Krishna’s Playground
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ISBN:
9780190123987
Publication date:
10/01/2020
Paperback
382 pages
216.0x140.0mm
We sell our titles through other companies
Disclaimer :You will be redirected to a third party website.The sole responsibility of supplies, condition of the product, availability of stock, date of delivery, mode of payment will be as promised by the said third party only. Prices and specifications may vary from the OUP India site.
ISBN:
9780190123987
Publication date:
10/01/2020
Paperback
382 pages
216.0x140.0mm
John Stratton Hawley
Located at a dramatic bend in the River Yamuna, a hundred miles from the center of Delhi, Vrindavan is the spot where the god Krishna is believed to have spent his childhood and youth. For Hindus it has always stood for youth writ large. Now, though, the world is gobbling up Vrindavan. Half the town is a vast real-estate development—and the waters of the Yamuna are too polluted to drink or even bathe in. Temples now style themselves as theme parks, and the world’s tallest religious building is under construction in Krishna’s pastoral paradise.
Like our age as a whole, Vrindavan throbs with feisty energy, but is it the religious canary in our collective coal mine?
Rights: World Rights
John Stratton Hawley
Description
This is a book about a deeply beloved place—many call it the spiritual capital of India. Located at a dramatic bend in the River Yamuna, a hundred miles from the center of Delhi, Vrindavan is the spot where the god Krishna is believed to have spent his childhood and youth. For Hindus it has always stood for youth writ large—a realm of love and beauty that enables one to retreat from the weight and harshness of the world. Now, though, the world is gobbling up Vrindavan. Delhi’s megalopolitan sprawl inches closer day by day—half the town is a vast real-estate development—and the waters of the Yamuna are too polluted to drink or even bathe in. Temples now style themselves as theme parks, and the world’s tallest religious building is under construction in Krishna’s pastoral paradise.
What happens when the Anthropocene Age makes everything virtual? What happens when heaven gets plowed under? Like our age as a whole, Vrindavan throbs with feisty energy, but is it the religious canary in our collective coal mine?
About the Author
John Stratton Hawley is Claire Tow Professor of Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University.
John Stratton Hawley
Table of contents
Acknowledgments xi
Note on the Text xv
Map of Vrindavan xx
- Paradise—Lost? 1
- The Battle of Keshi Ghat 22
- Mall of Vrindavan 62
- The Skyscraper Temple 118
- A Diff erent Refuge for Women 178
- Being Shrivatsa 218
- The Sign of Our Times 266
Notes 298
Bibliography 333
Index 351
About the Author 360
John Stratton Hawley
John Stratton Hawley
Review
Beautifully written, with boundless love and compassion for its subject, Krishna's Playground fills the reader with dread and foreboding not only about what awaits Vrindavan but our entire planet. Hawley has successfully turned Vrindavan into an allegory of the entire world.
—Rajeev Bhargava, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
No one but Jack Hawley could have written this book, making full use of his lifetime of deep immersion in Vrindavan, another lifetime of scholarship on the history of Hinduism, and a third as a great translator of the sacred texts of the worship of Krishna. He narrates this complex story with a captivating simplicity and clarity that make the reader see why this story matters so very much to him.
—Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the History of Religions, The University of Chicago
Description
This is a book about a deeply beloved place—many call it the spiritual capital of India. Located at a dramatic bend in the River Yamuna, a hundred miles from the center of Delhi, Vrindavan is the spot where the god Krishna is believed to have spent his childhood and youth. For Hindus it has always stood for youth writ large—a realm of love and beauty that enables one to retreat from the weight and harshness of the world. Now, though, the world is gobbling up Vrindavan. Delhi’s megalopolitan sprawl inches closer day by day—half the town is a vast real-estate development—and the waters of the Yamuna are too polluted to drink or even bathe in. Temples now style themselves as theme parks, and the world’s tallest religious building is under construction in Krishna’s pastoral paradise.
What happens when the Anthropocene Age makes everything virtual? What happens when heaven gets plowed under? Like our age as a whole, Vrindavan throbs with feisty energy, but is it the religious canary in our collective coal mine?
About the Author
John Stratton Hawley is Claire Tow Professor of Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University.
Read MoreReviews
Beautifully written, with boundless love and compassion for its subject, Krishna's Playground fills the reader with dread and foreboding not only about what awaits Vrindavan but our entire planet. Hawley has successfully turned Vrindavan into an allegory of the entire world.
—Rajeev Bhargava, Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
No one but Jack Hawley could have written this book, making full use of his lifetime of deep immersion in Vrindavan, another lifetime of scholarship on the history of Hinduism, and a third as a great translator of the sacred texts of the worship of Krishna. He narrates this complex story with a captivating simplicity and clarity that make the reader see why this story matters so very much to him.
—Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the History of Religions, The University of Chicago
Read MoreTable of contents
Acknowledgments xi
Note on the Text xv
Map of Vrindavan xx
- Paradise—Lost? 1
- The Battle of Keshi Ghat 22
- Mall of Vrindavan 62
- The Skyscraper Temple 118
- A Diff erent Refuge for Women 178
- Being Shrivatsa 218
- The Sign of Our Times 266
Notes 298
Bibliography 333
Index 351
About the Author 360
Read More
