Saturday 27 December 2014

Goa Old Book Digitisation Project (1/2)

Published on 25 Dec 2014
Dr Ananya Chakravarthi has been working on a project to digitise old records from Goa. On December 22, 2014 she outlined the work done in this direction and what could be done ahead. A recording of the talk. Part 1 of 2. This has been taken up under the aegis of the British Library Endangered Archives Programme. It is hoped this work would prove to be a useful resource for scholars and others interested in the history of Goa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG2cI-HXaUc#t=82

Thursday 25 December 2014

Ananya Chakravarti's digitization project

Frederick Noronha, 25.12.2014, [Goanet-News] EventsInGoa: Words from the Kristapurana * Goanet meet on Dec 29 * Aparant Maand postponed * Britto OBA dance tonight * Goapex prizes


A scholar of Bengali origin Dr Ananya Chakravarti
[ananya.chakravarti at aucegypt.edu] translated and shared
via Facebook the centuries-old words of the Kristapurana:

          "To give us the wealth of your mercy, lord of
          Vaikuntha [heavenly abode of Visnu],
          you have come to take birth on this earth as a
          frail man
          Now take the wretch’s garment and cover your pure body
          and pass safely through the difficulties of winter."

          Thus did Mary speak and, taking freshly washed clothes,
          she covered the infant Jesus.
          Then, like unadulterated marble, like a precious pearl,
          she took out her lustrous breast to nurse him.
          Holding the infant Jesus to her heart, she placed
          her breast in his mouth.
          He drank: ghutughutam.
          Jesus drank Maria’s milk, while Maria did dhyana
          [meditation] of Jesus
          and received the amṛta [other-worldly nectar] of
          Vaikuntha in her heart.
          Jesus’s pure bhakti-face alone arose before the Virgin.
          Giving him amrta-milk, she gazed at her child.

[Stephens, Kristapurana, Book II, chapter 7, verses 81-88]

More about the Krista Purana on Wikipedia:

Krista Purana Krista Puranna (1654).jpg
The third edition of the Krista Purana (1654)
Author Fr. Thomas Stephans (1549-1619)
Country           India
Language          in a mix of Marathi-Konkani
Subject           Christianity
Publisher         College of Rachol, Goa
Publication date  1616
Media type        manuscript
Preceded by       Krista Purana (first edition) in 1616
Followed by       Doutrina Christam em Lingoa Bramana Canarim

Krista Purana ("The Christian Puranas") is an epic poem on
the life of Jesus Christ written in a mix of Marathi and
Konkani by Fr.Thomas Stephens, S.J.  (1549–1619).  Adopting
the literary form of the Hindu puranas it retells the entire
story of mankind, from the creation days to the time of Jesus
in lyrical verse form.  The Christian Puranas -- 11,000
stanzas of 4 verses -- were very popular in the churches of
the area where they were sung on special occasions up to the
1930s.  Although no copy of the original edition has yet been
discovered, it is believed to have been published at Rachol
(Raitur) in 1616 (while the author was still living), 1649, and 1654.

          GOANET SPECIAL: Goa Old Book Digitisation Project
          Dr Ananya Chakravarthi has been working on a
          project to digitise old records from Goa.  On
          December 22, 2014 she outlined the work done in
          this direction and what could be done ahead.  A
          recording of the talk.  Part 1 of 2.  This has been
          taken up under the aegis of the British Library
          Endangered Archives Programme.  It is hoped this
          work would prove to be a useful resource for
          scholars and others interested in the history of Goa.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG2cI-HXaUc
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3apK4-dQqgE

Stevens, the Kristapurana ... and negotiating religious
space in past centuries
Ananya Chakravarti holds a PhD in History by the University
of Chicago. Her dissertation, The Empire of Apostles: Jesuits
in Brazil and India considers the lives of six Jesuits in
Brazil and India during the sixteenth and seventeenth
century. Her research interests include the intersection of
religion and empire in the early modern Portuguese world and
cross-cultural encounters in colonial Brazil and early modern
India. Here she talks about her PhD and also Thomas Steven's
Kristapurana. The text is so rich and the poetry is
beautiful, she says.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo5PRLtxUDM

ON THE WIKIPEDIA:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krista_Purana