View allAll Photos Tagged Literature
Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Idiot
Translated by Ricard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky
Vintage Classics, 2003
Cover design by Peter Mendelsund
ODC = Literature
Today Mike and I attended the National Halloween Expo to meet vendors and buy for our Colonel Legerdemains Steampunk Emporium. We had a wonderful time, saw amazing costumes, met some old friends we had not seen in years and found good vendors to deal with. This is some of the literature I saw while there, really like the cover on this.
Election literature sent to my house during the last weekend before the election.
This came in the mail on Saturday before the election. It's a flier asking "Is it worth the risk?" to elect Obama, given what Joe Biden said recently about expecting a crisis "to test the mettle of this guy".
The imagery includes pictures of Osama bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, Kim Yong-Il, and Vladimir Putin. I'm frankly very surprised that Putin is included. What does that say about how the McCain campaign views Russia?
Thinking about it, I'm also pretty surprised that the people "watching" Obama are not named. Kim and Putin are pretty well known faces, but I bet a LOT of people would be unable to name them - not to mention Chavez and Ahmadinejad . And why not include the "iconic" Osama bin Laden picture, the one that everyone is likely to recognize instantly? Instead, his face is kind of hidden, especially considering that the coloring of the picture makes it fade into the background a lot. And why are Chavez and Kim in B/W but the other two are color? And would people really recognize right away that the background is a crucible? Or is that intentionally made to look like "the flames of hell"?
They are also reusing the "pensive Obama" shot from the "Crime & Punishment" flier. TBH, they needed a less thoughtful picture here. Making him look flippant (like the Biden pic), rather than thoughtful would have worked much better.
This is the least thought-through and least effective piece of the ones in this set, IMHO. I guess that makes sense, given that they must have rushed it out after the 19th.
Temple of LIterature.
Medical treatese inscribed into stone stelae carried on stone tortoises, symbols of wisdom and knowledge. They are written in old Chinese and indeed the whole temple is very much in Chinese influence.
The Temple of Literature was built in 1070 and became Vietnam's first university and a centre of learning.
A rider carriers her bike past fence signage that notes Iowa City's UNESCO designation as a City of Literature.
Photos from the 2017 Jingle Cross, a UCI World Cup cyclocross race held September 17 at the Johnson County Fairgrounds in Iowa City. Katerina Nash of Czechoslovakia won the women's race and Matthieu Van Der Poel of the Netherlands won the men's race.
10 Things You Should Know About Victorian LIterature... the perfect guide/gift for students or bookworms!
The Devils' Dance, a novel by Hamid Ismailov and translated from Uzbek by Donald Rayfield (with John Farndon) has won the 2019 EBRD Literature Prize.
It is the first novel translated from Uzbek into English.
The international prize, awarded at a ceremony at the Bank’s Headquarters in London on 7 March, was created in 2017 by the EBRD, in partnership with the British Council. The €20,000 prize will be split between the author and translator.
The EBRD Literature Prize champions the literary richness of its regions, which include almost 40 countries from Morocco to Mongolia, Estonia to Egypt.
It was also created to illustrate the importance of literary translation and to introduce the depth and variety of the voices and creativity from these regions to the English-speaking public and a wider global audience.
The Devils' Dance, published by Tilted Axis Press, is the first novel written in Uzbek to be translated into English. It is an intriguing novel in two parts: the story of an unwitting 19th century courtesan, who navigates the intrigues of the courts and harems of the Uzbek emirates and khanates at a time when Britain and Russia are competing for influence in the region, told alongside the trials of a well-known Uzbek writer and literary dissident who is imprisoned and executed at the hands of the Soviet state in the late 1930s.
