Balatantram - A Book Review

Ayurveda the ancient Indian bioscience depicts all the aspects of healthy living. Kaumarabhrithya is a very important branch among the Ashtangas of Ayurveda. Balatantram is a valuable book in Balachikitsa written by Kalyana Vaidya in 16th Century. The work has 14 chapters, signified as Patala and has approximately 831 verses. Narration of Balatantram contains the principles and practices regarding the various aspects of diseases of children along with infertility related to males and females and Vajikarana upayas. This book is already published yet not very popular. This review would help the scientific community to understand this book in concise manner.

The Cities, Security and Poverty

The 2013 Meeting of the World Society for Ekistics was held in Ankara, Turkey under the theme of ‘The Cities, Security and Poverty’. The proceedings of this international meeting, edited by Meltem Yılmaz and H. Çağatay Keskinok, forms an overarching perspective for the changing power relations of the global world and its socio-spatial implications on human settlements with reference to the key issues of weakening public sphere and communality, increasing socio-spatial fragmentations and inequalities, and emerging security problems related with both political insurgences and environmental risks and degradations. Although the content of the proceedings book is not structured under certain sub-headings and themes, it is possible to categorize the contributions of the compilation of 18 distinctive articles as follow: (i) changing power relations and its implications on society and public sphere; (ii) spatial manifestations of changing power relations, spatial transformation and segregation; (iii) crime and security problems in urban spaces; (iv) ecological transitions and sustainability issues; (v) disaster risks and security concerns. The review of this valuable book would bring forward the problematic issues of security and poverty by especially highlighting the recent socio-spatial experiences in Turkish cities and hopefully offer a humble contribution for the upcoming Special Issue: Turkey, Urbanism and the New Habitat.

Critical Reflections on Physical Culture at the Edges of Empire

This groundbreaking anthology provides a transnational view of the use of physical culture practices to strengthen, discipline, and reimagine the human body. Exploring theses of colonialism, gender disparities, and race relations, this international examination of bodily practices is a must read for all sport historians and those interested in physical training and its meanings. Erudite, solid, enlightening, this is a truly valuable book for our field.

Bank Operations and Economic Daily Life of Post-Reform Russia

The historiography of post-reform Russia has been enriched with a new valuable book, which demonstrates the important all-Russia processes using materials locally available. The main finding of the monograph is identification of the role that banks play not as credit institutions, but as accounting companies (since wire-transfers are highly-demanded amongst merchants). It was emphasized that special checking accounts were very important for short-term loans of local entrepreneurs (that were not connected with stock market speculations). The statistics of bank operations was used to illustrate the significance of railways for development of industry and commerce. Finally, the book offers new prospects for further research: some data suggest that in the early 20th century the notes-backed lending penetrated those sections of urban population, which were excluded as before.

Current problems of developing rare book collection at sci-tech library (case study of Central Scientific Agricultural Library)

The issues of methodological approaches toward and criteria of publication selection for rare and valuable book collections of sci-tech libraries are discussed. Based on the experience of CSAL, the need for comprehensive evaluation of books is substantiated: by materials and facilities, level of performance, physical condition and age, circulation, periodicity, and by value in scientific and sociocultural aspects.

The Causes of al-‘Ilāl According to Al-Bazzār in his Book al-Bahru’z-Zakhār “An Applied Study”

Critics among the traditionalists “Muhadditheen” defectify Hadith on the basis of certain reasons associated to a particular Hadith. This research work specifies the scholarly work done by the great critic, Imam Bazzar in the field of Hadith defection provided in his valuable book Musnad Al-Bazzar (Collection of Prophetic traditions). The entire research work is divided into three main parts. The first part provides a brief introduction of the author, and his book "Musnad al-Bazzar ". The second part describes the science of Hadith Defection “ ‘Ilal” and overview of the writings on the subject. The third part is the core part of this research work, identifying the causes of Hadith Defection “ ‘Ilal” adopted by Imam Bazzar, in addition to the illustrative examples, as well as the study of defectification in the light of rules laid down by the well-known critics and traditionalists ‘Muhadditheen’. The Research Methodology I have adopted here is descriptive analytical approach towards methods of Hadith collection, reviewing them and extracting the cause of defect in the light of methodology adopted by Imam Bazzar. The researcher concludes that the causes of Hadith Defection adopted by Bazzar are uniqueness, illusion, defilement, divergences in attribution, interval, Concealment and conduct.

Günter Frankenberg’s Comparative Constitutional Studies: Between Magic and Deceit

Constitutions traffic in magic and deceit, argues Günter Frankenberg, promising freedom and democracy even as they underwrite the exercise of coercive power on a massive scale. Scholars should approach constitutions with a healthy skepticism, but, Frankenberg contends, most mainstream scholars are too credulous, especially regarding the claims of liberal constitutionalism. Comparative Constitutional Studies serves as his corrective to the perceived blind spots and predilections of mainstream comparative constitutional scholarship, and it gives attention to little-known constitutions, forgotten histories, and alternatives to liberal constitutionalism. It’s a rich, challenging, and valuable book, one that takes the reader to some off-the-beaten-track places and offers some new perspectives on well-studied landmarks. It does not, however, represent such a radical break from mainstream scholarship as the author supposes, both because the book’s own analysis, in practice, is not deeply unconventional, and because mainstream scholarship is more diverse than Frankenberg gives it credit for.

