Buddhism in 5 Minutes, edited by Elizabeth J. Harris. Sheffield: Equinox, 2021. xiv + 390 pp., £70 (hbk), £24.95 (pbk). ISBN 9781800500891 (hbk), 9781800500907 (pbk).
{"title":"Buddhism in 5 Minutes, edited by Elizabeth J. Harris","authors":"Paul Fuller","doi":"10.1558/rosa.27237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.27237","url":null,"abstract":"Buddhism in 5 Minutes, edited by Elizabeth J. Harris. Sheffield: Equinox, 2021. xiv + 390 pp., £70 (hbk), £24.95 (pbk). ISBN 9781800500891 (hbk), 9781800500907 (pbk).","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"97 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138951290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring Hindu Philosophy, by Ankur Barua","authors":"C. Ram-Prasad","doi":"10.1558/rosa.27239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.27239","url":null,"abstract":"Exploring Hindu Philosophy, by Ankur Barua. Sheffield: Equinox, 2023. xi + 183 pp., £22.95 (pb). ISBN 9781800502697 (hb), 9781800502703 (pb).","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"13 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138951801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
How does one attain spiritual liberation? What are the most important conditions? In this paper, I investigate a person’s mental condition in the soteriological process. Given the Srivaisnava belief that one can reach liberation only after death, the desire to continue or end the present life conditions how and when one attains liberation. To elaborate, those who desire liberation through surrendering their agency and possessions to God, i.e. Visnu, can be divided into two groups: (1) those who are so afflicted that they cannot bear to delay attaining liberation; and (2) those who are sufficiently content to wait to reach liberation later, at the end of their lives. This paper explores the difference in the medieval Srivaisnava intellectuals’ discussions of this dichotomy in the Sanskrit and Manipravalam (hybrid Tamil-Sanskrit) theological treatises of Vatsya Varadaguru (c.1165–1200 to 1277 ce) and Periyavaccan Pillai (c.1167 to 1262 ce). I argue that the varying ways that Srivaisnava theologians engaged with this dichotomy were modelled on their views of self-surrender. Finally, attention to this dichotomy was soon less dynamic by the time of a devoted successor of both authors and a great expounder of self-surrender, Vedantadesika or Venkatanatha (c.1268 to 1369 ce).
{"title":"When Your Desire Defines the Path","authors":"Manasicha Akepiyapornchai","doi":"10.1558/rosa.27232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.27232","url":null,"abstract":"How does one attain spiritual liberation? What are the most important conditions? In this paper, I investigate a person’s mental condition in the soteriological process. Given the Srivaisnava belief that one can reach liberation only after death, the desire to continue or end the present life conditions how and when one attains liberation. To elaborate, those who desire liberation through surrendering their agency and possessions to God, i.e. Visnu, can be divided into two groups: (1) those who are so afflicted that they cannot bear to delay attaining liberation; and (2) those who are sufficiently content to wait to reach liberation later, at the end of their lives. This paper explores the difference in the medieval Srivaisnava intellectuals’ discussions of this dichotomy in the Sanskrit and Manipravalam (hybrid Tamil-Sanskrit) theological treatises of Vatsya Varadaguru (c.1165–1200 to 1277 ce) and Periyavaccan Pillai (c.1167 to 1262 ce). I argue that the varying ways that Srivaisnava theologians engaged with this dichotomy were modelled on their views of self-surrender. Finally, attention to this dichotomy was soon less dynamic by the time of a devoted successor of both authors and a great expounder of self-surrender, Vedantadesika or Venkatanatha (c.1268 to 1369 ce).","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"41 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138950045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article brings sallekhana, the Jain practice of fasting to death, into conversation with the practice of ‘voluntary stopping of eating and drinking’ (VSED), an end-of-life option, available in various countries for competent adults, to hasten the end of life by consciously choosing to not eat and drink. From a medical and legal point of view sallekhana can be considered a form of VSED. Although differing in terms of intent and historical context, the two practices are similar insofar that they relate to capable and sound individuals who voluntarily forego food and water until death. Showing the critical similarity between VSED and sallekhana, I argue that the grounds put forward by major medical associations and legal societies to differentiate VSED from suicide are equally applicable to the case of sallekhana. I contend that the Jain fast needs to be disentangled from the concept of suicide based on the quality of intent, but also because the process is, in theory and for some time at least, reversible, supported by loved ones and members of the larger Jain community, and dependent on the individual’s continuous and prolonged will of renouncing food and water. I also show how medical and legal authorities defend an individual’s right to VSED based on the principles of self-determination, bodily integrity, self-ownership, and respect for persons. I put forward the view to take these ethical principles into account to legally protect a Jain’s right to take the vow of sallekhana.
