In this paper I shall propose some hypotheses that have emerged from my fieldwork on the so-called sakta Tantra of Kerala (also known locally as Raudra or Mahartha). This Hindu tantric tradition weds ritualistic practices of Kashmirian Saivism (Krama-Trika) with the folk beliefs of Kerala. It could be said that the sakta (sakteyam in Malayalam) Brahmins of Malabar are representatives of the Mahartha Tantra of Kerala. I intend to shed some light on the sakta tradition and compare the data from my fieldwork with the scriptural tradition. Therefore, I would like to present here some of my observations from reading the ritual texts of the sakta Tantric Brahmins. Their ritualistic handbook (preserved in the form of a palm-leaf manuscript) forms a detailed ritual manual composed in a mixture of Sanskrit and Malayalam. Interestingly, the ritual directions are given sometimes in Sanskrit and other times in Malayalam, but most often in a combination of both languages. Being primarily goddess-oriented, the text teaches the reader methods of self empowerment and reaching the enlightened non-dual state through realizing the potencies of Kali. This paper introduces the structure of the ritual handbook and concerns the ritual peculiarities of the modern Tantric practitioners in Kerala.
{"title":"Sakta Tantric Traditions of Kerala in the Process of Change","authors":"Maciej Karasiński","doi":"10.1558/ROSA.19322","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ROSA.19322","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper I shall propose some hypotheses that have emerged from my fieldwork on the so-called sakta Tantra of Kerala (also known locally as Raudra or Mahartha). This Hindu tantric tradition weds ritualistic practices of Kashmirian Saivism (Krama-Trika) with the folk beliefs of Kerala. It could be said that the sakta (sakteyam in Malayalam) Brahmins of Malabar are representatives of the Mahartha Tantra of Kerala. I intend to shed some light on the sakta tradition and compare the data from my fieldwork with the scriptural tradition. Therefore, I would like to present here some of my observations from reading the ritual texts of the sakta Tantric Brahmins. Their ritualistic handbook (preserved in the form of a palm-leaf manuscript) forms a detailed ritual manual composed in a mixture of Sanskrit and Malayalam. Interestingly, the ritual directions are given sometimes in Sanskrit and other times in Malayalam, but most often in a combination of both languages. Being primarily goddess-oriented, the text teaches the reader methods of self empowerment and reaching the enlightened non-dual state through realizing the potencies of Kali. This paper introduces the structure of the ritual handbook and concerns the ritual peculiarities of the modern Tantric practitioners in Kerala.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42179278","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}
Buddhism, Education and Politics in Burma and Thailand: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present, by Khammai Dhammasami. London: Bloomsbury, 2018. 272 pp., ?85 (hb), ?28.99 (pb). ISBN 978-1-3500-5424-0 (hb), 978-1-3501-2306-9 (pb).
{"title":"Buddhism, Education and Politics in Burma and Thailand: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present, by Khammai Dhammasami.","authors":"N. McGovern","doi":"10.1558/ROSA.19282","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ROSA.19282","url":null,"abstract":"Buddhism, Education and Politics in Burma and Thailand: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present, by Khammai Dhammasami. London: Bloomsbury, 2018. 272 pp., ?85 (hb), ?28.99 (pb). ISBN 978-1-3500-5424-0 (hb), 978-1-3501-2306-9 (pb).","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44374801","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":"Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Experience, by Yaroslav Komarovski.","authors":"Jackson Stephenson","doi":"10.1558/ROSA.19281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ROSA.19281","url":null,"abstract":"Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Experience, by Yaroslav Komarovski. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 285pp., £86 (hb). ISBN: 9780190244958","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43557029","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}
The present article is a preliminary study of a section of the seventeenth canto of Mankha's Srikanthacarita, a 'court epic' (mahakavya) in Sanskrit composed during the twelfth century in Kashmir. In the section in question (SKC 17.18-33), the author elaborates a praise of the god in the guise of a philosophical discussion introducing the views of different doctrines, with the scope of establishing the superiority of the 'non-dual' (advaita) Saivism from Kashmir. Mankha, however, does not criticize or diminish the previous traditions but borrows their concepts to enhance his own credo, making the section a successful example of inclusivism. What stands out is Siva's pervasiveness and oneness, which seems to be built upon the model of the philosophical Tantric school of the Pratyabhijna. While presenting the structure of the philosophical section, this study explores the influence of Utpaladeva (c.925-975 ce) and Abhinavagupta (c.975-1025 ce) on Mankha's ideology.
