Academic literature on the topic 'Indra (Hindu deity)'
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Journal articles on the topic "Indra (Hindu deity)"
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Gyul, T. I. "On the dynastic cult of the rulers of Bukhara Sogd in the Early Middle Ages (to the interpretation of the murals of the Varakhsha palace)." VESTNIK ARHEOLOGII, ANTROPOLOGII I ETNOGRAFII, no. 2(53) (May 28, 2021): 28–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.20874/2071-0437-2021-53-2-3.
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Varakhsha hillfort is located in the Bukhara oasis (Uzbekistan). From the 6th to 8th c., it was the residence of the rulers of Bukhara Sogd. Archaeological investigations of the Varakhsha were carried out in the late 1930s, and then later in 1947 and 1949–1954. During the excavations of the palace, wall paintings were discovered in the Red (Hindu) and East (Blue) Halls (7th–8th c.). In the East Hall, the center of the art composition on the south wall was dominated by a massive figure of a ‘king’ with a golden sword, seated on a throne with protomas of winged camels. Depicted next to him was a group of five people sitting on their knees — the king's family. The elder man is making an offering to the fire on an altar. On the base of the altar, there is a male figure, seated on a throne in the form of a lying camel. This figure represents Vretragna, the Avestan deity of Victory. Mythogenically, Vretragna is close to the Vedic god of thunder Indra. In Avesta, Vretragna appears in various guises: a Bactrian camel; the bird of prey Varagn; a man with a golden sword. In Sogdian iconography, the image of the Bactrian camel is most often associated with Vretragna. The characters of the murals in the Blue Hall (the king’s family) bring offering to the fire lit in tribute to the deity — to Vretragna. The central figure of this composition was identi-fied by V.A. Shishkin as a king. In our opinion, it rather depicts Vretragna. This is implicitly indicated by the protomas of the throne in the form of winged camels and by the image of ‘the king with the golden sword’. The walls of the Red Hall of Varakhsha were decorated with a scene of hunters riding elephants. Each elephant was ridden by a servant-mahout and a lord, whose figure would be disproportionately large. They are slaying huge monsters. According to researchers, an image of the Sogdian deity Adbag is repeated here. The epithet ‘Adbag’ — ‘Supreme deity’ is associated with Ahuramazda. B.I. Marshak and A.M. Belenitsky note, that here Adbag-Ahuramazda is likened to Indra riding a white elephant. It seems to us quite probable that such an epithet could be applied to various gods of a high status. Notably, it could be Vretragna depicted here, who is akin to Indra. We think that the image of Vretragna held a special place in the visual arts of Varakhsha, as the patron deity of the Bukhar-Khudat dynasty. He was depicted in the center of the com-position in the Blue Hall in his Avestan hypostasis, and in the Red Hall he was depicted in the form of Indra.
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V, Gunapalasingam. "Small Deity Worship in Sri Lanka: A Comparative Study Based on Hindu and Buddhist Religious Traditions." International Research Journal of Tamil 3, no. 4 (September 15, 2021): 99–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.34256/irjt21413.
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The People who have not only multi ethnic, multi -religious and multi -languages in Sri Lanka but also, they follow different beliefs and cultural traditions as well. Hindu and Buddhist religious and cultural traditions are very prominent in Sri Lanka. Even though India is the root cause for the prevailing Hindu and Buddhist traditions in Sri Lanka, both the traditions and its worships and beliefs have unique and independent characteristics different from India. Small deity worship comprises of unique and independent characteristics in Sri Lanka. Small Deity worship in Hindu tradition: Kazhippu ritual, temple ritual, Kumara Deiva worship, Vairava worship, Pathini Amman worship, tree worship, Naga thampiran worship and small deity worship in Buddhist tradition: Thovil, Magapirith, katharagama deio, Bahirava, Pathini Deio, Bothi tree, Maga Naga are compared and identified unique and innovative characteristics among them. In this research, historical method, comparative method and descriptive method have been used. Data gathered from field work are considered as primary sources and data gathered from literature, research articles, manuscripts, etc. considered as secondary sources. Knowing origin and background of Hindu and Buddhist religion, identifying characteristics of small deity worship in Hindu and Buddhist tradition in Sri Lanka, discovering unique and innovative characteristics of small deity worship of Hindu and Buddhist traditions and evaluating values revealed by the two traditions are objectives of the research. Research area for this study is Magoya Divisional Secretary and Eravur Pattu Divisional Secretary. The conclusion of the research is that the small deity worships of the above two traditions fulfills psychological needs of the concerned people and small deity worship beliefs and traditions of Hindu and Buddhist religions will continue for long time.
