Three faces of Vedanta: Shankaracharya, Madhvacharya, and Ramanujacharya Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2016-04-11 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordA talk by Dr Ramesh Pattni of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studiesochsonline.orgochs.org.uk
Day 2 Talk 1: Keynote Speaker - Professor Gavin Flood Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2024-09-27 | Keynote by Professor Gavin FloodAbstract: This lecture is about the historical and semantic theorising of Śākta tradition. It focusses firstly on the relationship between Śāktism and Tantrism, presenting the historical thesis that originates with Von Glassenapp and is developed by Wernicke-Olesen that Śākta traditionemerges within Tantrism but is not its origin. The lecture then goes on to examine how one Śākta tradition, the Krama, presents a cosmological non-dualism articulated in a Sanskritic, poetic register. The lecture ends with some thoughts about the meaning of these texts and this history.Bio: Gavin is a Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion in theTheology and Religion Faculty and academic director of the Oxford Centrefor Hindu Studies.Gavin read Religious Studies and Social Anthropology at Lancaster Univer-sity and taught at the universities of Wales (Lampeter) and Stirling beforecoming to Oxford. He was elected to membership of the British Academy in2014.His research interests are in medieval Hindu texts (especially from the tra-ditions of Shiva), comparative religion, and phenomenology. Developingfrom the comparative interests of these books, he is currently working on aproject on holiness as well as developing closer textual work on a Sanskrit text called the Netratantra. He is general series editor of the Oxford History of Hinduism.
Day 1 Talk 4: Re-installation of idols in the Śākta rituals of Kerala by Mullapally K Nampoothiri Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2024-09-27 | "The Theory and Practice of the Navīkarana Kalasa and the re-installation of idols in the Śākta rituals of Kerala" a talk by Mullapally Krishnan Nampoothiri.Abstract: Śākta rituals in Keralan temples has a distinct ritual cult that are followed daily. But this every-day practice can lose perfection or can be endangered due to external impurities or damages. Under the concept of jīrṇoddhāra, a systematic approach is prescribed by various an-cient texts to clear these impurities and to re-instal idols making it a perfect abode for further ritual practices. This talk mainly focuses on these elaborate ritual practices that can lasts for ten days and its connected theories/texts to give us a more nuanced understanding of the ritual performativity in Kerala Śākta rituals. Through his lived experience, the speaker will bring tolight how these ritual prescriptions in texts are interpreted through practice within lineages, and among tantric practitioners in Kerala. This talk in its very nature is a record of an ancient tradition and its richer experience.Bio: Mullapally Krishnan Nampoothiri started his training in tantric ritu-als under the tutelage of his father. He continued his formal training un-der many other senior practitioners later. Considering his contributions totantric practice in Kerala, he was awarded with many accolades such as‘Tantraśāstra viśārad, Tantrika Choodamani, Acharyashreshta are to namesome out of many. He currently serves as the working president of KeralaTantravidyapeedom.
Day 1 Talk 3: The Impact of Kashmiri Shaivism on Kerala - A talk by Sudheesh Nampoothiri Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2024-09-26 | Abstract: Śeṣasamuccaya is the authoritative manual regulating Śākta rituals across Kerala. Starting from Sarasvatī, Pārvatī, Jyeṣṭhā and Seven Mothers, Śeṣasamuccaya captures an array of Śākta pantheons. Focusing on this rarely studied tantric text from Kerala, this talk will deline-ate on the ritual practice of Seven Mothers or Sapta Matr Vidhaana. This study also presents the hypothesis that the Śākta tradition of Kerala is influenced directly by Kashmirian Śaivism.Bio: Born in 1971 in a famous priestly family in Kozhikode district of Kerala,Sudheesh Nampoothiri received traditional Vedic and Tantric education atan early age. He is a post graduate in Physics and has also completed M Philin Tantra Sastra. He has written many books on Tantra śastra and Kashmiraśaiva philosophies and is currently doing research at Pondicherry Universi-ty on ‘cosmological Implications of Tantric Deity Concepts’.
Day 1 Talk 2: Śrīvidyopāsana heritage of Kerala – A talk by M Satheesh Bhattathiri Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2024-09-26 | "Śrīvidyopāsana heritage of Kerala" a talk by M Satheesh BhattathiriAbstract: Under the rubric of Śākta traditions in Kerala, the Śrīvidyopasana or the practice ofŚrīvidya is predominantly important or widely practiced. This tradition comes within the Śrīkulaframework and worships the goddess in her beneficent, benign and motherly form. Althoughthis tradition is practiced across different parts of India, this talk fundamentally attempts to ex-plain regional variations in practice and customs that are closely followed in Kerala. Based on hisown lived experiences as a tantric practitioner and through embodied techniques, the speakerrealizes and argues that Srividya follows the path of Yoga.Bio: M Satheesh Bhattathiri is a well-known tantric practitioner in Kerala.He is trained in Tantric rituals from his very young age and took formaltraining from Tantravidyapeedom specializing on Tantric rituals, Veda andHindu Dharma. He also undertook academic qualification in Sanskrit fromSanskrit University. Kerala. He is an ardent practitioner of Śrīvidya cult andhas initiated more than hundred disciples into Śrīvidya practice so far.
Text and Ritual in Śākta Tantra Conference – Day 1: Introduction to the Conference and Keynote Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2024-09-25 | As part of the Śākta mudrā project under Śākta traditions research programme, this conference will explore the performative cult of Śrīkula and Kālīkula traditions, its textual sources and practices. Bringing together scholarly acumen, practitioner’s first-hand knowledge and highly commendable inquisitiveness, this conference hopes to make some meaningful interventions into the current discourse about text and ritual practice in Tantric traditions.This virtual conference will be delivered in two parts. The first part will have senior research scholars presenting papers and will address the synergy, interplay and overlap between ritual performance and texts in Śākta traditions. This part will also explore methodological challenges and documenting problems that we face in relation to the study of ancient rituals. The second part will have speakers who are eminent tantric practitioners from Kerala. This Kerala part will focus on the ritual training, embodied practice, and the rich lived experience of performing Śākta rituals. This will map out a relatively new avenue of research where it will explore presentation of Śākta rituals in Keralan tantric texts and how these are interpreted through practice within lineages, and tantric practitioners in Kerala.The goal of conducting this conference in two parts is to provide an international platform to bring forth theoretical (part 1) and practical (part 2) dimensions of Śākta tradition, thereby facilitating an intersection between academics and practitioners. All paper presentations will be pre-recorded and will be launched online on Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies website. Recordings of the whole conference will be available after the conference on 5th of June. We will produce an edited book from the conference and conversations are currently underway with our potential publisher – Routledge Tantric Studies Series.
Text and Ritual in Śākta Tantra – Intro. by Prof. Gavin Flood for the 3 – 4 June online conference Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2024-05-30 | Text and Ritual in Śākta Tantra ConferenceJune 3-4, 2024by OCHS research fellow Dr Janaki Nair.Join the conference here:eventbrite.com/e/887153619357?aff=oddtdtcreator
Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2024-04-23 | Join our online course today: ochsonline.org/courses-allA vibrant example of living literature, the Bhagavata Purana (often referred to as Srimad Bhagavatam) is a hugely popular Hindu sacred text written in Sanskrit verse. It has inspired major north Indian bhakti traditions as well as schools of dance and drama, and continues to permeate popular Hindu art and ritual in India and the diaspora.In this course, we examine the Bhagavata Purana’s key themes and its extensive influence on Hindu thought and practice.This course is based on the edited collection: Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition. Students will receive an electronic copy of the book.
