Tales for the Dying : The Death Narrative of the Bhagavata-Purana

by Jarow, Rick; Jarow, E. H. Rick

• ISBN13: 9780791456095
• ISBN10: 0791456099
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780791487457
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr
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Summary

Tales for the Dying explores the centrality of death and dying in the narrative of the Bhagavata-Purana, India's great text of devotional theism, canonized as an integral part of the Vaisnava bhakti tradition. The text grapples with death through an imaginative meditation, one that works through the presence and power of narrative. The story of the Bhagavata-Purana is spoken to a king who is about to die, and it enables him to come to terms with his own passing. The work does not isolate dying as an issue; it treats it on many levels.This book discusses how images of dying in the Bhagavata-Purana relate to issues of language and love in the religious imagination of India. Drawing on insights from studies in myth, literary semiotics, and depth psychology, as well as from Indian commentarial and aesthetic traditions, the author examines the power of myth and narrative (storytelling or hari katha) and shows how a detailed awareness of the Puranic imagination may lead to a revisioning of some long-held presuppositions around Indian religious altitudes toward dying. By casting Vaisnava bhakti traditions and Puranic narrative in a fresh light, the mythic imagination of the Puranas takes its place on the stage of contemporary discourse on comparative mythology and literature.

Author Biography

E. H. Rick Jarow is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Vassar College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
A Note on Translation and Transliteration	xi
List of Abbreviations	xiii
Introduction: Many Ways of Dying	1	(16)
Examinations of the Past	17	(12)
The Semiotics of Separation	29	(12)
Narratives of Absence	41	(10)
The Dominion of Death	51	(26)
Stri Naraka Dvara---Woman as the Gateway to Hell	77	(14)
The Rasa Dance and the Gateway to Heaven	91	(30)
Final Partings	121	(20)
Notes	141	(38)
Bibliography	179	(12)
Index	191