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- Convenors:
-
Mikael Aktor
(University of Southern Denmark)
Knut Axel Jacobsen (University of Bergen)
- Location:
- C408
- Start time:
- 27 July, 2012 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 3
Short Abstract:
Objects of worship are at the same time material objects shaped by traditions of religious aesthetics and conceptual devices woven into webs of religious and social meaning. This panel contributes to an understanding of the central significance of these objects in the social life of South Asia.
Long Abstract:
South Asian religions are known for their strong emphasis on visuality. Objects of worship may be natural phenomena like trees, mountains or rivers, or they are man-made artefacts in all kinds of shape and design - anthropomorphic, theriomorphic or aniconic. Together they may form patterns in the landscape that are seen as an object of worship in its own right. Although generally designed in non-verbal visual media, such objects reflect a long history of religious discourse and give rise to endless interpretations. Objects of worship have been the focus of complex theological debates about the nature of God, whether saguna, nirguna, empty, diverse or exclusively One. They have been causes of bitter charges of "idolatry" that have been central to the rise of reform movements and new religions in which letters, words and books became themselves objects of worship.
Objects of worship are at the centre of religious practices performed privately or in homes and temples. They protect those who wear them against all kinds of misfortune like disease, childlessness, unemployment or demands of paying off one's debt. They are tools of meditation and of attaining altered states of consciousness. Some even guarantee liberation from rebirth.
In essence, objects of worship are at the same time material objects shaped by traditions of religious aesthetics and conceptual devices woven into webs of religious and social meaning. The papers of this panel all contribute to an understanding of the central significance of these objects in the social life of South Asia.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Mikael Aktor (University of Southern Denmark)
Paper short abstract:
A discussion of the Shiva Linga at the cross lines between form and formlessness and between fertility oriented popular religion and society oriented priestly religion.
Paper long abstract:
In many ways the Shiva Linga illustrates the contradictory nature of religious objects. It gives a specific form to a god whose nature is without form or extends to all forms, a form which is not like a human being but still has a face (or more faces) and which even may originally have represented one specific body part, the male organ, which was later given theological meanings as representing the god's union with his female consort in a cosmic act of creation. In this paper I will focus on two points in which the Shiva Linga is at the cross lines between opposites. One is the crossing between the anthropomorphic and the aniconic, the form and the formless; the other is the cross line between a fertility oriented popular religion and a society oriented priestly religion where the latter seems to have been influential in the gradual downplay - noticed by many scholars - of the Linga's phallic aesthetics.
Knut Axel Jacobsen (University of Bergen)
Paper short abstract:
Although no ancient statue of sage Kapila has been found, in contemporary Hinduism there are a number of sacred images of this sage. In this paper I analyze these objects of worship and their ritual functions.
Paper long abstract:
Statues and prints of the ancient sage Kapila are found in a number of pilgrimage places associated with this divine figure in India and at the centers of organizations of ascetics that consider Kapila as god or divine guru. Although no ancient statue of Kapila has been found, different ancient sacred narratives and traditions of religious thought are associated with him. In contemporary Hinduism, however, there are a number of sacred images of him and in this paper I analyze the characteristics of Kapila as he is presented in the statues and prints, these statues and prints as objects of worship and their ritual functions. I analyze the connections of the sacred images of Kapila with the narratives and textual traditions that describe him and the teaching of the religious traditions and organizations that worship him.
Xenia Zeiler (University of Helsinki)
Paper short abstract:
The paper wants to contribute to an understanding of the diverse application and interpretation of yantras as objects of worship in the lived religions of South Asia. It does so by discussing the Dhumavatiyantra as compared to the Sriyantra in historical textual as well as recent practiced contexts.
Paper long abstract:
Yantras are understood to be devices assisting meditation and ritual as well as objects of worship on their own right in Hindu and Tantric traditions, both. In present-day South Asia, they are widespread and frequently appear in socio-religious contexts in public, as in temples and public festivals, and in private, as in house-shrines and for individual worship at home. The most prominent example here is the Sriyantra, understood by most modern Hindu traditions as the one auspicious symbol for subh-labh, "prosperity and gain".
