Academic literature on the topic 'Vaishnavism history'

Masks are artificial faces or covering of partial and whole body for concealment, usually to assume and to create various emotions and states of mind as love, anger, hate, fury, joy, fear, disgust, humour, sorrow etc. Sometimes people use mask to hide feeling or as layers or covers to conceal or safety shield of the person. The tradition of creating and utilizing masks in medieval Assam is thought-provoking, particularly wooden and bamboo masks. Neo-Vaishnavism or worship of Lord Vishnu/ Krishna was spread throughout Assam by the great saint Srimanta Sankaradeva (1449–1568) as part of the resurrection of unwavering devotion that occurred over all of India (bhakti). Sri Sri Bor Alengi Bogiai Satra is a renowned Neo- Vaishnavite monastery of Jorhat district, near the river Kakodonga. The particular Satra has lengthy and gorgeous tradition of the bamboo split made mask- making and its significant uses at the Vaishnavite Bhaona/ theatre based on Bhagavata- Purana texts and written by Srimanta Sankaradevaa and his followers. It is relevant to note that Jorhat district including River Island Majuli (now a district) is the prime centre of Neo-Vaishnavism in Assam, where significant tradition of mask making is sustained in several Satras. The paper has examined the history of the Sri Sri Bor Alengi Bogiai Satra as well as the economic, social, cultural, and aesthetic relevance of the masks and its great heritage of living tradition.

Based on several scientific publications, a limited number of news from the 1980s up until 2021 and a series of in-depth interviews with devotees in 2006–2021, the authors of the paper managed to restore the history of Bengal Vaishnavism distribution in Belarus for the first time. Specific attributes of its introduction to the country were: (1) philosophical requests from the local citizens, not immigration of its original bearers; (2) a long period of spontaneous distribution in the form of personal involvement with Vaishnava ideas and, hence, late institutionalization of the movement. The main stages of Vaishnavism development in Belarus were distinguished: (1) 1980s, the Soviet period: introduction of Vaishnava ideas and practices within individual self-identification of the members of small groups; (2) 1990s, the post-Soviet period: forming organizational structure of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Belarus; (3) 2000s: spiritual and administrative crises and reformation of the systems of administration and practice creation of the institute of curating the newly converted devotees; (4) 2010s: search for and establishment of the new models of serving, the out-of-temple bhakti practice, in particular; further popularization of the Vaishnava movement and community in Belarus. The main source of information on the history of Vaishnavism distribution in Belarus were in-depth interviews with the members of the community standing at its origin.

Assam is the home of different ethnic groups with a variety of cultures and speaking different languages and dialects. The population of Assam consists of the inhabitants who migrated into the region at various periods of history from Tibet, Burma, Thailand and Bengal etc. Over time they got integrated as a population and have given birth to the greater Assamese nation. The amalgamated Assamese identity was initiated by the Great Saint Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva with his Neo-Vaishnavite Movement. The movement evolved new institutions of Satra and Namghar which began to serve not only as the instrument spreading the faith, but also helped to sustain and to stabilize Vaishnavism by making it a part and parcel of Assamese social and cultural life.Though Neo Vaishnavism was a religious movement but it has defined the culture of Assam & has its bearing on the livelihood. As the doyen of cultural renaissance and harbinger of Bhakti Movement, Sankardeva took on the orthodox elements of the society and introduced cultural initiatives like Bhaonas & Borgeet etc which had in actual defined the Assamese identity With its dynamic philosophy of inclusiveness Sankardeva’s Neo-Vaishnavism has given birth to a new Cultural Nationalism focused on a national identity shaped by cultural traditions and language, not on the concept of common ancestry or race. The Cultural Nationalism was brought forward to the indigenous people with the help of Satras and Namghar which has a major role to play in the preservation and development of the indigenous culture of the region.The paper is an attempt to study the role of the institutions of Neo Vaishnavism, the Satra & Namghar in the evolution of genesis of Assamese identity and its inclusiveness in nation building. The managerial structure and operations of the Satra shall also be explored in the perspective of its position in the modern Assamese Society in the study. The paper shall go in toe area wherein in the genesis of the Assamese Identity, the Namghar is one of the major pole bearers, playing the multi-faceted role of Cultural Centre, Proto-type Panchayat, and Forum for Decentralized Planning and Decision-making.The paper is also an attempt to understand the impact of Neo-Vaisnavism on the Economic Organization of the society along with the role of women and their empowerment for the sustainable development of a progressive & egalitarian Assamese. Key Words- Cultural Renaissance, Inclusiveness, NationDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijssm.v2i2.12143 Int. J. Soc. Sci. Manage. Vol-2, issue-2: 108-113

Tamil language has many special features. One of them is the charity done to Tamil by all religions. Tamil is a language that has been singularly praised by six different religions namely Jainism, Buddhism, Veganism, Vaishnavism, Islam and Christianity. In the history of Tamil literature, Sangam literature can be considered as a secular literature. Thoughts about God are prevalent in Sanskrit literature. But they did not all grow in isolation. Doctrines about God have developed on the basis of department. The literatures of Thirumurukaaruppadi, Paripadal and kalithogai do not become religious literatures as they refer to the gods. They refer only to the theological doctrines of the people of that time. The Sangam literature reveals that religious thought is intertwined with people's lives.

AbstractRecent studies of Asian religious traditions have critiqued Western philosophical understandings of mind–body dualism and furthered the productive notion of mind–body continuum. Based on intensive fieldwork among two kinds of devotional groups of Bengal—claimants to an orthodox Vaishnavism, who focus on participating in the erotic sports of the Hindu deity-consort Radha-Krishna in imagination and a quasi-tantric group, which claims to physically apprehend Radha-Krishna's erotic pleasures through direct sexual experience—I demonstrate that, although these devotional groups stress on combating theologies, with emphases respectively on the ‘mind’ and the ‘body’, in their narrations of religious experiences, however, both groups allude to rarefied phenomenological states of cognition and embodiment. So, while influenced by ideas of (mental) ‘purity’ and (bodily) ‘actuality’, respectively, practices of both groups rely on similar states of mind–body continuum. So I argue that the mind–body complex has intensely nuanced articulations in the discursive and experiential domains of these non-Western religious contexts. Through my analyses of the texts and embodiments of these opposed devotional groups, I show that theology gets both organically entangled with as well as challenged by phenomenological experiences. I further argue that explorations in the tenor of religious studies sharply enrich the anthropology of religiosities. Also, such engagements between theology and anthropology have been relatively lacking and need more emphasis in studies of contemporary South Asian religions.

The woman was the foremost in the early maternal society. Goddesses were also seen as primary in worship. The elements of natural energy were praised as feminine. They saw them as forces of prosperity. The goddesses found in the worship of nature later entered the religion. The goddess Kali (Kottravai) later became a part of Shiva. Women have been monks in Buddhism and Jainism since the early days of the religion. The female monks performed excellent religious duties. In Saivism and vaishnavism the religion that originated in this Tamil soil, woman was seen as a Part of the God. Historical references to many female theologians are also found in all religions. Christian nuns have been performing well since the arrival of European missionaries. There is a history of blessed women in Islam as well. Yet in later times that dignity of femininity gradually diminished. Equality for woman was denied in all religions. There was a situation where the woman was considered as a defilement. To this day such a situation is found in all religions.