Motilal Banarsidass

Kailash Mansarovar: Diary of a Pilgrim

This profusely illustrated travelogue is a tale about fancies and fears, adventures and aspirations, expectations and disillusions, escapes and retreats experienced by a team of adventurous pilgrims. This is a story of an unforgettable odyssey to the holy Mount Kailash and the sacred Mansarovar describing mysteries connected with the land capturing the intangible air of faith and pilgrimage. This travelogue takes us on a journey to the wild, seldom travelled northern route visiting the remote cities, towns and monsteries of mysterious Tibet. It is a gripping story of pilgrims who aspire to see Gods living in the wilderness of the remote holy land. This is an engrossing, touching and remarkable account of a picturesque travel with nice imagery describing majestic mountains, turquoise lakes and virgin rivers of Tibet. Written in a brilliant style, it is a dramatic record that succeeds in imparting onto the readers some of the intensely experienced emotions that will remain long in memory. This book has been included in the Tibetan Travel Classics, Pilgrims Publishing, Varanasi, India and Pilgrims Book House, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Apad-Dharma in the Mahabharata: How to Face Calamities at Personal, State, and Global Levels

The literal meaning of the Sanskrit word “Apaddharma” is “dharma appropriate at the time of calamity”. The Mahabharata’s use of this expression implies that, in the opinion of the author of this epic, the traditional varnashramadharma would not prove to be strong enough to protect the society, if and when there is a calamity. Therefore, Vedic scholars ought to have welcomed the messages of Apad-dharma when the society was actually attacked by external forces during the premodern period.

The historical background of the present study poses an important, academic question: “How could the Indian society have protected itself against external attacks during the pre-modern period?” Research-based answers to such Indiarelated questions occupy the initial part of this book to which a global dimension has been added by digging deep into Mahabharata’s innumerable stories. Results of innovative investiga-tions into the general question “How to face calamities at personal, state and global levels”, are presented here in terms of a modern, scientific framework, and expressed in a non-denominational

terminology, relevant to the problems of the 21st century. Readers from all parts of the world can get a strong message of social responsibility from this book, and accordingly make their contribution to the cause of world peace.