Book Category: Indica Books

The success of Western powers in the Modern era has enabled the Western civilizational perspective and its self-understanding to present itself to the rest of the world, not as one perspective among others, but as the universal and definitive human perspective and as the culmination of the world’s intellectual and spiritual development according to principles supposedly objective and self-evident. The hegemony of this civilizational perspective makes it imperative that the basic elements of the Western paradigm of thought referenced by Western geopolitical power as the source of its legitimacy be grasped and critiqued. This book, using as its basis a relatively standard sequence of works seen as comprising the ‘Western Canon’, seeks to provide the foundation for such awareness, both to appreciate the wisdom in this intensely contested tradition as well as recognizing its hazards.

Plato's Republic is one of the most widely read philosophical texts in the world today, and yet it is never read as it was in antiquity, but instead through the lens of modern concerns and preconceptions. This book seeks to recover the ancient wisdom of this text about justice in the soul and in the community. This comprehensive book-by-book companion to Plato's text, informed by the ancient Platonic commentary tradition, restores to the Republic its systematic context in the fabric of Platonic thought, its metaphysical significance, and most of all, its profound polytheist piety and mystical insight.

Forever There is a historical fantasy novel set in Varanasi. The protagonists belong to the family of ‘The weavers of the Gods’. The story revolves around their family, who find themselves embroiled in upheavals and wars amid an extremely tumultuous period in Kashi when skirmishes and destruction were the order of the day.

The protégés, mere children, join a band of Warrior Monks to help protect the culture of the land. We see history through the eyes of The Four as they transform into warriors – head of the Elite Forces of the Warrior Monks – battle-scarred, wielding weapons of destruction –  feared by the enemy, loved and missed by their family.

Be transported to a period when every day brings new adventures to your doorstep.

The book looks at history anew, even as value systems change and cultural plates shift.

What values must one imbibe? Is diversity positive or negative? Should the world be in only one colour, or should it be in many hues and shades? Do acts of violence upon community and culture destroy the inherent essence of civilisation and culture?

Contemporary, poignant, and engaging, this unputdownable book will set your heart aflutter.

"The author’s conviction comes through every page of his writing. A good part of Vedanta is presented as a book of science. [He] does not hesitate to pick examples from the lives of actors, TV heroes, historical personalities, authors, expositors and stories..."

From the Foreword by Dr. V. Krishnamurthy, former Professor of Mathematics and Dy. Director, BITS, Pilani, India, President of The Indian Mathematical Society, and Asst. Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A collection of stories based on actual historical events as depicted in Padmasri Meenakshi Jain’s seminal book “Flight of Deities”. Inspired by the historical account, various authors have each focused on a unique historical event, clothed it in flesh and bones, and brought it to life through the magic of prose. From Aryavarta to Dakshinatwa, from the holy lands of Ayodha, Vrindavan and many more, the stories pace, digging into the harsh realities of foreign invasions while portraying vividly the efforts undergone by the devout to preserve their culture and faith. Tales of human grit and determination to preserve, prevail, persist in the face of brute force and annihilation – truly any book lover’s delight!

Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi MahaSwamigal (born as Swaminatha Sharma 1894 – siddhi as Kanchi Paramacharya 1994) lectured on Soundaryalahari in the first quarter of the last century. Ra.Ganapathy, one of his ardent students, recorded and published them as a voluminous tome of 700 pages in the sixth volume of ‘Deivathin Kural’. These Tamil lectures have now been condensed, translated into English and published herein. The exposition style here is one where it resembles a direct English lecture by Paramacharya himself. The subject has been dealt in great depth by the Paramacharya and thus requires the reader to approach this translation as a study book rather than one for light reading.

This book offers 150 of the author’s favorite choices from the Ramayana epics of Valmiki, Kamban and Tulsi. Comparative analysis and informative interpretation of the exposition by the three poets make this narration valuable. Illustrations at appropriate points and appendices with ready applications to spiritual life add special value. The result is an enjoyable sojourn through the Ramayana along with a taste of the narrative styles of the three master poets.

She chose the life of a warrior, leading from the front, protecting her ancestral kingdom.

She waded through treacherous destiny. Her uncompromising love restored her husband back to glory.

She lived in a hermitage, chose a king as husband, and challenged his dharma in open sabha- a mother who shaped an emperor who reshaped the civilization.

She watched the play of beauty and destruction from afar. When she took centre stage, she nurtured the future to find its feet.

She was regal and virtuous. She embarked on a divine mission, and chose an incredible destiny and groom for herself.

She, a fisherwoman, rose to rule an empire, navigating challenges and making tough decisions with her steely resolve.

She led her life on her own terms, choosing to stay on the sidelines but shaping life at the centre.

She courageously pursued truth, unafraid to challenge the greatest scholars on metaphysics. An inspiration to seekers of all times.

She was the wind beneath her husband’s wings. When he pursued the ultimate truth, she too walked the unyielding path.

She sought an improbable marriage. Her penance and devotion won her heaven, and for her husband too.

