Cultural Landscapes and the Lifeworld : Literary Images of Banaras

Contents: Preface. 1. Geography of literary images, and search for identity in India. 2. The lifeworld in ancient Banaras: Shivprasad Singh's The Primordial Fire. 3. The medieval Kashi: Shivprasad Singh's The Blue Moon. 4. Kabir's revelation: Sahni's Vision. 5. Tulasi's vision of the lifeworld in the middle ages. 6. On Banaras: Ghalib's The Lamp of the Temple. 7. The images in the late 19 century: Bhartendu's The Love-Lorn Female Ascetic. 8. The images in the 19-early 20 century: Rudra's The Flowing Ganga. 9. The surrealist city: Raja Rao's The Serpent and the Rope. 10. Metaphysics and life-philosophy: Raja Rao's On the Ganga Ghat. 11. The Muslim world: Bismillah's The Threadbare Woven Shawl. 12. The modern lifeworld: Shivprasad Singh's The Street Turns Yonder. 13. The context of students' march: Kashinath Singh's Our Front. 14. The place-ballet: Kashinath Singh's Assi of Kashi. 15. Banaras is wherever you are: following Pankaj Mishra's The Romantics. 16. Literary images of Banaras: towards closure. References. Appendix. Author index. Subject index. The author.

"This book expounds in a colourful way the diverse literary images that Banaras, the city known as the Cultural Capital of India and the holiest city for Hindus, has inspired and continues to inspire in different writers in the course of history. Few other cities in the world have so sparked the imagination of the artists as this paradoxical and undescribable city which seems to integrate all contradictions.

Kabir, Tulasi Das, Mirza Ghalib, Bhartendu Harishchandra, Rudra Kashikeya, Bishma Sahni, Raja Rao, Shivprasad Singh, Abdul Bismillah, Kashinath Singh and Pankhaj Mishra, all wrote about the Banaras of their time or of the past. Rana P.B. Singh analyses their literary images and the cultural traditions described therein, interpreting them in the purview of cultural symbols and lived traditions which have maintained their continuity since the ancient past. Each of the fifteen essays describes a time in the history of the city along with its culture, illustrated with Puranic sources. This work will certainly be helpful to understand the complexity and multiplicity of belief systems, and the historical perspectives of metaphor, symbolism and milieu." (jacket)