Rosie Goldsmith, Chair of the independent judging panel, said: “This is a thrilling novel about two real-life Central Asian poets. The 19th century Uzbek poet-queen Oyxon, once a humble slave girl, rose to power and influence, marrying three Khans along the way and was ultimately threatened with execution. Her 20th century counterpart is the writer Abdulla Qodiriy, renowned, brave and also imprisoned, who distracts himself from brutish beatings and interrogation by reconstructing the novel he was writing about Oyxon when he was arrested. With its spies, police, princes, poets and great plot, this is an Uzbek Game of Thrones. The storytelling style captures perfectly the prose and poetry of Central Asia while being incredibly readable in English. A novel within novel narrated by a great novelist with an equally great translation.”
Enzo Quattrociocche, Secretary General of the EBRD, said: “Through the EBRD Literature Prize, we recognise the work of scores of authors across the nearly 40 countries where the Bank works: most of whose voices would have remained unheard had it not been for the translators and publishers who bring these works to the English-speaking world. But our prize is meant to go beyond recognition. It is meant to promote awareness of the depth and variety of culture and history in the countries where the EBRD works.”
Hamid Ismailov is an Uzbek journalist and writer who has lived in the UK since 1992 and worked for the BBC World Service. Several of his Russian-original novels have been published in English translation, including The Railway, The Dead Lake, which was long listed for the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and The Underground. The Devils' Dance is the first of his Uzbek novels to appear in English.
Donald Rayfield is Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. Rayfield learnt Uzbek specifically to translate The Devils' Dance.
He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Joseph Stalin and his secret police. He is also a series editor for books about Russian writers and intelligentsia. He has translated a wide variety of Georgian and Russian poets and prose writers.
John Farndon is currently Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow in residence at the City and Guilds of London Art School. John is a writer of non-fiction books, and a playwright, lyricist, composer, poet and literary translator. He has translated literary works from Russian, including the poetry of Pushkin and Grigorieva, and the lyrical memoir, Letters to Another Room by Ravil Bukharaev.
The two runner-up titles received €2,000, also split between author and translator. These were Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena, translated from Latvian by Margita Gailitis (Publisher: Pereine Press), and Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions). Most were present at the award ceremony, where the finalist authors and translators discussed their books and the art of literary translation.
These titles were chosen from the original longlist of 10 titles selected by the judges.
George Eliot - Daniel Deronda
Penguin English Library EL 20, 1967
Cover: A detail from 'Too Early', by J.J. Tissot in the Guildhall Art Gallery
Ibsen - Four Major Plays
Signet Classics CQ686, 1965
Cover Artist: Stanislaw Zagorski
A Doll House
The Wild Duck
Hedda Gabler
The Master Builder
The Earliest English Poems
Translated by Michael Alexander
Penguin Classics L172
Published 1966; 3rd printing 1969
Cover: A detail of the 'Franks Casket', in the British Museum
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
Penguin Modern Classics 3566, 1983
Cover: A detail from 'The Steamer Stanley' by F. Hens, by permission of P. Staner
This was taken at Van Mieu Tran Bien, the Temple of Literature, Buu Long.
Tran Bien Temple of Literature, built in 1715 under King Nguyen Phuc Chu, was the first temple of its kind in the South. The temple is a place to honor Confucius. It also serves as an educational center.
Architecturally inspired by the Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature in Hanoi), the Tran Bien Temple of Literature was rebuilt twice in the Nguyen Dynasty and then destroyed by the French in 1861. It was restored in 1998 and the first phase was inaugurated during the Tet holidays in 2002.
Nestled near Buu Long Cultural Park, about three kilometers from the center of Bien Hoa City, the temple is emerging as a peaceful and silent space, with curved domes and majestic rooms under the shade of green trees standing in harmony with the surroundings.
The first sight in the temple is Van Mieu Mon (Mon temple of literary), a traditional stele house carved with the glorious epic of Vu Khieu about the process of building the country, building the temple, typical national revolutions as well as educational and cultural traditions of Bien Hoa City.
Tourists can also discover more about Vietnamese history in the tranquil setting of Tinh Quang Lake, as well as at Khue Van Cac, Dai Thanh Mon and especially the stele house of Confucius.