From a religious history point of view yantras first rose to elevated prominence in Tantric traditions and, from there, were highly successfully incorporated into mainstream Hinduism. The story of yantras then is one of incorporating esoteric Tantric (ritual) practices and symbols into exoteric Smarta Hindu traditions. To exemplify and discuss this, the paper analyses one goddess-yantra, the Dhumavatiyantra, and its socio-religious development and interpretation from the marked Tantric textual background to its reading in recent Hinduism, for instance in lived religious practices or in online yantra shops.
This paper wants to contribute to an understanding of the broad and diverse application and interpretation of yantras as objects of worship in the lived religions of South Asia. It does so by discussing one example, the Dhumavatiyantra as compared to the Sriyantra, in its historical textual as well as recent practiced contexts. The paper accentuates that yantras, (geometric) visual images at first sight, are indeed multi-layered symbols utilized and interpreted in a multi-functional way in Hindu and Tantric traditions.
Irina Glushkova (Institute of Oriental Studies)
Paper short abstract:
The bucolic picture of the Varkari tradition presents the image of the black and stumpy Vithoba from Pandharpur as an exclusive object of veneration. This male god is referred to as mauli ('mother') and his image is reduplicated in temples of Vithoba spread over Maharashtra.
Paper long abstract:
(in continuation)
Although Dnyaneshvar had never mentioned Vithoba in his 13th century Marathi commentary to the Bhagavad-gita, he stands as another object of worship among varkaris, and, similar to Vithoba, is appealed to as mauli. The saint-poet has been long worshiped through the black slab used as a cover for his 'sanjivan samadhi' / a grave (as per his Shaiva background) in the settlement of Alandi within the 'temple of samadhi'. It is his invisible body, nowadays also manifested in visible pictures and through a mask on the slab, that stands for the object of worship and attracts devotees independently of Pandharpur and Vithoba.
The third mauli of the Varkari tradition is the commentary itself eponymously named Dnyaneshvari. The text attracts special attention as the object of ritual worship and the mode of special exercise in religious advancement and is also evoked in secular context.
It is this fluidity of objects and the trend to bring them into one by the single appellative of mauli or to disassociate on theological basis that I will interpret through emotive responses of contemporary devotees and field study.
Marianne Fibiger (Aarhus University)
Paper short abstract:
Especially in goddess worship (shaktism) we find living icons. This paper will elaborate on the similarities and differences between worshipping a statue and a living icon.
Paper long abstract:
In daily hindu temple practice under the puja it is normal to consider the statues of the gods as the vehicle for the presence of the particular gods they depicts. It means that the worshipper can get a darshan (sight) of the particular god under the puja. But the statues are not the only vehicle for the presence of the god . Especially in goddess worship (shaktism) we do find living icons. As examples can be mentioned the Kumari tradition in Nepal and the now world famed Hugging Amma or Mate Amritanandamayi from Kerala, who is known from her healing hugs, but also in Denmark we have a living shakti icon, who works as a priest and as a healer. She is now wellknown among many Tamil Hindus from all over the world and is both depicted in her temple as an icon, but is now and then the godees her self. This paper will elaborate on the similarities and differences between worshipping a statue and a living icon.
Brigitte Luchesi (Formerly University of Bremen)
Paper short abstract:
In North India living images, called jhankis, are quite popular. Children, normally young boys, are dressed up and pose as Hindu deities while being looked at and worshipped by a devoted public. The paper will describe the proceedings and focus on the use of jhankis as 'temporary images'.
Paper long abstract:
In North India so-called jhankis were and still are quite popular. One or more persons present mythological or historical episodes while remaining silent and in a motionless posture. In this they correspond to what in Western traditions is known as <i>tableaux vivants</i> or living images. The most common forms in Himachal Pradesh are those in which children are dressed up and pose as Hindu gods and goddesses.
Jhankis may form part of family rituals which are limited private events. Besides this they may be publicly displayed during several major religious festivals like Janamasthami, Shivaratri and Holi. In this case they are paraded through the towns and often put up for a while on the village or town square. Responsible for the planning and carrying out of these events are so called “committees” usually formed by men from different castes and professions.
