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Book of Shadows and The Coven
Sixteen-year-old Morgan is not who she thought she was... Something is happening to Morgan. She sees things, feels things in a new way. She has discovered a power inside her that normal people don't posses. A dark magickal power. And it scares her. She never chose to learn witchcraft but now witchcraft is choosing her. Her power is seductive. And it hasn't gone unnoticed...
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Rajmohan's Wife
Rajmohan's Wife, first serialized in 1864, marked Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay's debut as a writer. He went on to write fourteen novels in Bengali, including the epochal Anandamath and the verse 'Vande Mataram', which became the national song of India.The beautiful and passionate Matangini, married to a villainous man and in love with her sister's husband, represents the vitality of women who remain strong in the face of brutality and the confining expectations of middle-class society. Bankimchandra's vivid descriptions of the routine of Bengali households provide a revealing portrait of life in the nineteenth century.Rajmohan's Wife continues to be relevant for its universal themes of love and romance and resonates even today for its portrayal of strong women.
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The Upanishads
The Upanishads, the earliest of which were composed in Sanskrit between 800 and 400 bce by sages and poets, form part of the Vedas - the sacred and ancient scriptures that are the basis of the Hindu religion. Each Upanishad, or lesson, takes up a theme ranging from the attainment of spiritual bliss to karma and rebirth, and collectively they are meditations on life, death and immortality. The essence of their teachings is that truth can by reached by faith rather than by thought, and that the spirit of God is within each of us - we need not fear death as we carry within us the promise of eternal life. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. Juan Mascaro was born in Majorca, and later studied modern and oriental languages, Sanskrit, Pali and English at Cambridge University. He died in 1987, and was lauded as a great translator of our time.
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The Arthashastra
An extraordinary detailed manual on statecraft and the science of living by one of classical India's greatest minds, Kautilya, also known as Chanakya and Vishnugupta, wrote the Arthashastra not later than 150 AD though the date has not been conclusively established. Legend has it that he was either a Brahmin from Kerala or from north India; however, it is certain that Kautilya was the man who destroyed the Nanda dynasty and installed Chandragupta Maurya as the King of Magadha. A master strategist who was well-versed in the Vedas and adept at creating intrigues and devising political stratagems, Kautilya's genius is reflected in his Arthashastra which is the most comprehensive treatise of statecraft of classical times. The text contains fifteen books which cover numerous topics viz., the King; a complete code of law; foreign policy; secret and occult practices and so on. The Arthashastra is written mainly in prose but also incorporates 380 shlokas. Artha, literally wealth, is one of four supreme aims prescribed by Hindu tradition. However, it has a much wider significance and the material well-being of individuals is just a part of it. In accordance with this, Kautilya's Arthashastra maintains that the state or government of a country has a vital role to play in maintaining the material status of both the nation and its people. Therefore, a significant part of the Arthashastra has to do with the science of economics. When it deals with the science of politics, the Arthashastra describes in detail the art of government in its widest sense—the maintenance of law and order as also of an efficient administrative machinery