Rare manuscript displaying a chakra system from 1811 Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2024-01-10 | Rare manuscript displaying a chakra system from 1811 (Dated by Prof. Alexis Sanderson). The manuscript is from Nepal.#chakras #chakrasystem #manuscript #hinduism #yoga #nepal #india #archive #oxford #university #study #ochs #hindustudies #onlinecourses #shakti #shaktism #tantra #kathmandu
Jens Augspurger – “In Yoga, we are connected!” Examining the Fabric that makes Belonging Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2023-09-08 | “In Yoga, we are connected!” Examining the Fabric that makes BelongingJens AugspurgerThursday, 6th July, 10:30–11:30am UTCSpiritual tourism is, unlike other religiously motivated forms of travel, characterised by the specific attention that is placed on the personal growth of the tourist, i.e., their ‘inner journey’. The phenomenon aligns with the broader trend towards self-improvement, self-reference, and self-realisation that is occurring at the (now again) globalised intersection of religion, health, and wellness.My research seeks to understand spiritual tourism by examining the interplay between the journey (act of travel), the journeyed (destination), and the journeyer (tourist). Using biographical approaches, I conducted research interviews with spiritual tourists who had returned from travel to India either before or at the start of the pandemic. The data suggests that my interlocutors maintained complex correspondences with the places they had journeyed to. Many of these destinations seemed unattainable at the time of the interview during the height of several lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.In this talk, I will explore how the spiritual tourists often grappled with reflecting on their own impact and identity during their travels. I will then discuss the diverse ways in which my interlocutors have sought to maintain their connections to India, or Yogaland, whether through the computer camera-lens, their personal yoga practice, or imaginative acts of connection.Jens Augspurger is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Religions and Philosophies at SOAS University of London and a member of the school’s Centre for Yoga Studies. His research is located at the various intersections of religion, power, and politics, with a specific focus on spiritual and yoga communities. Jens is also a survivor activist and co-founder of Project SATYA, an initiative dedicated to combating spiritual abuse, coercive control, and institutionalised violence within religious groups.
Get your daily supply of vitamin H! Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2023-05-16 | Join our upcoming Day School in Oxford on HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW?Date: 4 June 2023Time: 10.00am – 5.30 pmLocation: Oxford Centre for Hindu StudiesFee: £245Read more: ochsonline.org/course/knowledge-in-hinduism-day-school-4-june____________________________________ABOUT USThe Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS) is the global leader in Hindu Studies. We are committed to the academic study of Hindu cultures and traditions in all periods and parts of the world. As an academic institution, the OCHS is not affiliated with any religious or political group and welcomes staff, students, and visitors of all backgrounds. Our unique scholarly environment opens the way to ground-breaking research in interdisciplinary fields of study.
The Shakta Aghoris in Kamakhya: An Interview with Prema Goet Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2023-03-16 | "The Shakta Aghoris in Kamakhya: An Interview with Prema Goet"Thursday, 2nd March, 10:30am–11:30am UTCPrema Goet will be speaking about his experiences and ethnographic research with the Shakta Aghoris during the Ambubachi Mela at the Kamakhya Temple in Assam. He has long term friendships with the Aghoris and has first-hand experiences of their mixing extreme antinomian asceticism with priestly services and philanthropy. He will be speaking on the lives of the Aghoris as well as his own role in representing the group through his work. He has published a photo journal entitled Against the Grain, which he will use to illustrate his presentation.Prema Goet is a multi-disciplinary researcher whose main interest lies in the intellectual history, culture and languages of South Asia. He received his BA in Sanskrit and MA in Philosophy and Religion from The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) – University of London. He is currently a visual-anthropologist researcher for The Śākta Traditions Research Project at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His interest focuses mainly on the performative ritual practices of various ascetic groups of South Asia. He has extensively worked with various practitioners from the region (India, Nepal and Bangladesh), documenting and producing a vast array of ethnographic works on tantric rituals, worship of the Goddess(es), aghora and yogic practices, etc. Amongst other things, Prema has also produced and recorded various audio-recordings of traditional chantings and music performed by the various groups he has worked with. His 2019 exhibition at the OCHS, The Path of Śakti, was curated and introduced by Prof. Chris Dorsett from The Pitt Rivers Museum – University of Oxford.Purchase Prema Goet's book from here: paralibrum.com/reviews/against-the-grain-by-prema-goet
Prof. Chris Dorsett - 9 Rooms: Philip Rawson and the exhibiting of tantra Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2023-02-23 | Lectures of the J.P. And Beena Khaitan Visiting Fellow9 Rooms: Philip Rawson and the exhibiting of tantraThursday 16th February, 2.00-3.00, OCHS LibraryProfessor Chris DorsettBoth my lectures are about a leading British authority on Indian art, Philip Rawson (1924-1995). The title of my first lecture refers to the nine enclosed spaces in which the celebrated Tantra exhibition he curated in 1971 was laid out at London’s Hayward Gallery. The arrangement confounded an important modernist conviction that any exhibit worth seeing required a clinically minimal mode of display. The Hayward was a minimal ‘white cube’ but, paradoxically, Rawson gathered hundreds of historical Indian items within confined coloured rooms, and heightened the viewer’s sensory engagement with ambient sound and slide projections. The results were widely held to have had greater contemporary resonance than the concurrent exhibition of new Californian art on the Hayward’s upper floor.The contradiction was not lost on me. As a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Art I had gone to see what artists on the west coast of America were doing, but discovered instead, much closer to home, experimental forms of art practice being spectacularly put to work in the service of cultural material usually found in museums. Frustratingly, the Arts Council of Great Britain archive, which holds documents on the commissioning and popular reception of this exhibition, contains no installation photographs; so there is no record of what Tantra actually looked like. As a result, I will set out how the research I am undertaking at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies re-engages with the sensorily-charged enclosures that Rawson derived from the nine emotional states (rasas) described by the tantric sage Abhinavagupta. The impact of Rawson’s tantrism on the London art scene of the early 1970s will be re-appraised, but my real goal is the creation of new practice-based contexts for researching his pioneering exhibition-making. Just over 50 years after Tantra closed I would like to see the show’s curator receive more attention.Professor Chris Dorsett is an artist and academic whose career has been built on curatorial partnerships with collection-holding institutions. In the UK he is best known for his pioneering exhibitions at the Pitt Rivers Museum where, having stepped back from his art school commitments in 2018, he is now an Associate Researcher. Dorsett’s many overseas projects include museum ‘interventions’ across the Nordic region and fieldwork residencies in the Amazon and at the walled village of Kat Hing Wai in the New Territories of Hong Kong. These projects were developed during university appointments at the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford; Central St. Martin’s School of Art, London; Royal University Institute of Fine Art, Stockholm; Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne; and Edinburgh School of Art. He is on the editorial board of Museum Worlds and has written extensively on the interface between experimental art practices and the museum/heritage sector for publishers such as Routledge and Intellect Books. Most recently, in conjunction with the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, he has been researching the museological legacy of the historian of Indian Art, Philip Rawson.9 Bookmarks: Rawson's writing and the influence of Abhinavagupta: youtu.be/hTla_1SaWjkVisit Prof. Chris Dorsett's websites:oldtantracatalogue.comchrisdorsett.com
Prof. Diwakar Acharya - The Body of the Goddess Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-12-06 | "The Body of the Goddess"Prof. Diwakar AcharyaThis talk will explore a Vedic myth of the birth of Śrī — the goddess of excellence, her immediate exploitation by the gods, and subsequent restitution of her bodily possessions through Vedic rituals. It will compare this myth with the Devīmāhātmya myth of creation of the body of the goddess through the contribution of various gods of their powers, and then reflect on the motives and ideas embedded in these two myths. It will also explore the concepts of mantric, geophysical, and micro- and macro-cosmic bodies of the goddess, together with the shades of her beauty from devotional contexts. Prof. Diwakar Acharya is Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at All Souls College, University of Oxford. His research concerns religious and philosophical traditions of South Asia. He studies ancient and medieval texts, inscriptions, and other historical documents significant for the cultural history of the Indian sub-continent. He is also interested in the critical examination of rites, rituals, and customs of the Indian religions and a keen reader of various genres of Sanskrit literature, starting from the Vedas.
