The Pariah Problem,Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance,Contradictory Lives,Hinduism Beliefs & Practice: Major Deities and Social Structures

The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India. By Rupa Viswanath.
Anand Venkatkrishnan
J Hindu Studies published 7 October 2015, 10.1093/jhs/hiv035

Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance: Cultures of Exclusion. By Anna Morcom.
Katherine C. Zubko
J Hindu Studies published 7 October 2015, 10.1093/jhs/hiv032

Contradictory Lives: Baul Women in India and Bangladesh. By Lisa I. Knight.
Rebecca J. Manring
J Hindu Studies published 7 October 2015, 10.1093/jhs/hiv031

Hinduism Beliefs & Practice: Major Deities and Social Structures, Volume 1. By Jeaneane Fowler.
Sravana Borkataky-Varma
J Hindu Studies published 7 October 2015, 10.1093/jhs/hiv027

• Introduction

  Dagens, B., Flood, G., 2015-10-09 12:00:48 AM

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• Portraits in Silpasastras, Agamas, and Related Texts

  Lefevre, V., 2015-10-09 12:00:48 AM

  Indian portraits, either in stone, metal or painting, are increasingly attracting the attention of scholars. The study of these images need to be accompanied by the reading of literary and epigraphical documents, as well as some of the normative texts that could explain their purposes. Although not labelled ‘portraits’ but only ‘images of men’ or of ‘bhaktas’, they are, in fact, mentioned in ancient Śilpaśāstras and related works as well as in agamic treatises. Relying on some of theses texts, this article tries to characterise the different persons depicted, among which the devotees and the kings/ksatriyas are the most important, and compares them with the images of gods and goddess, especially in their ritualistic use. It seeks also to show the importance of the ‘images of men’ in the iconometric system—a system which, besides its more technical aspects, aims at establishing a hierarchy of gods and diverse beings.
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• Cakra System and Tantric Ritual in Virasaivism

  Glasbrenner, E.-M., 2015-10-09 12:00:48 AM

  The tantric aspect of Vīraśaivism is unknown not only in Western Indological and religious studies discourses: Also the inter-intrareligious discourse of present day forms of South Indian Vīraśaivism ignores this dimension. The Śivānubhavasūtra of Māyideva, a text from the fifteenth century that has until now not yet been translated into any Western language, places tantric ritual at the centre of religious self-realisation as an instrument of liberation. The system of cakras is here connected with the specifically Vīraśaiva satsthala doctrine, and further correlations with various elements in the world of sensuous experience are indicated through an intricate system of correspondences. Thus, a complex set of instructions is given for the transformation of the individual, in which he overcomes duality and experiences unity with Śiva (śivaikya). Māyideva’s scholastic text thus not only reveals basic aspects of Vīraśaiva esoteric thought but could also contribute significantly to tantric research and to the dating of other Śaiva tantric texts.
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• The Diptagama and Installation Ceremonies

  Barazer-Billoret, M.-L., 2015-10-09 12:00:48 AM

  The Dīptāgama Project aims to produce the critical edition of the Dīptāgama an unpublished Sanskrit treatise belonging to the Southindian Śaivasiddhānta tradition. The project is a joint venture of several French academic and research institutions, mainly University of Paris III and French Institute of Pondicherry who owns palm-leaf manuscripts and paper transcripts used for the edition. The work started in 2000–01 and the edition comprises three volumes (2004, 2006, and 2008). Each volume provides beside Sanskrit text and critical apparatus printed in Nāgarī script, an introduction presenting synthetically the main topics dealt with; a chapter wise summary intended as a reading aid, and lastly a full half verse index. The Dīptāgama makes up around 6000 ślokas and deals with three main topics—architecture and iconography, installation ceremonies and, in the third place, temple festivals—as well as with several subjects regarding liturgy and is a fine example of those āgamic canonical works which codify temple ritual since the building of the Śiva temple up to the ceremonies and festivals to be carried out there. Installation ceremonies are a good example of the main topics treated of in theDīptāgama: as a matter of fact that work is deemed as a ‘pratisthātantra’ (treatise on installation ceremonies) in every colophon of all its 98 chapters. Those ceremonies concern the unmovable Liga placed in the main sanctum of the temple as well as movable bronze statues used in several rituals (the so-called utsavamūrti); to that we must add images placed on the walls of temples to which our text makes clear reference. However, Dīptāgamadoes not comprise any chapter dealing with installation ceremonies on a general point of view. As a matter of fact the installation of the Liga as well as that of 16 mūrtis of Śiva are dealt with in as much separate chapters, each giving a fairly complete view of the ceremony; there are also chapters devoted to some attendants of Śiva and built on the same line. Thus being the case, the rules given in these separate presentations appear to be very homogeneous and show that the ceremony follows the same structure whichever is the specific identity of the involved deity. From the study of the several stages of the ceremony, it appears that the main one is that where the mantra of the god is transferred upon the statue from a vase where it has been placed by the ācārya: as a matter of fact, this stage is deemed in several chapters as ‘pratisthā’, a hint of its central importance. Such characteristics allow us to be more precise about the meaning of the installation ceremony, even when it follows a slightly different pattern.
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• Perfected Body, Divine Body and Other Bodies in the Natha-Siddha Sanskrit Texts