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Ryoo, Hyun Jung. "A Note on the Role of Nāgas in Ancient Indian Epic : especially in the two stories of the Ādi-parvan of the Mahābhārata." Korean Institute for Buddhist Studies 59 (August 31, 2023): 9–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.34275/kibs.2023.59.009.
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This paper examines the role of nāgas, mythical beings with serpentine features, in the Ādi-parvan of the Mahābhārata (Mbh). In the epic period, nāgas were repositioned as semi-divine beings with typical characteristics in the Hindu pantheon, and some narratives depicted them as the subject of immense sacrifice. This paper analyzes two nāga narratives in the Mbh: the birth of the nāga race and Āstīka’s salvation of nāgas from Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice (sarpa-sattra).
The first narrative integrates nāgas and Garuḍa, a bird-like creature, into the offsprings of Kaśyapa’s two wives, Kadrū and Vinatā. This depicts them as beings belonging to the same paternal lineage. The subsequent narratives dealing with the conflict between nāgas and Garuḍa, and Garuḍa's theft of amṛta (an elixir of immortality) are also connected to the existing independent mythical elements of the Vedas or Brāhmaṇas. These narratives are situated in a new system through their birth narratives in the epic.
Nāgas and Garuḍa play somewhat different roles in the formation of a hierarchy of Hindu mythology centered on Viṣṇu, the supreme deity. Nāgas are depicted as menacing beings that need to be subdued, while Garuḍa attains the status of Viṣṇu's vāhana (vehicle) and establishes a predator-prey relationship with nāgas by making them his food under the grace of Indra, the king of the devas. The difference of the final blessing verses which are placed at the end of each story also indirectly reflects their mythical hierarchy or their roles.
The second narrative, which deals with Janamejaya's snake-sacrifice and Āstīka's salvation of nāgas, is closely related to the Mbh's main plot as a frame story. In particular, Takṣaka, the king of nāgas, is one of the significant characters that acts as a link of different narratives and constitutes the core of the mythical narrative. Takṣaka's deeds and status centered on the snake sacrifice are at the intersection of two narratives: the Bhārata war and the tradition of nāgas.
Janamejaya, who is in an antagonistic position with Takṣaka and is also one of the key characters of the frame narrative of the Mbh, performs two roles in those nāga stories. One is a descendant of the Bhārata clan and the other is a patron of the snake-sacrifice. By performing these two roles of ‘succession of Bhārata race’ and ‘eliminating threatening enemies’, he demonstrates how two independent traditions are merged in the Mbh's frame narrative. At this point, nāgas are regarded as having represented authority before the Bhārata story's appearance and, moreover, are configured as threatening enemies to be vastly sacrificed. Āstīka, on the other hand, who is configured as a savior of the nāga clan, was born between a Brahmin sage and a maiden of the nāga clan. This symbolically represents the combination of Veda and non-Veda traditions.
In conclusion, Mbh's nāga narratives in Ādi-parvan can be cited as a good example of how independent traditions were incorporated into the epic and found their place in the mythological structure of the new system.
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Samanta, Suchitra. "The “Self-Animal” and Divine Digestion: Goat Sacrifice to the Goddess Kālī in Bengal." Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 3 (August 1994): 779–803. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2059730.
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Kālī, the Hindu goddess ‘Time,’ is a ubiquitous presence in contemporary rural and urban Bengali life and occupies a historic place as Calcutta's patron deity. Her prototypes go back to pre-Vedic India (Kinsley 1977:90; MacKenzie-Brown 1985:111). Kālī was incorporated into the orthodox Hindu textual tradition in the myths of the Devī-Māhātmya, or Candī, as this sixth-century A.D. text is known in Bengal. She subsequently became the chief divinity as Female Principle (Śakti, ‘Force’, ‘Creatrix’) in the esoteric Sākta Tantra cult, which was especially prevalent in eastern India around the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth century, Kālī's worship moved to the public sphere. The Kālī saints Rāmaprasāda (eighteenth century) and Rāmakrsna (late nineteenth century) were especially responsible for popularizing the devotional (bhakti) conception of Kālī as Mother, the prevalent perception of this deity among Bengalis today (Gatwood 1985:174; Kapera n.d.:71; Kinsley 1977:93, 117; Kinsley 1986:116, 125; MacKenzie-Brown 1985:118–19).