{"title":"Sallekhana and the End-of-Life Option of Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking","authors":"Claire Maes","doi":"10.1558/rosa.27236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.27236","url":null,"abstract":"This article brings sallekhana, the Jain practice of fasting to death, into conversation with the practice of ‘voluntary stopping of eating and drinking’ (VSED), an end-of-life option, available in various countries for competent adults, to hasten the end of life by consciously choosing to not eat and drink. From a medical and legal point of view sallekhana can be considered a form of VSED. Although differing in terms of intent and historical context, the two practices are similar insofar that they relate to capable and sound individuals who voluntarily forego food and water until death. Showing the critical similarity between VSED and sallekhana, I argue that the grounds put forward by major medical associations and legal societies to differentiate VSED from suicide are equally applicable to the case of sallekhana. I contend that the Jain fast needs to be disentangled from the concept of suicide based on the quality of intent, but also because the process is, in theory and for some time at least, reversible, supported by loved ones and members of the larger Jain community, and dependent on the individual’s continuous and prolonged will of renouncing food and water. I also show how medical and legal authorities defend an individual’s right to VSED based on the principles of self-determination, bodily integrity, self-ownership, and respect for persons. I put forward the view to take these ethical principles into account to legally protect a Jain’s right to take the vow of sallekhana.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"65 49","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138950698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mobilising Krishna’s World: The Writings of Prince Savant Singh of Kishangarh, by Heidi R. M. Pauwels. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017. xvi + 262 pp. $30 (pb). ISBN 9780295742236.
动员克里希纳的世界：基桑加尔的萨凡特-辛格王子的著作》，Heidi R. M. Pauwels 著。西雅图：华盛顿大学出版社，2017 年。xvi + 262 pp.30 美元（平装本）。ISBN9780295742236。
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Three Early Mahayana Treatises from Gandhara: Bajuar Kharosthi Fragments 4, 6, and 11, by Andrea Schlosser. Gandharan Buddhist Texts, 7. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2022. xx + 317 pp., 15 colour plates, 33 figures. $85. ISBN 9780295750736.
{"title":"Three Early Mahayana Treatises from Gandhara: Bajuar Kharosthi Fragments 4, 6, and 11, by Andrea Schlosser","authors":"Jonathan Silk","doi":"10.1558/rosa.27240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.27240","url":null,"abstract":"Three Early Mahayana Treatises from Gandhara: Bajuar Kharosthi Fragments 4, 6, and 11, by Andrea Schlosser. Gandharan Buddhist Texts, 7. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2022. xx + 317 pp., 15 colour plates, 33 figures. $85. ISBN 9780295750736.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"3 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138953243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Advaita Vedanta is often approached as a philosophy of non-dualism. However, I show that approaching the tradition as a Sariraka Mamamsa, a hermeneutics of embodiment, better captures some of its core concerns. On this account, the Upanisads are primarily invested in clarifying the complex dynamics of human embodiment and the self’s immersion in various domains of materiality. To this extent, Advaita is well-placed to make unique interventions in the materialist turn in philosophy and religion, articulating a coherent discourse of embodied experience and pedagogy. Thus while the Vedantic project may be framed in terms of God or Brahman as its hermeneutic centre, it is the unfoldment of the nature of the saririn, the embodied, that drives the project at the first place. This requires discerning superimposed layers of identity (adhyasa), exfoliating each to arrive at the embodied one beneath the self’s embodying environs. This is not a negative process of withdrawing an ‘authentic’ self from its material or psychic entanglements, that is, desuperimposition (apavada). Rather, Advaitic method enjoins an embrace of the self’s immersion in its bodily environs, opening the phenomenal landscape of consciousness to hitherto unrecognized domains of phenomenal being submerged beneath conscious awareness. This is an expansive process that recalibrates one’s sense of self preparing it for more subtle forms of discernment in a graded phenomenal itinerary. I distinguish between two terms, adhyasa and adhyaropa, that, while mapping the same dynamics of embodiment, deploy it along different ends. Failure to appreciate this can obscure the precise work done by deliberate superimposition (adhyaropa) in Advaita.
