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PRAKRITI :  The Integral Vision explores the concept of the Primal Elements (Sky, Air, Fire, Water, Earth) which has governed and determined the eolution of civilizations and cultures.  This 5 volume collection is the outcome of a series of five successive but inter-locked seminars culminating into cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary understanding.

Each volume contains a foreword by the General Editor.

VOL. 1

PRIMAL ELEMENTS : THE ORAL TRADITION

Edited  by BAIDYANATH SARASWATI

Contents

• Foreword (Kapila Vatsyayan)  

• Preface (Kapila Vatsyayan)  

• Introduction (Baidyanath Saraswati)

1. Cosmogonic Myths: In Northeast India : Forces of Nature (Baidyanath Saraswati)

2. Chinese Cosmogony : Man-Nature Synthesis (Tan Chung)  

3. The Super-natural in Nature : Sindhi Tradition (Lachman K. Khubchandani)

4. The Order of Nature in Liangmais Myth (Sujata Miri)  

5. The Nomads : Man, Animal, Nature (R.S. Negi)  

6. Perception of Bhutas in Kedarkhand (M.M. Dhasmana)  

7. Perception of Bhutas in Garhwal (D.R. Purohit, Poornanand & Richa Negi)  

8. The Visvakarma worldview (Jan Brouwer)

9. The Birhor Universe (Ashim Kumar Adhikary)  

10. Bhuiyan Primal Elements (Pradeep Mohanty)  

11. Primal Elements in the Santhal Musical Texts (Onkar Prasad)  

12. A Santhal Myth : Five Elements (Kanak Mital)  

13. Five Elements in Santhal Healing (N. Patnaik)  

14. The Angami Fire and Water (Vibha Joshi)

15. Bhutas in Oral Ayurvedic Tradition (V. Verma)  

16. Peasant Perception of Bhutas : Uttar Kannada (M.D. Subash Chandran)  

17. Danda Ritual : Five Elements (Ileana Citaristi)  

18. Kerala Fisherfolk : Ritualistic and Cosmic Elements (P.R.G. Mathur)  

• List of Contributors

Exhibition

Volume 1 captures the articulations of cohesive communities in the world, who have lived in harmony with nature and who have communicated with the Elements: earth, air, water, fire and space, in a continuous, unceasing dialogue. To them, nature is not a matter of intellection; it is a question of life here and now. This is manifested in ritual practices which sacralize nature, so that man can live as an integral part of the universe. The lives and lifestyles of these cohesive groups have begun to acquire a renewed validity on account of what man has done to pollute, contaminate, deacralize and desecrate the very fundamentals that sustain him and make it possible for him to live on the earth.

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