Wichtigste Begriffe Reverse

Question 1

Key dates modern India

Answer 1

1947 Independence, Partition Pakistan
1971 Separation Bangladesh and Pakistan

Question 2

Sanskrit Cosmopolis

Answer 2

300 BC-1300 AD
- Diffusion of Buddhism
- Diffusion of Hinduism
- “Indic” Cultures in South-East Asia

Question 3

Western Interpretation of Indian Goddesses

Answer 3

• just differentiated as female counterparts of male gods
• manifestations of “primordial mather”
• archetype Theory of CG Jung and Zimmer
• matriarchay (Bachofen) : primitive, archaice stage of Religion
• precursor (Vorbote) to patriarchy
• Goddesses = Mother Goddesses

Question 4

“Archaic” Religion in India

Answer 4

• pre Aryan / non Vedic
  = Indian Natives / Indus Valley Civilisation

Question 5

Key Religious traditions

Answer 5

• Indus Civilisation (ca. 2600–1750 BCE)
• Vedic Period ca.1750–400BCE
  Vedic period: 1500–1000 BCE
  Brāhmaṇa exegesis and Upaniṣads:
  ca. 1100–500 BCE
• Emergence of the Śramanic religions: ca. 5th century BCE
  Jainism: remains minority religion till today Buddhism: pan-Asiatic religion,
  mostly disappeared from India between
  13th and 19th century revival.
• Emergence of Brahmanical “Hinduism”:
  ca. 4th century BCE–early centuries CE.
• Classical “Hinduism”: 300–ca 1300 CE
• Prominently Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism, dominant to this day

Question 6

Indus Valley Civilasition

Answer 6

• Along with Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and early Chinese civilisation, the Indus Valley civilisation ranks as one of the earliest civilisations in history.
• Bronze Age (ca. 3000 BC) => peak: 2600-1750 BC.
• 20th century: Discovery and excavations
  => Urban culture, Transregional trade, Seals
• Archeological excavations of Urban edifices, plumbing

Question 7

Historical witnesses

Answer 7

Writing arrives relatively late in India ca 300 bce

• But many mother varied goddesses found, made of terracotta
• similar goddesses found in Mediterranean areas

Question 8

statues of mother goddesses

Answer 8

• Very elaborate head dresses and hats, sometimes no elaborate sexual attributes
• Basically only two types of artefacts:
  
  • seals and terracotta figures (mainly female figures)
• Idea of a primitive mother goddess ‘Śākti‘, following agricultural matriarchal societies
• Vedic gods ie Agni, Indra (male)

Question 9

Classical and brahmanical Hinduism

Answer 9

ca 300-1300 CE
Prominently Sàinism and Vaiṣṇavism

Question 10

Gods:
* Vāsudeva-Kṛṣṇa
* Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa
* Śiva

*Goddesses:
* Durgā * Kālī * Śrī**

Answer 10

Plurality of gods and goddesses already mentioned in Vedas
Vișņu: reincarnates as 10 different avatāras everytime the world is in crisis for the benefit of the world (i.e. fish, turtle, Rāma, Krșna), His vehicle is the eagle , Wife is lakshmi

Śiva: ascetic deity, yogin, no clothes, snakes as ornaments, fountain on top of his hair: Ganga river (as another wife)
Can be benevolent but also fierce
A Deity with different faces
Wife: Was seduced by Parvati out of meditation so she could conceive a child

Question 11

Cosmological Monotheism

Answer 11

God / Goddess is “highest”:
– “Ruler”(īśvara īśvarī) over the gods (deva)=> ruler over the cosmos
– “Highest Self “(parama-ātman)=>salvation from the world

Question 12

Hindu Monotheism

Answer 12

Cosmic omnipotence of God / Goddess:
- Creation of the world (sṛṣṭi)
- Preservation of the world (sthiti)
- Destruction of the world (saṃhāra)

Question 13

God/Goddess and the world

Answer 13

• Side facing the world (pravṛtti): Creator and guardian of the world (order)
• Side facing away from the world (nivṛtti) Liberation, asceticism
  God => mukti-bhukti-pradā
  (= grants salvation and pleasure)

Question 14

Goddesses and Purāṇas

Answer 14

Cosmological monotheism text base:
* Textual genre from ca. the 3rd-4th c. AD until the 12th c. AD.

