Hinduism

Hybridizing Hip-hop in Diaspora: Young British South Asian Men Negotiating Black-inflected Identities

by David Drissel

The colonial construction of what?

by Jakob De Roover

Co-authored with Sarah Claerhout, published in Rethinking Religion in India: The Colonial Construction of Hinduism (Routledge, 2010).

This chapter raises three fundamental questions to clear the conceptual ground required for theory formation on the... more This chapter raises three fundamental questions to clear the conceptual ground required for theory formation on the construction of Hinduism. First, the authors analyze the question ‘Is religion a construct?’ The claim that religion is only a conceptual tool of the scholar, which does not refer to any empirical reality, they argue, fails to make sense in the absence of a theory of religion. However, this does not imply it is nonsensical to speak of the construction of Hinduism. ‘Is Hinduism a construct?’ is answered in the positive but qualified in a limited empirical sense. Third, the authors raise the question as to ‘What is constructed in the process of construction?’ On one hand, one could argue, as they do, that Hinduism has been created as a conceptual unit in certain descriptions of India. These descriptions have had impact upon Indian society, but this does not entail that Hindu religion exists in India today. On the other hand, one could suggest that Hinduism has come into being as an object also, a new religion that materialized on the subcontinent.

Mīmāṃsā, Vedānta, and the Bhakti Movement

by Anand Venkatkrishnan

Gifts of Grace: A Christian Encounters Bhakti Yoga in American Kirtan and Guru Communities

by Kieran Conroy

unpublished draft, Spring 2008. Hoping to upload soon, message me with interest sooner for a copy to review.

The final project of a spring 2008 Comparative Theology class on Hindu-Christian dialog with Fr. Francis Clooney at... more The final project of a spring 2008 Comparative Theology class on Hindu-Christian dialog with Fr. Francis Clooney at Harvard Divinity School. I performed some ethnographic interviews and visits to Kirtan chanting communities and events in New England and explored the relationship between ecstatic worship, discipleship and devotion in the Hindu and my own Christian tradition.

A Place at the Multicultural Table: The Development of an American Hinduism

by Samuel Stroope

Caste, Class, and Urbanization: The Shaping of Religious Community in Contemporary India

by Samuel Stroope

Building on the implications of qualitative work from India and urbanism theories, I aim to understand whether... more Building on the implications of qualitative work from India and urbanism theories, I aim to understand whether religious bonding social capital in contemporary India increases with greater urbanization and whether such increases are moderated by caste or social class position. Results from multinomial logistic regression on 1,417 Hindu respondents in a nationally representative sample of India (World Values Survey-India 2001) indicate that religious bonding is fostered by urbanism and that this association is stronger for upper castes. But there is little evidence that social class similarly moderates the association between urbanism and religious bonding. In light of these findings, religious bonding might be better understood as rooted in the interaction of caste dynamics and changes in the urban environment, rather than as a result of greater affluence. The data are also consistent with work underscoring the importance of disentangling social class and caste among Hindus in contemporary India.

The First Published Anthology of Hindi Poets

by Imre Bangha

This is an electronic version of my book "The First Published Anthology of Hindi Poets Thomas Duer Broughton's Selections from the Popular Poetry of the Hindoos, 1814" published jointly by Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya and Rainbow Publishers, Delhi, 2000.
! Please note that page numbers are different from those in the printed version.

In the first years of the nineteenth century a British army officer called Thomas Duer Broughton became enchanted by... more In the first years of the nineteenth century a British army officer called Thomas Duer Broughton became enchanted by the songs and poems that his soldiers knew by heart. He started to get them noted down and eventually his collection became the first published anthology of Hindi poets. What sort of poems were memorised by Indian sipahis at that time? Surprisingly enough most of them were not folk poems but apart from some devotional quatrains and songs, were products of court poetry in the most refined period of Hindi literature, the so called rītikāl, ‘period of mannerism’.
Broughton’s anthology serves as a source to the cultural interaction between the Indians and the British. His book also indicates the extent to which a member of the British Indian elite was able to appreciate Indian culture through mannerist Hindi poems. Since in Europe the era of Romanticism was that of a widespread interest in Oriental cultures and the time of the discovery of folk art Broughton presented Braj poetry as “popular” and “rustic” and at the same time considered it to be one of the greatest achievements of universal literature. That is why he tried to bring it close to the general English reader.
Apart from Broughton’s text, the book contains reconstructed Hindi versions of the poems with their new English translation as well as a critical introduction.