{"title":"Poet with His Philosopher's Hat On","authors":"Chiara Livio","doi":"10.1558/rosa.19319","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.19319","url":null,"abstract":"The present article is a preliminary study of a section of the seventeenth canto of Mankha's Srikanthacarita, a 'court epic' (mahakavya) in Sanskrit composed during the twelfth century in Kashmir. In the section in question (SKC 17.18-33), the author elaborates a praise of the god in the guise of a philosophical discussion introducing the views of different doctrines, with the scope of establishing the superiority of the 'non-dual' (advaita) Saivism from Kashmir. Mankha, however, does not criticize or diminish the previous traditions but borrows their concepts to enhance his own credo, making the section a successful example of inclusivism. What stands out is Siva's pervasiveness and oneness, which seems to be built upon the model of the philosophical Tantric school of the Pratyabhijna. While presenting the structure of the philosophical section, this study explores the influence of Utpaladeva (c.925-975 ce) and Abhinavagupta (c.975-1025 ce) on Mankha's ideology.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67682634","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}
Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs, by Stuart H. Young. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2015. ix + 338 pp., $60.00 (hb). ISBN 9780824841201.
{"title":"Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs, by Stuart H. Young.","authors":"Herman Tull","doi":"10.1558/rosa.19280","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.19280","url":null,"abstract":"Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs, by Stuart H. Young. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2015. ix + 338 pp., $60.00 (hb). ISBN 9780824841201.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44271602","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}
Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance, by Harshita Mruthinti Kamath. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2019. xv + 225 pp., $34.95 (pb). ISBN 9780520301665.
{"title":"Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance, by Harshita Mruthinti Kamath","authors":"N. Sil","doi":"10.1558/rosa.19279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.19279","url":null,"abstract":"Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance, by Harshita Mruthinti Kamath. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2019. xv + 225 pp., $34.95 (pb). ISBN 9780520301665.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44568375","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}
The Pururava-caritai (‘The Adventures of Pururavas’) is an unstudied sixteenth-century Tamil adaptation of the famous Vedic legend of Pururavas, which introduces an extensive addition to the original story. One episode within this supplement narrates a trial by fire gone through by the protagonist’s wife, which draws heavily on a similar episode from the Ramayana epic, both in Valmiki’s classical Sanskrit version and in Kampan’s twelfth-century Tamil retelling. This article sheds new light on the ways in which classical literary gender roles and gender models were reimagined in premodern south India. I argue that the re-articulation of the epic fire-ordeal in the Pururava-caritai is a critical reflection on the feminine model that the Ramayana heroine, Sita, represents. I show that, through a synthesis of classical and folk motifs, the author has created an implicit intertextual dialogue that concludes with a complex matrix of values of ‘proper’ femininity and ‘true’ divinity.
{"title":"Who by Fire","authors":"O. Peres","doi":"10.1558/rosa.19014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.19014","url":null,"abstract":"The Pururava-caritai (‘The Adventures of Pururavas’) is an unstudied sixteenth-century Tamil adaptation of the famous Vedic legend of Pururavas, which introduces an extensive addition to the original story. One episode within this supplement narrates a trial by fire gone through by the protagonist’s wife, which draws heavily on a similar episode from the Ramayana epic, both in Valmiki’s classical Sanskrit version and in Kampan’s twelfth-century Tamil retelling. This article sheds new light on the ways in which classical literary gender roles and gender models were reimagined in premodern south India. I argue that the re-articulation of the epic fire-ordeal in the Pururava-caritai is a critical reflection on the feminine model that the Ramayana heroine, Sita, represents. I show that, through a synthesis of classical and folk motifs, the author has created an implicit intertextual dialogue that concludes with a complex matrix of values of ‘proper’ femininity and ‘true’ divinity.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46899546","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}
The mythology of the yoni of Sati was introduced in the early medieval Kalikapurana (ninth–eleventh century ce), a sakta text that linked the sexual symbol of the Goddess to the Kamakhya-pitha in Assam. This article will analyse the medieval Puranas and Tantras compiled in northeastern India—focusing on their mythological accounts of the cosmogony of the yoni pitha—in order to outline a historical evolution of the yoni symbol through the Middle Ages. Combining leftist Freudian, post-structuralist and post-gender theories with religious studies, the yoni will be considered both as a source of power and as a battlefield of sex–gender identity. In conclusion, this article will challenge the idea of a static yoni but will underline a sex–gender evolution of its identity, which encompasses and transcends both male and female powers.