The most striking aspect of the temple is the Bai Duong sanctum, built in old style architecture with red-lacquered designs with parallel sentences hung on pillars. In the center is the altar of the Vietnamese late president Ho Chi Minh in front of a picture of a traditional bronze drum behind.
Eighteen kilograms of soil and 18 kilograms of water from Hung Temple symbolizing the 18 Hung kings and the origin of Vietnam were dispayed in the temple.
The temple also honors southern cultural icons such as Chu Van An, Nguyen Binh Khiem, Le Quy Don, Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Le Quang Dinh.
Biên Hòa is a city in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam, about 20 miles (32 km) (30 kilometers) east of Saigon, to which Bien Hoa is linked by Vietnam Highway 1. In 1989 the estimated population was over 300,000. And now in 2005, population increased to 541,495, and some estimates show that the city has 604,548 people in 2007
Bien Hoa grew into a major suburb of Saigon (later renamed Ho Chi Minh City) as the capital city of South Vietnam grew. Following the First Indochina War, tens of thousands of refugees from the northern and central regions of Vietnam—a large portion of them Roman Catholics—resettled in Bien Hoa as part of Operation Passage to Freedom.
During the Vietnam War, the United States Air Force operated Bien Hoa Air Base near the city. Nonetheless, a significant number of the city's residents sympathized with, or were members of, the Viet Cong. Mortar attacks on U.S. and ARVN targets were frequently staged from residential districts in Bien Hoa.
With regard to entertainment, the city includes several amusement parks, night clubs and restaurants lining the Dong Nai River. Construction has increased rapidly (with many Western-style houses and villas under development), and the real estate market has experienced a series of boom cycles since the mid-1990s. The retail market still includes the many ad hoc bazaar-type markets and shop-fronts common to most of Vietnam, but now also includes air-conditioned, enclosed shopping malls, one of which, a Big C branch, includes a KFC restaurant, a Western-style grocery store, a bowling alley and video arcade, among others.
"Essence of Womanhood" doctor's ordering form. Published by Personal Products Corporation, Milltown, New Jersey. Makers of MODESS TAMPONS. Circa 1960. Accession #2002.0042.
Selected by Mike.
My wife was mortified that I picked this up at the respiratory clinic on a recent visit................even more so when i read it on the train journey home.
The Devils' Dance, a novel by Hamid Ismailov and translated from Uzbek by Donald Rayfield (with John Farndon) has won the 2019 EBRD Literature Prize.
It is the first novel translated from Uzbek into English.
The international prize, awarded at a ceremony at the Bank’s Headquarters in London on 7 March, was created in 2017 by the EBRD, in partnership with the British Council. The €20,000 prize will be split between the author and translator.
The EBRD Literature Prize champions the literary richness of its regions, which include almost 40 countries from Morocco to Mongolia, Estonia to Egypt.
It was also created to illustrate the importance of literary translation and to introduce the depth and variety of the voices and creativity from these regions to the English-speaking public and a wider global audience.
The Devils' Dance, published by Tilted Axis Press, is the first novel written in Uzbek to be translated into English. It is an intriguing novel in two parts: the story of an unwitting 19th century courtesan, who navigates the intrigues of the courts and harems of the Uzbek emirates and khanates at a time when Britain and Russia are competing for influence in the region, told alongside the trials of a well-known Uzbek writer and literary dissident who is imprisoned and executed at the hands of the Soviet state in the late 1930s.
Rosie Goldsmith, Chair of the independent judging panel, said: “This is a thrilling novel about two real-life Central Asian poets. The 19th century Uzbek poet-queen Oyxon, once a humble slave girl, rose to power and influence, marrying three Khans along the way and was ultimately threatened with execution. Her 20th century counterpart is the writer Abdulla Qodiriy, renowned, brave and also imprisoned, who distracts himself from brutish beatings and interrogation by reconstructing the novel he was writing about Oyxon when he was arrested. With its spies, police, princes, poets and great plot, this is an Uzbek Game of Thrones. The storytelling style captures perfectly the prose and poetry of Central Asia while being incredibly readable in English. A novel within novel narrated by a great novelist with an equally great translation.”