Īśvaragītābhāṣya of Vijñānabhikṣu, Sanskrit edition of chapter one

by Andrew Nicholson

This is a Sanskrit edition of chapter one of Vijñānabhikṣu's commentary on the Īśvara Gītā ("Song of Lord Śiva").

I give my permission for this edition to be shared, copied, or redistributed, as long as the source is properly cited. (Nicholson, Andrew James. Doctrine and Boundary Formation: The Philosophy of Vijñānabhikṣu in Indian Intellectual History. Chicago: Ph.D. Diss., University of Chicago, 2005).

Perché guardare a Oriente? Termini Imerese 5-6 Maggio 2012

by Seminario Popolare sul Pensiero dell’Estremo Oriente. Perchè guardare a Oriente?

Do our notions of transcendence in a definition of religion meet the philosophical requirement for intelligibility?

by Jonathan Tuckett

My undergraduate dissertation.

In this paper I look at the notions of transcendence used in three definitions of religion and ask whether they meet... more In this paper I look at the notions of transcendence used in three definitions of religion and ask whether they meet the philosophical requirement for intelligibility. I argue that each definition employs a different model of transcendence and then apply them to the case study of two schools of orthodox philosophy in Hinduism to see if similar models of transcendence are present. If the models used by the definitions and the models found in the case study match up then the definition(s) will meet the requirement of intelligibility.

Mahisamardini in the Hindu Temple Art of Orissa

by Francesco Brighenti

F. Brighenti, “Mahiṣamardinī in the Hindu Temple Art of Orissa”, in C.P. Sinha, ed., Proceedings of the 5th Session of Indian Art History Congress, Bhubaneswar, February, 1997, Guwahati, Directorate of Museums, 1997, pp. 34-49.

Śakti cult in Orissa

by Francesco Brighenti

This is my Ph.D. dissertation, which was later made into a book.

Book review by Sonali Gupta in History Today, Delhi, No. 3, 2002:

Francesco Brighenti, Sakti Cult in... more Book review by Sonali Gupta in History Today, Delhi, No. 3, 2002:

Francesco Brighenti, Sakti Cult in Orissa, D.K. Printworld, New Delhi, 2001, pp. xx +510, plates (b/w & col.) 66+33. Price: Rs. 2400.

“The word Sakti is powerful. It is the primordial energy of the universe and so represents cosmic energy. The author has confined his area of study to Orissa on account of its deep-rooted tribal influence and the continuity that the region represents in the evolution of the cult. According to the author the rise and spread of the Sakti cult brought within its folds, both non-Aryan and Aryan trends. These influences enabled the cult to reach out to all castes, creeds and sects, assuring wider acceptability and popularity. The author traces the roots of the Sakti cult in Orissa to the worship of the female principle. He then traces the migration and emigration of Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian and Aryan groups. Coupled with this, the author juxtaposes the developments in Orissa with developments in such cults elsewhere in the world. The inter relationships of the Sakti cult with Naga, Yaksa cults as well as tribal Shamanism are brought forth. In the historical period the growth of the cult from the Gupta period to the late medieval period is highlighted. There are instances of the fusion of the Sakti cult with the Shaiva cult and also Vaishnava. From the 5th to the 6th century A.D. the Sakta goddesses increase manifold. The subordination of the goddesses to the male gods in the past witnesses a reversal and the goddesses are seen in equal footing to the male gods. In his view this aspect is clearly an influence of tribal and matriarchal societies where equality between the sexes was the order, which is a moot point. Chapter 3 takes the readers to the important Sakta centres of eminence in Orissa, which are even today centres of Sakti worship. The manifestations of Sakti in different forms and iconographic representations are dealt with in detail. Further, the festivals and rituals associated with the cult show the undercurrents of the powerful Sakti cult, which are still in vogue. It is a 'must' read for historians and those interested in region specific studies of the cult. It has been a very well produced book.”

Foods and Gods

by Juliana Ossa

Americanasana (review essay on history of yoga in America)

by Jared Farmer

Special attention given to Mark Singleton's YOGA BODY, Stefanie Syman's THE SUBTLE BODY, and Robert Love's THE GREAT OOM.