{"title":"The Yoni of Kamakhya: The Intersection of Power and Gender in its Mythology","authors":"Paolo Rosati","doi":"10.1558/ROSA.19013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/ROSA.19013","url":null,"abstract":"The mythology of the yoni of Sati was introduced in the early medieval Kalikapurana (ninth–eleventh century ce), a sakta text that linked the sexual symbol of the Goddess to the Kamakhya-pitha in Assam. This article will analyse the medieval Puranas and Tantras compiled in northeastern India—focusing on their mythological accounts of the cosmogony of the yoni pitha—in order to outline a historical evolution of the yoni symbol through the Middle Ages. Combining leftist Freudian, post-structuralist and post-gender theories with religious studies, the yoni will be considered both as a source of power and as a battlefield of sex–gender identity. In conclusion, this article will challenge the idea of a static yoni but will underline a sex–gender evolution of its identity, which encompasses and transcends both male and female powers.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":"13 1","pages":"317–347-317–347"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42620138","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 suggests that the principle of patrilocality, as espoused by Krsna and Baladeva, can be applied as an interpretive frame to almost all of the narrative material that Vaisampayana presents to Janamejaya in the Harivamsa’s Visnuparvan (Hv 46–113), and that the principle of patrilocality is thus a key theme of the Visnuparvan, with Krsna and Baladeva as its heroes. This suggestion is supported by an overview of the Visnuparvan’s narrative from beginning to end, in eleven sections which repeatedly feature—or can be interpreted to feature—conflict with in-law families about where a couple will have children, and which of the two families the children will be raised for.
{"title":"Patrilocality in the Harivamsa’s Visnuparvan","authors":"S. Brodbeck","doi":"10.1558/rosa.19011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.19011","url":null,"abstract":"This article suggests that the principle of patrilocality, as espoused by Krsna and Baladeva, can be applied as an interpretive frame to almost all of the narrative material that Vaisampayana presents to Janamejaya in the Harivamsa’s Visnuparvan (Hv 46–113), and that the principle of patrilocality is thus a key theme of the Visnuparvan, with Krsna and Baladeva as its heroes. This suggestion is supported by an overview of the Visnuparvan’s narrative from beginning to end, in eleven sections which repeatedly feature—or can be interpreted to feature—conflict with in-law families about where a couple will have children, and which of the two families the children will be raised for.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44846299","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}
Through the analysis of the Citravali (1613 ce) by Usman, this article explores the interrelation between aesthetics, gender and religion within the Indian Sufi romances (premakhyans) in Avadhi language. These narratives reinterpret the Sufi semantics of love, narrating the quest of the hero in yogic disguise in search of the heroine, portrayed as a divine woman. Usman creatively reimagines the heroine of his romance as an artist, drawing on this motif to trace the allegory of creation as divine art. Therefore, this article identifies conventional aesthetic patterns in Usman’s narrative reproducing relevant gender dynamics, such as the eroticized and yet idealized image of the heroine in relation to the hero’s spiritual growth, contrasting with the escalation of the villain’s sexual desire. The traditional Hindu setting of the story broadly reflects the socio-cultural norms of the North Indian world in early modern times, and implies gender hierarchies established by the local society. The intersection of these points in the Citravali suggests further reflections on the articulation of gender in a rich branch of Sufi literature composed in a regional language of India, which may open new perspectives in the interpretation of the relationship between mysticism and eroticism.
{"title":"Gender Constructions in the Theological Dimension of the Sufi Premakhyans","authors":"Annalisa Bocchetti","doi":"10.1558/rosa.19015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.19015","url":null,"abstract":"Through the analysis of the Citravali (1613 ce) by Usman, this article explores the interrelation between aesthetics, gender and religion within the Indian Sufi romances (premakhyans) in Avadhi language. These narratives reinterpret the Sufi semantics of love, narrating the quest of the hero in yogic disguise in search of the heroine, portrayed as a divine woman. Usman creatively reimagines the heroine of his romance as an artist, drawing on this motif to trace the allegory of creation as divine art. Therefore, this article identifies conventional aesthetic patterns in Usman’s narrative reproducing relevant gender dynamics, such as the eroticized and yet idealized image of the heroine in relation to the hero’s spiritual growth, contrasting with the escalation of the villain’s sexual desire. The traditional Hindu setting of the story broadly reflects the socio-cultural norms of the North Indian world in early modern times, and implies gender hierarchies established by the local society. The intersection of these points in the Citravali suggests further reflections on the articulation of gender in a rich branch of Sufi literature composed in a regional language of India, which may open new perspectives in the interpretation of the relationship between mysticism and eroticism.","PeriodicalId":38179,"journal":{"name":"Religions of South Asia","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44951523","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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