  Ondracka, L., 2015-10-09 12:00:48 AM

  Hathayogic texts in Sanskrit are full of references and allusions to immortality, but the precise character of this immortality is not explicitly described anywhere. Most of the scholars subscribe to the concept that the yogin has to achieve at first a perfected physical body (siddhadeha), which has to be later transformed into the new spiritual and non-material divine body (divyadeha). This article first discusses different types of bodies in Sanskrit texts on Hathayoga and demonstrates that no such concept is present in them. Then it offers an explanation how and when the fallacious idea about the transformation of the material body into the non-material one has originated.
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• The Relevance of Rupa and Murti for the Doctrine of God in the Padmasamhita

  Schwarz Linder, S., 2015-10-09 12:00:48 AM

  The aim of this article is to discuss the concepts of rūpa and mūrti in the doctrine of God in the Pādmasamhitā(PādS), a South Indian Pāñcarātra text (XII-XIII cent. CE). In its theology and creation theory the Supreme Being takes three ur-forms (rūpa): at the divine level He manifests Himself as Vāsudeva and, in bringing forth living beings, as purusa and prakrti. By means of this three-fold structure, the PādS represents the inner dynamics of the godhead. Through His three rūpa-s the Supreme Being gives rise to His manifold concrete manifestations: the divine figures (mūrti) arising out of Vāsudeva, the jīva-s originating as particular concretisations of the purusa-rūpa and the derivatives of the prakrti-rūpa. While rūpa is a key word in the theology of the PādS, the notion ofmūrti proves to be crucial and multivalent, especially in connection with the experience of the presence of God in meditation and ritual worship.
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• Yoga from the Yoginis' point of view

  Serbaeva, O., 2015-10-09 12:00:48 AM

  The aim of this article is to trace and to analyse the co-occurrence of the terms yoga and yoginī in the selected corpus of yogic and tantric texts (Vidyāpītha). The findings demonstrate that these terms start to appear together only from a precise point in time and in the sources that belong to or were influenced by a particular tantric tradition, namely, the Śakti-tantras belonging to the Vidyāpītha (classification of A. Sanderson), and it is within this part of the corpus that the yoginīs (be them women or supernatural beings) are said to perform a very particular kind of yoga, that breaks the current definitions of yoga as being voluntary and conscious practice.
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• Biographies

  2015-10-09 12:00:48 AM

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• The Pariah Problem: Caste, Religion, and the Social in Modern India. By Rupa Viswanath.

  Venkatkrishnan, A., 2015-10-09 12:00:49 AM

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• Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance: Cultures of Exclusion. By Anna Morcom.

  Zubko, K. C., 2015-10-09 12:00:49 AM

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• Contradictory Lives: Baul Women in India and Bangladesh. By Lisa I. Knight.

  Manring, R. J., 2015-10-09 12:00:49 AM

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• Hinduism Beliefs & Practice: Major Deities and Social Structures, Volume 1. By Jeaneane Fowler.

  Borkataky-Varma, S., 2015-10-09 12:00:49 AM

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• Feeding the Dead: Ancestor Worship in Ancient India. By Matthew R. Sayers.

  McGovern, N., 2015-10-09 12:00:49 AM

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• Experiencing Globalization: Religion in Contemporary Context. Edited by Derrick M. Nault, Bei Dawei, Evangelos Voulgarakis, Rab Paterson, and Cesar Andes-Miguel Suva.

  Biagioli, R. S., 2015-10-09 12:00:49 AM

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• Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present. By Sumit Guha.

  Lee, J., 2015-10-09 12:00:49 AM

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• A Woman's Ramayana. Candravati's Bengali Epic. By Madakranta Bose and Sarika Priyadarshini Bose.

  Anandakichenin, S., 2015-10-09 12:00:49 AM

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