{"title":"The Embodied One","authors":"Dhruv Raj Nagar","doi":"10.1558/rosa.27233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.27233","url":null,"abstract":"Advaita Vedanta is often approached as a philosophy of non-dualism. However, I show that approaching the tradition as a Sariraka Mamamsa, a hermeneutics of embodiment, better captures some of its core concerns. On this account, the Upanisads are primarily invested in clarifying the complex dynamics of human embodiment and the self’s immersion in various domains of materiality. To this extent, Advaita is well-placed to make unique interventions in the materialist turn in philosophy and religion, articulating a coherent discourse of embodied experience and pedagogy. Thus while the Vedantic project may be framed in terms of God or Brahman as its hermeneutic centre, it is the unfoldment of the nature of the saririn, the embodied, that drives the project at the first place. This requires discerning superimposed layers of identity (adhyasa), exfoliating each to arrive at the embodied one beneath the self’s embodying environs. This is not a negative process of withdrawing an ‘authentic’ self from its material or psychic entanglements, that is, desuperimposition (apavada). Rather, Advaitic method enjoins an embrace of the self’s immersion in its bodily environs, opening the phenomenal landscape of consciousness to hitherto unrecognized domains of phenomenal being submerged beneath conscious awareness. This is an expansive process that recalibrates one’s sense of self preparing it for more subtle forms of discernment in a graded phenomenal itinerary. I distinguish between two terms, adhyasa and adhyaropa, that, while mapping the same dynamics of embodiment, deploy it along different ends. Failure to appreciate this can obscure the precise work done by deliberate superimposition (adhyaropa) in Advaita.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"5 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138948349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This essay studies a South Asian folk epic and searches for its basic, inner message. Suffering, penance and the power of blood are core themes. The main metaphors used refer to drought and the heat generated by personal struggle. But heat releases new life, just as a hot sun engenders rain. The story features a severed animal head that the goddess Bhudevi then transforms into a cosmic seed, birthing a fresh new yuga cycle. The same folk epic also highlights human blood, that when spilt, transfers life-power to the earth. Animal and human lives are both implicated, with fresh pregnancies after long periods of infertility being a key outcome. A second key message emerges from the actions of Lord Vishnu near the end of the story. The ocean of the sky contains amrita or soma, an elixir that can extend or renew life. But earth-bound adversaries must learn to work together to release it. Cutting down trees and killing enemies to advance the wealth of ploughmen (human rulers), while indigenous craftsmen and hunters (asuras) suffer, invites drought and infertility, on both sides. Tolerance and respect are what bring down the rain, abundance and the renewal of life for all.
{"title":"Thirst, Rain, Severed Heads and Magical Fluids","authors":"Brenda E F Beck","doi":"10.1558/rosa.27234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.27234","url":null,"abstract":"This essay studies a South Asian folk epic and searches for its basic, inner message. Suffering, penance and the power of blood are core themes. The main metaphors used refer to drought and the heat generated by personal struggle. But heat releases new life, just as a hot sun engenders rain. The story features a severed animal head that the goddess Bhudevi then transforms into a cosmic seed, birthing a fresh new yuga cycle. The same folk epic also highlights human blood, that when spilt, transfers life-power to the earth. Animal and human lives are both implicated, with fresh pregnancies after long periods of infertility being a key outcome. A second key message emerges from the actions of Lord Vishnu near the end of the story. The ocean of the sky contains amrita or soma, an elixir that can extend or renew life. But earth-bound adversaries must learn to work together to release it. Cutting down trees and killing enemies to advance the wealth of ploughmen (human rulers), while indigenous craftsmen and hunters (asuras) suffer, invites drought and infertility, on both sides. Tolerance and respect are what bring down the rain, abundance and the renewal of life for all.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"54 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138948670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article puts late Vedic ritual and the renouncer and householder traditions of early South Asia into dialogue in a new way, by thinking about restraining the senses through the etic lens of regimes of care. Guiding questions in this study are: (1) How do regimes of care help us understand the conceptual interface of violence, restraint, purity and community? (2) How do shifting relations of care help us understand conceptual change over time? Finally, (3) how does conceptual change help us speculate productively about changes in relations of care? The clear thematic bifurcation in the texts will recapitulate what Nathan McGovern has termed a ‘broad, trans-sectarian tension between renunciate and householder lifestyles’.
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This article analyzes the figures of four contemporary Sufi peers who have established a formally unrecognized yet authoritative position despite their lack of ties to established Sufi transmission lineages or access to either symbolic or concrete capital. These peers operate in the lower strata of Delhi's urban society, in ‘economies of despair’, composed of concentric circles of unfavourable life circumstances, limited resources, under-recognition and the deepening communal divide.
Through a methodological combination of ethnography, participatory observation and textual analysis I examine their life trajectories to better understand the ways in which hyperlocal peers craft jugaad (improvised) authorities; the issue of space–the aspiration to exert power over a shrine and the transformation of the space, in some cases, from concrete to virtual. Finally, I address the transformations in peer-mureedi relations in the neoliberal era through the prism of the consumer society.
{"title":"Jugaad Authorities","authors":"Ronie Parciack","doi":"10.1558/rosa.21943","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.21943","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the figures of four contemporary Sufi peers who have established a formally unrecognized yet authoritative position despite their lack of ties to established Sufi transmission lineages or access to either symbolic or concrete capital. These peers operate in the lower strata of Delhi's urban society, in ‘economies of despair’, composed of concentric circles of unfavourable life circumstances, limited resources, under-recognition and the deepening communal divide.
 Through a methodological combination of ethnography, participatory observation and textual analysis I examine their life trajectories to better understand the ways in which hyperlocal peers craft jugaad (improvised) authorities; the issue of space–the aspiration to exert power over a shrine and the transformation of the space, in some cases, from concrete to virtual. Finally, I address the transformations in peer-mureedi relations in the neoliberal era through the prism of the consumer society.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"50 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135870829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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