Enzo Quattrociocche, Secretary General of the EBRD, said: “Through the EBRD Literature Prize, we recognise the work of scores of authors across the nearly 40 countries where the Bank works: most of whose voices would have remained unheard had it not been for the translators and publishers who bring these works to the English-speaking world. But our prize is meant to go beyond recognition. It is meant to promote awareness of the depth and variety of culture and history in the countries where the EBRD works.”
Hamid Ismailov is an Uzbek journalist and writer who has lived in the UK since 1992 and worked for the BBC World Service. Several of his Russian-original novels have been published in English translation, including The Railway, The Dead Lake, which was long listed for the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and The Underground. The Devils' Dance is the first of his Uzbek novels to appear in English.
Donald Rayfield is Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. Rayfield learnt Uzbek specifically to translate The Devils' Dance.
He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Joseph Stalin and his secret police. He is also a series editor for books about Russian writers and intelligentsia. He has translated a wide variety of Georgian and Russian poets and prose writers.
John Farndon is currently Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow in residence at the City and Guilds of London Art School. John is a writer of non-fiction books, and a playwright, lyricist, composer, poet and literary translator. He has translated literary works from Russian, including the poetry of Pushkin and Grigorieva, and the lyrical memoir, Letters to Another Room by Ravil Bukharaev.
The two runner-up titles received €2,000, also split between author and translator. These were Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena, translated from Latvian by Margita Gailitis (Publisher: Pereine Press), and Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions). Most were present at the award ceremony, where the finalist authors and translators discussed their books and the art of literary translation.
These titles were chosen from the original longlist of 10 titles selected by the judges.
Literature is an annoying course. Since I do online high school I cheat on the crap I don't think I need to know but Lit is something that interested me so I decided not to cheat unless nessacary lol. I just finished poetry and have nonfiction next... ugh... nonfiction is NOT interesting to me! And I don't even have to read Civil Disobedience which happened to be the only one I was remotly interested in. Lame.
The Devils' Dance, a novel by Hamid Ismailov and translated from Uzbek by Donald Rayfield (with John Farndon) has won the 2019 EBRD Literature Prize.
It is the first novel translated from Uzbek into English.
The international prize, awarded at a ceremony at the Bank’s Headquarters in London on 7 March, was created in 2017 by the EBRD, in partnership with the British Council. The €20,000 prize will be split between the author and translator.
The EBRD Literature Prize champions the literary richness of its regions, which include almost 40 countries from Morocco to Mongolia, Estonia to Egypt.
It was also created to illustrate the importance of literary translation and to introduce the depth and variety of the voices and creativity from these regions to the English-speaking public and a wider global audience.
The Devils' Dance, published by Tilted Axis Press, is the first novel written in Uzbek to be translated into English. It is an intriguing novel in two parts: the story of an unwitting 19th century courtesan, who navigates the intrigues of the courts and harems of the Uzbek emirates and khanates at a time when Britain and Russia are competing for influence in the region, told alongside the trials of a well-known Uzbek writer and literary dissident who is imprisoned and executed at the hands of the Soviet state in the late 1930s.
Rosie Goldsmith, Chair of the independent judging panel, said: “This is a thrilling novel about two real-life Central Asian poets. The 19th century Uzbek poet-queen Oyxon, once a humble slave girl, rose to power and influence, marrying three Khans along the way and was ultimately threatened with execution. Her 20th century counterpart is the writer Abdulla Qodiriy, renowned, brave and also imprisoned, who distracts himself from brutish beatings and interrogation by reconstructing the novel he was writing about Oyxon when he was arrested. With its spies, police, princes, poets and great plot, this is an Uzbek Game of Thrones. The storytelling style captures perfectly the prose and poetry of Central Asia while being incredibly readable in English. A novel within novel narrated by a great novelist with an equally great translation.”