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Abeysekara, G. G. G. L. "The Position of Kabir Bhajans in North Indian Music." Journal of Research in Music 1, no. 2 (October 25, 2023): 35–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/jrm.v1i2.10.
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Kabirdas is a poet who lived in medieval India. He visioned to spread social purity with philosophical thinking through the poems which are termed as Nirgun bhajans. Bhajan is simply known for chanting the qualities and the physical appearance of Hindu deity/deities. The bhajans or poems composed by Kabirdas are not consisting of the latter, but they are also put under the term 'bhajan' in terms of lyrics and their musical presentation. Traditionally, bhajans refer to devotional songs that depict the qualities and physical attributes of various deities. However, Kabirdas' bhajans deviate from this norm by focusing on different themes, while maintaining a certain essence of traditional bhajans. This study investigates how the melodies of Kabir bhajans effects in the absence of chanting the qualities and the physical appearance of a Hindu deity/deities in the lyrics. This study also aims to look at the broader significance of devotional music in promoting social and philosophical ideals in medieval India.
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Yadav, Megha. "Disease, Demon, and the Deity: Case of Corona Mātā and Coronāsur in India." Religions 13, no. 11 (October 26, 2022): 1011. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel13111011.
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As India faced multiple waves of the pandemic, religious responses arose to accommodate and make sense of the situation. In the face of uncertainty, disease and death, people turn not just towards the medical sciences but also religion. The emergence of a new Hindu goddess, Corona Mātā/Coronavirus Mardhinī encapsulates people’s fear, faith, and devotion. Although the goddess is new, the tradition of disease goddesses is ancient. The Indian Subcontinent has a long history of mother goddesses who have been protecting their devotees from diseases such as smallpox, fever, plague, etc. This paper attempts to examine the emergence of Corona Mātā in the historical context of these ‘protective mothers’. On one hand, historically, these goddesses have emerged as a result of interaction between Brahmanical religion and regional practices. On the other hand, these disease-centred goddesses can also be seen as the result of fear and faith. This paper will analyse the location of Corona Mātā in the ever-evolving pantheon of Hindu deities in the context of a 21st-century pandemic.
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Larios, Borayin, and Hemant Rajopadhye. "”Dattātreya‘s Dwelling Place”." Cracow Indological Studies 25, no. 1 (December 15, 2023): 185. http://dx.doi.org/10.12797/cis.25.2023.01.06.
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The Śrī Gurudeva Datta Mandir is a modern Hindu temple constructed around the udumbara tree (ficus racemora) believed to be the mythical dwelling place of the antinomian god Dattātreya. Originally located in a public park, the temple is now an independently registered trust and is widely recognized as one of the most prominent and celebrated Hindu places of worship in the affluent residential area of Deccan Gymkhana in Pune, India. In this article, we examine how the natural and built environment, along with religious practices, are constantly reconfigured and renegotiated by various actors catering to the contemporary sensitivities of the urban Hindu middle classes. We argue that to understand urban religious spaces like the Śrī Gurudeva Datta Mandir, it is essential to consider how cultural, religious, and political sensitivities converge to give material form to these spaces. Through an analysis of the temple, the deity of Dattātreya, and the udumbara tree, we explore the complex interplay of these forces and their role in shaping contemporary Hindu religious practices and beliefs in urban India.
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Patil, Ashok, Jai Prabhakar S.C, and Karthik J. "JOKUMARASWAMI: FOLK DEITY OF RAIN, PROSPERITY, AND FERTILITY." International Journal of Advanced Research 11, no. 01 (January 31, 2023): 799–804. http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/ijar01/16085.
