The keys of power: A study of Indian ritual and belief

by J Abbott

Hardcover, 1974

Status

Available

Call number

294.5

Collection

Publication

University Books (1974), 560 pages

Description

This book, first published in 1932, demonstrates how the control of certain '-isms' has for long moulded the interpretation of Indian belief and ritual by Western writers particularly. In every chapter there is some new coordination, often iconoclastic of then-accepted theory, whilst the new wealth of customs carefully recorded is astonishing. Long disputed problems such as that of the Maratha 'devak', or that of the ceremonial sowing of seedlings known to Western scholars as the 'gardens of Adonis', have at last been settled through careful research.

Language

Original language

English

ISBN

0821602195 / 9780821602195

Local notes

A reprint of a book from 1932 by an Indian Civil servant of the Raj, J. Abbot, a graduate of Corpus Christi College at Oxford. It has a lot of dated terminology, like "Mohammedan" instead of "Muslim" and uses a lot of Muslim and Arabic terms in preference to Hindi or Sanskrit. Still, it is a compendium of great interest, if one can see past the colonialist perspective.
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