Enzo Quattrociocche, Secretary General of the EBRD, said: “Through the EBRD Literature Prize, we recognise the work of scores of authors across the nearly 40 countries where the Bank works: most of whose voices would have remained unheard had it not been for the translators and publishers who bring these works to the English-speaking world. But our prize is meant to go beyond recognition. It is meant to promote awareness of the depth and variety of culture and history in the countries where the EBRD works.”
Hamid Ismailov is an Uzbek journalist and writer who has lived in the UK since 1992 and worked for the BBC World Service. Several of his Russian-original novels have been published in English translation, including The Railway, The Dead Lake, which was long listed for the 2015 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and The Underground. The Devils' Dance is the first of his Uzbek novels to appear in English.
Donald Rayfield is Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. Rayfield learnt Uzbek specifically to translate The Devils' Dance.
He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Joseph Stalin and his secret police. He is also a series editor for books about Russian writers and intelligentsia. He has translated a wide variety of Georgian and Russian poets and prose writers.
John Farndon is currently Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow in residence at the City and Guilds of London Art School. John is a writer of non-fiction books, and a playwright, lyricist, composer, poet and literary translator. He has translated literary works from Russian, including the poetry of Pushkin and Grigorieva, and the lyrical memoir, Letters to Another Room by Ravil Bukharaev.
The two runner-up titles received €2,000, also split between author and translator. These were Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena, translated from Latvian by Margita Gailitis (Publisher: Pereine Press), and Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions). Most were present at the award ceremony, where the finalist authors and translators discussed their books and the art of literary translation.
These titles were chosen from the original longlist of 10 titles selected by the judges.
The library at my school often discards wonderful books which is such a shame, and so a friend and I horde them.
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
The Laurel Jane Austen
Dell Books 7106, 1959; reprint 1966
Cover Artist: Ray Houlihan
Émile Zola - L'Assommoir
Penguin Classics L231, 1974
Cover: A detail from 'L'Absinthe', 1877, by Edgar Degas, in the Louvre
Ellora (\e-ˈlȯr-ə\, Marathi: वेरूळ Vērūḷa), is an archaeological site, 29 km North-West of the city of Aurangabad in the Indian state of Maharashtra built by the Rashtrakuta dynasty. It is also known as Elapura (in the Rashtrakuta literature-Kannada). Well known for its monumental caves, Ellora is a World Heritage Site. Ellora represents the epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture. The 34 "caves" are actually structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills. Buddhist, Hindu and Jain rock-cut temples and viharas and mathas were built between the 5th century and 10th century. The 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12), 17 Hindu (caves 13–29) and 5 Jain (caves 30–34) caves, built in proximity, demonstrate the religious harmony prevalent during this period of Indian history. It is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India.
ETYMOLOGY
Ellora, also called Verula or Elura, is the cave form of the Ancient name Elapura.
HISTORY
Ellora is known for Hindu, Buddhist and Jain cave temples built during (6th and 9th centuries) the rule of the Kalachuri, Chalukya and Rashtrakuta dynasties. The Jagannatha Sabha a group of five Jain cave temples of 9th century built by Rashtrakuta.
THE BUDDHIST CAVES
These caves were built during the 5th-7th century. It was initially thought that the Buddhist caves were one of the earliest structures, created between the fifth and eighth centuries, with caves 1-5 in the first phase (400-600) and 6-12 in the later phase (mid 7th-mid 8th), but now it is clear to the modern scholars that some of the Hindu caves (27,29,21,28,19,26,20,17 and 14) precede these caves.[citation needed] The earliest Buddhist cave is Cave 6, followed by 5,2,3,5 (right wing), 4,7,8,10 and 9. Caves 11 and 12 were the last. All the Buddhist caves were constructed between 630-700.
