Adoration of the Ancients
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Adorations of the Ancients offers a complete English translation of all 19 stories from Vaddaradhane in a single volume. These stories represent the earliest prose in 10th-century Halagannada. Initially, they seem to be highly religious, emphasising ethics and morality aligned with the Jain tradition. However, as creative works, they function on multiple levels: realistic, mythical, fantastic, quasi-historical, worldly, monarchical, economic, and socio-cultural. The characters are consistently portrayed within various economic classes and, interestingly, rarely within caste groups. Women characters are depicted as strong and decisive. This translation is based on R.L. Anantharamaiah’s edition of Shivakotyacharya’s Vaddaradhane. It aims to balance the limitations and scope of equivalents and approximations, making the reading experience enjoyable while maintaining scholarly interest.
Read moreAbout the Book
Adorations of the Ancients offers a complete English translation of all 19 stories from Vaddaradhane in a single volume. These stories represent the earliest prose in 10th-century Halagannada. Initially, they seem to be highly religious, emphasising ethics and morality aligned with the Jain tradition.
However, as creative works, they function on multiple levels: realistic, mythical, fantastic, quasi-historical, worldly, monarchical, economic, and socio-cultural. The characters are consistently portrayed within various economic classes and, interestingly, rarely within caste groups. Women characters are depicted as strong and decisive. This translation is based on R.L. Anantharamaiah’s edition of Shivakotyacharya’s Vaddaradhane. It aims to balance the limitations and scope of equivalents and approximations, making the reading experience enjoyable while maintaining scholarly interest.
Book Details
Kannada Literature - From Eleventh Century through the Nineteenth Century
- Author Name:
Ravichnadra P. Chittampalli +1
- Book Type:
- Description:
he reader is surprised by the narrative's fracture of Kannada literary history, as it deliberately departs from the established taxonomy based on creed, caste, and esoteric affiliations. It is the only Kannada anthology of the middle period spanning over 9 centuries from the 11th to the 19th. There are translated selections refreshingly present, and the entire tradition of creative endeavours from the most fruitful and exciting period of condylar literature is presented in 4 formalistic sections. The texts, both popular and lesser-known literary compositions, successfully gathered in one place, offer insight into a significant shift in style, form, and theme. Its page is being written with a mnemonic episode from Devadatta and the end of the popular force key, Sangya Balya
Contemporary Kashmiri Short Stories
- Author Name:
Hriday Kaul Bharati +1
- Book Type:
- Description:
The Kashmiri short story was born with the progressive movement in Kashmir and its acceptted the standards and values dictated by the movement unquesioningly. Nationalism and the desire for reaching out to people inspired most of the writers to switch over to Kashmiri, even though they had strated writing in Urdu. Dinanath Nadim's Javabi Card (Reply-Card) and Somnath Zutshi's Yell Phol Gash (when there was light) are the first two short stories written in Kashmiri
Contemporary Indian Short Stories Series II
- Author Name:
Bhabani Bhattacharya
- Book Type:
- Description:
This collection of twenty-two short stories, written mostly between 1930 and 1950 by various authors, offers a snapshot of contemporary Indian short fiction. Twenty stories are translations from fourteen Indian languages, and two are original works in English. This demonstrates, if proof were needed, that Indian literature, despite being written in many languages, is unified - not by sameness, but by its rich diversity.
Epochal Voices
- Author Name:
Murari Madhusudan Thakur
- Book Type:
- Description:
A comparison of the lives and writing of Devkota and Nirala by Murari Madhusudan Thakur. Sahitya Akademi Award 2021
Short Stories from Pakistan
- Author Name:
Intizar Hussain +2
- Book Type:
- Description:
The short stories - originally written in Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushto, and Saraiki, and now translated into English - showcased in this anthology engage with the above questions in their own ways, articulating a multiplicity of voices and experiences. They chronicle the birth of the nation of Pakistan in traumatic circumstances and its chequered history over the past fifty years by depicting the "desire and aspirations, fear and horror, pride, shame, helplessness and a thousand other unnamed feelings" of their protagonists. In doing so, they also depict the immensely varied and rich tapestry of cultural life in Pakistan.
