Author: Karel Werner
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 1991
Language: English
Pages: 221
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8120808339
Description
The contributions included in the present volume, first published in 1990 in the Durham Indological Series, stem from the Symposia on Indian Religions which took place under the convenership of Karel Werner of the School of Oriental Studies, University of Durham, during the years 1975-84.
As the Editor rightly confesses, we can hardly claim to have a comprehensive grasp or clear understanding of the processes in human thought, experience and creative effort which lead to the birth of symbols and to their effectiveness. However, the papers comprised here do offer some valid, though partial, insights into these processes; but their nature is elusive and will require ever more attention and fresh attempts to elucidate them, without any guarantee that the problem will eventually be fully understood.
Readers, it is hoped, will find that some valuable results have been brought to light through this publication which clearly demonstrates the richness and the fascination of the field of symbolism.
Contents
ABBREVIATIONS
EDITOR’S PREFACE
Symbols and Religious Language
GLYN RICHARDS
The Symbolism of Indian Art
PHILIP S RAWSON
Symbolism in the Vedas and its Conceptualization
KAREL WERNER
Origins of Form and Structure in Monumental Art
JOHN C IRWIN
Venerated Objects and Symbols of Early Buddism
PETER HARVEY
Predestiny and Evil in Hindu Mythology: an Inquiry into the Symbolism of the Vena-Prthu Legend
JEANINE MILLER
Aspects of the Symbolism of Fire
DAVID SMITH
Weapons as Symbols in Hindu Art
VALERIE J ROEBUCK
Meaning and Symbolism in the Work of Ananda Coomaraswamy
JONATHAN SUTTON
The Possibility of Symbolism in Indian Religions
DAVI BASTOW
Glossary
Contributors
Note on the Papers and Acknowledgements