These structures consist mostly of viharas or monasteries: large, multi-storeyed buildings carved into the mountain face, including living quarters, sleeping quarters, kitchens, and other rooms. Some of these monastery caves have shrines including carvings of Gautama Buddha, bodhisattvas and saints. In many of these caves, sculptors have endeavoured to give the stone the look of wood.
Most famous of the Buddhist caves is cave 10, (refer map) a chaitya hall (chandrashala) or 'Vishvakarma cave', popularly known as the 'Carpenter's Cave'. Beyond its multi-storeyed entry is a cathedral-like stupa hall also known as chaitya, whose ceiling has been carved to give the impression of wooden beams. At the heart of this cave is a 15-foot statue of Buddha seated in a preaching pose. Amongst other Buddhist caves, all of the first nine (caves 1–9) are monasteries. The last two caves, Do Tal (cave 11) and Tin Tal (cave 12) have three stories.
CAVE 10
Cave 10 is a vihara with eight cells, four in the back wall and four in the right wall. It had a portico in the front with a cell. Possibly served as a granary for other viharas.
THE VISHWAKARMA
The Vishwakarma (Cave 10) is the only chaitya griha amongst the Buddhist group of caves. It is locally known as Vishwakarma or Sutar ka jhopda "carpenter's hut". It follows the pattern of construction of Caves 19 and 26 of Ajanta. On stylistic grounds, the date of construction of this cave is assigned to 700 A.D. The chaitya once had a high screen wall, which is ruined at present. At the front is a rock-cut court, which is entered through a flight of steps. On either side are pillared porticos with chambers in their back walls. These were probably intended to have subsidiary shrines but not completed. The pillared verandah of the chaitya has a small shrine at either end and a single cell in the far end of the back wall. The corridor columns have massive squarish shafts and ghata-pallava (vase and foliage) capitals. The main hall is apsidal on plan and is divided into a central nave and side aisles by 28 octagonal columns with plain bracket capitals. In the apsidal end of the chaitya hall is a stupa on the face of which a colossal 3.30 m high seated Buddha in vyakhyana mudra (teaching posture) is carved. A large Bodhi tree is carved at the back. The hall has a vaulted roof in which ribs have been carved in the rock imitating the wooden ones.
THE HINDU CAVES
The Hindu caves were constructed between the middle of sixth century to the end of the eighth century. The early caves (caves 17–29) were constructed during the Kalachuri period. The work first commenced in Caves 28, 27 and 19. These were followed by two most impressive caves constructed in the early phase - Caves 29 and 21. Along with these two, work was underway at Caves 20 and 26, and slightly later at Caves 17, 19 and 28. The caves 14, 15 and 16 were constructed during the Rashtrakuta period. The work began in Caves 14 and 15 and culminated in Cave 16. All these structures represent a different style of creative vision and execution skills. Some were of such complexity that they required several generations of planning and co-ordination to complete.
THE KAILASANATHA TEMPLE
Cave 16, also known as the Kailasa temple, is the unrivaled centerpiece of Ellora. This is designed to recall Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva – looks like a freestanding, multi-storeyed temple complex, but it was carved out of one single rock, and covers an area double the size of Parthenon in Athens. Initially the temple was covered with white plaster thus even more increasing the similarity to snow-covered Mount Kailash.
All the carvings are done in more than one level. A two-storeyed gateway resembling a South Indian Gopura opens to reveal a U-shaped courtyard. The courtyard is edged by columned galleries three storeys high. The galleries are punctuated by huge sculpted panels, and alcoves containing enormous sculptures of a variety of deities. Originally flying bridges of stone connected these galleries to central temple structures, but these have fallen.