Dr June McDaniel - The Modern Loss of Ecstasy in Religion and Theology Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-11-22 | Thursday 17th November, 2.00-3.00 pm GMTDr June McDanielThe study of mystical and ecstatic experience is out of fashion these days in the field of Religious Studies in the USA. Analysis of religious consciousness has been obscured by the interest in politics, history and sociology. The themes for meetings of the American Academy of Religion over the last few years have focused on Racism, Social Justice, Climate Change and Covid-19. There is little interest in what we might call the ‘inner dimension’ of religious experience. The modern study of ecstatic religious consciousness over the last thirty to forty years has largely been a study of objections to its subject matter. We see this in Theology as well as Religious Studies. The general Religious Studies response to mystical experience has been that it should be left to the theologians. But the theologians don’t want it either- they are attempting to show that they are historians, linguists, and ethicists, as well as voices for social change. The study of mystical and ascetical theology has been largely de-emphasized in modern seminaries. Like the religionists, theologians have shifted their interests to the social and political world, often substituting classes in practical skills like small-business organization, finance, leadership and preaching skills. Ecstasy is the “hot potato” that no field wants. As the Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast has recently noted, “Every religion seems to begin in mysticism and end in politics.” He compares mystical states to the hot lava of a volcano, and organized religion to the dry crust and ash that forms as it cools, settles and loses energy. In a similar way, he notes that the volcanic passions of mystical states turn into the organized religious institutions that show the symptoms of “rigor mortis.”This paper will describe what is gained, and lost, by this limiting of religious inquiry. It will also discuss how ecstasy has been relocated into a variety of secular areas- violence, sexuality, music, sports. Ecstasy has lost its link with religion, and here we will explore how and why this has happened. Dr June McDaniel is Professor Emerita in the field of History of Religions, in the Dept. of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston, in the USA. She is the author of three books on India, a co-edited volume on mysticism, a co-edited volume on Hindu religious experience, a book on current views of ecstasy in the field of Religious Studies, and many articles. Her MTS was in Theological Studies from Emory University, and her PhD was in History of Religions from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She spent two years in India, on grants from the American Institute of Indian Studies and as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar. She also did research in Indonesia on a Collaborative International Research Grant from the American Academy of Religion, as well as on shorter research trips.
Dr June McDaniel - Visualization in Some Bengali Hindu Contemplative Traditions: Vaishnava bhakti... Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-11-14 | Visualization in Some Bengali Hindu Contemplative Traditions: Vaishnava bhakti, Shakta Tantra, Baul songs and Raja YogaThursday 3rd November, 2.00-3.00 Dr June McDanielVisualization is an important practice in many Bengali religious traditions. For Gaudiya Vaishnavas, we can explore two styles of visualization: creating one’s own spiritual body in the form of a young girl or manjari and creating one’s inner body in the form of a young devotee of the saint Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as the gaur deha. The devotee must transmute the substance of instinct or kama into a more condensed form of divine love or prema. For Shaktas, we have tantric visualization of the cakras and bodily channels of energy, which allows cleansing of the elements (bhutasuddhi), and the ritual placement of deities into parts of the body (nyasa), leading towards union with the deities. For Bauls, the inner body is visualized as a place: a garden, a house, a birdcage, a whole landscape with rivers, ponds and mountains. For Sahajiyas or Vaishnava Bauls, the inner body is seen as both the emanation of a deity (Radha for women, Krishna for men) and a network of centers of power. In raja yoga, the siddhis or supernatural powers are developed through samyama, in which visualization acts within the practices of dharana, dhyana and samadhi (shifting one’s focus from external to internal, subtle objects). In all of these cases, visualization brings a special form of altered perception (siddha-darshana) and acts as a technique for inner exploration. Dr June McDaniel is Professor Emerita in the field of History of Religions, in the Dept. of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston, in the USA. She is the author of three books on India, a co-edited volume on mysticism, a co-edited volume on Hindu religious experience, a book on current views of ecstasy in the field of Religious Studies, and many articles. Her MTS was in Theological Studies from Emory University, and her PhD was in History of Religions from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She spent two years in India, on grants from the American Institute of Indian Studies and as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar. She also did research in Indonesia on a Collaborative International Research Grant from the American Academy of Religion, as well as on shorter research trips.
Prof. Alexis Sanderson - Readings in the Tantrāloka VIII Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-10-11 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn these lectures Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts. Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.
Prof. Alexis Sanderson - Readings in the Tantrāloka VII Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-10-04 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn these lectures Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts. Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.
Do We Need an Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies? Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-09-29 | A talk by Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the OCHS.Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxford
Dr Shruti Patel - Networks of Power Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-09-22 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordWednesday 8 June, 3.00-4.00 pm (BST)In this talk I shall bring into view modern Hinduism through the prism of power: how can we understand nineteenth-century religious communities in a world of shifting political authorities—the colonial state being just one of them? This question draws from my current book project about the creation of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, a Hindu devotional community, and the new forms of complex authority and subjectivity it advanced in the early nineteenth century in the region of Gujarat in western India. In doing so, the historical study not only understands the Sampradaya’s development in the context of the political-economy, it critically thinks about the political in relation to the devotional, prior to the era of nationalism. Taken together, these lines of analysis broaden the historical conversation beyond the colonial state as sites of power, and outline a more capacious, complex character of modern Hinduism.Shruti Patel is Assistant Professor of History at Salisbury University, USA. She is an American Association of University Women American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellow (2021-22) and a Visiting Scholar at Tufts University, completing her book project, The Play of History. Her publications investigate religious institutionalization, material culture and issues of historiography.
Prof. Alexis Sanderson - Readings in the Tantrāloka VI Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-09-09 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn these lectures, Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts. Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.
Rasa Pranskevičiūtė Amoson - Acting in the Underground: Life as a Hare Krishna Devotee in... Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordActing in the Underground: Life as a Hare Krishna Devotee in the Republic of Lithuania (1979–1989)Rasa Pranskevičiūtė-Amoson - Vilnius University, Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies LithuaniaThe research focuses on the origins and early development of the Hare Krishna community (also known as ISKCON, International Society for Krishna Consciousness) in Lithuania until 1989, when the collapse of the Soviet Union began. The aim of the research is to reveal the situation in which ISKCON found itself in Lithuania under the Soviet regime until the Society’s official registration in 1989, focusing on life as a Krishna devotee under the threat of KGB. Using a historical narrative method, the formation of ISKCON is retraced as well as how the movement came to Lithuania from Moscow, Russia through Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia. The material in the paper is derived mainly from Lithuanian ISKCON archives, as well as, from the previously secret documents of the State Security Committee of the Lithuanian SSR (KGB) on Lithuanian Hare Krishnas, which are now preserved in the Lithuanian Special Archives (LSA). The community developed within the underground under the threat of KGB repressions where it existed until the beginning of the Sąjūdis (the Reform Movement of Lithuania), when public community activities became possible –, such as public programs, religious book distribution and the founding of official temples. The ideas and practices of ISKCON were a form of resistance to the Soviet regime and the communist ideology. It did not emerge as an open opposition towards the prevalent communist ideology, but its actions appeared more as an attempt to exist in a suppressive sociocultural environment. The Lithuanian ISKCON community played a significant role in the development of ISKCON throughout the Soviet Union, because, after the imprisonment of Armenian activists, Lithuanian members organised secret printing and distribution of ISKCON literature throughout the Soviet region.
Michael Sheludko - Russo-Ukrainian War and Problems of... Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | Russo-Ukrainian War and Problems of Violence Justification Among Russian and Ukrainian VaishnavasMichael Sheludko - Deacon (Kyiv, Ukraine) Head of the Eparchial Commission for Promoting Christian Unity, Pereyaslav and Vyshneve eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Establisher of the स'धम$पथः Satya Dharma Path — A Hindu-Christian Initiative for DialogueThe Russo-Ukrainian war started in 2014 with the seizure of Crimea by the troops of the Russian Federation, but the most intense phase of the war began on February 24, 2022. The Ukrainian people are giving a decisive rebuff and fighting operations of this scale have not been carried out in Europe since the Second World War. The Hindu community in the countries that were part of the Soviet Union before 1991 is mainly represented by various Gaudiya Vaishnava missions, which were practically unified until February 2022. Some Vaishnava missions, such as Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, were directly run by leaders from Russia, and others, like ISKCON, had their own Ukrainian administration, but were quite strongly integrated with the Russian Federation and other post-Soviet countries. After the laws restricting the freedom of preaching were tightened in Russia, festivals and congresses of Russian-speaking Vaishnavas began to be held in Ukraine. The impression was formed that the Vaishnavas of the entire postSoviet space constituted a single organisation. The language of inter-Vaishnava communication was Russian, however, everything started to change after February 2022. In general, the full-scale war confused the minds of Russian and Ukrainian Vaisnavas and raised questions to which they had no ready answers. Despite the unfriendly attitude of the Russian state representatives towards Vaishnavas, their regular persecution, lawsuits, restrictions on religious freedom and missionary activity, the majority of the Russian Vaishnavas are supporting the actions of Vladimir Putin’s government. By quoting scriptures, they justify the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine and encourage their soldiers to further violence. The image of the enemy, which has been planted in Russia for years, is used as an excuse for "preventive" aggression; the spiritless "collective West" opposes “the spiritual Russian civilisation”. On the other hand, the Ukrainian devotees of all missions are practically united in condemning the aggression against their people and state. The most authoritative Ukrainian Vaishnavas call for defending their country with weapons in their hands, and Ukrainian Vaishnavas criticise those who want to remain neutral. In addition, some Russian-speaking Ukrainian Vaishnavas have begun to definitely switch to Ukrainian, even if they did not attach any importance to this before. There was a split, and in some missions they started talking about the need to separate from the Russian control centre of the organisation. The position of the leaders who condemned or supported Putin's actions impacts the attitude of their followers towards them. Considering that a number of leaders have the status of initiating gurus, the problem is not so much social as theological. Both 21 obedience and disobedience to a guru, according to the teachings of the Vaishnavas, directly affects the spiritual life of his disciples. The 21st century poses new challenges for the Vaishnava community, and the pacifist rhetoric that has characterised it all these years has been subjected to the biggest test of its existence.
