Showing papers in "Studies in History in 2011"
TL;DR: Sanderson as mentioned in this paper pointed out that the enthronement of the three deities on the tip of a trident that rises above Sadāśiva is intended to express that the Trika has transcended, among other systems, the Śaiva Siddhānta.
Abstract: The throne of worship, which is typically a colourful grotesque of theriomorphic theologemes that is to be visualized similarly in both internal and external worship, is a common feature of most surviving tantric literature. We may often read of ritual and doctrine being locked in so close an embrace that the one may not be interpreted without the other2 and it is certainly true that their relationship can very often be demonstrated. Indeed, one article known to me demonstrates it with respect to the throne of worship: Sanderson3 has pointed out that the enthronement of the three deities—Parā, Parāparā and Aparā—on the tips of a trident that rises above the enthroned corpse of Sadāśiva is intended to express that the Trika has transcended, among other systems, the Śaiva Siddhānta. It is noteworthy, however, that we should find not only that the enthronement of the principal deity should be an almost universal feature of tantric cults but also that many elements of the throne are the same or more than coinc...
8 citations
TL;DR: The pre-colonial struggles for appropriating surplus from the European possessions in Asia were at times in the form of struggles between different religious institutions and administrative machineries within the same belief system professed by the various European powers.
Abstract: Geographical explorations and the subsequent intensification of external commerce made many political actors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries AD drag in religion and its various institutions as pliable devices for strengthening their claims of monopoly and control over the political and commercial life of the newly discovered regions. In the midst of these developments, the pre-colonial struggles for appropriating surplus from the European possessions in Asia were at times in the form of struggles between different religious institutions and administrative machineries within the same belief system professed by the various European powers. These conflicts often arose when some of the religious institutions, which were devised at different points of time in history to transmit various types of spiritual experiences to the believers, were appropriated by power-mongers for realizing their political and economic agenda. One of the religious institutions that were often utilized for political purposes...
5 citations
TL;DR: Different categories of women performers and prostitutes in medieval India are looked at, their apparent coalescing boundaries and specialities as a separate group, their societal position, their shifting roles and the changes that affected their status.
Abstract: Music and dance, the esoteric performing arts, were markers of culture in medieval India. A number of these differing forms developed into well-recognized and reputed arts over time. The practitioners were, accordingly, regarded as agents of refinement and culture. At the same time, music and dance were also among the most popular forms of entertainment and physical pleasure. This aspect remained crucial in classifying musicians, singers and dancers as entertainers, alongside prostitutes. While the labelling together might have reduced the status of performers at times, the labelling hardly remained fixed. Certain practitioners, even if involved in practices otherwise considered immoral, could remain within the elite circle, while for others the ‘evil’ characteristics got emphasized. There were, within the class of women who prostituted themselves, courtesans trained in the skills of music and dancing and educated in the fine arts, who were treated more as embodiments of culture. These categories—artists, skilled entertainers, courtesans—were quite fluid, with the boundaries seemingly fused together. Still, there were certainly some distinctions among the categories and those did not totally disappear, affording sanctity and purity to certain kinds of performers and allowing them to claim distinctiveness. Notably, the class of courtesans clearly stood apart from the common prostitutes. The attempt in this article is to look at different categories of women performers and prostitutes, their apparent coalescing boundaries and specialities as a separate group, their societal position, their shifting roles and the changes that affected their status. In this, it is worthwhile to consider the state’s attitude towards them, besides societal views that remained quite diverse.
4 citations
TL;DR: The authors analyzes how Muslim characters are reviled and even demonized by means of specific dramatic languages as well as other literary devices, and then demonstrates that Muslim people were far from being the only target of this process.
Abstract: From the eleventh century AD onwards, some Indian dramatists began to derive the plot of their plays from contemporary events, such as the military achievements of their patron, despite the prohibition of this kind of subjects by theoreticians. As the neighbouring Afghan and Turkish rulers of Ghazna and Ghūr were threatening India then, Muslim characters made their appearance in some of these historical plays, like Somadeva’s Lalitavigraharāja (c. AD 1153) and Jayasiṃhasūri’s Hammīramadamardana (c. AD 1227–30). Consequently, these texts constitute a counterpoint to the Persian chronicles and give us the unique opportunity of ascertaining how Muslim invaders were perceived by Indian people during the political upheavals of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ad. The article first analyzes how Muslim characters are reviled and even demonized by means of specific dramatic languages as well as other literary devices, and then demonstrates that Muslim people were far from being the only target of this process...
4 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors of Jain Prabandhas reveal that the Jains saw themselves as different to the Hindus and that they competed for instance with devotees of Śiva in order to obtain the favour of a sovereign or to control a sacred place.