Within the courtyard are three structures. As is traditional in Shiva temples, the first is a large image of the sacred bull Nandi in front of the central temple. The central temple - Nandi Mantapa or Mandapa - houses the Lingam. The Nandi Mandapa stands on 16 pillars and is 29.3 m high. The base of the Nandi Mandapa has been carved to suggest that life-sized elephants are holding the structure aloft. A living rock bridge connects the Nandi Mandapa to the Shiva temple behind it. The temple itself is a tall pyramidal structure reminiscent of a South Indian Dravidian temple. The shrine – complete with pillars, windows, inner and outer rooms, gathering halls, and an enormous lingam at its heart – carved from living stone, is carved with niches, pilasters, windows as well as images of deities, mithunas (erotic male and female figures) and other figures. Most of the deities at the left of the entrance are Shaivaite (followers of Shiva) while on the right hand side the deities are Vaishnavaites (followers of Vishnu). There are two Dhvajastambhas (pillars with the flagstaff) in the courtyard. The grand sculpture of Ravana attempting to lift Mount Kailasa, the abode of Lord Shiva, with his full might is a landmark in Indian art. The construction of this cave was a feat of human genius – it entailed the removal of 200,000 tonnes of rock, and took 100 years to complete.
The temple is a splendid achievement of Rashtrakuta Karnata architecture. This project was started by Krishna I (757–773) of the Rashtrakuta dynasty that ruled from Manyakheta in present day Karnataka state. His rule had also spread to southern India, hence this temple was excavated in the prevailing style. Its builders modelled it on the lines of the Virupaksha Temple in Pattadakal. Being a south Indian style temple, it does not have a shikhara common to north Indian temples. – The Guide to the Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, 1996, Takeo Kamiya, Japan Architects Academy and archaeological Survey of India.
THE DASHAVATARA
The Dashavatara (Cave 15) was begun as a Buddhist monastery. It has an open court with a free-standing monolithic mandapa at the middle and a two-storeyed excavated temple at the rear. The layout of the temple is closely related to caves 11 and 12. Large sculptural panels between the wall columns on the upper floor illustrate a wide range of themes, which include the ten avatars of Vishnu. An inscription of grant of Dantidurga is found on the back wall of the front mandapa. According to Coomaraswamy, the finest relief of this cave is the one depicting the death of Hiranyakashipu, where Vishnu in man-lion (Narasimha) form, emerges from a pillar to lay a fatal hand upon the shoulder of Hiranyakashipu.
OTHER HINDU CAVES
CAVE 21
Other notable Hindu caves are the Rameshvara (Cave 21), which has figurines of river goddesses Ganga and Yamuna at the entrance and the Dhumar Lena (Cave 29) whose design is similar to the cave temple on Elephanta Island near Mumbai. Two other caves, the Ravan ki Khai (Cave 14) and the Nilkantha (Cave 22) also have several sculptures. The rest of the Hindu caves, which include the Kumbharvada (Cave 25) and the Gopilena (Cave 27) have no significant sculptures.
The five Jain caves at Ellora belong to the ninth and tenth centuries. They all belong to the Digambara sect. Jain caves reveal specific dimensions of Jain philosophy and tradition. They reflect a strict sense of asceticism – they are not relatively large as compared to others, but they present exceptionally detailed art works. The most remarkable Jain shrines are the Chhota Kailash (cave 30), the Indra Sabha (cave 32) and the Jagannath Sabha (cave 33). Cave 31 is an unfinished four-pillared hall and a shrine. Cave 34 is a small cave, which can be approached through an opening on the left side of Cave 33. Amongst other devotional carvings, a place called samvatsarana can be found in Elora caves. Samvatsarana is of special interest to Jains, as it is a hall where the tirthankara preaches after attaining omniscience.
THE INDRA SABHA
The Indra Sabha (Cave 32) is a two storeyed cave with one more monolithic shrine in its court. It has a very fine carving of the lotus flower on the ceiling. It got the appellation "Indra Sabha" probably it is significantly ornate and also because of the sculpture of the yaksha (dedicated attendant deity) Matanga on an elephant, which was wrongly identified as that of Indra. On the upper level of the double-storied shrine excavated at the rear of the court, an U image of Ambika, the yakshini of Neminath, is found seated on her lion under a mango tree, laden with fruits.