Paolo E Rosati - Cultural Identity and Cultural Memory at Kāmākhyā: A Preliminary Study Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | Cultural Identity and Cultural Memory at Kāmākhyā: A Preliminary StudyPaolo E. Rosati - Independent ScholarThe village of Kāmākhyā is a sacred spot on Nīlācala in the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam. Its presiding goddess is Kāmākhyā who is worshipped in the nonanthropomorphic shape of a yoni (vulva) stone through left-hand and right-hand tantric rites. It is the yoni of Satī that according to the Śākta Purāṇas, a group of texts compiled in Bengal and Assam during the mediaeval period, fell to Nīlācala. Nowadays, the cult of Kāmākhyā is a cross-cultural system of religious beliefs and rituals interconnected to the village community. During the colonial period, the public yoni pūjā (worship) was exotericized and sanitised from its extreme Kaula praxis (Urban 2009). So today, animals are not sacrificed inside the sanctum but only outside of it while, from an etic point of view, the yoni symbol seems desexualized. Nevertheless, animal slaughtering and yoni pūjā replicates the mythic death and rebirth of Satī, the event that stands at the origin of Kāmākhyā. The inhabitants of the village of Kāmākhyā (i.e. Kamakhyans), thus, share the same symbolic universe and preserve the mediaeval Kaula roots of the yoni cult through daily ritual life. This paper will shed light on the fundamental role that ritual praxis plays in the preservation of the cultural memory at Kāmākhyā whereas written tradition influenced what may be defined religious oblivion to normalise the ritual praxis. In conclusion, this paper aims to outline a relationship between the cultural memory and the cultural identity of Kamakhyans and their mediaeval Kaula roots.
Gowda Gomathi and Babu Lenin G - Memorial Stones as Social Identity in the Past Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | Memorial Stones as Social Identity in the Past With special reference to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Gowda Gomathi & Babu Lenin G Woxsen University School of Arts and Design, Hyderabad, TelanganaThe paper discusses various levels of engagement and identity formation for memorial stones that are specific to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The installation of statues and monuments to the dead is a centuries-old and global phenomenon that takes various forms. This millennia-old tradition of memorial stelae is still alive in India and continues to serve in an original cultural setting. The eternalized hero and local legends that enhance the ordinary-looking slabs of stone as culturally significant pieces of history serve as the source that establishes the authenticity and the continuation of the act of reverence translated into an intangible culture. The structure, semantics, and function of memorial stones will be discussed from an art-historical perspective. The whole symbolism of the hero-stones reproduces the concept of a fallen hero ascending to heaven to enjoy posthumous bliss in the company of the gods. Their design might be very simple, sometimes consisting only of a figure of a hero holding his weapons or a scene depicting combat with an enemy. Complex, multi-panelled compositions, on the other hand, are more prevalent. The paper discusses various levels of engagement and identity formation for memorial stones that are specific to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Keywords: Memorial stones, semantics, history, tradition, intangible culture
Sraddha Shivani Rajkomar - Hinduism and Creole Cultural Memory in Present-day Mauritius Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | Hinduism and Creole Cultural Memory in Present-day MauritiusSraddha Shivani Rajkomar Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of MauritiusThe Indian Ocean island of Mauritius is home to hundreds of thousands of diasporic Hindus who ensure that their religious practices remain vibrant to this day and connected to what I have called ‘the divineland of India’ in my publications. The premise of this concept is that India was more than homeland or ancestral land for the Indian indentured labourers who were displaced en masse to the island following the abolition of slavery in 1835, and the establishment of indenture as the British Raj’s ‘great experiment’ with seemingly mobile and cheap labour that could replace slaves of mostly African and Malagasy origins in sugar plantation estates. Indentured labourers brought their religious practices, including what is often described as village or popular Hinduism, to Mauritius. They also brought their sacred texts, most notably the Ramacaritmanas which, more than any other, prompted Hindu Indo-Mauritians to start viewing India as the land where not only their ancestors, but their divinities also lived and moved around in challenging circumstances, bestowing upon it the status of divineland. With increased contact between India and Mauritius in the early 20th century, various Hindu movements relocated and spread their activities in the island, warranting that Hinduism and its many branches or modes of practice are safeguarded and thrive. Yet, the success-story of Hinduism’s survival in Mauritius has also had exclusionary meanings for a society that was and remains inherently creole due to plantation history, and where Hindus themselves were once subaltern and suffered from exclusionary discourses. Using Caribbean thinking on creolisation and Jan Assmann’s work on cultural memory, I have argued in my recent research that cultural memory in Mauritius cannot be any other than creole, and that Hinduism itself cannot escape the organic impetus of creolisation. This, I have concluded based on examinations of fictional, non-fictional as well as anthropological material that do not, in fact, clash with Hindu philosophy and need not cause a fear of creolisation or impurity that racial and ethnic discourses around the ‘Other’ have exacerbated, contributing to tragic consequences for the cultural memory of non-Hindus in Mauritius. My argument is that creole cultural memory exists and can emerge as a theoretical trend reflecting reality in colonial and contemporary Mauritian society, for nonexclusionary purposes and reparation towards colonialism’s subalterns. This creole cultural memory has the potential of showcasing the dynamism and profundity of Hinduism as articulated in its sacred texts, as well as that of other religious and sacred traditions. It highlights that Hinduism need not be in competition with ongoing efforts to protect it from contact with people of other religious and ethnic backgrounds – and ensuing social practices like inter-religious marriage – in highly multicultural spaces where maintaining social cohesion is a key mission. Although this certainly appears simpler where Hinduism remains the religion of the majority, as is the case in Mauritius, creole cultural memory can be a productive tool at least in other creole contexts, due 18 to the yearning for survival and creativity that naturally characterises creolisation, and despite the destructive conditions that birthed it.
Richa Shukla - Contemporary Hindu Woman: Strangled Soul or an Emancipated One? Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | Contemporary Hindu Woman: Strangled soul or an emancipated one?Richa Shukla - Assistant Professor of Philosophy OP Jindal Global UniversityI am a woman of colour, coming from a diverse country named India. I owe thanks to my family for a cosmopolitan background in Benaras (Varanasi), the oldest city in the world, where I was born and brought up, which taught me about the co-existence of multiple cultures. Speaking three to four Indian languages made me understand how beautiful the canon becomes when we have people from different genders, races, castes, ethnicities, and religions. Later, Bombay (now known as Mumbai) played a pivotal role in shaping my understanding of the self and Other. My neighbourhood was full of people from different communities, whether it was Parsis (Zorastrains), Portuguese Christians or Konkani (a term used for the fisherman community in Mumbai), or Marathis. It exposed to me the beautiful rich literary world of words by great social reformers and poets. All these added layers shaped me when I decided to become a student of philosophy. Hindu philosophy has long been debated, critiqued, and dismissed. Debated and critiqued as one of the core scriptural Hindu values. Dismissed as it has been painted as a monolithic category that has nothing to offer apart from spiritualism and abstraction. Whether it’s the Rig-Veda,1 The Ramayana or The Mahabharata, 2 all these can be considered as a valid carrier of epistemology; not because they give us a glimpse of who we used to be and where are we coming from, but also because if we do a symptomatic reading of these texts, it gives us an idea of ‘Who can be a knower?’ and ‘Who has been a knower/ subject?’ All this stands in contradiction when we see how Hinduism is being propagated. The present work shall use auto-ethnography as a toolweb of contemporary Indian women. As a philosopher, I rely on my ‘lived-experience’ as a contemporary Indian woman, and that shall be reflected in the paper. Between the lived experience and theoretically how it has been described in the scriptures, the void that still exists in the contemporary Indian society shall be addressed. During Vedic times, a distinction has been made between two categories of women: brahma vadini (scholarly women who didn’t get married and choose to dedicate their life to knowledge and wisdom) and rajaswala (women who belong to the realm of domesticity, reproduce, and have family). My work seeks to investigate both the categories and investigate the latter in terms of their presence, dissent, and responsibilities. By invoking the latter category, I shall discuss the conflicted issues in the contemporary Hindu society like, menstruation, marriage and most importantly, the life of a Hindu woman. This paper shall aim to understand Hindu women theoretically and empirically; how ideas have been defined in Hindu scriptures and how they are being practised.
