Formalized by the tenth century, the expansive Bhagavata Purana resists easy categorization. While the narrative holds together as a coherent literary work, its language and expression compete with the best of Sanskrit poetry. The text's theological message focuses on devotion to Krishna or Vishnu, and its philosophical outlook is grounded in the classical traditions of Vedanta and Samkhya. No other Purana has inspired so much commentary, imitation, and derivation. The work has grown in vibrancy through centuries of performance, interpretation, worship, and debate and has guided the actions and meditations of elite intellectuals and everyday worshippers alike.
This annotated translation and detailed analysis shows how one text can have such enduring appeal. Key selections from the Bhagavata Purana are faithfully translated, while all remaining sections of the Purana are concisely summarized, providing the reader with a continuous and comprehensive narrative. Detailed endnotes explain unfamiliar concepts and several essays elucidate the rich philosophical and religious debates found in the Sanskrit commentaries. Together with the multidisciplinary readings contained in the companion volume The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition (Columbia, 2013), this book makes a central Hindu masterpiece more accessible to English-speaking audiences and more meaningful to scholars of Hindu literature, philosophy, and religion.
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- I. One Nation, Many Histories
- Ancestral Faces
- The Holocene Archaeology of Ghana
- Quest for the River, Creation of the Path
- A Creation Story and a “Beautiful Prayer” to Tano
- Folk Songs of Ghana
- Bono-Takyiman Oral Traditions
- Oral Traditions of Adanse and Denkyira
- An Account of Early Asante
- Fante Oral Traditions: Kwamankɛse and Komenda
- Archaeological Reflections on Ghanaian Traditions of Origin
- Prelude to the Atlantic Slave Trade
- II. Between the Sea and the Savanna, 1500–1700
- Encounter with Europe
- The Voyage of Eustache de la Fosse
- A View of the Gold Coast from the Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis
- Letter from Mina Governor to the Queen [Catarina]
- A Report on Mina
- The Gold Kingdom of Guinea
- Letter 17
- Treaties between Gold Coast Polities and the King of Denmark and the Danish Africa Company
- The Dutch and the Gold Coast
- Denkyira in the Making of Asante
- Ta’rīkh Ghunjā
- III. Commerce and the Scrambles for Africa, 1700–1900
- The Various Nations of Blacks in Guinea
- Plates
- Revolt on a Danish Slaving Voyage
- Journal and Correspondences of H. W. Daendels
- The “Bowdich” Treaty with Asante and the Oath at Nyankumasi
- She Who Blazed a Trail: Akyaawa Yikwan of Asante
- Plantations and Labor in the Southeast Gold Coast
- Petition of the Principal Mulatto Females of the Gold Coast
- Grievances of the Gold Coast Chiefs
- Proclamation of George Cumine Strahan
- GoldMining and Colonial Capitalism in the Gold Coast
- Between the Sea and the Lagoon: The AnloEwe of Southeastern Ghana
- One Hundred and Fifty Years of Christianity in a Ghanaian Town
- The Peoples of the Gold Coast Hinterland
- For the Safety of the Public, and the Welfare of the Race
- To the Educated Community in the Gold Coast Colony
- IV. Colonial Rule and Political Independence, 1900–1957
- The Petition of 1913
- Fathering, Mothering, and Making Sense of Ntamoba in Colonial Asante
- The Blinkards
- The Trial of Akrofi
- Of Water and Spirits
- AFRINHYIA PA O-O-O!
- Reminiscences: The Hill of Knowledge
- The ARPS and the National Congress, 1901–30
- Women’s Conjugal Strategies in a World of Cash and Cocoa
- Report on the Riots of 1948, Commission of Enquiry into Disturbances in the Gold Coast
- History and National Development: The Case of John Mensah Sarbah and the Reconstruction of Gold Coast History
- The Administrative Problem
- The Employment of Men: Clerks, Police, Soldiers, and Teachers, 1930–1951
- Achimota: From the Story My Mother Taught Me
- Women and Their Organizations during the Convention People’s Party Period
- Ghana: The Pioneer Guards the Gate
- Birth of Ghana
- V. Independence, Coups, and the Republic, 1957–Present
- Independence Speech
- The Nkrumah Government and Its Opposition
- Africa’s Resources
- Ordained by the Oracle
- Flight
- Everything Counts
- Story: Patience and Pleading
- Rebellion, Revolution, and Tradition: Reinterpreting Coups in Ghana
- Miracles and the Message (1983 Drought in Ghana)
- Win the Match and Vote for Me
- The 1994 Civil War in Northern Ghana
- “That All Konkomba Should Henceforth Unite”
- I Am Not Brainwashed
- HydroPower and the Promise of Modernity and Development in Ghana
- The Ghanaian Media and National Unity
- VI. The Exigencies of a Postcolony
- The Return of the Native
- Toward a PanAfrican Identity: Diaspora African Repatriates in Ghana
- Slavery and the Making of Black Atlantic History
- The Return through the Door of No Return
- Citizenship and Identity among Ghanaian Migrants in Toronto
- Chieftaincy, Diaspora, and Development
- China–Africa Relations: A Case Study of Ghana
- Ghana Market Women Pay the Daily Micro Man
- “The Slums of Nima” and “Fading Laughter”
- Ghanaian Highlife
- Profile of Five Ghana Emcees
- Kumasi Realism: Alex Amofa
- Paradigm Shift
- The Funeral as a Site for Choreographing Modern Identities in Contemporary Ghana
- The United States, Ghana, and Oil: Global and Local Perspectives
- Obama’s Visit as a Signifier of Ghanaians’ “Colonial Mentality”
- Mobile Phones and Our Cultural Values
- Ghallywood or the Ghanaian Movie Industry
- Ghana’s Philosophy of Survival
- Suggestions for Further Reading
- Acknowledgment of Copyrights and Sources
- Index
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