OTHER JAIN CAVES
All other Jain caves are also characterized by intricate detailing. Many of the structures had rich paintings in the ceilings - fragments of which are still visible.
GEOLOGY OF ELLORA
Ellora occupies a relatively flat region of the Western Ghats. Ancient volcanic activity in this area created many layered basalt formations, known as Deccan Traps. During the Cretaceous, one such volcanic hill formed on the southwest-facing side of Ellora. Its vertical face made access to many layers of rock formations easier, enabling architects to pick basalt with finer grains for more detailed sculpting.
INSCRIPTIONS AT ELLORA
Several inscriptions at Ellora range from 6th century to 15th century. The best known of them is an inscription of Rashtrakuta Dantidurga (c. 753-57 A.D.) on the back wall of the front mandapa of Cave 15, which gives an account of his conquests. Inscriptions on the Kailash temple itself range from 9th to 15th century. Jain cave Jagannatha Sabha has 3 inscriptions that give the names of monks and donors. A Parshvanth temple on the hill has a 11th-century inscription that gives the name of the donor from Vardhanapura.
The Great Kailasa (Cave 16) is attributed to Krishna I (c. 757-83 A.D.), the successor and uncle of Dantidurga. A copper plate grant by Karka II (c. 812-13 A.D.) narrates that a great edifice was built on a hill by Krishnaraja at Elapura (Ellora).
The Ellora caves, unlike Ajanta, were never lost. There have been several written records that indicate that these caves were visited regularly. The earliest is that of the Arab geographer Al-Mas‘udi of the 10th century A.D. In 1352 A.D. Sultan Hasan Gangu Bahmani, who camped at the site and visited the caves. The others are by Firishta, Thevenot (1633–67), Niccolao Manucci (1653-1708), Charles Warre Malet (1794), and Seely (1824)
WIKIPEDIA
8/52 - Literature (52 Weeks: The 2021 Edition)
While planning for this week’s theme, I ran across a line by Cassandra Clare from a trilogy called “The Infernal Devices” as follows:
“One must be careful of books, and what is inside them for words have the power to change us.”
Although I haven’t actually ready anything by Cassandra Clare, the line resonated with me, and I was immediately reminded of the following quote from a short story in the anthology shown here.
“They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.”
By Ursula K. LeGuin - “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
Entrance to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, Vietnam. Built as a temple of Confucius in 1070 and site of Vietnam's first national university.
Laurence Sterne - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
Penguin English Library EL 19, 1979
Cover: 'Caricature of Laurence Sterne and Death' by Thomas Patch, Jesus College, Cambridge
Egil's Saga
Translated by Hermann Pålsson and Paul Edwards
Penguin Classics L321
Published 1976; reprint 1980
Cover: A 17th century illustration depicting Egil Skallagrimsson, from a manuscript of the Saga in the Arnamagnæan Institute Copenhagen
W. Somerset Maugham - Collected Short Stories - Volume 1
Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics, 1977
Cover: A detail from 'The Palm' by Pierre Bonnard © The Philips Collection, Washington DC
Contains:
Rain
The Fall of Edward Barnard
Honolulu
The Luncheon
The Ant and the Grasshopper
Home
The Pool
Mackintosh
Appearance and Reality
The Three Fat Women of Antibes
The Facts of Life
Gigolo and Gigolette
The Happy Couple
The Voice of the Turtle
The Lion's Skin
The Unconquered
The Escape
The Judgement Seat
Mr. Know-All
The Happy Man
The Romantic Young Lady
The Point of Honour
The Poet
The Mother
A Man from Glasgow
Before the Party
Louise
The Promise
A String of Beads
The Yellow Streak
"Maxim Gorky";
"On Literature";
"Progress Publishers - Moscow";
"Maxim Gorky : On Literature; Progress Publishers - Moscow";
"Nikon Nikkor AI 28mm f/2";
"Nikon D200";
This Book and many many more have been generously given and gifted to me by my uncle "Rashid Mughal" whose life has been books and more books.