The scholarly literature concerning Gujarati Hinduism in the U.K. has tended to pay attention to so-called ecumenical, rationalised and representative Hindu beliefs and practices. This has been at the expense of any scholarly enquiry as to the role that regional, vernacular traditions play in the religious lives of Gujarati Hindus in this country. This paper will argue that the Jalaram Bapa tradition, through vernacular practices and beliefs concerning miraculous events and narratives, is offering a contemporary and alternative religious expression to that offered by kind of representative Gujarati Hinduisms located in the U.K. today. Furthermore, it is doing so in a very public manner that appears to validate regional, vernacular traditions as opposed to marginalising or dismissing them. Dr. Martin Wood is Lecturer in Hinduism and Methodologies in the Study of Religion, Bath Spa University College, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Bristol. His doctoral research examined Gujarati Hinduism in the U.K. and New Zealand concerning identity, authority and beliefs and practices relating to devotional food offerings. Dr. Woods has now begun for focus his research more specifically on the 18th Century Gujarati saint Jalaram Bapa and the significant tradition that has developed since his death in the Gujarat and the wider Gujarati diaspora. He examines the Jalaram Bapa tradition in relation to other Hinduisms, especially those considered more representative (Swaminarayan, ISKCON) addressing questions of religious identity and presence in the public domain particularly in relation to the interaction between vernacular (miracles, healings, visitations, and possessions) and more rationalised beliefs and practices.
Lecture tag: Culture
The Sacred and the Secular: Hindu Ideology and Imagery in Extremist Politics
My presentation would explore how different visions, versions and heritages of Hinduism were reflected in Extremist politics. It would trace how such reflections crafted a nationalist idea of India. I will see how concepts such as Tilak’s ‘feeling of Hindutva’, Lajpat Rai’s ‘Hindu nationality’, B.C. Pal’s ‘composite patriotism’, and Brahmabandhab Upadhyay’s ‘Sankara’s Advaitic system’ differed from contemporary ideas about ‘Hindu Nationalism’. I argue that the Extremist brand of nationalism cannot be equated to communalism (Cf. J. Zavos: 2000 and 2011; and C. Jaffrelot: 1998). Using a comparative model, I trace regional and trans-regional iconisations of Hinduism in Extremist politics. Why and how were yearnings and devotion to a divine Motherland (India), referred to as ‘Gyan Bhumi’, ‘Punya Bhumi’, and ‘Ved Bhumi’ expressed? This is yoked to the symbolism of Krishnacharitra, and the performance of religious ceremonies for political purposes, such as the Ganapati festival in Maharashtra, which was also celebrated in Bengal. This is connected to the point about dissemination of Extremist religious-political ideas. I see how Kathas, and periodicals on religious discussions disseminated such ideas to a wider audience, and how the latter reacted to these. Swarupa Gupta, Ph.D. in History, SOAS (University of London, 2004) is Assistant Professor Member at the Department of History, Presidency University, Calcutta. Her publications include: Notions of Nationhood in Bengal: Perspectives on Samaj, c. 1867-1905 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2009); an edited volume entitled Nationhood and Identity Movements in Asia: Colonial and Postcolonial Times (Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2012); and a book manuscript: Ethnicity, Otherness and Cultural Constellations in Eastern India and Beyond. She has also contributed to various peer-reviewed international and national journals such as Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press), Economic and Political Weekly, Studies in History, Journal of the Asiatic Society, Encounters; and also to several edited books. She is the recipient of Felix Scholarship, University of London Central Research Fund award, SOAS fieldwork grant, and an invited visiting fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany.
Facets of Hinduism in the Cultural-Nationalist Programme of the Hindu Mela
The Hindu Mela (1867) was the first organised expression of cultural nationhood. This lecture will examine the triadic intersection between (Hindu) religion, culture, and nationalism as reflected in the Hindu Mela. It studies how this intersection formed a reference point for comparing the selective emphasis on Hindu heritage in the earlier (late nineteenth century and early twentieth century) phase, and later, in emphatically communal and political discourses. I will focus on the shifting connotation of ‘Hindu’, and argue that despite the nomenclature: ‘Hindu Mela’, there was a flexibility. This was evident in the contextual inclusion of non-Hindu groups in the Mela. Lines of religious divisions were blurred. The Mela was open to Indians of all classes, srenis [occupational-cum-social groups], and religious-communal groups. The ideology of the Mela was yoked to ideas about swadesh or Bharat Bhumi, which was not necessarily the land of the Hindus alone. This inclusion occurred despite the use of Hindu religious imagery. Using a comparative model, I track how and why this was different from / similar to the use of Hindu ideology and imagery by the Moderate Congress leaders and by the Extremists. In this regard, I explore how the Mela depicted / picturised Hindu Gods, e.g., a pushkar bijmala was given to Shiva; how Krishna was transmuted to the idol of Kali (done by Kasisvar Mitra, Rajendranath Deb and others). Further, I also address the issue of dissemination: for instance, at the national theatre, religious plays were staged. I also aim to investigate how the use of religious icons and images was accepted / not accepted by non-Hindus. Swarupa Gupta, Ph.D. in History, SOAS (University of London, 2004) is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, Presidency University, Calcutta. Her publications include: Notions of Nationhood in Bengal: Perspectives on Samaj, c. 1867-1905 (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2009); an edited volume entitled Nationhood and Identity Movements in Asia: Colonial and Postcolonial Times (Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2012); and a book manuscript: Ethnicity, Otherness and Cultural Constellations in Eastern India and Beyond. She has also contributed to various peer-reviewed international and national journals such as Modern Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press), Economic and Political Weekly, Studies in History, Journal of the Asiatic Society, Encounters; and also to several edited books. She is the recipient of Felix Scholarship, University of London Central Research Fund award, SOAS fieldwork grant, and an invited visiting fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany.