HIndu Gods represented in Buddhist Texts

by Dion Peoples

Explaining Differences in Philanthropic Behavior Between Christians, Muslims, and Hindus in the Netherlands

by Rene Bekkers

Co-authored with Christine Carabain.

Using survey data from the Netherlands, we find that Muslims have relatively high levels of religious philanthropic... more Using survey data from the Netherlands, we find that Muslims have relatively high levels of religious philanthropic behavior and relatively low levels of secular philanthropic behavior, whereas Hindus have relatively low levels of religious philanthropic behavior and higher levels of secular philanthropic behavior. Results indicate that the community explanation and the conviction explanation of the relationship between religion and philanthropic behavior are both valid to some extent when it comes to differences in philanthropic behavior between Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. In addition, we find a relationship between group orientation in worship rituals on the relation between religion and philanthropic behavior. The more group-oriented the worship rituals, the stronger the relation between religion
and philanthropic behavior. The results suggest that Durkheim’s theory on suicide may only be valid in a Christian context.

La simbolica vegetale hindu tra mito e iconografia. I. Considerazioni sul mitologema indiano dell’Urpflanze

by Alessandro Grossato

In Annali dell’Università degli studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”. Rivista del Dipartimento di Studi Asiatici e del Dipartimento di Studi e Ricerche su Africa e Paesi Arabi, 1987 (47 (2)). pp. 177-189. ISSN 0393-3180

Seminario Il Simbolismo: la Grammatica del Sacro.

by Pietro Piro

Seminario Prospettive Sacre d'Oriente e d'Occidente
4° Seminario
Il Simbolismo: la Grammatica del Sacro.
Palermo, 2-4 marzo 2012
Officina di Studi Medievali
via del Parlamento n.3.

The Officina di Studi Medievali (OSM) for almost thirty years has been active in Palermo (Italy), with intense... more The Officina di Studi Medievali (OSM) for almost thirty years has been active in Palermo (Italy), with intense national and international projection. Founded in 1980 by a group of researchers and lovers of medieval studies largely from the University of Palermo, OSM is a no-profit cultural association working on various lines of research in medieval studies, with a programmatic multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach. It is housed in the thirteenth-century monumental complex of the San Francesco d’Assisi Basilica, in the heart of the historic area of Palermo, managed by the Province of Sicily of the Lesser Conventual Monks (OFMConv) with which, since its foundation, OSM has established intense and active collaboration. There is a precious patrimony in the Franciscan Library directed by Father Diego Ciccarelli, which possesses over 45,000 volumes, manuscripts, incunabula and numerous old books of rare merit and value, a patrimony that, though in full and mutual autonomy, is integrated with the OSM Library, with common projects for training and for diffusion of a “book culture”. OSM is run by a Ufficio di Presidenza (staff elected by the Assembly of Members): the Chairman is Alessandro Musco and the other members are Armando Bisanti, Diego Ciccarelli, Carolina Miceli and Patrizia Spallino.

It is coordinated by an Comitato scientifico, made up of: Filippo Burgarella, Antonino Buttitta, Paolo Emilio Carapezza, Federico Doglio, Fernando Domínguez Reboiras, Salvatore Fodale, Claudio Leonardi, Andrea Romano, Pasquale Smiriglia, Salvatore Tramontana, Pere Villalba Varneda, Oleg Voskoboynikov and Agostino Ziino. The Committee also draws on the consultation and collaboration of numerous Italian and overseas researchers. OSM is animated by a big group of members, as stable collaborators of the cultural, training and academic promotion activities, of the management of the Library, of the publishing initiatives, of administrative services and logistics. The research area of interest of OSM, which has always operated in close synergy with the University of Palermo and particularly with the Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, is constituted by the Middle Ages in the broadest and most inclusive sense, with projections on its roots in ancient cultures and on its legacies for modern culture. The main research areas that OSM has cultivated and progressively enriched over the years are the metaphysical tradition, the history of medieval ideas and knowledge in the plurality of their ramifications, the intersection of cultural traditions in the medieval epoch, especially in the Mediterranean area (Arab and Islamic, Jewish, Latin and Christian, Greek and Byzantine worlds, etc.), the history of Middle Latin literature, palaeographic, diplomatic and historical studies. Currently the academic work of OSM is organized through various workshops that have the purpose of coordinating, through thematic areas of homogeneous interest, members and all collaborators. The operational workshops, for which we will also indicate the coordinators, are:

    * Byzantina
      which deals with Byzantine Civilization in a broad sense (Filippo Burgarella, Univ. of Calabria) and the Christian East (Rosanna Gambino, Univ. of Palermo);
    * Federiciana
      (Oleg Voskoboynikov, Univ. of Moscow) engaged in studying the Mediterranean historical and cultural context that from the Norman-Swabian period goes all through the 14th century;
    * Franciscana
      (Luca Parisoli, Univ. of Calabria and Paris-Nanterre) which deals with Franciscan studies in a broad spectrum;
    * OSMIL-Itinera Lulliana
      organized by a research group on the work and thought of Raymond Lull and on the traditions of “Lullism” (Jordi Gaya Esberiich, Univ. of Palm de Majorca, Marta Romano, Univ. of Palermo);
    * OSMOR-Orientalistica
      involving the researchers of the oriental studies area (Judaism, Luciana Pepi, Univ. of Palermo; Arabic and Islamic Culture, Giuseppe Roccaro and Patrizia Spallino, Univ. of Palermo; Indology, Maria Lucilla Vassallo, Univ. of Palermo), which also runs annual courses on Arabic and Jewish language and culture, both at the basic and the superior levels;
    * Traditio
      centring on the tradition of medieval knowledge, with particular attention to the Latin area, expressed in literature, poetry, theatre, philosophy, theology, music, etc. (Armando Bisanti and Pietro Palmari, Univ. of Palermo);
    * Vivarium
      devoted to studies on Palaeography, Diploma Studies, Book Culture, Library Management, Restoration of paper and books (Carolina Miceli, Univ. of Palermo).

Each workshop promotes and uses national and international collaborations with universities, departments, associations, foundations, single scholars and researchers thanks also to formal agreements, conventions, research contracts, projects (Erasmus, Socrates), programmes of the European Union and yet others.

These workshops, though with their autonomy and sectorial specificity, are not conceived of as separate compartments, but instead as operational moments animated by a common strategy of mutual interaction and synergic research.

Gli elementi simbolici e iniziatici hindu nel "Liber Novus" di Carl Gustav Jung

by Alessandro Grossato

In La Visione, a cura di Francesco Zambon, Viridarium VIII, Edizioni Medusa, Milano 2012, pp. 199-208.

Vishnu and the Videogame: The Videogame Avatar and Hindu Philosophy

by Souvik Mukherjee

presented at the Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, 2012 in Madrid

In Hindu scripture and philosophy, the word avatar has existed for thousands of years. Its original usage differs from... more In Hindu scripture and philosophy, the word avatar has existed for thousands of years. Its original usage differs from the sense that videogames, online media and recently James Cameron’s blockbuster have used the term - drawn  from Neal Stephenson’s usage of it in Snow Crash (2000) and from the videogame Habitat (Lucasfilm 1986)  to mean ‘ the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character’. For Hindus, the avatar is an object of worship and is the manifestation of divinity that descends on Earth to destroy evil. The commonest English translation of the term is ‘incarnation’ (literally ‘the being made flesh’) and with this is associated the idea of cyclical appearance manifested through birth and rebirth (reincarnation). The latter concept gets more tangled in Hindu and Buddhist rebirth eschatologies where rigid codifications of reincarnation are outlined. Whether the concept of the avatar in online media retains any of its roots in Hindu philosophy is a moot question. However, after over a decade of usage of the term and the lack of philosophical enquiry into its roots, the question is still one that merits the asking. Almost every game studies discussion mentions the avatar at least once and this paper will address the issue directly, through a comparison of the videogame avatar and its etymological counterpart in Hindu philosophy.