Several Purānas dedicated to goddesses:
* Durgā => Devīmāhātmya, a part of the Mārkaṇḍeya-Purāṇa
* Devī or Ambā => Devībhāvagatava-Purāṇa; Devī-Purāṇa
* Kālī => Kālika-Purāṇa

Question 15

Origin of cult of the goddess or Śaktism:

Answer 15

-mother goddesses yaksī
-lotus headed mother goddess in birthing position, fertility goddess, found around the ancient world, possibly not only Hindu
-derived from medieval mother goddess cult

Question 16

Śrī-Lakṣmī

Answer 16

Śrī-Lakṣmī already in Vedic texts:
Goddess of agriculture, prosperity, growth,
happiness, fame and dominion Emblems: lotus, bilva tree, elephants

Very early deity:

Laksmī is king-maker and
She chooses Visnu as her husband during ‚churning of the ocean of milk‘ Visnus 2nd reincarnation as tortoise happens and srī can choose her husband for the salvation of the earth
Srī becomes the emblem of the perfect wife devoted to her husband
Today: goddess of traders and entrepreneurs in modern India

Question 17

Image Terminology

Answer 17

mago:
in ancientRome,the mask of the ancestor,
- An array of Sanskrit terms:
- pratimā,“reflection”,“representation”,“imitation”
- rūpa,“embodiment”
-bimba, problematic etymology but meaning “reflection”
- arcā,“icon”,culticimage
- mūrti,“divinecoagulation”, “manifestation”
___________
o “image : allvisualobjects,whether or not imbued with esthetic qualities. It is inseparable both from the materiality , but also from its nature as an object endowed with agency, set in a given spacial and ritual context, and embedded in complex socio-religious dynamics.

Question 18

Typology of images

Answer 18

Cultic images
– These can be man-made or of “non-human” origin, self-manifested (svayaṃvyakta) embodiments of the gods.
– In the case of man-made images, enlivened by a complex ritual that led them to be endowed with the divine presence (pratiṣṭhā, ceremony involving the “opening of the eyes”).

• Narrative images
  – Aim at representing specific events and persons.
  – Characterised by varied and complex relationship with literary narratives
• Ornamental images

Question 19

The slow emergence of a figurative representation of gods and liberated individuals in Indian religions

Answer 19

• In Vedic times, gods and their cult are highly mobile, centered on the sacrificial fire.

– The body of gods is “made of words”
Ø Strong connection between mantras and the divinity

• Early Buddhist and Jain art do not represent anthropomorphically their founders until the 1st century CE.
• – Relics, stūpas, and symbols pointing at the Buddha’s presence are the centre of early Buddhist cult.

Question 20

4 areas in temples

Answer 20

– Garbhagṛha (“embryo house”, image cell, or sancta sanctorum) [Temple tower above the main room => Mount Meru]
– Maṇḍapa (halls): pillared or closed (space before accessing the main image, used for various purposes)
– Ardhamaṇḍapas (porches)
(Antarāla, the vestibule in front of the main cell)

Question 21

Temple ritual - pūjā

Answer 21

• Worship of the god as the lord of the temple
• pūjā: Feeding and entertaining the deity several times a day (up to 8 times)
  => consists of 16 or 5 offerings “upacāra”
  => originates from the traditional worship and hospitality of a guest

Question 22

Five offerings (upacāra)

Answer 22

• (Rose) water
• Flowers
• Incense
• Food (rice cakes, fruits, ghee)
• Lights => āratī: the waving of an oil lamp or campho

Question 23

Pūjā

Answer 23

An Act of respectful honoring
Performed by
– Priests
– Laypeople
* In
– Homes
– Temples
– Monasteries
– Other religiously significant locations (e.g., rivers)

Question 24

Devotion (bhakti) and temple ritual

Answer 24

• darśana: vision of the deity as the goal of
  worship (seeing and being seen)
• prasāda: worshippers are given sacred food
• Democratization of the access to liberation (mokṣa)

Question 25

Pilgrimage
(tīrthayātrā)

Answer 25

• “Journey to a sacred place”
• Tīrtha: literally: “ford”
  => place of transition, connection between heaven and earth

Question 26

Durgā-pūjā

Answer 26

• royal ritual for success in battle: Durgā slaying the buffalo demon, restoration of the cosmic order, worship of weapons
• ancient harvest festival, fertility (bloodofferings)
  => Annual confirmation of the reign of a king through worship of the goddess

Question 27

Dīpavalī (Dīvālī)

Answer 27

• festival of lights, dedicated to Lakṣmī
• for: wealth and prosperity, fertility and abundant crops, good fortune in the coming year
• connection with Gaṇeśa

Question 28

Female body, 2 fundamental oppositions

Answer 28

1. Purity (śauca, śuddhi) vs impurity (a-śauca, a-śuddhi)
2. Auspiciousness (śubha, maṅgala) vs Inauspiciousness (a-śubha, a-maṅgala)

