Beyond Boundaries – serie

The threat of nuclear conflict loomed menacingly over the world during the Cold War. Early warning of an attack was a crucial focus for military and political intelligence. Intelligence networks in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom came together, forming a tripartite intelligence relationship dedicated to indications that the Cold War would turn hot. The Next War is the first full account of the development of the allied indications network. Timothy Andrews Sayle dives deeply into recently declassified documents to explore this previously hidden history. He traces the decisions and choices made by intelligence organizations in Canada, United States, and United Kingdom to coordinate their assessments despite different, sometimes conflicting, national agendas, ideological positions, and levels of trust.From early appreciations of the possibility of war with the Soviet Union to a formal agreement and communications network designed to link the intelligence establishments of Ottawa, London, and Washington, the tripartite intelligence relationship of the allied indications network established the basis for the close cooperation that continues to this day.The Next War widens our understanding of Cold War intelligence history through exemplary scholarship and extensive foraging within the documentary record. With its descriptions of the evolution of national indications intelligence structures and the diplomacy and debates between allied capitals this book explains Canada's prominent role alongside its intelligence partners.

The threat of nuclear conflict loomed menacingly over the world during the Cold War. Early warning of an attack was a crucial focus for military and political intelligence. Intelligence networks in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom came together, forming a tripartite intelligence relationship dedicated to indications that the Cold War would turn hot. The Next War is the first full account of the development of the allied indications network. Timothy Andrews Sayle dives deeply into recently declassified documents to explore this previously hidden history. He traces the decisions and choices made by intelligence organizations in Canada, United States, and United Kingdom to coordinate their assessments despite different, sometimes conflicting, national agendas, ideological positions, and levels of trust.From early appreciations of the possibility of war with the Soviet Union to a formal agreement and communications network designed to link the intelligence establishments of Ottawa, London, and Washington, the tripartite intelligence relationship of the allied indications network established the basis for the close cooperation that continues to this day.The Next War widens our understanding of Cold War intelligence history through exemplary scholarship and extensive foraging within the documentary record. With its descriptions of the evolution of national indications intelligence structures and the diplomacy and debates between allied capitals this book explains Canada's prominent role alongside its intelligence partners.

In 1587, Abū al-Faz̤l ibn Mubārak – a favourite at the Mughal court and author of the Akbarnāmah – completed his Preface to the Persian translation of the Mahābhārata. This book is the first detailed study of Abū al-Faz̤l's Preface. It offers insights into manuscript practices at the Mughal court, the role a Persian version of the Mahābhārata was meant to play, and the religious interactions that characterised 16th-century India.

This volume is the first in-depth study of a recently discovered Sanskrit dharani spell text from around the 5th century CE surviving in two palm-leaf and three paper manuscript compendia from Nepal. This rare Buddhist scripture focuses on the ritual practice of thaumaturgic weather control for successful agriculture through overpowering mythical Nagas. Traditionally, these serpentine beings are held responsible for the amount of rainfall. The six chapters of the Vajratundasamayakalparaja present the vidyadhara spell-master as a ritualist who uses mandalas, mudras and other techniques to gain mastery over the Nagas and thus control the rains. By subjugating the Nagas, favourable weather and good crops are guaranteed. This links this incantation tradition to economic power and the securing of worldly support for the Buddhist community.

The Aulikaras were the rulers of western Malwa (the northwest of Central India) in the heyday of the Imperial Guptas in the fifth century CE, and rose briefly to sovereignty at the beginning of the sixth century before disappearing from the spotlight of history. This book gathers all the epigraphic evidence pertaining to this dynasty, meticulously editing and translating the inscriptions and analysing their content and its implications.

This book reports on excavations at Paithan in India revealed the development of two early Hindu temples from the 4th century to the 9th: the key formative phase of Hinduism. The temples started as small shrines but were elaborated into formal temples. In relation to these changes, the excavations revealed a sequence of palaeobotanical and palaeofaunal evidence that give insight into the economic and social changes that took place at that time.

The Sri Ksetra Museum Inventory provides public access to this significant collection for the first time. The Inventory records the majority of the Museum collection up until 2015. Nearly all of the artefacts date to Myanmar’s Pyu period of the first millennium. Many of the objects have been documented for the first time, having been kept in storage in some cases unseen for nearly one hundred years. As only a limited amount of collection material can be publicly displayed in the Museum the Inventory provides immediate access to resource materials that would otherwise be out of reach. From intact votive tablets in diverse styles, to fragments of terracotta plaques and stone sculptures this is the most comprehensive collection of Pyu material culture in Myanmar. With the rise of interest in Pyu scholarship since the UNESCO listing of The Pyu Ancient Cities in 2014, this inventory, which also includes more recent finds from the important Pyu site of Khin Ba, will broaden scholars’ appreciation of Pyu culture and open avenues for future research across many disciplines.