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India is an ancient nation with diverse cultures, which are articulated and depicted through different tribes, communities, castes, and ethnic groups. Kabbaliga (Koli) and its associated communities are one of the ancient tribal groups found across the subcontinent of India under different names. Culturally and religiously, they are Hindus with diverse traditional beliefs systems and practices. They worship different deities, saints, philosophers, and personalities from different generations together. Jokumaraswami (commonly called Jokumara) is a popular folk deity of these associated communities in both the central and northernregions of Karnataka state. He is believed to be a deity of rain, agricultural prosperity, and well-being. There are numerous folk tales and songs on the origin of Jokumaraswami and his antecedents on earth. The study aims to know about the socio-cultural aspects of the Kabbaliga and its associated communities and the worship of folk deities in Karnataka. Anthropological techniques such as observation, participant observation, and informal interviews were used to gain a better understanding of these associated groups social and cultural lives.
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DeNapoli, Antoinette. "Earning God through the “One-Hundred Rupee Note”: Nirguṇa Bhakti and Religious Experience among Hindu Renouncers in North India." Religions 9, no. 12 (December 11, 2018): 408. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel9120408.
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This article examines the everyday religious phenomenon of nirguṇa bhakti as it is experienced by Hindu renouncers (sādhus) in North India. As an Indian language concept, nirguṇa bhakti characterizes a type of devotion (bhakti) that is expressed in relation to a divinity who is said to be without (nir) the worldly characteristics and attributes of sex and gender, name and form, race and ethnicity, class and caste. Although bhakti requires a relationship between the devotee and the deity, the nirguṇa kind transcends the boundaries of relational experience, dissolving concepts of “self” and “other”, and, in effect, accentuating the experience of union in the divine absolute. In comparison to saguṇa bhakti (devotion to a deity with attributes), nirguṇa bhakti is considered to be difficult to realize in human birth. Yet, the poetry, songs, and practices of uncommon humans who have not only left behind social norms, but also, devoting their lives to the worship of the divine, achieved forms of divine realization, people like the mystics, saints and sādhus of Hindu traditions, laud the liberating power and insights of nirguṇa bhakti. The Hindu sādhus featured in this article describe their experiences of nirguṇa bhakti through the use of the idiom of a “one-hundred rupee note” to distinguish its superior value and, as significantly, to indicate that humans “earn” God (Brahman) through the practice of nirguṇa devotion. As a “precious” spiritual asset on the path of liberation, nirguṇa bhakti establishes the religious authority and authenticity of sādhus, while setting them apart from other sādhus and holy figures in a vibrant North Indian religious landscape.
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Renkovskaya, Evgeniya. "MIRACLE IN THE VERNACULAR HINDUISM OF WESTERN RAJASTHAN (INDIA). CASES AND GENERALIZATIONS." Studia Religiosa Rossica: Russian Journal of Religion, no. 3 (2020): 116–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2020-3-116-129.
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The paper deals with the concept of miracle in the language and culture of the Jaisalmer district (Rajasthan, India). It is argued that a special understanding of miracle in that region is directly related to perceptions of the vernacular Hinduism prevalent in Rajasthan, which is based on mediumism. The concept of miracle, parco in Marwari (from the Old Indo-Aryan paricaya ‘acquaintance’), is a special cultural phenomenon that characterizes cases of unexpected manifestation of a deity or divine power outside the mediumship related rituals aimed at invoking the deity, and mostly not through a medium. The difference between parco in Marwari and camatkār in Standard Hindi is analyzed. Narratives on cases of parco related to the region under study are given as illustrative material.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Indra (Hindu deity)"
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Mann, Richard D. Granoff P. E. "The early cult of Skanda in north India: From demon to divine son /." *McMaster only, 2003.
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Vedagiri, Anu. "Five Narasimha temples in Andhra Pradesh and their function as a religious collective." Connect to this title online, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1092749968.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004.Document formatted into pages; contains xix, 216 p. Includes bibliographical references. Abstract available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2009 Aug. 17.
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Abraham, Susan. "The razor's edge of sanctity images of the divine feminine in India /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1995. http://www.tren.com.
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Behera, Subhakanta. "Oriya literature and the Jagannath cult, 1866-1936 : quest for identity." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7b160f8c-be65-44da-a2e0-99522274060b.
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Schneibel, Jeffrey A. "The construction of Jagannath /." 2000. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:9990588.