Cecilia Bastos - Mind, body and subjectivity: the performance of yoga and meditation practitioners Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | Mind, body and subjectivity: the performance of yoga and meditation practitioners Cecilia Bastos National Museum - Federal University of Rio de JaneiroIn this presentation, I analyse the dimensions of spirituality related to the body and the subjectivities of yoga and meditation practitioners, students of Vedanta that I have been researching since 2009. These are practitioners who maintain a learning connection with a teacher or guru and are dedicated to carrying out a "life of yoga", that is, seeking self-observation as a form of self-knowledge, and of knowing their habits and their own patterns of reaction. In other words, they try to observe how they react to events and to others in order to gain physical and mental balance and to become "free" from samsara (understood as a cycle in which people go through periods of ups and downs, happiness and sadness). These mental exercises are practised with the goal of reaching an ideal state of wisdom that is never really achieved or fully conquered: it is more about looking at their way of life and understanding how they "react" to it on a daily basis (observing where they tend to lose emotional control) than to become that ideal in practice. Furthermore, in both yoga and meditation a process of body modification based on a form of Hindu asceticism is visible, carried out through effort and repetition. I understand that the transformation that their bodies undergo, through physical and mental techniques, implies the adoption of an "orientalised" lifestyle in their worldview and/or way of thinking. Practitioners tend to ritualise life as a whole, bringing new meanings to their multiple experiences and perceiving themselves as continually connected to the cosmos. Seeking to understand the contradictions in their perceptions of their own selves, I analyse the reflexive processes inherent in these practices to understand how practitioners construct their identity. I see their identity as based on an "internal" discipline, a renunciation that suggests asceticism; albeit an asceticism that seems to incorporate an "external" model of the yogic tradition, and one that is internalised through the realisation of disciplines which affects certain emotions and behaviours.
Ace Simpson and Alan Herbert - Rapture and Rupture: Experiences of Former Ashram Residents Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | Rapture and Rupture: Experiences of Former Ashram ResidentsAlan Herbert - Oxford Centre for Hindu StudiesAce Simpson - Brunel University London In this study we interviewed 40 former ashram residents, who had lived in VaisnavaHindu ashrams in either the UK, US, Australia or New Zealand for at least a year before the year 2000. The year 2000 or earlier was selected for participant inclusion to ensure that the members had been outside of the ashram environment for almost 20 years. Participants were recruited using a snowball sampling method, with a balance of males and females. Findings were analysed using theories of narrative self and the social imaginary (Ricoeur, 1995; Castoriadis, 1975). Emergent narratives described ambivalent feelings of both gratitude for having had the experience as an ashram resident and all learned from the philosophy, rituals, community, values and a strong sense of meaning. Contrastingly, there were also narratives of painful experiences of life in a new and immature movement, where managers were little qualified for their roles, conditions were often austere, and individual needs were often neglected. There appeared to be a cognitive dissonance involving rapture and pain. On the one hand, many participants displayed faith in the teachings and an overriding respect for the founder guru. They also sustained practices involving vegetarianism, chanting, and varying degrees of participation with community activities and members. Having left the ashram long ago, many employed internal jargon unfamiliar to outsiders, despite the researchers’ efforts to use neutral language. This all indicated that participants continued imaging themselves as “devotees” or “ashram members”. Yet, on the other hand, very few of the entire participant cohort maintained active formal relationships with the institution due to a rupture with institutional authorities and expectations. Many described the interview as cathartic. Still, fear of being overly critical (even when invited to provide constructive criticism) appeared to be a concern for many, and in a couple of instances interviewees called back to clarify negative statements.
Gustavo H. P. Moura - World Kirtan: Music and Spirituality in a Transcultural Whirlpool Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-26 | World Kirtan: Music and Spirituality in a Transcultural Whirlpool GustavoGustavo H. P. Moura - Wilfrid Laurier UniversityKirtan (Sanskrit: कीत$न; IAST: Kīrtana) is a broad term referring to the practice of singing mantras, scriptural passages, and devotional songs as commonly done in South Asia. It is a core practice in the Hindu and Sikh traditions that is becoming increasingly popular around the world among people of all ethnicities. Beyond its expected propagation within Hindu and Sikh diasporas, kirtan is also spreading among members of new religious movements such as ISKCON and the 3HO/Sikh Dharma, who engage with mantras daily. Even more broadly, kirtan has been gaining popularity in the Yoga and New Age communities, with several kirtan artists nominated for the Grammy awards over the years. Moreover, in the wake of the mindfulness and yoga movements, there is an emerging engagement of kirtan singers with public healthcare and correctional institutions. Thus, we can say that kirtan is developing as a transnational and transcultural phenomenon. Indeed, the broader cultural implications and deepening social penetration that this practice has achieved over the past five decades suggests that it is attaining permanent status in the world’s religious soundscape. This research explores the practice of kirtan as it has been re-created outside of India through multisided interactions that generate new cultural patterns in an ongoing process of crosspollination. Approaching mantras as a type of ‘technology of the self’, this project addresses the questions of how kirtan is adopted and adapted by contemporary practitioners and how this practice has been shaping identities, communities, and traditions. There seems to be a convergence of various groups around the performance of kirtan, despite their differences in terms of doctrine and authority. The popularization of the practice makes it accessible to many, but also presents risks of trivialization and alienation from its traditional roots. Above all, the centrality of kirtan for multiple religious communities now present around the globe invites scholars of religion to investigate its relevance as spiritual practice and its role in community formation. Keywords: mantra, kirtan, yoga, bhakti, music, new religious movements, transculturation.
Swami Medhananda - From Advaitic Inclusivism to Yogic Pluralism Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-08-11 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordSwami Medhananda - From Advaitic Inclusivism to Yogic Pluralism:A New Diachronic Interpretation of Swami Vivekananda’s Views on the Harmony of ReligionsPast scholars have tended to paint Swami Vivekananda either as a modern-day exponent of Śaṅkara or as a passive colonial subject whose views were largely a reaction to Western hegemony and the British occupation of India. By contrast, I argue in my new book, Swami Vivekananda’s Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism (Oxford University Press, 2022), that Vivekananda was a cosmopolitan Vedāntin who developed distinctive new philosophical positions through creative dialectical engagement with thinkers in both Indian and Western philosophical traditions. This talk is based on the third chapter of my book, which provides a new diachronic interpretation of Vivekananda’s doctrine of the harmony of religions. Most scholars claim that in spite of Vivekananda’s pluralist-sounding statements that the different world religions are equally valid paths to the same goal, he was actually more of an inclusivist, since he affirmed the superiority and uniqueness of Advaita Vedānta and Hinduism vis-à-vis other religions. I argue that these scholars overlook the fact that his views on the harmony of religions evolved from 1893 to 1901. From September 1894 to May 1895, Vivekananda harmonized the world religions on the basis of the “three stages” of Dvaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, and Advaita, claiming that theistic religions like Christianity and Islam belonged to the Dvaita stage. However, beginning in late 1895, he explained the harmony of all religions not in terms of the three stages of Vedānta but in terms of the four Yogas. According to Vivekananda’s final position, every religion corresponds to at least one of the four Yogas—namely, Karma-Yoga, Rāja-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, and Jñāna-Yoga—and each of these Yogas is a direct and independent path to salvation. On this basis, he defended not only a full-blown religious pluralism but also the more radical cosmopolitan ideal of learning from—and even practicing—religions other than our own. On the basis of this diachronic interpretation of Vivekananda’s views, I argue that the vast majority of scholars have seriously misrepresented his mature Vedāntic doctrine of the harmony of religions by taking it to be based on the three stages of Vedānta rather than on the four Yogas.Swami Medhananda (Ayon Maharaj) is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order and Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education in Mysore, India. His current research focuses on Vedāntic philosophical traditions, cross-cultural philosophy of religion, cross-cultural approaches to consciousness, Indian scriptural hermeneutics, and the philosophies of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and Sri Aurobindo. He is the author of three books: Swami Vivekananda’s Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism (Oxford University Press, 2022), Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality: Sri Ramakrishna and Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), and The Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency: Revaluating German Aesthetics from Kant to Adorno (Bloomsbury, 2013). He is the editor of The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Vedānta (2020) and co-editor, with Benedikt Paul Göcke, of Panentheism in Indian and Western Thought: Cosmopolitan Interventions (Routledge, under contract). He is also the editor of two special issues of the International Journal of Hindu Studies (Springer), one on “Vedāntic Theodicies” (December 2021) and one on “Swami Vivekananda as a Philosopher and Theologian” (in progress). Since January 2018, he has been serving as a Section Editor of the International Journal of Hindu Studies (Springer), overseeing submissions in Hindu and Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion. He has published nearly thirty articles in such journals as Philosophy East and West, Journal of Indian Philosophy, Journal of Religion, The Monist, Kantian Review, Journal of World Philosophies, Journal of Dharma Studies, Religions, History of European Ideas, PMLA, and Journal of the History of Ideas.
