E-Books →The Mahabharata in Global Political and Social Thought

Free Download Milinda Banerjee, Julian Strube , "The Mahabharata in Global Political and Social Thought"
English | ISBN: 1009484680 | 2024 | 296 pages | PDF | 5 MB
The ancient Indian epic Mahabharata was first composed in Sanskrit and then rendered into Indian vernaculars as well as other Asian and European languages. The Mahabharata in Global Political and Social Thought positions the epic as an influential political text and explores its role in shaping the global history of ideas and modern social, political, and religious thought across India, Europe, Japan, China, Thailand, Iran, and the Arab world. Drawing on methodologies of global intellectual and religious history, contributing authors to this volume study how kings and peasants, statesmen and revolutionaries, intellectuals and activists have invoked the epic to forge their political visions over the past centuries. The epic has thus contributed to state formation, nationalism, as well as the decolonization and democratization of the modern world. This book helps us understand the non-Eurocentric roots of modern political and social ideas, in India and across Asia and Europe, and thereby the global origins of contemporary politics, society, and democracy.