Mizo Songs and Folk Tales
- Author Name:
Laltluangliana Khiangte
- Book Type:
- Description:
The dialects and languages spoken by tribals in India are very large in number. The literary compositions in most of them have survived in oral form though some tribal languages have taken to writing as means of recording literary compositions. Conventionally, they have been perceived as mere anthropological curiosity, or at best a source for oral history. They have rarely been translated into English or an Indian language as a representation of tribal imagination. In order to meet the long felt need for brining out a systematic series of India's tribal literature, sahitya Akademi has established a project of Indian Literature in Tribal Languages and Oral Traditions.
Tales of Tomorrow
- Author Name:
Rana Nayar
- Book Type:
- Description:
Tales of Tomorrow is a fascinating, engaging mix of both old and young storytellers, guided by the brief that 'tomorrow' always leaps out of the ubiquitous womb of 'yesterday'. Chosen from among a vast array of short fiction that the ever-burgeoning Indian English has yielded over the past thirty years or more, Tales of Tomorrow endorses as well as interrogates the notion of Indianness, as it is often understood today. Some of these stories overpower us with the urgency of an insiders' view, while others tantalise us with a double vision of an 'insider-outsider', capturing all hues of the hydra- headed Indian reality. The collection reveals a new vibrant face of India, poised delicately on the edge of change and renewal. Drawn from different geographical regions, and representing the literary spirit, folk idiom and local culture of each, these stories authenticate a medley of bold, confident voices that are likely to resonate much longer than we may have imagined.
History of Marathi Literature
- Author Name:
Kusumawati Deshpande +1
- Book Type:
- Description:
Marathi has an unbroken literary tradition of over eight centuries, divided conveniently into two distinct periods, classical and modern. The Classical period spans six centuries, remarkable for poetry, devotional and heroic. Jnandev, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram and Ramdas have become household names throughout India. While Virasaiva, Jain, and Muslim poets have enriched the secular and spiritual content, wandering minstrels have sung heroic ballads. New forms of literature have flowered from the nineteenth century under the impact of English education and western thought. The Chiplunkar, Apte, Anil Despande, Phadke, Khandekar, Mardhekar, Rege and Gadgil. Tracing the earliest reference to Maharashtra in a rock inscription of the fourth century, the history concludes with the formation of the state in 1960.
Gora
- Author Name:
Rabindranath Thakur
- Book Type:
- Description:
English Translation of Rabindranath Tagore's Bengali novel Gora. Gora consists of two parallel love stories of two pairs of lovers: Gora and Sucharita, Binoy and Lolita. Their emotional development is shown in the background of the social and political problems prevalent in India towards the end of the 19th-century. The novel is the longest novel written by Tagore. It deeply influences the Indian society and emerged as a debate between Brahmo Samaj and Hinduism.
Selected Readings of Sri Ramanuja
- Author Name:
S Ranganath
- Book Type:
- Description:
Selected Readings of Sri Ramanuja: Sri Ramanujacharya is one of the three great acharyas whose Sahasramanotsava was recently celebrated with joy and grandeur. His efforts to uplift the poor and oppressed are remarkable. Over his 120-year life, he authored numerous works to inspire devotion in the masses by emphasising the concept of Saranagati or Prapatti (self-surrender to God). Scholars from both Eastern and Western traditions, including Swami Vivekananda and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, as well as Goethe and Ninian Smart, have honoured Ramanuja with high praise. His altruistic service, compassion, and love for the uneducated and impoverished remain relevant today. This book, in 25 chapters, explores the influence of the Vishishtadvaita philosophy within Indian tradition, organised into three sections: Predecessors of Ramanuja, Ramanuja himself, and his Successors. The final chapter discusses Ramanuja's enduring significance for the 21st century, offering a comprehensive overview of his contributions to Indian thought.
Dakshina
- Author Name:
Sirpi Balasubramaniam
- Book Type:
- Description:
A literary digest of South Indian Languages.