Question 29

The polluted body

Answer 29

• The body is polluted everyday but should be kept as ritually pure as possible. Main way to do it: by water (here: purity overlaps with hygiene, but it is not always the case)
• Deeper level of ritual pollution: it is inherent in the body and differentiate one social group from another.
• The polarity of purity/impurity traditionally organizes the Hindu social space. The Dharmaśāstras are a corpus of texts dealing with rules of behaviour depending on caste and life-stage rules of ritual im/purity

Question 30

natural and social body

Answer 30

• The “natural” body is dependent on karman, actions accomplished in the past that have future results and determine one‘s own rebirth
• Karman determines both a human/animal/divine rebirth, a female/male body, and a certain caste
• Social rules differ for the different individuals, according to „caste and life-stage”: varṇāśrama- dharma

Question 31

caste

Answer 31

varṇa: “colour” (skin or symbolic?):
four main hierarchical and functional categories
* Brāhmaṇa priests
* Kṣatriya warriors
* Vaiśya farmers, trades
* Śūdra, servants
Outside of this structure: Caṇḍālas (untouchables)
​
jāti “birth”: smaller but much more numerous categories based on the profession with function in society and based on hierarchical notions of relative purity and impurity (pure and impure professions).

Question 32

life goals /stages of life

Answer 32

4 Puruṣārtha
Dharma (law)
Artha (property)
Kāma (desire)
Mokṣa (liberation)

4 Āśrama
Brahmacārin: celibate student
Gṛhastha: householder
Vānaprastha: forest hermit Saṃnyāsin: renouncer

Question 33

Strī-dharma: Women and (in)dependence

Answer 33

“Even in their homes, a female—whether she is a child, a young woman, or an old lady—should never carry out any task independently.
As a child, she must remain under her father’s control; as a young woman, under her husband’s; and when her husband is dead, under her sons’. She must never seek to live independently.”
Mānavadharmaśāstra 5.147-148 Translation P. Olivelle, Manu’s Code of Law

Question 34

Women and ritual rights / life cycle rituals

Answer 34

• Women only acquire their final social status through marriage. The husband’s family become her relatives, not the family of origin.
• This is associated with ritual rights at the husband’s side.

Question 35

pativratā:
Ideal image of the wife according to the Dharmaśāstras

Answer 35

Þ pativratā: “one whose observances are for the husband”, i.e. it is interpreted as a form of asceticism (tapas)
Þ religious merit is acquired through fulfilment of the marital role

Question 36

woman, goddess, semi-divine

Answer 36

Women’s social roles
in literature and arts
Idealized female body (vs ascetic body)
* Face: moon or lotus flower
* Eyes: lotus petals or carps
* Pupils: bees
* Ears: tender leaves
* Breasts: mountain peaks, golden pots of holy water
* Arms: vine or bamboo
* Waist: creeper
* Thighs: stems of plant a in tree or elephant’s trunk
* Pubic mound: spreading head of the cobra

Question 37

Sītā

Answer 37

early history:
* Sītā = “furrow”, “the line made by the plough”
* female divinity called Sītā, associated with plowed fields in Vedic literature
* her epic association with Rāma can be related to the central role of kings in promoting the fertility of the land
→ not a mere human being!

later in Rāmāyaṇa
wife of the epic hero Rāma, kidnapped by Rāvaṇa
* model Hindu wife, devoted to her husband, always faithful, following Rāma until death
* after her captivity in Lanka she undergoes a fire ordeal to prove her purity and is banished though pregnant
* later deified as Śrī-Lakṣmī, consort of Viṣṇu (Rāma is one of his avatāras)
→ her status is always related to Rāma

Question 38

Auspiciousness and non- conventional women role-models

Answer 38

Auspiciousness: (welfare, good fortune, happiness, and prosperity)
Applied to:
* time (month, day)
* major life events: childbirth, puberty, marriage (vs. inauspicious death)
* places (pilgrimage spot, tīrtha)
* objects (water pot, ornaments)
* persons (gods, fertile woman, king)
* union of male and female: stable state of auspiciousness

• Yakṣī, Śālabhañjikā, Apsaras, Kanyā…
• Women and trees
• Apsaras

Question 39

Apsaras,
“[she] who moves (sṛ-) in
the water (āp)”

Answer 39

• Semidivine female beings
• Water spirits
• Wives of gandharvas
• Celestial dancers (also dancing at the court of Indra and sent by Indra to disturb those who perform tapas)
• Experts in the 64 arts
• Kaiśikī vṛtti, “the gorgeous style” of dance (described in the Nāṭyaśāstra)

Question 40

Auspiciousness and dance

Answer 40

dance does not indeed conform to any object, but it is meant to generate beauty (śobhā);
that is why dance has come into use. Generally, everybody likes dance in itself.

