“The Miracle of Purun Bhagat” was written by Rudyard Kipling. The setting changes throughout the story, but began in the north-western part of India. The main character, Purun Dass, later Bhagat, was a Prime Minister of one of the semi-independent States of India. He eventually retires his position and starts a journey that gives him great honor.
Purun Dass was a Brahmin, which is a member of the highest Hindu caste. Purun lived in the north-western part of India. He, along with his master, “established schools for little girls, made roads, and started State dispensaries and shows of agricultural implements, and published a yearly blue-book on the ‘Moral and Material Progress of the State,’ and the Foreign Office and the Government of India were delighter (The Miracle of Purun Bhagat).”
Purun Dass became well known among the Viceroys and other important figures during that time. Purun was happy. He enjoyed his life as a Prime Minister. With his high status, Purun was able to cross the black sea and visit England. There he studied at universities, was given honorary degrees, and made speeches of Hindu social reform (The Miracle of Purun Bhagat).
Upon his return, the Viceroy gave a special visit to give Purun’s master the Grand Cross of the Star of India. Purun was honored with being made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire. His name was now Sir Purun Dass, K.C.I.E. After all of these achievements, and years of service to the country, Purun resigned from the Prime Minister position (The Miracle of Purun Bhagat).
After giving up his position as Prime Minister, Purun took up the begging-bowl and ochre-colored dress of a holy man. This is what Purun believed needed to be done based on his culture. Pur...
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...th a barasingh watching over his body. The town priest spoke “Behold a miracle after a miracle, for in this very attitude must all Sunnyasis be Buried! Therefore, where he now is we will build the temple to our holy man” (The Miracle of Purun Bhagat).
Purun Dass was a Prime Minister for India. He helped develop schools for girls, build roads and hospitals in the semi-independent state in which he lived. He was well favored among the British and became Sir Purun Dass, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire. Purun later resigned from his position to leave the material world behind and find peace. He found his new home where he felt he belonged. Purun Dass became Bhagat to the village that brought food to him. During his final moments of life, Purun Bhagat was able to save the village that took care of him, living up to the position he once held.
P’u shamelessly addresses the fact that despite preaching honor and virtue, the nobility were the most lawless, yet only an idealized account would be recorded in history, as has always been. The author mocks this relinquishment in his own stories, as the moral is driven to immorality as rebels receive little to no punishment for their flagrant abuse of others and adultery against virtue. He describes the turmoil as “the ways that misery spawned recklessness and sudden, unreasoning violence that were almost impossible to deal with” (Spence 79). Laws themselves proved to be as wicked and depraved as their creators. For example, a horrific clause even encouraged men to take advantage of widows for profit. While the peasant class resisted their struggled by simply trying to survive, the upper nobility fought their problems by making the existence of those below them harder to bear. Enforced laws were done so with no due process, yet were made flexible by their own creators. Therefore, Spence exhibited the lawlessness and the government and its constant effort to contain this disorder. By hand-selecting the sources and settling on rural China, Spence felt the format effectively depicted his purpose. He effectively detailed history in relation to the average person of 17th century China and created a personal perspective that imbued the historical events with meaning. He most fully and accurately captures the greed, vision of morals, unaltered by elite preference and ironically one can draw parallels to our modern times. His purpose results in a richness of detail seldom observed in Chinese history. The principles of the time are captured through the poverty within the peasant class as every moment of their lives was set forth
From the beginning of Wang Lung’s marriage to O-lan, she saved him time, money, and effort without complaint. She offered wisdom when asked and was smart in the ways of the world. During the famine, when the family went south in search of food, O-lan taught her children how to beg for food, “dug the small green weeds, dandelions, and shepherds purse that thrust up feeble new leaves”(p. 128). She raised her children prudently. She knew how to bind her daughter’s feet, and she gave them a better childhood than she had had. O-lan knew that the land was the only consistent thing in her life, so she willingly helped Wang Lung as he bought more and more land. O-lan knew her place in the family was as a wife and mother. As a wife, she fe...
Wikipedia - Presidencies and Provinces of British India. (2014, 04). Retrieved 04 2014, from www.wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidencies_and_provinces_of_British_India
Property is a fear people have of losing. Physical property that you own isn’t always safe; it can be taken away in a matter of seconds. Less tangible possessions such as, someone’s independence, ideas, love, freedom, even respect and dignity is worth more of a scare. Dignity, worthiness, is what makes a person who they are. Respect, a person’s quality, is what gets a person to be who they are. Unfortunately, if a person is subtracted from both their dignity and respect, not always will they get it back.
Naoroji, The Grand Little Man of India: Dadabhai Naoroji: speeches & writings, ed A. Moin Zaidi (New Delhi: S. Chand, 1984), pp. 125‐148.