Dr Julian Strube–Book Panel: Global Tantra: Religion, Science, and Nationalism in Colonial Modernity Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-06-25 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordBook Launch and Panel Discussion: Global Tantra: Religion, Science, and Nationalism in Colonial Modernity by Dr Julian StrubeDiscussants: Prof. Gavin Flood, Prof. Hans Harder, and Dr. Bjarne Wernicke-OlesenTantra has formed an integral part of Asian religious history for centuries, but since “Arthur Avalon” introduced the concept to a global readership in the early twentieth century, Tantric traditions have exploded in popularity. While it was long believed that Sir John Woodroffe stood behind Avalon, it was in fact mainly a collaboration between learned South Asians. Julian Strube considers Tantra from the Indian perspective, offering rare insight into the active roles that Indians have played in its globalization and re-negotiation in local Indian contexts. In the early twentieth century, Avalon’s publications were crucial to Tantra’s visibility in academia and the recognition of Tantra’s vital role in South Asian culture. South Asian religious, social, and political life is inexorably intertwined with various Tantric scriptures and traditions, especially in Shaiva and Shakta contexts. In Bengal, Tantra was central to cultural dynamics including Vaishnava and Muslim currents, as well as universalist tendencies incorporating Christianity and esoteric movements such as New Thought, Spiritualism, and Theosophy. Global Tantra contextualizes struggles about orthodoxy and reform in Bengal, and explores the global connections that shaped them. The study elides boundaries between academic disciplines as well as historical and regional contexts, providing insights into global debates about religion, science, esotericism, race, and national identity. Julian Strube is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Vienna. His work focuses on the relationship between religion, science, and politics since the nineteenth century from a global history perspective, concentrating on exchanges between Indian and Western intellectuals. His publications include Socialism, Catholicism, and Occultism in Nineteenth Century France, New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism (with Egil Asprem), and Theosophy across Boundaries (with Hans Martin Krämer).
Prof. Alexis Sanderson - Readings in the Tantrāloka V Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-06-01 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn these lectures, Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts. Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.
Untangling the Traditions: The Vaishnava Family Tree Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-05-30 | Vaiṣṇavism Weekend School, 11 – 12 June.Sign up here: bit.ly/3lCAqBl"Untangling the Traditions: The Vaishnava Family Tree"with Professor Gavin FloodThere is a wide and complex range of traditions, theologies, and modes of worship that fall under the category of the worship of Vishnu. In this session we will attempt to untangle the complexity by examining the historical development of the traditions and understanding the different theologies and practices involved. We will look at key texts along the way, including the Bhagavad-gītā and Bhāgavata-purāṇa. By the end of the session, we will have sketched a map or drawn a family tree of Vaishnavism.OCHS Continuing Education
Today we often think of Hindus and Muslims as diametrically opposed, but has it always been so? Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-05-24 | Join us to learn more on our online weekend school on Vaiṣṇavism: 11–12 June, 2022Sign up: ochsonline.org/course/vaishnavism-online-weekend-school-11-12-june"How Vaishnavas and Muslims Worked Together in Early Modern Bengal"with Professor Tony StewartToday we often think of Hindus and Muslims as diametrically opposed, but has it always been so? In early modern Bengal, the figure of Satya Pīr combined elements of Vaishnavism and Sufi theology and practice. Believed to be an avatāra of Nārāyaṇa fused with Allāh, Satya Pīr taught that penury was the root cause of immorality and he was worshipped to gain wealth and family health. He is still widely worshipped today. This compatibility can also be found in the figure of the Sufi Jaban Haridās, a close associate of Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, who taught the most effective ways to chant the names of God.OCHS Continuing Education
What do Vaiṣṇavas do? Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-05-24 | Find out more at our online weekend school on Vaiṣṇavism.11 – 12 June, 2022Sign up: bit.ly/3lCAqBl"The Vaishnava Life: Rite, Ritual, Practice"with Professor Måns BrooVaishnavism possesses a wealth of philosophy, theology and mythology, but what does it mean to live as a Vaishnava in today’s world? This session deals with all of the little things by which Vaishnavas manifest their devotion to Vishnu in his various forms, including formal rites and rituals, but also things such as diet and social life.OCHS Continuing Education
Prof. Alexis Sanderson - Readings in the Tantrāloka IV Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-04-13 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn these lectures, Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts. Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.
Prof. Saurabh Dube - Margins, Meanings, Modernity: Satnampanth, Hinduism, and Colonial Questions Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-03-11 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordThis talk shall address some of the salient issues informing the project on “Rethinking Hinduism in Colonial India”. It shall do so through two overlapping steps. On the one hand, I shall seize upon a few critical concerns of my historical anthropology of the Satnamis of Chhatisgarh: a subaltern and heretical caste-sect that variously challenged, negotiated, displaced, and reproduced formations of meaning and power encoded in dominant Hinduism and colonial authority. On the other hand, I will bring into view aspects of my more recent forays into understandings of modernity, colonialism, and their subjects. Taken together, I seek to ask: How are we to understand heterogenous articulations of the margins and meanings of Hinduism? What is the place of authority and alterity in expressions of caste and sect, gender and office in these arenas? What presumption and privilege are reproduced in familiar projections of modern Hinduism, bearing which traces of liberal-progressivist subjects-settlements? Can the study of apparently marginal subjects engage the widest questions of power and meaning turning upon caste and religion, colonial cultures and modernity’s makeovers, including by carefully querying formidable anthropological assumption(s) and developmental historical premise(s)?Saurabh Dube is Professor-Researcher, Distinguished Category, at El Colegio de México, and also holds the highest rank in the National System of researchers (SNI), Mexico since 2005. Apart from around 140 essays and book-chapters, his authored books include Untouchable Pasts (1998, 2001); Stitches on Time (2004); After Conversion (2010); Subjects of Modernity (2017, 2018, 2019); as well as a quintet in historical anthropology in the Spanish language published by El Colegio de México (2001-2018). A 600 page anthology/omnibus of Dube’s Spanish writings of the last two decades was published recently. Among his more than fifteen edited volumes are Postcolonial Passages (2004, 2006); Historical Anthropology (2007, 2008); Enchantments of Modernity (2009, 2010); Crime through Time (2013); Unbecoming Modern (2006, 2019); and Dipesh Chakrabarty and the Global South (2019, 2021). Dube is the founder-editor of the international innovative series, “Routledge Focus on Modern Subjects.” He has been elected Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York; the Institute of Advanced Study, Warwick; the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla; the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study, South Africa; the Max Weber Kolleg, Germany; and the Institute of Human Sciences, Vienna. Dube has also held visiting professorships, several times, at institutions such Cornell University, the Johns Hopkins University, University of Iowa, and Goa University (where he occupied the DD Kosambi Visiting Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies).