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Dobia, Brenda. "Sakti Yatra : locating power, questioning desire : a women's pilgrimage to the temple of Kamakhya." Thesis, 2008. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:29498.
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The temple of the Goddess Kāmākhyā a in Assam is the pre-eminent site of Hindu Goddess worship. It is revered as the yoni pīṭha, the place where the generative organ of the Goddess is worshipped. This thesis, centred on Kāmākhyā a, explores the Hindu tradition of Goddess worship, Śāktism, and both the possibilities and contradictions it presents for women. The research was undertaken from a feminist standpoint and employed a framework that was collaborative, cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary. Six women co-researchers from India, the U.S. and Australia took part in a pilgrimage that simultaneously explored the Kāmākhyā a site, its history, symbols, myths and customs, alongside our own personal understandings of Śāktism and its role in women’s spiritual empowerment. Our aim, in the face of contradictory evidence about the impact of Goddess traditions on the status of Hindu women, was to try to bridge cultural differences of interpretation and develop feminist readings of what may be enabling for women. The thesis establishes the basis of our collective fascination with Śakti, which denotes both the Goddess and the cosmic power she personifies. Through a combination of narrative, exposition of Indian sources and critical cultural analysis, I present our deliberations on the rich tapestry of themes we encountered. From the outset the thesis problematises the cross-cultural encounter and continues this frame throughout. The voices of the principal co-researchers emerge as they co-constitute the research, its methods and its implementation. Their central role is confirmed as the inquiry proceeds. Following the path of my preliminary encounters with the Goddess and with the co-researchers, pilgrimage is established as a traditional means of encountering the Goddess and, in the form we constructed, as a key experiential dimension of the research. In the encounter with Kāmākhyā a, her dual persona as Mother Goddess and Goddess of Love is elaborated. The meanings and origins of both these aspects, their integration through the concept of sŗșṭi, cosmic creation, and the implications for women of their associated practices of worship are explored at length. Finally, in light of the pilgrimage, I re-consider conjunctions between Śāktism, feminist perspectives on women’s empowerment and theological horizons.
Books on the topic "Indra (Hindu deity)"
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Cittarañjana Dayāla Siṃha Kauśala Bhimavālah. Yajurveda-bhāshya meṃ 'Indra' evaṃ 'Marut'. Dillī: Nirmala Pablikēśansa, 1993.
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Cittarañjana Dayāla Siṃha Kauśala Bhimavālah. Yajurveda-bhāshya meṃ 'Indra' evaṃ 'Marut'. Dillī: Nirmala Pablikēśansa, 1993.
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Mukhopādhyāẏa, Gītā. Bibartanera āloke śatakratu. Kalakātā: Ke. Pi. Bāgacī ayāṇḍa Kompānī, 1993.
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Chakraborty, Uma. Indra and other Vedic deities: A euhemeristic study. New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 1997.
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Panda, Gangadhar. [Purāṇeṣu Indracaritam] =: Concept of Indra in the purāṇas. Delhi, India: Nag Publishers, 1990.
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Caroline, Series, and Wright David James, eds. Indra's pearls: The vision of Felix Klein. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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Swennen, Philippe. D'Indra à Tištrya: Portrait et évolution du cheval sacré dans les mythes indo-iraniens anciens. Paris: Collège de France, 2004.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Indra (Hindu deity)"
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Andrews, Tamra. "V." In Dictionary of Nature Myths, 215–19. Oxford University PressNew York, NY, 2000. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195136777.003.0022.
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Abstract Varuna was a complex deity in the Hindu pantheon, at first the supreme sky god and later the god of the oceans. In his original position as sky god, he was thought to possess infinite knowledge and acted not only as creator but also as divine judge, controlling the destiny of humanity and upholding the laws of the universe. Varuna kept his high position for only a short time, however. By the end of the Vedic period, he had surrendered his powers to Indra and become lord of the seas and rivers. As sea god, he watched over demons in the darkness beneath the waves, and he ruled from the western ocean from whence the rains blew to India.
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Mann, Gurinder Singh, Paul David Numrich, and Raymond B. Williams. "Hindu Temples." In Buddhists, Hindus, And Sikhs In America, 79–95. Oxford University PressNew York, NY, 2007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195333114.003.0006.