A History Of Indian Literature 500-1399
- Author Name:
Sisir Kumar Das
- Book Type:
- Description:
A prequel to a History of Indian Literature 1800-1910, the present volume deals with the first nine hundred years of the medieval period of Indian Literary history. The literary scene in India during the period presents a fantastically varied and wide spectrum of thought and expressions, here vibrant, there dull, now vigorous and natural now sophisticated and recondite at once sublime and crude
THE TALE OF THE TWIN WARRIORS
- Author Name:
Bannanje Babu Amin +1
- Book Type:
- Description:
Oral epics in any Indian language are generally associated with certain specific communities, defined by their traditional occupations; and the present oral epic Koti Channaya belongs to the Billava community. This poetic narrative, which records the life and adventures of the two cultural heroes of the Billava community, their yearning for cultivable land, their brave opposition to the established powerful classes, and their tragic end, is sung by the members of the particular communities called Pambada and Parava of coastal Karnataka, during the annual worship of the twin heroes. The oral epic, Koti Chennaya unravels the world of Billava community (traditionally toddy-tappers) of coastal Karnataka recording in the process the life and adventures as also the travails and tribulations of the two cultural heroes of Billava community. Most of the oral epics begin with a 'Creation Myth', which begins with the creation of the entire universe step by step, thus focuses on the legendary first parents/ancestors of the community concerned. Such a myth, besides glorifying the cultural heroes of the epic, gives a privileged position to the community by linking it with the rest of the world and gives it a socio-cultural identity. Koti Channaya also begins with a 'Creation Myth'. A recent study undertaken by UNESCO says that half of the 6,700 languages spoken in the world at present face the danger of extinction before the end of this century.
ONCE UPON A TIME
- Author Name:
A Sethumadhavan +1
- Book Type:
- Description:
Once Upon a time by A. Sethumadhavan, is a novel which surrounds priyamvada, who is an HR professional, and a single parent at the centre of its narrative. The strong undercurrent of this award-winning title is the way woman asserts her independence and deft strokes in the book suggest how a professional woman scores. The novel very beautifully depicts the personal journey of a single parent, where are dilemmas which priyamvada faces, doing a tightrope walk between the labor force and the managements, trying to fill the vacuum in her daughter’s life and consciously attempting to steady her own emotional moorings.
History of Indian English Literature
- Author Name:
M.K. Naik
- Book Type:
- Description:
Indian English literature began as an interesting by-product of an eventful encounter in the late eighteenth cntury between a vigorous and enterprising Britain and a stagnant and chaotic India, and is now nealy twi hundred years old. It is literature written originally in English by authors Indian by birth, ancestry or nationality. It is no part of English literature any more than American literature or Australian lterature can be said to be branch of British literature. It is legitimatly a part of Indian literature, since its differntia is the expression in it of an Indian ethos.
THE WORLD IS THE NEXT VILLAGE
- Author Name:
Solon Karthak +1
- Book Type:
- Description:
it is a collection of 25 travel tales that talk about his trips around the world.
History of Punjabi Literature
- Author Name:
Sant Singh Sekhon +1
- Book Type:
- Description:
The vitalityof Punjabi lietrature, its rootedness in its landscape, and its concern with the totality of human experience is evident everywhere in this volume. While it will be of undoubted value to the student of Punjabi literature, we also hope that its vitality and readability will make it attractive to other readers as well.
The Parsi Contribution to Indian Literature
- Author Name:
Coomi S Vevaina
- Book Type:
- Description:
Compilation of papers presented at symposium on Parsin Contribution to Indian Literature organised by Sahitya Akademi in 2015 at Mumbai.
Swadheen Bharat Ka Hindi Sahitya Part 1
- Author Name:
Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari
- Book Type:
- Description:
स्वाधीन भारत का हिंदी साहित्य शीर्षक ग्रंथ, जिसका आलोच्य काल 1947-2010 है, हिंदी साहित्य की विविध प्रवृत्तियों और विधाओं का ऐतिहासिक तथा विश्लेषणात्मक अध्ययन प्रस्तुत करता है। यह एक ऐसा साहित्येतिहास ग्रंथ है जिसमें कोशिश की गई है कि उल्लेख्य योग्य सभी लेखकों एवं उनकी कृतियों का उल्लेख हो तथा महत्त्व के अनुसार उन लेखकों-कृतियों पर छोटी-बड़ी मूल्यांकपरक टिप्पणियाँ रहें। किसी प्रकार की व्यक्तिगत या विचारधारात्मक गुटबंदी से मुक्त होकर साहित्य का एक व्यापक समावेशी चित्र सामने आए, जो पाठकों, छात्रों और शोध-अध्येताओं के लिए उपयोगी हो।
Swadheen Bharat Ka Hindi Sahitya Part 2
- Author Name:
Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari
- Book Type:
- Description:
