Sakti and Barakat: The Power of Tipu's Tiger

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Brittlebank

A figure who walks larger than life through the pages of eighteenthcentury south-Indian history is Tipu Sultan Fath Ali Khan, who held power in Mysore from 1782 until his death at the hands of the British in 1799. In general, scholars of his reign have taken a mainly Eurocentric approach, essentially concentrating on his external relationships and activities, particularly with regard to the French and the British, while more recently there has been some examination of his economy and administration. Recent research into both kingship and religion in south India raises issues which suggest that it is time this ruler was reassessed in his own terms, from the point of view of the cultural environment in which he was operating.3 Little attempt so far has been made to do this.4 One matter which merits closer attention is his use of symbols, particularly in connection with the symbolic expression of kingship. Given Tipu's somewhat ambiguous status as a parvenu, whose legitimacy as ruler was questionable, this would appear to be a fruitful area for research.5 His most famous symbol was the tiger, yet while it has captured the imagination of scholars in other disciplines,6 it has not exercised the minds of historians to any extent.7 It is the aim of this paper to restore the balance by looking at this symbol in the light of the work of Susan Bayly, who has underlined the strongly syncretic nature of religion in south India. Drawing upon both written and oral material, Bayly has described the interaction which has taken place between Muslim, Hindu and Christian traditions, the result of which is a borrowing of symbols and ideas, a frequently shared vocabulary, and an interweaving of motifs within a common sacred landscape, at the centre of which is the imagery associated with the ammans or goddesses of the region.8 It is my contention that an examination of Tipu's tiger symbol will reveal that it is firmly rooted in this syncretic religious environment and that this should emphasize to us the importance of placing the Mysore ruler within his cultural context in order to understand his actions, particularly from the point of view of kingship.

Author(s):  
M Rajeshwari ◽  
A Amirthavalli

In Tamil Nadu Hinduism and Buddhism, Jainism is one of the three oldest Indian strict conventions still in presence and a necessary piece of South indian strict conviction and practice. While frequently utilizing ideas imparted to Hinduism and Buddhism, the consequence of a typical social and phonetic foundation, the Jain convention should be viewed as a free marvel as opposed to as a Hindu order or a Buddhist blasphemy, as some previous Western researchers accepted. In South India, Jainism is minimal in overflow of a name. Indeed, even genuine understudies of religion in India gave little consideration to it. In a populace of almost 60 crores of individuals, Jainas may establish almost nearly 3 million individuals. Jainism is the religion of the Jains who follow the way, lectured and rehearsed by the Jinas. It is a fully evolved and grounded religion and social framework that rose up out of 6 century BC .The trademark highlight of this religion is its case to all inclusiveness which it holds essentially contrary to Brahmanism. It very well may be said that throughout the previous 2500 years the Jains have contributed such a huge amount to each circle of life of Indian individuals both as a religion and a way of thinking. They contributed a lot to the regions of culture, language, exchange and agribusiness, or all in all the Jains opened up another period of human thoughts and musings. In Indian History, endeavors were made to contemplate Jainism as a religion and its commitments yet focus on the Jain movement into Tamil Nadu and its effects are restricted. An endeavor is made in this examination to investigate the recorded geology of the Jain focuses in Tamil Nadu.


1960 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burton Stein

The economic importance of Hindu temples in medieval South India has been commented upon by most students of South Indian history. Without exception, the temple is seen to have had a central place in the dominantly agrarian economy of South India prior to the extension of British control in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, beyond recognition of the significant economic functions of medieval South Indian temples, little attention has been given to the matter.


1990 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattison Mines ◽  
Vijayalakshmi Gourishankar

Although there has been great interest in how properly to conceptualize the person in Indian culture, few have explored Indian perceptions of leadership, achievement, and agency as valued features of individuality (Singer 1972; Mines 1988; Fox 1989). Indeed, since Dumont (1970a,b) forcefully argued that the values of equality and liberty that support the Western notion of the individual were absent from Indian society, the important roles that personal uniqueness, volition, and achievement play in Indian history have been largely overlooked or understated. This paper reconsiders an Indian sense of these roles by examining the south Indian concept of the “big-man” (periyar, periyavar), a notion of individuality and instrumentality that is central to the politics of south India and crucial to an understanding of the dynamic relationship that exists between action and organization in Indian society (cf., Fox 1989).


1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Subrahmanyam

AbstractThis paper is concerned with early modern southern India, and in particular, the areas ruled over by Vijayanagara, the Nayakas of Senji and the Nawwabs of Arcot. Its primary intention is to point out that states as diverse as these produced important narratives that served as points of self-definition. Positivist historians have often struggled to understand what to do with these texts, asking in effect whether they are “truths” or “lies,” and often rejecting them wholsesale for the ostensibly more “reliable” stone and copper-plate based inscriptions.The paper argues against the divide in south Indian history between “textualists,” who read narrative texts, and “epigraphers,” who prefer the “hard” evidence of inscriptions, and contends that any general historical analysis must of necessity be based on a reading of both forms of materials. In this context, the paper develops the argument for the emergence of a certain historical self-consciousness in early modern south India, both in the Perso-Islamic and the vernacular traditions, and in their interface. It would naturally be tempting to see matters in terms of a succession of expressive forms, each one successfully and finally displacing its predecessors, but it is proposed that the realities one encounters are rather more complex than this model would suggest.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Anil Kumar ◽  
Saibel Farishta ◽  
G Baiju ◽  
VK Taneja ◽  
RC Minocha ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The present study was undertaken to assess the skeletal craniofacial asymmetry in South Indian population by a posteroanterior cephalometric radiographic method. The skeletal craniofacial structures on one side of the face were compared with that of the other, by drawing various triangles representing different craniofacial regions. The sample consisted of 60 subjects (30 males and 30 females) aged between 18 to 25 years, who were mainly dental college students from South India. Overall 52 X-rays were obtained, with four errors each in the male and the female groups. The results revealed that the total facial structures in the South Indian population were larger on the left side (statistically insignificant). The cranial base area exhibited a greater degree of asymmetry than any other component area of the face, which might be due to the inaccuracy at the condylar point. How to cite this article Taneja VK, Kumar GA, Farishta S, Minocha RC, Baiju G, Gopal D. An Assessment of Skeletal Craniofacial Asymmetry in South Indian Population. J Contemp Dent Pract 2012;13(1):80-84.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohan Kumar Papanna ◽  
Basilea Watson ◽  
Radhamani MP ◽  
Soumya S. Swaminathan ◽  
Manjula Datta ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Maria Chikarkova ◽  

