Demolishing Myths or Mosques and Temples?: Readings on History and Temple Desecration in Medieval India

£14.95

Edited by Sunil Kumar

Paperback    9788188789597

 

History, it is said, cannot be studied without reflecting on the practice of historians who narrate it. The articles in this volume introduce readers to the writings of four scholars who study the subject of temple desecration in interesting and different ways.

Description

 

The authors focus on the ways in which historians study the political culture, events, historical narratives, material remains and aesthetic norms of a time very distant from us. Through their focus on the theme of temple desecration, a subject of considerable import in political rhetoric today, these essays also underline how easily history can be subverted to serve narrow, cynical ends.

 

At a time when history has become so important in the making of the nation’s identity, the articles in Demolishing Myths or Mosques and Temples? invite the reader to pause and reflect on the craft of history, the exciting and engaging conclusions to which it can lead and the worrying ends to which it can also be nudged.

 

Contents

 

Introduction

Sunil Kumar

 

Indian Art Objects as Loot
Richard H. Davis

 

 

Somanātha: Narratives of a History
Romila Thapar

 

 

Temple Desecration in Pre-Modern India
Richard Eaton

 

 

Islam, Iconoclasm and the Early Indian Mosque
Finbarr B. Flood

 

 

Appendix:
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Address to the
Public Meeting at Somnath on October 31, 2001

 

 

Select Bibliography

Additional Information
By

Richard H. Davis, Romila Thapar, Richard Eaton, Finbarr B. Flood. Edited by Sunil Kumar

Published by

Three Essays Collective

ISBN

9788188789597

Format

Paperback

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