Archives: Lectures

Readings in Phenomenology VI (HT22)

This will be an online class. Please send an email to secretary@ochs.org.uk for inclusion on the Teams invitation.

Phenomenology is one of the most important developments in philosophy in the twentieth century, and it has also had a deep impact on other theoretical fields more widely conceived. This term we will begin to read The Basic Problems of Phenomenology (Die Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie). This books recaps much of Being and Time and fills in some of the gaps, especially Part II on time that never appeared. In some ways, the Basic Problems might be seen as a completion of Being and Time that we read last year.

Readings in Phenomenology III (HT22)

This will be an online class. Please send an email to secretary@ochs.org.uk for inclusion on the Teams invitation.

Phenomenology is one of the most important developments in philosophy in the twentieth century, and it has also had a deep impact on other theoretical fields more widely conceived. This term we will begin to read The Basic Problems of Phenomenology (Die Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie). This books recaps much of Being and Time and fills in some of the gaps, especially Part II on time that never appeared. In some ways, the Basic Problems might be seen as a completion of Being and Time that we read last year.

Readings in Phenomenology II (HT22)

This will be an online class. Please send an email to secretary@ochs.org.uk for inclusion on the Teams invitation.

Phenomenology is one of the most important developments in philosophy in the twentieth century, and it has also had a deep impact on other theoretical fields more widely conceived. This term we will begin to read The Basic Problems of Phenomenology (Die Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie). This books recaps much of Being and Time and fills in some of the gaps, especially Part II on time that never appeared. In some ways, the Basic Problems might be seen as a completion of Being and Time that we read last year.

Readings in Phenomenology I (HT22) – canceled

The reading in week 1 is canceled.

Phenomenology is one of the most important developments in philosophy in the twentieth century, and it has also had a deep impact on other theoretical fields more widely conceived. This term we will begin to read The Basic Problems of Phenomenology (Die Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie). This books recaps much of Being and Time and fills in some of the gaps, especially Part II on time that never appeared. In some ways, the Basic Problems might be seen as a completion of Being and Time that we read last year.

Early Pilgrimage Traditions in South Asia

The lecture looks at the early history of pilgrimage and sites of pilgrimage in South Asia. Pilgrimage sites that were believed to offer rewards to those who visited them have been a feature of South Asian religious traditions since at least the first centuries CE. I suggest that some pre-Buddhist, non-Vedic religious sites in north and central India associated with sacred trees, pools of water, and shrines in the form of stones, might have been objects of pilgrimage travel also in pre-historic times. Yakṣas and other divinities were connected to sites and in some cases in order to worship them the worshipper would have to travel to them. An analysis of the two earliest texts that promote Buddhist and Hindu pilgrimage, the Mahāparinibbānasutta and the Mahābhārata, indicates that the pre-Buddhist, non-Vedic religious traditions were of some importance for the development of both pilgrimage traditions. In. the lecture I argue that two different forms of ritual travel are found in the Mahābhārata, the ritual royal procession, and the individual pilgrimage ritual, and argue that they have different origins. Both types of ritual travel are found in the Hindu pilgrimage traditions.

Prof. Knut A. Jacobsen is Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Bergen and specialises in the religions of India. He is also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He has published around 40 books as author or editor, and is the editor-in-chief of the landmark six-volume work Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Prof. Jacobsen obtained his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994, and has been professor at the University of Bergen since 1996. His main areas of research is the Hindu philosophical schools of Sāṃkhya and Yoga, especially in its classical forms but also exploring how these traditions survive in the modern world. In addition, he has also written extensively on the practice of pilgrimage in South Asia, and on the migration of South Asian religions, especially in Europe.

Hindu Pilgrimage Sites and Processions Rituals in the Diasporas

In this lecture I present and analyze procession and pilgrimage sites and rituals in the Hindu diasporas. These two forms of public rituals are related as processions are often part of festivals and the majority of pilgrims often arrive on the festivals’ main procession day. In the lecture I argue that one Hindu response to diaspora is to establish new sacred sites. In the diasporas Hindus continue the tradition of South Asian Hinduism of establishing new pilgrimage sites based on lives of sacred persons and visions, embodiments and other encounters with Hindu divinities. The paper argues that Hindus connect to space in a way that sacralize space wherever they live and that establishing new pilgrimage sites sanctions the new space as sacred and establishes an alternative or an additional sacred geography to those in their ancestral homelands.

Prof. Knut A. Jacobsen is Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Bergen and specialises in the religions of India. He is also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He has published around 40 books as author or editor, and is the editor-in-chief of the landmark six-volume work Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Prof. Jacobsen obtained his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994, and has been professor at the University of Bergen since 1996. His main areas of research is the Hindu philosophical schools of Sāṃkhya and Yoga, especially in its classical forms but also exploring how these traditions survive in the modern world. In addition, he has also written extensively on the practice of pilgrimage in South Asia, and on the migration of South Asian religions, especially in Europe.

On the Devīpurāṇa’s Tantric Sources and Adaptations of Tantric Ritual

Unique among first-millennium purāṇas, the circa 8th–9th century Devīpurāṇa reveals deep familiarity with Tantric Śaivism. This lecture analyzes the Devīpurāṇa’s engagement with tantric rituals and sources, particularly the goddess-oriented Bhairavatantras, and argues that its integration of these is integral to its construction of a Śākta civic religion. The paper first outlines evidence for the Devīpurāṇa’s familiarity with Tantric Śaivism, including its first-hand knowledge of specific early tantras. The second section examines its re-purposing of tantric mantras for public ritual. Section three concerns the Devīpurāṇa’s blending of civic religion and esoteric ritual in its genre-bending descriptions of pilgrimage to Nandā and Sunandā, the Himalayan mountain-goddesses. The final section concerns how the Devīpurāṇa transformed the propitiation of yoginīs, tantric goddesses of the cremation grounds, into calendrical rituals for the benefit of the state. Far more than a collection of demon-slaying narratives, the Devīpurāṇa proves crucial for understanding the early-medieval religious landscape, and in particular, the roles of Śaiva tantric rituals and sources in the making of public Śāktism.