स्वाधीन भारत का हिंदी साहित्य शीर्षक ग्रंथ, जिसका आलोच्य काल 1947-2010 है, हिंदी साहित्य की विविध प्रवृत्तियों और विधाओं का ऐतिहासिक तथा विश्लेषणात्मक अध्ययन प्रस्तुत करता है। यह एक ऐसा साहित्येतिहास ग्रंथ है जिसमें कोशिश की गई है कि उल्लेख्य योग्य सभी लेखकों एवं उनकी कृतियों का उल्लेख हो तथा महत्त्व के अनुसार उन लेखकों-कृतियों पर छोटी-बड़ी मूल्यांकपरक टिप्पणियाँ रहें। किसी प्रकार की व्यक्तिगत या विचारधारात्मक गुटबंदी से मुक्त होकर साहित्य का एक व्यापक समावेशी चित्र सामने आए, जो पाठकों, छात्रों और शोध-अध्येताओं के लिए उपयोगी हो।
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Adoration of the Ancients translates all 19 stories from Vaddaradhane, the oldest prose work in Kannada, composed in 10th-century Halagannada. These narratives open as religious instruction in the Jain tradition, emphasizing ethics and moral conduct, but unfold into something layered and restless. They shift registers constantly—mythical beings walk into monarchical courts, economic transactions drive spiritual decisions, and characters navigate worlds both quasi-historical and fantastic. What appears devotional on the surface reveals itself as socio-cultural portraiture, capturing the textures of a medieval South Indian world where religion, commerce, and power were inseparable. This complete English edition preserves the multiplicity of the original, offering readers a text that resists simple categorization and rewards close attention to its shifts in tone, setting, and narrative logic.
What kind of reading experience does Adoration of the Ancients offer?
Adoration of the Ancients demands patience and rewards curiosity. The prose moves between devotional clarity and narrative complexity, between moral fables and economic realism. Readers encounter characters who operate in multiple registers simultaneously—spiritual seekers entangled in monarchical politics, merchants whose transactions carry cosmic weight. The tone shifts unexpectedly: a story that begins as religious instruction may veer into quasi-historical chronicle or mythical fantasy. The experience is less about emotional immersion and more about intellectual discovery, tracing how 10th-century storytellers embedded ethical teaching within richly textured social worlds. It leaves you alert to narrative ambiguity and the layered purposes of early prose.
Who should read this book, and what does it expect from its reader?
Adoration of the Ancients suits readers fascinated by the origins of Indian literary traditions, particularly those interested in how religious texts function as cultural documents. It expects familiarity with Jain ethical frameworks or a willingness to engage with them without prior knowledge. Scholars of medieval Indian history, Kannada literature, and comparative religion will find it essential. General readers drawn to ancient narratives—those who enjoy tracing the evolution of storytelling technologies—will appreciate its archival value. The text rewards slow reading and benefits from an appetite for prose that does not separate the sacred from the worldly, the fantastic from the economic.
Why does the earliest Kannada prose matter to contemporary Indian readers?
Vaddaradhane represents the moment when Kannada prose emerged as a literary instrument, before the language's classical period. For contemporary readers, it reveals how ethical instruction was inseparable from socio-economic observation in medieval Karnataka. The stories capture a world where trade routes, royal patronage, and religious community intertwined, offering historical insight into how Jainism shaped South Indian culture. In the present, where regional literary histories are being reclaimed and reassessed, this text provides primary evidence of Kannada's narrative sophistication centuries before colonial documentation began. It anchors contemporary Kannada identity in a traceable literary lineage.
What makes this translation distinctive among other award-winning works published by this press?
This edition offers all 19 stories in a single volume, making the complete Vaddaradhane accessible to English readers for the first time. The translation preserves the text's resistance to genre—its refusal to be purely religious, purely historical, or purely fictional. Where other translations of ancient texts often smooth archaic prose into contemporary readability, this version retains the shifts in register that define the original's narrative logic. It does not modernize the ethical framework or simplify the worldview. The result is a text that feels distant and immediate at once, requiring readers to meet the stories on their own terms rather than expecting them to conform to modern storytelling conventions.
What does this book leave readers with after they finish it?
Readers emerge with a recalibrated sense of how narrative functioned before the novel, before the short story as a fixed form. The stories do not resolve into single meanings; they accumulate layers—moral, economic, mythical—that coexist without synthesis. Emotionally, the text is restrained, favouring observation over interiority. Intellectually, it offers a model of storytelling in which instruction and imagination are indivisible, and characters exist to test ethical propositions within socially specific worlds. Culturally, it provides a point of entry into 10th-century Karnataka's cosmopolitan Jain milieu, a reminder that Indian literary history extends far deeper than colonial archives suggest. It leaves you attentive to the archaeology of prose itself.