Prof. Ishita Banerjee Dube - Bhakti and Bhaktas: The Many Lives of Bhima Bhoi and Mahima Dharma Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-03-11 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordAn itinerant, abstemious ascetic who preached the mahima, glory of an omnipotent Alekh (indescribable) Absolute and pure devotion to him as a way to salvation in the tributary states of Orissa (Odisha) in the 1860s, came to be deified as Mahima Swami, an incarnation of the Absolute, and his precepts found entry into vernacular newspapers, colonial records and subsequent texts as Mahima Dharma/Alekh Dharma/Kumbhipatia Dharma. Bhima Bhoi, the bhakta-kabi (poet-devotee) of Mahima Swami, innovatively combined teachings of the Guru with aural comprehensions of popular religious texts and the epics in numerous couplets to elaborate a theosophy-philosophy that blended lofty ideals with the everyday metaphor of Kaliyuga and appealed to large groups of subordinate men and women. My intervention will revisit my earlier work on Mahima Dharma to trace the enduring presence, many meanings and diverse apprehension and deployment of Bhima Bhoi’s compositions and legends of his life by lay followers, particularly the more marginal ones. This will offer fresh insights into the distinct ways ‘religious’ teachings, rituals and codes of behaviour are grounded by followers to cope with the difficulties of the present, forge a sense of identity and community, and extend initial impulses of preceptors in myriad ways that at once resist and shore up to the institutionalisation of a radical, heterodox faith. Through a combined exploration of philosophy and its praxis, modalities of identity formation and gender dynamics in the practices of ordinary devotees, I hope to be able to discern the distinct textures in the quotidian existence of a ‘Hindu’ order at different moments.
Prof. Alexis Sanderson - Readings in the Tantrāloka III Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-03-07 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn these lectures, Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts. Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.
Prof. Shaman Hatley - On the Devīpurāṇa’s Tantric Sources and Adaptations of Tantric Ritual Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-03-02 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxford"On the Devīpurāṇa’s Tantric Sources and Adaptations of Tantric Ritual"Prof. Shaman HatleyUnique among first-millennium purāṇas, the circa 8th–9th century Devīpurāṇa reveals deep familiarity with Tantric Śaivism. This lecture analyzes the Devīpurāṇa’s engagement with tantric rituals and sources, particularly the goddess-oriented Bhairavatantras, and argues that itsintegration of these is integral to its construction of a Śākta civic religion. The paper first outlines evidence for the Devīpurāṇa’s familiarity with Tantric Śaivism, including its first-hand knowledge of specific early tantras. The second section examines its re-purposing of tantric mantras for public ritual. Section three concerns the Devīpurāṇa’s blending of civic religion and esoteric ritual in its genre-bending descriptions of pilgrimage to Nandā and Sunandā, the Himalayan mountain-goddesses. The final section concerns how the Devīpurāṇa transformed the propitiation of yoginīs, tantric goddesses of the cremation grounds, into calendrical rituals for the benefit of the state. Far more than a collection of demon-slaying narratives, the Devīpurāṇa proves crucial for understanding the early-medieval religious landscape, and in particular, the roles of Śaiva tantric rituals and sources in the making of public Śāktism.
Prof. Rick Weiss - Rethinking Modern Hinduism Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-23 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn this lecture, I present the basic framework laid out in my book The Emergence of Modern Hinduism (University of California Press, 2019). The book argues for the importance of regional, vernacular innovation in processes of Hindu modernization. Scholars usually trace the emergence of modern Hinduism to cosmopolitan reform movements, producing accounts that overemphasize the centrality of elite religion and the influence of Western ideas and models. Here I examine religious change on the margins of colonialism by looking at an important local figure, the Tamil Shaiva poet and mystic Ramalinga Swami (1823–1874). I argue for a history of Hindu modernization that demonstrates the transformative role of Hindu ideas, models, and institutions.Rick Weiss is Adjunct Professor of South Asian religions at Victoria University of Wellington, and Guest Professor of Modern History at Heidelberg University. His book Recipes for Immortality: Medicine, Religion, and Community in South India (Oxford University Press, 2009) examines the religious and nationalism dimensions of traditional siddha medicine. His second book, The Emergence of Modern Hinduism: Religion on the Margins of Colonialism (University of California Press, 2019), argues for the importance of regional, vernacular innovation in processes of Hindu modernization. His newest project examines the impact of print technology on religion in nineteenth-century India.
Aniket De - The Boundary of Laughter: Popular Performances Across Borders in South Asia Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-23 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordCombining archival research with ethnographic fieldwork, my new book, The Boundary of Laughter (OUP, 2021) explores how spaces of popular performance have changed with the emergence of national borders in modern South Asia. Drawing on a rich and hitherto unexplored archive of Gambhira songs and plays, I trace the making of the popular theater form called Gambhira by Hindu and Muslim peasants and laborers in colonial Bengal, and explores the fate of the tradition after the Partition of the region in 1947. In this talk, I will share some parts of my book in an attempt to rethink our analytical tools for studying religious faith and identity in colonial India, particularly in relation to Hindu-Muslim relations. I hope to work towards a new approach for studying popular performances as shared spaces that can accommodate peoples across national and religious boundaries.Aniket De is a PhD Candidate in History at Harvard University, USA. His academic and research interests include the political and economic history of the British Empire, the intellectual history of Indian nationalism and cultural history of colonial Bengal. He is keen on inquiring how the idea of the “frontier” developed in British India over the nineteenth century, especially with relation to imperial political economy, colonial anthropology and nationalist thought.
Prof. Alexis Sanderson - Readings in the Tantrāloka II Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-22 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn these lectures, Professor Sanderson will introduce the opening verses of the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975–1025), that author’s monumental exposition of the Śaiva Tantras from the standpoint of the Śākta Śaiva tradition known as the Trika and the philosophical non-dualism of the Pratyabhijñā texts. Alexis Sanderson began his Indological career as a student of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1969, studying the Kashmirian Śaiva literature in Kashmir with the Śaiva Guru Swami Lakshman Joo from 1971 to 1977. He was Associate Professor (University Lecturer) of Sanskrit at Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College from 1977 to 1992 and then the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College from 1992 to 2015. Since then, he has been preparing a critical edition of the Tantrāloka with a translation and commentary. His field is early medieval religion in India and Southeast Asia, focusing on the history of Śaivism, its relations with the state, and its influence on Buddhism and Vaishnavism.
Prof. McDaniel: Śāktism and Ethnography: Some Major Styles of Worship and Belief among Practitioners Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-16 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxford"Śāktism and Ethnography: Some Major Styles of Worship and Belief among Practitioners"Prof. June McDanielThe study of Śāktism is a relatively new field, and its primary methodologies have been historical and textual study. In this lecture, we shall examine some modern approaches to Śāktism, from the perspectives of practitioners and devotees. The regional focus will be West Bengal, India. Among practitioners today, there tend to be three strands or styles of Śākta understanding and practice. The first is the folk or tribal strand, which involves possession trance, dream commands, and animism; its focus is a goddess immanent within nature. The second approach is the tantric oryogic strand, which involves meditation and spiritual disciplines. The goddess is understood as highest wisdom, brahmajnana; she is encountered in initiations, visualizations, spiritual travel, and practice of the three Śākta bhavas. The third type is the devotional or bhakti strand, which involves the intense love of a particular form of the goddess. Śākti/Devi is willing to descend from her paradise to bless her human devotees, and her presence can be felt in religious worship. These types are often found in combined form, like strands of a rope braided together. However, there are tensions which exist within and between these strands. The folk/tribal strand oftenemphasizes regionalism and competition between local forms of the goddess. The tantric/ yogic strand opposes those goddesses who represent infinite consciousness with those magical goddesses who move through inner worlds and grant supernatural powers. The devotional strand has tensions between goddesses understood as individual living deities and goddesses who exist as symbols of universal principles. We shall also briefly note how traditional Shakta ideas have been incorporated into nationalism by politicians, and into hedonism by modern entrepreneurs.