ROLE OF UNANI MEDICINE IN THE PREVENTION OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE-2019 (COVID-19): A REVIEW AND RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE

In December 2019 some patients with symptoms very much similar to SARS and MERS emerged in Wuhan city of China. In January 2020 a new type of coronavirus was isolated and name as 2019-nCoV, which later termed 'SARSCoV-2'. WHO declared the Covid-19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and on March 11, the epidemic was upgraded to the pandemic. As on 02.04.2020, 827,419 confirmed cases are officially reported in more than 200 countries or territories with 40,777 deaths. The history of epidemiology typically starts with 'Hippocrates' in about 400 BC; he in his valuable book, Of the Epidemics introduced several concepts of epidemiology. In Unani Classical texts, both epidemics and pandemics have been described under a common term 'Waba'. Unani medicine have described Nazla Haar by the name of Nazla-e-Wabaiya (epidemic influenza) which is characterized by body ache, sore throat, nasal irritation, burning sensation in eyes sneezing & cough, and fever. Unexplained general weakness is an early feature of Nazla-e-Wabaiya and the disease is often complicated by pneumonia and pleurisy, therefore, Nazla-e-Wabaiya (Nazla Haar) is very much similar to that of Covid-19. In such conditions Ibn Sina advised that houses should be sanitized daily by spraying different arqiyat, he recommended the use of Bukhoor(incense) of some anti-infective drugs. Zakariya Razi has prescribed several aromatic Unani drugs for prevention of Waba. For prophylaxis of epidemic diseases, Unani scholars also prescribed several drugs to augment the immunity (Quwwat-e-Mudabbira Badan). There is a long list of drugs suggested by Unani scholars to be used in different ways to combat epidemic and pandemic situations that need to be validated on current scientific parameters.

Family library of Sheptytskyi in Prylbychi

The article discusses the history of the Prylbychi library in the context of the collecting activities of Counts Sheptytskyi — the parents of Metropolitan Andrey and the Blessed Hieromartyr Klymentii. The valuable book collection, founded by Count Ivan Sheptytskyi, numbered approximately 6,000 volumes, was destroyed along with almost all other art collections during the First 158 World War. The history of the collection is still largely unknown and it calls for further reserch. Found in Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv surviving copies give an idea of the bibliophilic preferences of the owners, the manifestation of which is a gold-plated heraldic superexlibris with the name of the Sheptytskyi family estate «Przyłbice». Unfortunately, the question of how to get them to the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv, because they are devoid of any later provenance signs. It is also questionable that they continued to be part of Metropolitan Andrey’s personal library, as none of them has his own insignia or the book collections he founded, which included most of his private books — the Church Museum, the Metropolitan Library, the National Museum or the «Studion». Of particular value is the lifetime edition of the works of the theologian and theorist of oratory S. Sokolowski Concionatoris Opera (Krakow, 1591–1598) with a handwritten gift inscription by Ivan Sheptytskyi from the Prylbychi library to his son, Metropolitan of Halychyna and Archbishop of Lviv Andrey. Another old print with the heraldic superexlibris «Przyłbice» was found in the department of old prints and rare editions of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. This is a eulogy by J. Narolsky to the Bishop of Lviv, Galicia and Kamyanets-Podilsky Atanasy Sheptytskyi published in Lviv in 1721, framed in white suede and decorated with the coat of arms of the Sheptytskyi. Having received this edition from his parents’ book collection, Andrey Sheptytskyi handed it over as part of a personal collection of several thousand for the needs of the Stanyslaviv Chapter in 1901. The copy is marked with the first proprietary book mark of the Bishop, the coat of arms ex-libris «Library of Bishop Sheptytskyi». Keywords: book collection, Sheptytskyi, Prylbychi, old edition, heraldic superexlibris, gift inscription.

Susanna Fein and David Rabin, ed., Chaucer: Visual Approaches. University Park, Penn.: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016, pp. 302.

When Susanna Fein and David Rabin, the editors of The Chaucer Review, set out to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their journal, they chose an excellent theme for a book: visual approaches to Chaucer. The result of their choice and their collaboration with other Chaucerian scholars is a valuable book: Chaucer: Visual Approaches. In an age when it is possible to view myriad images of Chauceriana online just through a Google keyword search, it is necessary to articulate logical ways of analyzing the available visual materials and relating them to Chaucer’s literary works. As Fein and Rabin state in their preface: “In offering to Chaucerians and other medievalists an amply illustrated volume of essays, we hope to display an array of models for how Chaucer may be read alongside visual evidence” (xv). Their book does indeed achieve this aim, and it does so in part through its organization. The volume is divided into three parts: “Ways of Seeing,” “Chaucerian Imagescapes,” and “Chaucer Illustrated.”