Waiting For Shiva

Vikram Sampath

Kashi History

Hindu Temple

Religious Contestation

Cultural Resilience

Mythology Exploration

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Binding

Hardback

Number of Pages

328

Age Group

All

Language

English

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Book Summary

Few places in the world carry the heavy burden of history as effortlessly as Kashi, or Varanasi, has. The holy city embodies the very soul of our civilization and personifies the resilience that we have displayed over centuries in the face of numerous adversities and fatal attacks.

Waiting for Shiva: Unearthing the Truth of Kashi’s Gyan Vapi recreates the history, antiquity and sanctity of Kashi as the abode of Bhagwan Shiva in the form of Vishweshwara, or Vishwanath. Shiva himself assured his devotees of salvation if they leave their mortal coils in the city. The book delves into the history of this selfmanifested swayambhu jyotirlinga shrine of Vishweshwara, which for centuries has been both a refuge for the devout and a target of the bloodiest waves of iconoclasm. However, each time an attempt was made to obliterate the temple by demolishing it, it managed to rise and prosper. Every iconoclastic storm was followed by an episode of persistence, tenacity and stubborn resolve. Shrines fell and shrines rose, but the Hindus of Kashi never gave up—not even once.

Waiting for Shiva documents these cataclysmic events in the temple’s history. The final death blow was dealt in 1669 by the Mughal despot Aurangzeb, who demolished the temple and erected few domes on the partially destroyed western wall to call it a mosque. The temple complex was desecrated and left strewn with ruins as a grim reminder of the humiliation and insult that Hindus had to face as a consequence of their holiest shrine being torn down to smithereens. The area that is now called the Gyan Vapi mosque and the surrounding land that lies adjacent to the new temple of Vishwanath, which came up towards the end of the 18th Century, has always been one of intense contestation. Bloody riots overran Varanasi over this issue multiple times in the past. During the colonial era, the doors of the British courts were knocked at to settle the occupancy issue, and they adjudicated the matter several times. PostIndependence, too, the desire to ‘liberate’ the complex has been seething in the Hindu imagination. A new suit filed in 2021 before the Varanasi civil court reopened a longfestering historical wound. Despite several appeals right up to the Supreme Court to dismiss the plaint, a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was ordered, which would lay bare the truth in its findings by the end of 2023.

Vikram Sampath’s latest offering retraces the long history of this bitterly disputed site and the dramatic twists and turns in the checkered past of this hoary shrine. Piecing together numerous documents and accounts—Vedic and Puranic texts, Sanskrit literary sources, Agama shastras, Jataka tales, Persian accounts, travelogues of foreigners, archival records and copious legal documents detailing the contestation from the British era to modern Indian courts—the book recreates, for the first time with facts and cogent arguments, this stormy history right up to the present times. The longsuppressed secrets that lay hidden in Gyan Vapi finally finds a voice through this book.

Product Details

Author

Vikram Sampath

Publisher

Bluone Ink

Number of Pages

328

Language

English

SKU

BK0485665

ISBN

9788196737597

Reading Age

All

Dimensions

20.3 x 25.4 x 4.7 cm

Binding

Hardback

Waiting For Shiva

MRP: ₹ 699

₹ 594

15% Off

Add to Bag

V S

Vikram Sampath

Bangalore-Based Historian Dr Vikram Sampath Is The Author Of Eight Acclaimed Books, Including Splendours Of Royal Mysore: The Untold Story Of The Wodeyars, My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: Theife And Times Of A Musician And Voice Of The Veena: S. Balachander, A Biography. His Two-Volume Biography On Veer Savarkar Went On To Become National Best Seller And Was Acclaimed By Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2021, Dr Sampath Was Conferred The Honour Of Being Elected As A Fellow Of Uk’S Prestigious Royal Historical Society As One Of The Few Historians From India. He Was Awarded The Sahitya Akademi’S First Yuva Puraskar In Englishiterature And The Arsc International Award For Excellence In Historical Research In New York For His Book On Gauhar Jaan. The Book Has Also Been Adapted To Theatre As A Play Gauhar Byillette Dubey And Is Being Adapted As A Bollywood Film By Ashutosh Gowariker. Dr Sampath Was Among The Four Writers And Artists To Be Selected As A Writer-In-Residence At The Rashtrapati Bhawan In 2015. He Has Established The Archive Of Indianmusic, India’S First Digital Sound Archive For Vintage Recordings And Is The Founder-Director Of The Bangaloreiterature Festival, Indic Thoughts Festival And Arth-A Culture Fest. Vikram Sampath, A Bangalore-Based Historian, Is The Author Of Ten Acclaimed Books, Including: Splendours Of Royal Mysore: The Untold Story Of The Wodeyars. His Two-Volume Biography, Savarkar: Echoes From A Forgotten Past And Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, And His Latest Books, Bravehearts Of Bharat: Vignettes From Indian History And Waiting For Shiva: Unearthing The Truth Of Kashi'S Gyan Vapi, Have All Gone On To Become National Bestsellers. In 2021, Vikram Was Elected A Fellow Of The Prestigious Royal Historical Society. He Was Awarded The Sahitya Akademi'S First Yuva Puraskar In English Literature And The Arsc International Award For Excellence In Historical Research In New York For His Book My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life And Times Of A Musician. Vikram Was Among Four Writers And Artists Selected As Writers-In-Residence At The Rashtrapati Bhavan In 2015. He Has A Doctorate In History And Music From The University Of Queensland, Australia, And Was A Senior Research Fellow At The Nehru Memorial Museum And Library, New Delhi. He Was Also A Fellow Of The Aspen Global Leadership Network, An Eisenhower Global Fellow And A Visiting Fellow At The Wissenschaftskolleg Zu Berlin. Currently, He Is An Adjunct Senior Fellow At Monash University, Australia. Vikram Is The Founder Of The Archive Of Indian Music (Aim) And The Foundation For Indian Historical And Cultural Research (Fihcr).

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