauryas: Chandragupta and Ashoka
15. Greek India
16. Dharma, the Laws of Manu, and the Caste System
17. The Arthashastra of Kautilya
18. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana
19. The Ramayana of Valmiki
20. The Mahabharata of Vyasa
21. The Bhagavad Gita, or Song of God
22. The Puranas: Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi
23. The Guptas: The Golden Age of India
24. The Six Darshanas: Samkhya-Yoga
25. The Six Darshanas: Nyaya-Vaisheshika
26. The Six Darshanas: Mimamsa-Vedanta
Final words
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