Abstract: Taking up the still debated question whether Muslims and particularly Hindus were or were not aware of forming a common religious community before the nineteenth century, David N. Lorenzen stated in the introduction to his essay Who Invented Hinduism? published in 2009 that the term Hinduism designed religious identity as early as the fifteenth century in Hindu texts and even one century earlier in inscriptions. However, most scholars did not take into account the Jain texts, probably because it was more or less unconsciously admitted that Jains are in fact Hindus. Nevertheless, the testimony of Jain Prabandhas, a new genre which includes biographies, eulogies and chronicles, reveals to be of peculiar interest. Indeed, on one hand, the Prabandhas attest that the Jains saw themselves as different to the Hindu sects and that they competed for instance with devotees of Śiva in order to obtain the favour of a sovereign or to control a sacred place. On the other hand, the Jain authors do not go so far as to as...
3 citations
TL;DR: Despite Anglican Christianity's frequent close association with the state, there have always been some, inspired by Christianity's founder, who have taken a more independent line, none more strikingly so than two English missionaries in India, C.F. Andrews and Verrier Elwin, who broke with prevailing loyalties and in the strength of profound friendships with Gandhi, identified with Indian interests and nationalist aspirations during the half century prior to Indian Independence.
Abstract: Despite Anglican Christianity’s frequent close association with the state, there have always been some, inspired by Christianity’s founder, who have taken a more independent line, none more strikingly so than two English missionaries in India, C.F. Andrews and Verrier Elwin, who broke with prevailing loyalties and in the strength of profound friendships with Gandhi, identified with Indian interests and nationalist aspirations during the half century prior to Indian Independence.
1 citations
TL;DR: In the early decades of the twentieth century, the story of Kannaki, the heroine of the epic Silappatikaram, was retold several times in prose and as plays as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: When ancient stories are retold for a new readership in contemporary times, subtle changes are made that reflect on society. Through the early decades of the twentieth century, the story of Kannaki, the heroine of the epic Silappatikaram, was retold several times in prose and as plays. The Kannaki of the Silappatikaram is vastly different from the Kannaki of the plays. For one, in many of the plays, Kannaki speaks much more than she was allowed to in the epic work by Ilango Adigal. This article is an attempt to understand the ‘silence’ of Kannaki in the epic and the ‘voice’ of Kannaki in one of the early plays by Nagai C. Gopala Krishna Pillai written in the social reform context of early twentieth-century Madras Presidency.
1 citations
TL;DR: The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford was founded in 1884 with a founding collection of archaeological and ethnographic objects from around the world as discussed by the authors, which formed the subject of this article.
Abstract: The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed an enhanced role for museums in Great Britain. There was also a parallel growth in private collections and an eagerness to collect souvenirs from distant lands. Material culture emerged as an important means to understand the evolutionary history of humankind. The development of archaeology and anthropology may be situated in this backdrop. The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford was founded in 1884 with a founding collection of archaeological and ethnographic objects from around the world. The donor was Augustus Henry Lane Fox, better known as Col. Pitt Rivers. The Indian collection of archaeological objects, amassed over the succeeding years, forms the subject of this article. I attempt to show how the colony and the metropolis were tied in a broad network of connections. I also argue that this enterprise of ‘collecting’—participated in by colonial servants, missionaries and others—lent an important dimension to the beginning of prehistoric research in the su...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the movement of historical study and research beyond the confines of the written archives, away from the official records to the village chaupals and fields of the peasants, to the offices of trade unions, to factory canteens, to simple homes, where people gather, meet and live their lives.
Abstract: This article on extending the archive beyond its traditional avatar is intended for the researcher and enthusiast in contemporary history, those doing oral history and students and teachers offering courses in historical method.1 The process that I wish to highlight is the movement of historical study and research beyond the confines of the written archives, away from the official records, to the village chaupals and fields of the peasants, to the offices of trade unions, to factory canteens, to simple homes, where people gather, meet and live their lives. I discuss one such trend, namely, oral history, which has energized the field of history. In the second part of the article, I take a close look at two oral history initiatives to explore issues of methodology and ethics, as well as the transformative aspects of the exercise. The first is the project (of which I was a member) sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research on the history of the freedom movement, conducted by professors and re...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight the significance of bhakti or devotion as an ideology that transformed the cultural landscape of Tamiḻakam, through its proponents' invocation of the sectarian deities Śiva and Viṣṇu.
Abstract: The Tamil Bhakti tradition has variously been understood as a literary efflorescence, religious revival, or an ideological tool through which social tensions were eased. In this article, I highlight the significance of bhakti or devotion as an ideology that transformed the cultural landscape of Tamiḻakam, through its proponents’ invocation of the sectarian deities Śiva and Viṣṇu. The Śaiva saint Appar’s patikam, composed between the mid-sixth and mid-seventh century AD, reveals this process in the typical fashion: through the introduction of Śiva along with his divine pantheon, the Puranic mythologies, and representations of conflict and accommodation in particular sacred sites. There are many instances where goddesses are invoked as benevolent consorts on the one hand, and as dangerous adversaries on the other. While it is the Brahmanical female deities who are clearly given representation, although in a marginal manner, the choice of specific sites to explicate certain motifs, such as that of a dance co...