What is Still Living in the Life and Work of Gandhi?
This lecture aims at a rigorous assessment of Gandhi’s ongoing relevance to a comprehensive culture of peace, which includes, among other matters, peace and human rights, interfaith harmony, and ecosophy.
Joseph Prabhu is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at California State University, Los Angeles and occasional Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago. He is active as both a scholar and a peace activist. He has edited The Intercultural Challenge of Raimon Panikkar (Orbis Books, 1996) and co-edited the two-volume Indian Ethics: Classical Traditions and Contemporary Challenges (Ashgate Publishing Co, 2007; Springer and Oxford University Press, India, 2016).He has authored Raimon Panikkar as a Modern Spiritual Master (Orbis Books, 2015). He has been a Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University and of the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago. He has also been co-editor of ReVision from 1995-2003, and a contributing editor of Zygon. He is the past President of the international Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, 2008-2010, and the Program Chair for the Melbourne Parliament of the World’s Religions, 2009. He served on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the Council of a Parliament of the World’s Religions from 2005-2011. He has lectured and taught at more than seventy universities either as visiting professor or as guest lecturer in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe and the United States.
Rasa as Aesthetic Emotion and Religious Ecstasy (HT 16)
The oldest description of rasa as aesthetic category is found in the Nāṭyaśāstra, a treatise on the theatre art dated to the 2nd cent. BCE – 2nd cent. CE. The vast available Western scholarly literature on the topic always highlighted the aesthetic essence of rasa, whether it was likened to European aesthetic categories or recognised as an original achievement of the Oriental wisdom. Without shrugging off this latter view, I would like to stress that the ancient Indian concept of rasa contains numerous aspects which cannot be explained with purely aesthetic ideas. In itself, the word rasa is highly polysemical. It occurs as early as the Vedas, where it stands for the élan vital or juice of a plant, for potions and liquids in general, and milk and water in particular. A magic potion, not unlike an elixir or nectar, was also known as rasa (and was equivalent to amṛta). Last but not least, the word designated the pivotal and best part of a thing; the quintessence or essence of a phenomenon; taste, mentality, or an emotional state and even the religious feeling.
Of the many meanings of the word rasa, the traditional theoretical evaluation of the theatre selected only one – taste. Indeed, the understanding of the word rasa as taste also emerged in the Vedic period but had a rather specific connotation. According to the R̥gvedic hymn IX.113.3, the initial semantics of rasa as taste were related to the soma cult and meant not just any taste but the unique taste of soma as a real-life potion. The crucial ritual aspect of soma was related to the specific hallucinating intoxication into which it had the power to put gods and mortals (priests drank the soma potion in particular rites). Soma drinking belonged to esoteric rites in which the human body, like a vessel, was to be filled with a divine potion. The magic trance caused by soma elevated humans above their nature. Ecstasy born of it gave unique, superhuman experiences and made humans participants of the divine world.
It can be substantiated that the early ritual drama had for supreme goal the acquisition of a specific psycho-physical state by all adepts without exception, similar to the ecstatic experience of soma. The religious ecstasy close to the mystical feeling of communication with God (also enacted in the mystery play before the pious audience) came as an analogy of the hallucinogenic effect of soma, in its essence, quintessence and taste – to put it into one word: rasa.
The rasa concept as it figures in the Nāṭyaśāstra cannot be described as an aesthetic theory in the proper sense of the term. In the treatise rasa still bears a large cluster of meanings from the earlier stages of the evolution, when it was regarded not as an aesthetic, properly artistic notion from the world of the arts, but a phenomenon from another reality, sacral and defying expression. As I see it, three stages can be singled out in the evolution of the concept of rasa: first, its emergence as a symbolic expression of a ritualistic content; second, close in time to the Nāṭyaśāstra, when rasa evolved into a theoretical term and acquired a specific aesthetic content, which gradually ousted its sacral essence; and the third, when the aesthetic aspect became dominant, while the transcendental (alaukika) element of rasa was singled out and emphasized in the later philosophical and mystical tradition (first of all, in the concept of bhakti–rasa in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism and interpretation of it by Rūpa Gosvāmī). In my view, the sacral aspects and original ritualistic context were the reason for the outstanding popularity, broad dissemination and long-lasting tradition of the notion of rasa.
