The Newars: An Ethno-Sociological Study of a Himalayan Community


Author: Gopal Singh Nepali
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The Book

The Newars of Nepal are a people with a high degree of material culture and a distinctive social organisation. Though stray references on them are available from the pioneering accounts of Levi, Hodgson, Oaldfield, K.P. Chattopadhyaya and others, there has been no systematic ethnosociological study on the subject. Dr. Nepali's monograph, which earned him the Ph.D. degree of the Bombay University, makes an attempt to fill in this gap.

Written in the best traditions of sociological studies, the author, who has had the benefit of being trained under Dr. G.S. Ghurye, the doyen of Indian sociology, uses the functional approach and the descriptive method to advantage, as is particularly evident in his religion and kinship.

The monograph derives additional dimensions of interest on two points: while on the one hand it seeks to study the Newars and their interaction with various other ethnic groups of the politically significant cis?Himalayan region, the work, on the other hand, stimulates scholarly curiosity by its discussion on the similarity of certain culture traits between the Newars and the distantly placed Nayars of Malabar.

This reprint of the book 'The Newars' is the second of a series of publications sponsored by Himalayan Booksellers, for the understanding of Himalayan people, their societies and cultures, the first publication in the series being 'The Cult of Kumari'-Virgin Worship in Nepal' by Michael R. Allen

About the author
Gopal Singh Nepali was born in Kathmandu in 1926, but brought up and educated in India at Varanasi and Bombay. He took his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Bombay. He taught as assistant lecturer at Sir J.J. College of Architecture, Bombay and as lecturer in Sociology at the University of Gorakhpur before joining Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi as lecturer in Sociology in 1963.

Dr. Nepali retired from the department of sociology, Banaras Hindu University as professor on Jan. 31, 1986. He was also then holding the directorship of Centre for the Study of Nepal, Banaras Hindu University. He was subsequently appointed professor at the Centre for Himalayan Studies, University of North Bengal (West Bengal), where he worked for two years.

Dr. Nepali was a professor at the Department of Sociology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.