Many of the living images shown in Himachal Pradesh are meant to be more than simple displays of certain scenes and personages known from Hindu mythology. Actually the 'images' are often understood to be real embodiments of deities. While being presented they are treated like temple images or any other object of worship, i.e. are properly worshipped by a devoted public.
The paper will describe the preparation, presentation and ritual use of these images focussing especially on their characteristics as 'temporary images'.
Sara Mondini (Ca' Foscari University, Venezia, Italy)
Paper short abstract:
The paper's purpose is to analyse the grave of Ahmad Shah Bahmani in Ashtur (Bidar) tracing how its perception, frequentation and veneration have changed converting the grave in a shared sacred space, today worshipped by Muslims and Hindus.
Paper long abstract:
In Deccan, during the XIV and XV century, the relations between temporal power and the Sufi tariqas characterized the first stage in the history of the Bahmani dynasty and the complex make-up of the local social fabric.
The emergence of Sufism led flourishing the cult of saints and rooted the development of their dargahs, but in many cases the boundary between the ritual practices connected to the frequentation and veneration of dargahs and the importance attributed to royal mausoleums was labile.
An emblematic epilogue of this processes is to be found in the celebrations launched for the 'urs of the Bahmani sovereign Ahmad Shah I (r.1422-1436) in the first stage of the history of Bidar. To this day, the celebrations for this rule continue to attract large Hindu and Muslim crowds. This extreme development is revealing of both the sharing of power by saints and rulers and - in a way - of the ambiguity and mutual interchangeability of their roles. Moreover, the Ahmad Shah mausoleum - which local inhabitants have always respected and frequented - represents an intricate case of re-interpretation and "appropriation" of the sultan's grave and of a series of material objects (today associated to the grave) worshipped by Muslim and Hindu faithful.
In the light of these considerations, the paper's purpose is to identify the political and religious symbolism of the Ahmad Shah grave, the rituals performed on the occasion of the sovereign's 'urs, observing how its perception has changed during the centuries and trying to understand how and why it is currently daily visited and venerated both by Muslims and Hindus.
Kristina Myrvold (Linnaeus University)
Paper short abstract:
The paper describes and analyses how contemporary Sikhs are constructing conceptions of their scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, as a socially living guru with spiritual authority by means of various ritual practices.
Paper long abstract:
The Sikhs have perhaps taken the concept of a sacred scripture much further than any other religious community by treating their scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, as a living guru, whose physical body in the form of a book should be given a careful ministration in daily worship. In the early morning hours the scripture is installed on an elevated throne to admit worshippers. Throughout the day the Sikhs will humbly approach the sacred text to present prayers, food-offerings and other gifts, as if they obtained audience in the court of a royal sovereign. At nightfall the Guru Granth Sahib is ceremonially put to rest on a bedecked four-poster bed in a special bedroom. This paper aims to describe and analyze different emic understandings of Guru Granth Sahib and religious practices through which contemporary Sikhs construct and maintain conceptions of their scripture as a guru with spiritual authority. Focusing on the material aspects and ritual uses of the text, the paper suggests that various ritual and discursive practices are strategies to personify the scripture - transform the book from a mere object to a subject- and make it socially alive as a living guru.
Satnam Singh
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses the early Khalsa practice of Shastar Puja (Worship of Weapons). The paper begins by tracing the ritual in early Sikh literature, followed by an analysis and discussion on how the puja is practiced today in the UK and the way it has been re-interpreted to a new cultural setting.
Paper long abstract:
During the turbulent years of Guru Gobind Singhs reign (1675 - 1708) the Sikhs adopted many practices from the rajput and kshatriya warrior tribes including the worship of weapons, worship of Chandi/Durga, slaughter methods etc. This paper will examine the practice of Shastar Pûja, the worship of weapons, in the Khalsa tradition and how it is practiced among Sikhs in India and the Diaspora community. On the basis of field work among practitioners of shastar pûja, the paper will seek to answer the following questions:
- How is Shastar Puja described in the early historical literature of the Sikhs?
- In what way is Shastar Puja practiced today in the UK?
- What developements are seen in the way the puja is recreated and adapted to a new cultural diaspora setting?
These militaristic practices among Sikhs have largely been neglected in current scholarship and I believe this paper can contribute to introducing the early militaristic practices to the field of modern South Asian studies.