The avatar in most online media is no god; it does not descend to another world with a specific objective (to battle evil) and neither is there a sense of cyclic return implied in this context. The videogame, however, offers a far more complex scenario. The several ‘respawnings’ and ‘rebirths’ of the videogame avatar that occur in the process of saving and reloading the game can be compared to the many appearances of the Hindu gods Vishnu and Ganesh (or  to the  incarnations of the Buddha). The videogame avatar, however, does not come in separate guises or forms unless the game allows multiple avatar selection such as in Far Cry 2 (2009) or Fallout 3 (2008). Further, unlike the avatars of Hindu deities the videogame player may fail in his/ her mission. Nevertheless, the parallel of the return to a different world to set it right exists in both.  A principal sloka (verse) in the Bhagavad Gita announces the repeated return of Vishnu for the destruction of evil. In the videogame, the reload is a key function that allows the player to set right his / her errors and complete the game (incidentally this usually ends in the victory of good over evil). Videogames also involve a temporal complexity which commentators (Atkins 2006, Mukherjee 2007) have pointed out, where it is possible to play out the same event in many different ways . As a parallel to such a temporal conundrum, the avatar in Hindu scripture has the same deity (Vishnu) existing in different avatars who even meet each other in the same time period.

To this temporal complexity, the concept of the avatar necessarily joins the idea of being involved in another body. Game Studies researchers have long struggled with the concept of immersion and its problems; recently, Gordon Calleja (2011) has introduced ‘incorporation’ as the preferred term for the phenomenon in which the player participates in a virtual body and its actions in a virtually narrated world. As the manifestation of the player, the  ‘avatar’ is a virtual embodiment within the game world. It is not a costume that a player inhabits or  a vehicle driven by the player. There is a distinct process of ‘becoming-avatar’ on the part of the player as there is a ‘becoming-player’ on the part of the avatar. The ‘becoming’ described here is a process outlined by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1987), which for him is neither an imitation nor a change of form. Instead it is a process that is continually being experienced. So how does this compare with the Hindu conception of the avatar?

In Cameron’s movie, with its controversial treatment of the avatar theme,  the protagonist is only able to ‘be’ his avatar when asleep or sedated. The videogame player, however, is fully in his/ her  senses while manoeuvring (within) his / her avatar during gameplay. In Hindu philosophy, the god Vishnu descends in His many avatar-forms and the manifestation of the deity occurs in a range of different ways. Hence,  avatars in Hinduism can be full or partial manifestations and the concept may vary with the different cults. The commonly accepted account of the Hindu avatar involves the god’s being in multiple manifestations at once. The avatars also often involve a merging of the human, animal and mythical bodies where the deity is at once avatar and god. The incarnation here is akin to the incorporation described by videogame commentators.

As a complex philosophical concept, the avatar resists the easy formulation within which the New Media theorists tend to apply it. However, it is in the complex idea involvement and its connected addressing of cyclic temporality and reincarnation that the concept provides a framework to exploring the gamer’s fuller experience. Without commenting on the divine and the religious elements of the concept, it is still possible to draw important parallels with the gaming experience. This paper will analyse the Assassin’s Creed (2008) games, with their complex scheme of reincarnation (or rather the remembering of past lives) and their reflection of the protagonist (himself an avatar of the player) being incorporated through memory into the avatars of his forbears, as a point of departure that might be extended to a wider notion of the gaming experience. Such an analysis will not only clarify and contextualise this ancient philosophical concept in relation to its present-day application; it will also add further layers of complexity to our notion of the avatar.

Bibliography


      Anon, 1975. The Song of God, Bhagavad-Gita, eds. Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, London: Dent.

Atkins, B.  (2007), ‘Killing time: time past, time present and time future in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’ in B. Atkins and T.  Krzywinska (eds.), Videogame, Player, Text, Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 237-253.

      Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut Edition. (2008) Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal.

      Cameron, J. (2010). Avatar, 20th Century Fox.

      Calleja, G. (2011), In-Game: From Immersion to Incorporation 1st ed. (Massachussets, The MIT Press).

      Fallout 3: Game of The Year Edition (2009), Bethesda, Bethesda Softworks. [PC Game]

      Far Cry 2 (2008), Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal [PC Game]

Mukherjee, S. (2007), ‘Ab(Sense) of An Ending: Telos and Time in Digital Game’ in Writing Technologies, Vol 2.1, http://www.ntu.ac.uk/writing_technologies/back_issues/Vol.%202.1/Mukherjee/index.html [accessed 14 Oct 2011]

Habitat (1986), Morningstar C., Farmer R. et al., Lucasfilm Games [Commodore, PC]
   
      Stephenson, N. (1992) Snow Crash,  (New York, Bantam Press).