This conference volume unites a wide range of scholars working in the fields of history, archaeology, religion, art, and philology in an effort to explore new perspectives and methods in the study of primary sources from premodern South and Southeast Asia. The contributions engage with primary sources (including texts, images, material artefacts, monuments, as well as archaeological sites and landscapes) and draw needed attention to highly adaptable, innovative, and dynamic modes of cultural production within traditional idioms. The volume works to develop categories of historical analysis that cross disciplinary boundaries and represent a wide variety of methodological concerns. By revisiting premodern sources, Asia Beyond Boundaries also addresses critical issues of temporality and periodization that attend established categories in Asian Studies, such as the “Classical Age” or the “Gupta Period”. This volume represents the culmination of the European Research Council (ERC) Synergy project Asia Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State, a research consortium of the British Museum, the British Library and the School of Oriental and African Studies, in partnership with Leiden University.

This sourcebook explores the most extensive tradition of Buddhist dhāraṇī literature and provides access to the earliest available materials for the first time: a unique palm-leaf bundle from the 12th–13th centuries and a paper manuscript of 1719 CE. The Dhāraṇīsaṃgraha collections have been present in South Asia, and especially in Nepal, for more than eight hundred years and served to supply protection, merit and auspiciousness for those who commissioned their compilation. For modern scholarship, these diverse compendiums are valuable sources of incantations and related texts, many of which survive in Sanskrit only in such manuscripts.

Bringing Buddhism to Tibet is a landmark study of the Dba’ bzhed, a text recounting the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet. The narrative of Buddhism’s arrival in Tibet is known from a number of versions, but the Dba’ bzhed—preserved in a single manuscript—is the oldest complete copy. Although the Dba’ bzhed stands at the head of a long tradition of history writing in the Tibetan language, and has been known for more than two decades, this book provides a full transcription of the Tibetan for the first time, together with a new translation. The book also introduces Tibetan history and the Dba’ bzhed with several introductory chapters on various aspects of the text by experienced scholars in the field of Tibetan philology. These detailed studies provide analysis of the text’s narrative context, its position within traditional and current historiography, and the organisation and structure of the text itself and its antecedents. Bringing Buddhism to Tibet is essential reading for anyone interested in Tibetan history and kingship, the nature of Tibetan historical narrative or the traditions of text transmission and codicology. The book will also be of general interest to students of Buddhism and the spread of Buddhism across Asia.

For my Blemishless Lord presents the text and translation of the exquisite poem Amalaṉ Āti Pirāṉ by Tiruppāṇ Āḻvār, which is part of the Śrīvaiṣṇava canon, the Nālāyira Divya Prabandham (6th – 9th centuries CE), together with the three Śrīvaiṣṇava commentaries in Tamil-Sanskrit Manipravalam (13th – 14th centuries) by key figures in the medieval religious history of South Asia, namely, Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai, Aḻakiya Maṇavāḷa Perumāḷ Nāyaṉār, and Vedānta Deśikaṉ. Offering the first fully annotated, complete translation of these exegetical writings, this volume analyses the language, commentary techniques, and theological positions of the commentators. Looking also at cultural, religious, and other allusions made by them, it places them in their literary, social, and religious backgrounds during a period of budding dissent within the Śrīvaiṣṇava community, to which they contributed at least in part. This rich resource is made available in English for the first time for students of Tamil and Manipravala, theology, religious history, and philology.

What influences the development and religious identity of a tradition like Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta? This volume examines the multifaceted formation of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta and its interactions with other Indian philosophical and religious traditions, including Mīmāṃsā, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Pañcarātra, and Pāśupata. It highlights the tradition’s influence on and integration of these schools, addressing theological, epistemological, and metaphysical issues. Key contributions analyze the work of seminal figures in this tradition like Yāmuna, Rāmānuja, and Veṅkaṭanātha (Vedāntadeśika), focusing on their systematic integration of Pūrva Mīmāṃsā principles, the concept of prapatti (self-surrender), and their engagement with scriptural interpretation. Essays also delve into the role of the goddess, free will, and the complex relationship between God, the Veda, and the cosmic aeons.This collection offers profound insights into the theological and philosophical dynamics of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, making it essential for scholars of Indian philosophy, comparative theology, and intellectual history.

The book stems from an interdisciplinary and transdiscursive approach to describe Polish masculinities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, along with the "new masculinity" that has become increasingly distinct in the early twenty-first century. A collection of texts, the book covers Polish literature from Romanticism to the present day to thoroughly rethink the Polish literary studies in the context of various masculinities shaped in Polish culture over the last two centuries. The individual texts study masculinity with a plethora of methods, ranging from psychoanalysis and deconstruction through feminist literary criticism to queer studies. The scrutinized works of fiction reveal invaluable culture data - often constituting the most important source of knowledge about reality - that no other field of art could map so precisely.

The book stems from an interdisciplinary and transdiscursive approach to describe Polish masculinities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, along with the “new masculinity” that has become increasingly distinct in the early twenty-first century. A collection of texts, the book covers Polish literature from Romanticism to the present day to thoroughly rethink the Polish literary studies in the context of various masculinities shaped in Polish culture over the last two centuries. The individual texts study masculinity with a plethora of methods, ranging from psychoanalysis and deconstruction through feminist literary criticism to queer studies. The scrutinized works of fiction reveal invaluable culture data – often constituting the most important source of knowledge about reality – that no other field of art could map so precisely.