Reading Recommendations of Four Beautiful Books : Starting From Autobiography of Theatre Personality to Classic Science Thriller ,Mythological Tale of Jaya, at end, History of Ancient India

Book Cover on  Habib Tanvir

Book 1) Habib Tanvir : Towards an Inclusive Theatre:

About the Book :

Picture of Anjum Katyal

Anjum Katyals work is the first comprehensive study on the life and contribution of Habib Tanvir to Indian theatre history. Playwright, director, actor, journalist, critic, Tanvir is perhaps best known for the play, Charandas Chor. However, his real significance in the history of post-Independent Indian theatre is that he signposted an important path for the development of modern theatre. His productions with Naya Theatre using Chhattisgarhi folk actors established how one could do modern theatre integrated with age-oldand yet equally contemporaryfolk culture on a basis of equality.

Back Cover of The Book

Habib Tanvir: Towards an Inclusive Theatre explores various important aspects of Tanvirs theatre philosophy and practice as he experimented with content rather than form.

Starting with his early life and work, Katyal charts his entire professional trajectory from Agra Bazaar to Gaon Ka Naam Sasural, when he was searching for his true form, to Charandas Chor, which portrayed the eventual maturing of his style.

Habib Tanvir With His Actors of His Group: Picture from The Book

Habib Tanvir (1 September 1923 – 8 June 2009)
was one of the most popular Indian Urdu, Hindi playwrights, a theatre director, poet and actor. He is the writer of plays such as, Agra Bazar (1954) and Charandas Chor (1975). A pioneer in Urdu, Hindi theatre, he is most known for his work with Chhattisgarhi tribals, at the Naya Theatre, a theatre company he founded in 1959 in Bhopal, and went on to include indigenous performance forms such as nacha, to create not only a new theatrical language, but also milestones such as Charandas Chor, Gaon ka Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damad and Kamdeo ka Apna Basant Ritu ka Sapna.

Picture of a Page From The Book : On His Famous Play Charandas Chor

For him true "theatre of the people" existed in the villages, which he strived to bring to the urban "educated", employing both folk performers as actors alongside urban actors. 

Another Page Picture From The Book : For him true "Theatre of the people" existed in the villages

He died on 8 June 2009 at Bhopal after a three week long illness. Upon his death, he was the last of pioneering actor-managers in Indian theatre, which included Sisir Bhaduri, Utpal Dutt and Prithviraj Kapoor, and often he managed plays with mammoth cast, such as Charandas Chor which included an orchestra of 72 people on stage and Agra Bazaar had 52 people.

Picture of Page From The Book : On His Play Zehreeli Hawa (2003) on The Bhopal gas Tragedy or Crime

During his lifetime he won several national and international awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969, Padma Shri in 1983, Kalidas Samman 1990, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1996, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002; apart from that he had also been nominated to become a member of the Upper House of Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha (1972–1978). His play 'Charandas Chor' (Charandas, The Thief) got him the Fringe Firsts Award at Edinburgh International Drama Festival in 1982, and in 2007, it was credited for "an innovative dramaturgy equally impelled by Brecht and folk idioms, Habib Tanvir seduces across language barriers in this his all-time biggest hit about a Robin Hood-style thief" as it was included in the Hindustan Times' list of 'India’s 60 Best works since Independence'

Book Cover of Jaya by Devdutta Pattanaik

Book 2 ) : Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata :

 

Back Cover of Jaya Devdutta Pattanaik

High above the sky stands Swarga, paradise, abode of the gods. Still above is Vaikuntha, heaven, abode of God. The doorkeepers of Vaikuntha are the twins, Jaya and Vijaya, both whose names mean victory . One keeps you in Swarga; the other raises you into Vaikuntha. In Vaikuntha there is bliss forever, in Swarga there is pleasure for only as long as you deserve. What is the difference between Jaya and Vijaya? Solve this puzzle and you will solve the mystery of the Mahabharata. In this enthralling retelling of India s greatest epic, the Mahabharata, originally known as Jaya, 

Picture of Devdutt Pattanaik

Devdutt Pattanaik seamlessly weaves into a single narrative plots from the Sanskrit classic as well as its many folk and regional variants, including the Pandavani of Chattisgarh, Gondhal of Maharashtra, Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu, and Yakshagana of Karnataka. Richly illustrated with over 250 line drawings by the author, the 108 chapters abound with little-known details such as the names of the hundred Kauravas, the worship of Draupadi as a goddess in Tamil Nadu, the stories of Astika, Madhavi, Jaimini, Aravan and Barbareek, the Mahabharata version of the Shakuntalam and the Ramayana, and the dating of the war based on astronomical data. With clarity and simplicity, the tales in this elegant volume reveal the eternal relevance of the Mahabharata, the complex and disturbing meditation on the human condition that has shaped Indian thought for over 3000 years

The Book Cover of "The Calcutta Chromosomes" by Amitav Ghosh

Book 3) The Calcutta Chromosomes:

In This Extraordinary Novel, Amitav Ghosh Navigates Through time and geres to present a unique tale, beginning at an unspecified time in the late 19th century, the reader follows the adventures of the enigmatic L.Murugan. An authority on the Nobel prize winning scientists Sir Ronald Ross, who solved the malaria puzzle in Calcutta in 1898, Murugan is in search of the elusive " Calcutta Chromosome".

The Back Cover of " The Calcutta Chromosomes"

With its astonishing range of Characters, advanced computer science,religious cults and wonderful portraits of Victorian and contemporary India, " The Calcutta Chromosome expands the scope of the Novel as we know as Amitav Ghosh Takes on The Avatar of a Science thriller writer.

Picture of Amitav Ghosh

Book 4) The Penguin History of Early India (Volume 1) : From the Origin to AD 1300:

 

Book Cover of History of Early India by Romila Thapar

A classic work that brings the history of early India to Life. Dynastic history provides a chronological frame but the essential thrust of This book is the explanation of the changes in society and economy. Its opening chapters explain how the Interpretations of Early Indian History Have changed,Further, although the diversity of Sources and their reading are well Known,nevertheless, This narrative provides fresh readings and raises new questions.

Back Cover of The Book History of Early India by Romila Thapar

Romila Thapar (born 30 November 1931)
is an Indian historian whose principal area of study is ancient India.  Work

After graduating from Panjab University, Thapar earned her doctorate under A. L. Basham at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London in 1958. Later she worked as Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she is Professor Emerita.

Picture of Romila Thapar

Thapar's major works are Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations, Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History (editor), A History of India Volume One, and Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300.

Her historical work portrays the origins of Hinduism as an evolving interplay between social forces. Her recent work on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.

In her first work, Asoka and the Decline of the Maurya published in 1963, Thapar situates Ashoka's policy of dhamma in its social and political context, as a non-sectarian civic ethic intended to hold together an empire of diverse ethnicities and cultures. She attributes the decline of the Mauryan empire to its highly centralized administration which called for rulers of exceptional abilities to function well.

Thapar's first volume of A History of India is written for a popular audience and encompasses the period from its early history to the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century.

Ancient Indian Social History deals with the period from early times to the end of the first millennium, includes a comparative study of Hindu and Buddhist socio-religious systems, and examines the role of Buddhism in social protest and social mobility in the caste system. From Lineage to State analyses the formation of states in the middle Ganga valley in the first millennium BC, tracing the process to a change, driven by the use of iron and plough agriculture, from a pastoral and mobile lineage-based society to one of settled peasant holdings, accumulation and increased urbanization.

Writer`s Note Source : Wikipedia.