She has many faces, different roles in different times, embodying the essence of a great tradition. She carved a niche, charted her own path but upheld Dharma at all times.

She is Aryaa - the glorious woman of Bharatavarsha - manifestation of the eternally present Shakti.

The Divine Garland is the quintessence of Shree Goda Devi’s (Andal’s) thirty Pasurams of Tiruppavai, with an underlying theme of sharanagati or complete surrender to the Lord as a last resort for salvation, as advocated in Geeta in the sloka, ‘sarvadharmaan parityajya…’.

Shree Kuntimaddi Seshasarma, a well-known scholar in Telugu and Sanskrit, authored Melinomu, an extensive commentary of Tiruppavai, in Telugu, published by TTD. Dr. K. Sadananda, his son, who also published extensively on Vedanta, now with the help of his siblings provided a free translation of this work here, under the title, ‘The Divine Garland’.

Nowhere else is humanity connected with its roots and finds expression in ways so diverse and visibly profound as in Bharat, that is India. The gentle, spiritual essence of common folk - defines a continent within a country. Here, the devoted yaatri can discover anew, as if the land and her folk are revealing splendors in a delightful Anveshana.

Anveshana is a coffee-table book that is an outcome of the Indica Culture Photography Grant 2021 and is focused on the Vanavasi, Sancharavasi and Gramavasi Communities of India. Indica Culture Photography Grant is an initiative of Indica Pictures, a platform under the Indica umbrella. Under the grant upcoming photographers are given a financial grant totaling INR 5,00,000. Published jointly with Chitraayana, another vertical of Indica, Anveshana contains portfolios by ICPG 2021 Grantees consisting of Manish Lakhani, Sankar Sridhar, Sudip Maiti, Abdul Munaff, Isaac Gergan, Himadri Sharma (Late), Devika Sukumaran and Pubarun Basu and prose written by Sumati Mehrishi and Jay Jina.

Going beyond the ordinary, Anveshana will prompt curiosity and fuel a quest for meaning. It will dare the reader to walk in the footsteps of ancestors and yet be made to feel at ease in their own journey of discovery that they are entwined as Yaatris by the history and the geography that are Theertha and Kshetra of Bharat.

India has been producing knowledge for thousands of years. But entry into the contemporary globalized setting of knowledge has demanded a reckoning with powers that have sought to determine exclusively the terms upon which India might enter. The nineteenth century saw the colonization of India and its reduction to an object of study, rather than a producer of knowledge for itself and the world. This book explains why the arrival of India upon the European intellectual scene provoked a crisis, the response to which was the creation of the discipline of Indology, with the effective mission of taming India’s spiritual traditions by gaining control over the interpretation of their sacred texts. Polytheism and Indology makes the results of Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee’s inquiry in The Nay Science: A History of German Indology available in a more concise form, as well as broadening and deepening the scope of their inquiry.

Polytheisms may well be the world’s most undervalued cultural resource. From the dawn of history until quite recently, the default religious orientation on the planet was to recognize an open-ended plurality of unique divinities that manifest in every realm of natural and social life. By hosting a plurality of Gods, polytheistic civilizations exhibit maximum diversity in maximum solidarity – each one is a multiverse. Polytheism has been at the heart of the most ancient and resilient civilizations on Earth. Yet polytheist traditions have been stigmatized and persecuted for centuries, countless of them have been eradicated and prejudice against them and the very idea of a multiplicity of Gods continue to distort how they are perceived both by outsiders and in many cases even among their participants. This book offers an overview of continuous and revived polytheistic traditions from around the world together with critical discussions of the issues affecting them and their reception, offering a basis for further study and comparison.

उपन्यास्मृति या उपन्यास्मरण शृंखला के रूप में, आपके समक्ष प्रस्तुत है क्रांतिदूत, भाग-3 (मित्रमेला) की एक अनसुनी दास्ताँ! अनजाने क्रांतिदूतों की यह जीवन गाथा, क्रांतिदूतों के विचारों और चरित्रों को सर्वप्रधान रखते हुए उन्हें पाठकों तक पहुंचाने का प्रयास है। क्रांतिदूत शृंखला के लेखक डॉ मनीष श्रीवास्तव का प्रयास यह है कि पाठकगण भगत सिंह को पढ़ें तो उनके तथाकथित नास्तिक या वामपंथी वाले रूप की जगह आपको केवल भगत सिंह दिखायी दें। सान्याल साहब का नाम केवल काकोरी से जोड़कर ना देखा जाए। बिस्मिल साहब आर्यसमाजी भर ही ना दिखें और अशफाक़ मात्र एक मुसलमान क्रांतिदूत की तरह सामने ना आयें। सावरकर साहब, आज़ाद साहब, सान्याल साहब, गेंदालाल जी, शांति नारायण जी, करतार सिंह, क्रांतिदूत होने के साथ एक आम इंसान भी थे। वे हँसते थे, रोते थे, मज़ाक भी करते थे, आपस में लड़ते- झगड़ते भी थे।