Prof. Shaman Hatley: is an Associate Professor of Asian Studies & Religious Studies at The University of Massachusetts Boston. Prof. Hatley specialises in Asian religions, Hinduism, Sanskrit, tantric studies, Śaivism, yoga, Hindu goddess traditions, and medieval India. His research focuses on the tantric or esoteric traditions of medieval India, especially Tantric Shaivism, and on the premodern history of Yoga. Prof. Hatley completed his PhD in 2007 at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of Harunaga Isaacson, after which he taught at Concordia University, Montréal, until 2014. His publications concern goddess cults, yoga, tantric ritual, and the technical terminology of the Śaiva tantras. Currently, he is preparing a monograph on the Yoginī cults of early medieval India, and a multi-volume study and critical edition of the Brahmayāmalatantra, one of the earliest surviving works of Śaiva tantric literature focused upon goddesses.

The Philosophical Understanding of Gender in the Mahabharata (MT21)

Rethinking Gender in Hinduism

This series seeks to explore the complexities of the category of ‘gender’ in Hinduism, focusing on expanding past heteronormative conceptions of Hindu deities as shown in scriptures and iconographical contexts. The main goal of the project is to open the academic field of Gender Studies in Hinduism to a greater audience and wider opportunities. The project output is to develop a series that can resonate with, and connect to, other fields of study as well, such as gender studies, critical race theory, decolonial social anthropology, and so on. The project consists of recorded lectures that are made easily available through the OCHS webpage and YouTube.

The Philosophical Understanding of Gender in the Mahabharata

This lecture, based on Ruth Vanita’s forthcoming book, The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna and Species, analyses debates between sages on gender as a category. The debates address the question of gender’s relationship to reality in general, and in particular to conception, birth, life and death, and to the construction of personhood.

Sex and Gender in The Kamasutra (MT21)

Rethinking Gender in Hinduism 

This series seeks to explore the complexities of the category of ‘gender’ in Hinduism, focusing on expanding past heteronormative conceptions of Hindu deities as shown in scriptures and iconographical contexts. The main goal of the project is to open the academic field of Gender Studies in Hinduism to a greater audience and wider opportunities. The project output is to develop a series that can resonate with, and connect to, other fields of study as well, such as gender studies, critical race theory, decolonial social anthropology, and so on. The project consists of recorded lectures that are made easily available through the OCHS webpage and YouTube.

Sex and Gender in The Kamasutra

This lecture will examine the text in the context of the history of Sanskrit literature, focussing on its conceptual structure and the audience for whom it was written. 

Sexual Assault and Anxieties of Gender: The Epic Ṛṣis and their Audiences Confront the Problematics of Gender Difference and Human Sexuality

Rethinking Gender in Hinduism 

This series seeks to explore the complexities of the category of ‘gender’ in Hinduism, focusing on expanding past heteronormative conceptions of Hindu deities as shown in scriptures and iconographical contexts. The main goal of the project is to open the academic field of Gender Studies in Hinduism to a greater audience and wider opportunities. The project output is to develop a series that can resonate with, and connect to, other fields of study as well, such as gender studies, critical race theory, decolonial social anthropology, and so on. The project consists of recorded lectures that are made easily available through the OCHS webpage and YouTube.

Sexual Assault and Anxieties of Gender: The Epic Ṛṣis and their Audiences Confront the Problematics of Gender Difference and Human Sexuality

It is, of course, apparent and widely understood that the narratives of the great ancient Indian epic poems, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, are centered around episodes of sexual assault upon their respective heroines, Sītā and Draupadī, respectively. Less well known and commented upon, however, is the way both of the traditional authors of the work, the ṛṣis Vālmīki and Vyāsa, are dedicated to harping on this theme of sexual violence by overdetermining it with episodes of repeated physical and verbal assaults against the same figures as well as multiple assaults against a striking number of less central female characters. At the same time, the poets are at pains to create back stories, as it were that serve to provide justifications and explanations for the sexually anomalous situations in which their narratives place their central female characters. Moreover, running through both poems is a series of episodes that call into question the seeming fluidity and indeed the very concept of gender, as the poets dwell upon a specific anxiety of retributive gender transformation, almost universally, of men into women or fictive women.

In this presentation I will argue that, through these representations of gender and sexuality, the Sanskrit epics both register deeply rooted attitudes about these critical issues and serve as vehicles for their dissemination of the concepts of gender normativity that continue to inflect thinking and practice of gender to the present day in South Asian society. These attitudes, of course are by no means unique to the cultures of that region. They are, unfortunately, found in almost all patriarchal cultures around the world. This being the case, the South Asian representation of gender should be of interest to scholars of this subject in virtually all areas of the humanities and social sciences. Finally, I will discuss some of the ways in which the issue of the sexuality of the epic’s principal figures is negotiated by the Sanskrit language commentators on the works and the authors of later versions of the epic narratives that are heavily inflected by the Vaiṣṇava bhakti movements in medieval and early modern times.