The Afghan and Muslim community take the idea of honour very seriously. They honour their family name and reputation very dearly. If someone within their family were to act or behave in such a way that the family’s honour is put into question the head, typically the father or the eldest male will act in a barbaric way that could potentially be deadly. This extreme sense of honour is prevalent throughout the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini and the documentary “Honour Killing”. If a female were to act in a way that dishonors their reputation the husband or male relative believes they are allowed to punish those who brought the shame to their family without being held accountable for their actions.
Honor, or reputation, is something that humans have been worried about throughout history, albeit some people more than others. Although bringing dishonor on someone’s name or family seemed to have more repercussions back in the older day, it is still something that people try to avoid doing. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (the author is unknown but referred to as the Pearl Poet) honor was an important factor as well. The story tells of a knight named Sir Gawain who has been challenged to a beheading game by a mysterious green knight. In this day and age, most people would just blow of the green knight as crazy and not even care about their honor as long as they could keep their lives. However, the knight is honor bound and takes the challenge;
According to the Papyrus (Scroll) of Ani, translated by E.A. Wallis Budge, a long ceremony took place apparently at the grave...
In India, the religion of Hinduism in particular, provides two sources of support in regards to the social structure of the era. These sources are the Vedas and the Upanishads. According to The Rig Veda when Purusha’s body was divided “his mouth became the brāhman; his two arms were made into the rajanya; his two thighs the vaishyas; from his two feet the shūdra was born (Reilly, 92).” By splitting up the body in this way, there was a justification for the creation of the varna or caste system. The highest class or Brahmin’s were the priest class, who were also known as the most pure. In this role, they were the connecting figures between Purusha and his people, which is reflective of them being his mouth. The next upper division class was the Ksatriya or warrior/leader class. In the class, the role was to do the fighting which was reflective of them being Purusha’s arms. The artisan/farmer or middle class was known as the vaisyas. In this class, members represented the role of the thighs of Purusha, who were responsible for doing the brunt or tougher jobs in society. The nethermost social class was the sudra, who were serfs and servants. They represented the feet of Pursha, which is reflective of their status as the lowest class. Along with the Vedas, the Upanishads served as a written guideline for the varna. These works urged the concept of doin...
Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava was born on July 31, 1880 in the small village of Lamahi, located near the city of Banaras in India. Although born into the Hindu Kaystha caste, made up of professionals including writers, doctors and lawyers, his family was poor. His father was a low paid postal employee. His mother died when he was only eight years old. His father remarried, but Dhanpat Rai did not like his stepmother. He studied Urdu and Persian, languages used in literature and administration in 19th century North India at a nearby school. He recalles his childhood fondly in one of his stories, so it is fairly safe to assume that he was a happy and well cared for child.
...gh guiding the people to embrace their Indian culture in their fight against the British Empire in Indian declaration.
century. He was born in Bengal, India in 1903 to an English Civil Servant and
Rabindranath Tagore Asia’s first Noble Laureate was born on 7 May, 1861 at Jorasanko in the heart of Calcutta. His family was famous for its progressive socio-religious and cultural innovations during 19th Bengal Renaissance. He was the fourteenth and youngest son of Maharishi Debendranath Tagore and Sarda Devi and grandson of Dwarkanath Tagore. His grandfather Dwarkanath was a religious and social reformer and worked unceasingly for ...
Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He is one of the leading Indian writers in English who interweaves nature with experience and history. His works show an interaction between nature and human. He has published many fictions such as The Circle of Reason (1986), The Shadow Lines (1988), In An...
One characteristic of Rukmani that she demonstrated for the duration on Nectar in a Sieve is that she is a compassionate person. She frequently acted out of her compassion with many characters. Rukmani even exercised her compassion to Kunthi. Ruku did this during a period of hardship and famine in her village. “Poor thing, I [Rukmani] thought. She [Kunthi] has suffered. I looked at her pityingly.” (K. Markandaya, 80). After looking and listening to Kunthi’s situation, Rukmani, out of compassion, gave Kunthi (who was not one of Ruku’s favorite people) a little meal. Rukmani also is compassionate to Old Granny. Before Old Granny had died, she gave Rukmani a rupee for her infant grandson, Sacrabani. When Old Granny died however, Rukmani felt especially bad because she learned that Old Granny had given her her last rupee. Even though Old Granny had passed and nothing could have been done, Rukmani still wished she could have done something out of her compassion. She thought that if Old Granny would have kept the rupee it “might have fed her for several days.” (K. Markandaya, 121). One of the most prevalent examples of Rukmani’s compassion was shown to Puli. Ruku t...