Prof. Leela Prasad - A Sovereign Knowing: Audacious Evocations of Hinduism in Colonial India Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-14 | Want to support our work? Make a donation here: ko-fi.com/ochsoxfordIn my recent book, The Audacious Raconteur, I argue that even the most hegemonic circumstances cannot suppress “audacious raconteurs”: skilled storytellers who fashion narrative spaces that allow themselves to remain sovereign and beyond subjugation. Four Indian narrators of different castes and religious backgrounds who lived in colonial India—an ayah, a lawyer, an archaeologist, and a librarian—show that the audacious raconteur is a necessary ethical and artistic figure in human experience. In this talk, I will outline the literary strategies and other creative choices that each of these raconteurs made to evoke and represent “lived religion.” Their portraits of religion, rooted in their everyday experiences and intuitions, reveal the vacuity of the terms, categories, boundaries, and conclusions about Hinduism that came to preoccupy colonial scholarship and its legacy. These portraits show that when the study of religion considers forms and varieties of power without presuming that power is the exclusive privilege of the dominant, it is able to engage the dynamic creativity and courage of an embodied religious subject. Leela Prasad is an anthropologist in the Department of Religious Studies at Duke University, North Carolina, USA. She writes on everyday ethics, Gandhi, gender, prison and post-prison life, decoloniality, and narrative art and culture. Her articles have appeared in Numen, Journal of Religious Ethics, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Oral Tradition, Journal of South Asian History and Culture, and in various edited volumes. She is fluent in Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, and Hindi. Her latest book, The Audacious Raconteur: Sovereignty and Storytelling in Colonial India (Cornell University Press, 2020) argues that even the most empowered oppressor cannot suppress the creativity of politically colonized people who ultimately remain sovereign. The book engages the extraordinary narrations of Indians in late colonial India, and converses with descendants, to highlight the perennial presence of the “audacious raconteur” as an ethical figure in contexts of power and domination.
Becoming Who You Are: Holiness and Person - Professor Gavin Flood FBA Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-02 | The Phenomenology of Religion adopted (or mis-adopted) a Husserlian model in which through the epoché, the deep subject of consciousness can view the flow of the objects of consciousness, the cogitationes, and move from the natural attitude to the phenomenological mode of analysis. On this view, holiness is a cogitatum, an intellectual object of inquiry, the intuition of perfectibility or even of God as an intellectual object. But this model is problematic. What was a virtue – the suspension of the question of Being behind appearances – is revealed to be a hindrance to a deeper understanding of the nature of the human and its relation to holiness. To get some leverage on the category of holiness, we need to describe the shift from transcendental ego to existential encounter, from disembodied self to embodied person. Phenomenology in the twentieth century has provided three accounts or re-descriptions of person as other than transcendental ego, Heidegger’s Dasein, Merleau-Ponty’s embodiment or flesh, and Ricoeur’s narrative, positions that have been modified mostly in the Francophone world with accounts of pre-linguistic experience by Romano and a co-belonging view of person by Housset. With these developments in the background, I wish to present a view of holiness as comportment to verticality linked to conceptions of person as a task of becoming (Heidegger) and as wanting to want oneself (Housset). We might say that holiness is part of such desire to become who one is, which means that with holiness we have an orientation towards verticality and a sense of becoming that moves towards – but never reaches – the notion of fullness. Such an orientation is articulated through a narrative structure, the story of a life framed by birth and death, and culturally expressed as a journey. This is not a perennial philosophy because such a view respects the radical difference in conceptions of verticality across civilizations, but it is a universalist position in the sense of recognizing such a human drive and the cultural forms that articulate processes of becoming. It is also a metaphysically realist position in positing invisible constraint on the appearances of holiness.Professor Gavin Flood FBA is Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion in the Theology and Religion Faculty at Oxford, Senior Research Fellow at Campion Hall, and academic director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His research interests are in medieval Hindu texts (focused on Shiva), comparative religion, and phenomenology. Among his publications are Religion and the Philosophy of Life (OUP 2019).
Phenomenology and Mystery: Erich Przywara’s “Reductio in Mysterium” - Revd Carl Scerri Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-02 | Erich Przywara is best known for his work on the notion of the analogia entis. In his magnum opus bearing the same name as the Scholastic notion, he offers a renewed reading of the analogy of being: it is not a conceptual framework which encapsulates God and the creature within a common understanding of Being but a dynamic path going from the creaturely realm towards the Divine mystery. Indeed, Przywara identifies the analogy of being with the reductio in mysterium, i.e., a going back (re-ductio) into mystery.My paper will focus on the reductio in mysterium – an axiom that was coined by Przywara himself and picked up by Edith Stein in her works on phenomenology and mystery. Przywara’s choice of words carries interesting implications: the term reductio is a clear reference to phenomenology. In fact, Przywara himself admits, in his preface to Analogia Entis, that his work is influenced by the philosophies of Husserl and Heidegger. In my paper, I will argue that Przywara is subscribing to the phenomenological method and, in a similar way to Ideas and Being and Time, attempts to go back, to employ a re-ductio, towards the more original ground of philosophy. However, in Przywara’s case, this more original ground is constituted neither by the Transcendental Ego nor by Being, but by the mystery that structures creaturely existence. In other words, Przywara proposes a different kind of phenomenology. His is a phenomenology of mystery, for the reductio uncovers the irreducible mysterious constitution of the human being. In this light, the analogy of being takes on a new meaning: it is not simply a proportion between the being of the creature and that of the Creator, but rather a participation of the creaturely mystery in the greater Divine mystery.Revd Carl Scerri completed his undergraduate studies in philosophy and theology in Malta and furthered his studies, at graduate level, in Paris, at the Institut Catholique de Paris and the Sorbonne. After completing an MSt in Modern Theology, he is currently a DPhil candidate in Theology at Campion Hall, University of Oxford.
Desiring Dharma: Anthropotechnics and Ritual in the Mīmāṃsāsūtras - Dr Samuel G. Ngaihte Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-02 | Although a major component of the Mīmāṃsāsūtras revolves around the exegesis of the injunctions of the Veda in relation to the elaborate practice of sacrifice, Jaimini introduces his project as a dharmajijñāsā. This curious introduction, when placed in the wider context of his concern for developing the intrinsic intelligibility of sacrifice in the midst of a growing criticism over its continuing efficacy and relevance, discloses the dialogic manner in which Jaimini seeks to reimagine the nature and vitality of sacrifice as a meaningful practice for the Vedic tradition. In contrast to the functional representation of sacrifice as a communication or site of ‘covenantal’ exchange between the humans and the gods (or deities) in the quest for phalas, Jaimini repostulates the act of sacrifice as an art of fulfillment whose realization is firmly reliant on the ritual subject’s desire for the invisible dharma. This focus on the subject allows us to disclose the fabrics of the human vertical tension that constitutes the ‘homo repetitivus’.Dr Samuel G. Ngaihte is an interdisciplinary scholar who is currently pursuing research work in the Northeast of India. He is also a faculty member of the Philosophy Department (Manipur University, Imphal). His publications include Vedic Practice, Ritual Studies and Jaimini’s Mīmāṃsāsūtras: Dharma and the Enjoined Subject (Routledge, 2019) and Christianity and Empire in South Manipur Hills: Senvon Encounter and the Dialogic Zo Peoples (Regnum, forthcoming 2022).
Human Experience in the Study of Religion - Revd Dr Philip Moller SJ Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies 2022-02-02 | In the later twentieth-century, the phenomenological method in continental philosophy has provided considerable resources for the analysis of religious experience in human life, especially as it pertains to the ‘horizontal realm’ of what might be said to be capable of being grasped. Such phenomenological analysis, in turn, is capable of supplying evidence and a certain horizontal ‘givenness’ for those engaged in the study of religion, especially if it is employed as a complement to more the traditional methodologies in that field. Nevertheless, both phenomenology and religious studies, in their differing ways, overlook the unique dimension of human experience which possesses a ‘vertical’ rather than a horizonal structure, and which specifies that which is oriented beyond the present realm. By contrast, the Christian theological tradition has held to the notion that the human in her experience is possessed of an innate, natural desire for the transcendent, known as the ‘natural desire to see God’. In this paper, it is proposed to argue that the current concentration on the ‘horizonal realm’ of experience in both phenomenology and religious studies also requires a further, complementary focus on the ‘verticality’ of human experience, especially as it manifests in the phenomenon of human desiring. It is the principal contention here that the tradition of the ‘natural desire to see God’ indicates a crucial example of ‘verticality’ for religious studies, and this paper explores how this might be plausibly said to be also true for the contemporary era.Revd Dr Philip Moller SJ is a Junior Research Fellow in philosophical theology, working at the intersections of philosophy and modern theology, especially as these arise in the context of contemporary society. He is particularly interested in the arenas of ‘natural theology’, metaphysics, epistemology, and human knowledge of God; philosophical and theological anthropology; modern Catholic theology; the nature and method of Christian theology; and religious belief, law, and public policy. The Ressourcement project and methodology of the French Jesuits, especially Henri de Lubac, are central to his researches.