Decoding Gandharan Art: Making Of Museum Collections In India
This paper discusses collections of Gandharan sculptures in museums in India along two lines of enquiry: one, the nature and size of collections in some of the major museums of the country, such as the Indian Museum, Kolkata founded in 1814 and with the largest collection of 1602 Gandharan objects; or the National Museum, New Delhi, which was inaugurated on 15th August 1949, two years after Indian Independence and has 688 objects. In contrast to the Indian Museum’s collection made before 1927, the National Museum continued to add pieces until 1987. Other sizable collections include those in the Government Museum, Chandigarh and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, though the history of the collection is unique in each case. How are these differences to be understood or contextualized? The focus on ‘collecting’ rather than ‘collections’ provides insights into the changing nature of engagement between the region of Gandhāra and the history of the subcontinent.
Himanshu Prabha Ray is recipient of the Anneliese Maier research award of the Humboldt Foundation (2014 – 2019) and Member of the Board of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford. She is former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Former Chairperson, National Monuments Authority, Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
She is series editor of Routledge Archaeology and Religion in South Asia book series in collaboration with OCHS. Her recent books include Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia (Routledge, 2018); The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation (Routledge, New Delhi, 2014); The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003), as also edited volumes: Buddhism and Gandhara: An Archaeology of Museum Collections (Routledge, 2018); Bridging the Gulf: Maritime Cultural Heritage Of The Western Indian Ocean (India International Centre & Manohar Publishers, 2016); Satish Chandra and Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, The Sea, Identity and History: From the Bay of Bengal to the South China Sea (Manohar Publishers, 2013).
Was the Muluki Ain of 1854 the first codification of Nepal a strategy of Hinduization? (MT17)
Most western scholars, as a result of their social anthropological and historical research, have interpreted and presented the Muluki Ain of 1854 as a strategy of Hinduization or establishment of supremacy of Hindu values, possibly also as reinforcement of Hindu norms or the re-establishment of stricter caste hierarchy. Nevertheless, a subtle philological approach is required to understand whether the Muluki Ain was a strategy of Hinduization or whether it represents, to a certain degree, an attempt to create a confessional type of theocratic state by bringing the pluralistic social and religious cultures and customs of pre-modern Nepal into a single legal framework in which a modified Hindu caste system and some explicit Hindu elements—which deviate vastly from the classical Brahmanical orthodoxy—were principally dominant. Therefore, the current presentation will deal with the relevant provisions of the code which will address the necessity of re-interpretation of the existing social anthropological theories.
Dr. Rajan Khatiwoda has a PhD in South Asian Studies (Heidelberg University) and MA in Classical Indology (Nepal Sanskrit University, Balmeeki Vidyapeeth). Dr Khatiwoda has been a Research Assistant and Cataloguer at the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (NGMCP) at the Nepal Research Centre (NRC) in Kathmandu for 10 years (2003-2013) and is affiliated with the Śākta Traditions project at the OCHS led by Professor Gavin Flood and Dr Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen. His interests span widely from Śaivism to Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Logic, Manuscriptology and Epigraphy with a focus on Ancient Nepalese History, law and Śākta literature.
Constructing a theological basis for social engagement during the rule of Jai Singh II in Early Modern North India (HT17)
While the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition does not go as far as to reject the practice of ritual (karma) overtly, its early teachers generally forewarn bhakti practitioners of engagement in karma. Consequently, the place of karma, and hence of social responsibilities (varṇāśrama-dharma), in the life of a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava is rarely directly discussed in the early phase of the tradition. However, in the early 18th century a wave of texts appear attempting to devise a bridge between bhakti and karma. These texts appear to have been produced as the tradition enters into a dialogue with Jai Singh II (1688-1743) of the Kachvaha dynasty. Jai Singh was concerned that the various schools active in his kingdom endorsed social engagement, in relation to varṇāśrama and karma. In this presentation, I will examine the Karma-vivṛti, a manuscript held in the library of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur. The text is an exposition on karma and its its relation to bhakti, written by the chief advisor to Jai Singh, Kṛṣṇadeva Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācarya, a prominent Gauḍīya theologian in Jaipur. Kṛṣṇadeva goes to great lengths to endorse karma and thus social engagement, drawing extensively upon the earliest teachers of the tradition, in an attempt to develop a theological and scriptural argument for the compatibility of karma and bhakti.
Sunit Patel is currently pursuing a DPhil in Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. His reseach interests include the intersection between religious movements and political power, Indian intellectual history, and the early modern world.
Hinduism 2: Hinduism in History and Society: Session 1 (HT17)
Beginning with the early medieval period, this paper traces the development of Hinduism in devotional (bhakti) and tantric traditions. The paper examines the development of Śaiva, Śākta, and Vaiṣṇava traditions along with ideas about liberation, ritual, asceticism, yoga and devotion. There will be some exploration of Hinduism and Modernity and there may also be reference to major schools of Hindu philosophy such as Vedānta.