Description
Issue No.70 of the K R Cama Oriental Institute Journal contains four well researched articles by noted scholars with expertise in their respective fields.
“Thane Fort and City: An Eighteenth Century Perspective” by Dr Sonali Pednekar studies the history and growth of Thane city and its environs in the medieval period, particularly the 17th and 18thcenturies.
“Dr Pednekar was awarded a PhD degree by the University of Bombay for her doctoral dissertation on the “Maratha Presence in Thane: a Study of Political, Socio-economic and Cultural Aspects (1739 – 1818.)” She is presently head of the Department of History at the V G Vaze College of Arts, Science and Commerce. Her published works include a History of the Marathas, a textbook prescribed for advanced history students. She has also compiled a well received reference book in Marathi on chronological tables, titled Panch Kala Rooplili. Dr Pednekar was awarded the University Grants Commission Teacher Fellowship between 2005 – 2007.
Dr Raham Asha’s paper titled “Manuschir and the Tradition of the Magi” discusses the ongoing debate about the Avesta script and the date of compilation of the Avesta corpus.
Dr Raham Asha is a research scholar whose studies on Persa-Aryan linguistics often involve the reconstruction of the conceptual universe of the Mazdiyasnians. He has penned several books. TheSignificance of the Sacred Girdle (2005) and Avesta Glossary (2009) have been published by the Institute.
In his paper, “The Influence of Oriental Civilisations on the Innovative Spirit of European Culture,”the late Professor Andrzej Jan Fils postulates that European civilisation is a synthesis of primitive Christianity and the Greco-Roman traditions.
Professor Andrzej Jan Fils who passed away in 2009, was the Director, Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland. He was also editor of the University’s Open Lecture Series for fifteen years. He was a prolific author and had published a number of books, including Unintended Consequences of Macro Scale Social Actions: Paradoxes of Westernisation of Far East Asia.
The Honourable Dr Jamsheed K Choksy’s article, “Iranian Apocalypticism and Eschatology: Grappling with Change” utilises ancient and medieval Iranian sources written in Avestan, Middle Persian or Pahelvi and New Persian or Farsi to decipher the notions of the end of the world developed among the major communities of Iran as well as why those ideas proved both popular and tenacious. The Honourable Dr Jamsheed K Choksy graduated from Columbia University in 1985 after which he received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1991. He is currently the Professor of Central Eurasian Studies, of History, of Indian Studies, etc. at Indiana University. In 2008 he was appointed a member of the US National Council on the Humanities with the lifetime designation of “The Honourable.” Dr. Choksy is a prolific published author and is presently writing a book on the History of Iranian Religions.
This book is priced at US$18.00, inclusive of air-mail postage, packing, handling and bank charges.