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Abstract Hundreds of Hindus gathered for the dedication of a new Hindu temple at Lemont, Illinois, near Chicago in January 1985. Brahmin priests from India had spent the previous days performing the ancient rituals to prepare the site and install the images of the gods in their new home. At the most favorable moment, the people carried the metal images around the outside of the temple, preceded by Brahmins chanting Sanskrit verses. Large, elaborately decorated umbrellas protected the sacred images of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, and Hanuman. The crowd, dressed in colorful traditional clothing, followed the images. Each woman carried a water pot with a coconut and flowers covering it, a sign of an especially significant occasion. They followed the images through the temple doors, shouting praises to Rama, the main deity of the temple.
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Pintchman, Tracy. "Women’s Observances." In The Oxford History of Hinduism, 362–78. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198733508.003.0014.
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The Sanskrit term vrata, often translated as ‘vow’ or ‘votive ritual’, refers in contemporary Hinduism to a specific type of Hindu religious observance with a set of defining characteristics. South Asian Christians, Muslims, Jains, and Buddhists may also perform religious vows but the word vrata refers in particular to this type of ritual in its Hindu contexts. Hindus practise vratas under different vernacular names as well—vrat, brata, and nōṉpu, for example—all over India and across regional, sectarian, caste, linguistic, and class boundaries. In contemporary Hinduism, the term has come to refer primarily to a religiously sanctioned votive rite performed at a particular time with particular desires or intentions in mind on the part of the petitioner. Vratas usually entail some kind of promise directed towards a deity, often in exchange for a boon, and a predetermined form of ritual observance. Men, women, boys, and girls may all perform various vratas. There are many vratas, however, that only females undertake in contemporary Hindu practice. In fact, vratas are among the practices most broadly associated with contemporary Hindu women’s religious observance. The meanings and practices evoked by the word vrata are nevertheless historically and textually contingent and have evolved over the course of many centuries.
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Upton, Robert E. "The Nature of the Indian Polity." In The Thought of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 111–50. Oxford University PressOxford, 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198900658.003.0004.
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Abstract The chapter focuses on Tilak’s communitarian vision, consistent from the aftermath of the Hindu-Muslim Bombay riots of 1893 and still present in his response to the Khilafat agitation at the end of his life, in which the polity was a site of competing, enumerated, primordial religious communities: his concern for the consolidation of the Hindus of western India within this framework prompted his promotion of the festival in honour of the elephant-headed deity Ganesh in Maharashtra in the mid-1890s—and ultimately occasioned his reflections on the unifying characteristics of the Hindu religion which would underpin the Indian Supreme Court understanding of Hinduism in the post-independence period. The chapter will also consider the problematic nature of Tilak’s attempts, hemmed in by his Maharashtrian Hindu antecedents and imaginative resources, to fashion all-Indian nationalist symbols, focusing on his celebration of the seventeenth-century warrior-king Shivaji as far afield as Bengal in the early 1900s. Lastly, it will consider Tilak’s conception of the ultimate origin of legitimate political authority in representative government, influenced by English radical and liberal thought in the language of political ‘birthright’, as well as precolonial Maharashtrian political history, and resting on his Vedantic understanding of the self.
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Schettino, Patrizia. "Where Is Hanuman?" In Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, Art, and Museums, 311–23. IGI Global, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-1796-3.ch015.
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The chapter presents the interpretative strategies used by designers of an immersive environment on Hindu mythology and Hampi, an archaeological site in India, and their own knowledge of Hindu deities and their attributes. The process of animating an Indian Hindu deity for a potentially international audience means not only mastering 3D computer graphics and producing high-quality panorama of the sacred and historical place, but also working carefully on the interpretation and representation. The chapter uses concepts and theories from different disciplines (iconology, hermeutics, design research, museums studies, etc.) with the aim to describe, deconstruct, and understand the design choices. The study uses as main method the grounded theory: data are interviews and observations and the patterns emerging from qualitative data are compared with previous theories, during the process of theoretical comparison.
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Kaur, Raminder, and Syed Mohammed Faisal. "‘God is with the Patient People’." In Religions, Mumbai Style, 155—C7P106. Oxford University PressOxford, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192889379.003.0007.