Although graffiti is a well-known phenomenon of street art, there is still no single point of view on this phenomenon (even if it is considered art at all). Both the essence and the manifestations of graffiti remain a matter of debate - there are dozens of different classifications, that they are based on different characteristics. However, the phenomenon has rarely attracted attention from the point of view of semiotics, though it is the semiotic reading of graffiti that makes it possible to understand its nature more deeply. Due to semiotics we could create an integrative classification, which would combine stylistics and subject matter into one system. The article made exactly such an attempt –providing of the semiotic classification of graffiti, based on Ch. Peirce’s classification of semiotic signs. Graffiti is a sign, because it has a material shell of the latter, a marked object and rules of interpretation. It functions within the subculture and signifies the individual's desire to escape from the deterministic nature of urban life (J. Baudrillard). It is a culture of the semiosphere, which continuously gives rise to new connotations and, accordingly, generates new receptions. An important component of graffiti interpretation is the cultural code; it is not read outside the field of conventionality, cultural context. Decoding of graffiti can occur in three ways. From our point of view, it is appropriate to use S. Hall’sclassification. He suggested a scheme for "decrypting" messages in the media, however, in our opinion, his scheme works for any communicative act (including graffiti). He distinguished dominant ("dominant-hegemonic"), oppositional ("oppositional") and negotiated ("negotiated") decoding. In the graffiti situation, oppositional decoding prevails among ordinary recipients (passers-by). U. Eco called this type aberrant, because it provides "decryption" of text with a different code than the one it was created for. Authors of graffiti themselves are often not fully aware of what they createalso. Modern writers use techniques of op-art, Dadaism, surrealism, etc., without being very oriented in all these directions. When graffiti combines different types of art (for example, the combination of painting with literature), it takes into account the features of inter-semiotic translation, which makes the decoding situation even more complicated. We offercreating a semioticclassificationofgraffiti, that might be based on Ch. Peirce’s classification of semiotic signs, whichdistinguishthesigns-copies, signs-indexes, signs-symbols. It could help the essence of graffiti and decode them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Atin Fitriana

<p>The Javanese culture has a specific perspective on the ideal figure of women. This perspective is generally manifested in the classical texts, for example, in Serat Wulang Putri Adisara. Written by Nyi Adisara. Serat Wulang Putri contains the teachings for royal daughters in living their life as Javanese women based on Javanese teachings. In this manuscript, the readers can see the women figure portrayed from the perspective of a woman writer. This paper discusses the ideal women’s discourse in Serat Wulang Putri using the approach of critical discourse analysis from van Dijk. The analysis is conducted by considering the text’s microstructure, macrostructure, and cultural context. Through the analysis, we can see the ideal discourse of Javanese women based on Serat Wulang Putri. Furthermore, the text discusses women as figures who must pay attention to their attitudes and behavior, and can control their hearts, minds, and feelings. In this case, the author uses the male point of view to describe the characteristics of ideal Javanese women. Javanese women are also described as a weak figure and must obey what men command or expect from them.</p>


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0246497
Author(s):  
Vandana Manomohan ◽  
Ramasamy Saravanan ◽  
Rudolf Pichler ◽  
Nagarajan Murali ◽  
Karuppusamy Sivakumar ◽  
...  

The present study is the first comprehensive report on diversity, population structure, genetic admixture and mitochondrial DNA variation in South Indian draught type zebu cattle. The diversity of South Indian cattle was moderately high. A significantly strong negative correlation coefficient of -0.674 (P<0.05) was observed between the effective population size of different breeds and their estimated FIS. The genetic structure analysis revealed the distinctness of Kangayam, Vechur and Punganur cattle from the rest of the zebu breeds. The results showed the influence of Hallikar breed in the development of most Mysore type cattle breeds of South India with the exception of Kangayam. Bayesian clustering analysis was performed to assess the taurine admixture in South Indian zebu cattle using purebred Jersey and Holstein-Friesian as reference genotypes. Relatively high levels of taurine admixture (>6.25%) was observed in Punganur, Vechur, Umblachery and Pulikulam cattle breeds. Two major maternal haplogroups, I1 and I2, typical of zebu cattle were observed, with the former being predominant than the later. The pairwise differences among the I2 haplotypes of South Indian cattle were relatively higher than West Indian (Indus valley site) zebu cattle. The results indicated the need for additional sampling and comprehensive analysis of mtDNA control region variations to unravel the probable location of origin and domestication of I2 zebu lineage. The present study also revealed major concerns on South Indian zebu cattle (i) risk of endangerment due to small effective population size and high rate of inbreeding (ii) lack of sufficient purebred zebu bulls for breeding and (iii) increasing level of taurine admixture in zebu cattle. Availability of purebred semen for artificial insemination, incorporation of genomic/molecular information to identify purebred animals and increased awareness among farmers will help to maintain breed purity, conserve and improve these important draught cattle germplasms of South India.


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