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Abstract This chapter considers the extent to which, while preparing for and celebrating religious festivals, relatively rigid ethno-religious categories disassemble and reconfigure themselves according to the specifics of positionality, locality, and temporality. The focus is on people who, among their composite configurations, self-identify as Muslim in two contrasting localities where the festival dedicated to the Hindu deity, Ganesh, is celebrated in Mumbai. The argument goes beyond the polarities of Hindu–Muslim communalism and communal harmony to consider the ambivalence or ‘deep interconnections’ that (non-)involvement in the Ganesh festival might raise. By drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, arguments are reassessed about, on the one hand, narrow communally drawn lines, and on the other, an uncritical expression of syncretic celebrations. The focus is on Hindu–Muslim interrelations, but the chapter also goes beyond the ideological understandings of these terms as evident in Hindutva politics and processes of Islamicization in India, for such phenomena have only tangential bearings on the proximal lives of diverse communities in the city. People may not foreground ‘Hindu’ or ‘Muslim’ in their self-identifications, but deploy other categories that allude to an intersection of caste, region, or sect among other identifiers. Discourses of dis/engagement with the festival therefore reveal a spectrum of us–them relations.
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Dasgupta, Manasi, and Mandakranta BOSE. "The Goddess^ Woman Nexus in Popular Religious Practice." In Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India, 148–61. Oxford University PressNew York, NY, 2000. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195122299.003.0010.
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Abstract A striking cultural phenomenon of medieval eastern India, most notably Bengal, was the rise and spread of a variety of śakti cults-that is, beliefs and rituals centered on the idea of powerful female deities. Grounded in esoteric Hindu philosophical systems, these cults gained their largest following among the masses, dominated popular religious life for centuries, and are still in evidence in some locations and among some communities, though in a greatly debilitated form. The practice of these regimens of worship is of particular interest as the domain of women. The women of a family or a neighborhood rather than an official priest would organize and perform the ceremonies, an essential part of which was the recitation of the story of the particular deity worshiped. The following two-part chapter-the first by Manasi Dasgupta, the second by Mandakranta Bose-discusses aspects of the narrative of one of the most awe-inspiring of these deities and one of the most intriguing, Manasā, the goddess of serpents.
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Haberman, David L. "Introduction." In Loving Stones, 1–10. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190086718.003.0001.
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The Introduction provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book explores the conceptions and worship of Mount Govardhan and its many stones. Mount Govardhan is a well-known sacred hill located in northern India and one of the most prominent features of Braj, a cultural region associated with the popular and playful Hindu deity Krishna. While describing and examining some of the principal characteristics of the worship of Mount Govardhan, this book aims to reflect on the gap that exists between the sense of reality one experiences every day while living near the sacred hill and the dominant reality experienced in everyday life in the United States, which fosters a portrayal of such worship as absurd, or even worse. The radical difference that exists between these two views creates a fruitful space for thinking about larger, more general issues encountered in the academic study of religion.
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Prentiss, Karen Pechilis. "Introduction." In The Embodiment of Bhakti, 3–12. Oxford University PressNew York, NY, 2000. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195128130.003.0001.
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Abstract On the face of it, to students of Indian culture, bhakti needs no introduction. Celebrated as an Indian version of Protestant Christianity by nineteenth-century missionaries and scholars, immortalized in the Bhagavad Gītā, promoted as “India’s Bible” by orientalists and now reclaimed as such by Hindu immigrants in Western countries, and praised by poet-saints in all the major languages of India, bhakti became firmly established in the canon of scholarship on Indian religions. There had been a consensus on what bhakti means, which contributed to its inclusion in the canon of scholarship. Revealing orientalist scholars’ approval of this religious path, by the turn of this century bhakti had come to be defined as “devotion to a personal deity” in English-language scholarship, a definition still influential today. For orientalist scholars such as H. H. Wilson, M. Monier-Williams, and G. A. Grierson, bhakti was a monotheistic reform movement, the first real instance of monotheism in India. By this assertion, they challenged the views of F. Max Muller, regarded as a founder of the discipline called Religionswissenschaft, or the history of religions; he and his followers deemed the Sanskrit Vedas as India’s true and original religion. In Max Muller’s view, the scholars of bhakti were studying the compromise of history; in their own view, they were identifying the jewel in the crown of India’s living religious traditions.