Moreover, this dance is praised because it is considered auspicious (maṅgalya).

And on occasions such as weddings, the birth of a child, welcoming a new child-inlaw, jubilation, success, and so forth, it is a cause of merriment. That is
why this dance has come into use.
(Nāṭyaśāstra Ch. 4)

Question 41

Devadāsīs in modern ethnographic accounts (Marglin, Srinivasan, Kersenboom)

Answer 41

• Describe temple women within the framework of Indian society and religion
• Question the primary link of temple women with prostitution
• Define them by three characteristics:
  1. Hereditary status, i.e. birth or adoption into a particular community
  2. Her status depends on ritual dedication to temple service through a ceremony of “marriage” to the temple deity
  3. Professional expertise: mastery of a dance tradition

Question 42

The Devadāsī institution

Answer 42

• Dāsīs, or Deva-dāsis: Hindu women attached to temples for the service to the deity, temple servants, unmarried
• Described in late 19th and early 20th centuries ethnographic accounts: temple women as dancing girl and prostitute
• This interpretation has been assumed as mainstream and problematically superimposed on the early mediaval and medieval period, if not earlier
• 1947: ban on the Devadāsī-dedication

Question 43

Pahari Painting

Answer 43

Areas of Rajput Painting:
1) Rajasthan
2) Pahari region: Punjab hills, Jammu and Kashmir, Garhwal

Question 44

Goddess worship

Answer 44

“Goddess worship had been one of the key strands of Hinduism in the Pahari region in the 16th and 17th centuries, before devotional Vaishnavism dedicated to Rama and Krishna became much more prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries.”
(source: J. Losty, A Picture Book of the Devi Mahatmya)

The Goddess, known in India as Devī or Mahādevī, has many guises. She is one and she is many.

Question 45

Tantric Devi Series (17th century)

Answer 45

unknown master in the Punjab hills painted a magnificent series of some seventy paintings which visualize Devi in expressive forms of strength and beauty.

*Tantric practices are esoteric rituals that include:
*the repetition of mantras (potent sound syllables)
*use of yantras (magical diagrams intended to aid meditative practices) *consumption of wine, flesh and blood of animals
*performance of rituals associated with corpses

Question 46

Picture Book of the Devi Mahatmya

Answer 46

Devī Māhātmya (Glorification of the Goddess) a text dated to the 5th to 6th century.
56 folios out of an original 59

The Devī-māhātmya … relates three of Durgā’s cosmic interventions on behalf of the gods: the battle with Madhu and Kaitabha; the battle with Mahiṣa and his army; and the battle with Śumbha and Niśumbha and their generals, Caṇḍa, Muṇḍa, and Raktabīja.”

“The myths … conform to a structure that underlines Durgā’s role as the upholder and protector of the dharmic order.”
“the myths … also make the point that Durgā transcends the great male gods of the Hindu pantheon, who in other texts usually have the central role in these myths.”

“The paintings were not meant to illustrate a manuscript but to be used in the public recitation of this sacred text at the time of the Dassehra or Durgapuja, the great autumn festival of the Goddess.”

Question 47

ways of bringing the goddess to life:

Answer 47

Mantra
Alphabet Storytelling/texts Poetry
Music Stories/music/visual
Yantra
Writing (case of Sanskrit alphabet)
Visual arts, photography, contemporary art
Theatre Dance Movies
What to think about museums?

Question 48

The Viewer:

Answer 48

Active engagement of the devotees with the images represented in art
* * While seeing the images, viewers co-create the stories
* By engaging the viewers in still or in motion, arts reveal
their content in space and time
* Body’s motion and position influence the experience of the narrative
* Only through interaction with the viewers, the arts can perform their narrative function

Question 49

The artist

Answer 49

• Artists must offer to the viewers enough information for them to be able to get:
  1. the story
  2. the message
• Selecting what to include/ what to exclude
• Working with sets of conventional options (śāstras)
• Tradition vs Innovation

Question 50

classical vs folk perfomances

Answer 50

Classical
* Dance: abstract and narrative dance (Bharatanatyam,
Kathak, Odissi, Kathakali)
* Theatre: Kerala Sanskrit theatre Kutiyattam
Folk
* tribal dances, popular theatre
* Ritual performances (Mutiyettu, Theyyam, Bharani, Deodani-Nac)

Question 51

classical dance

Answer 51

e.g. Bharatanatyam
* originating in Tamil Nadu but nowadays a globalised art
* modern “revived” traditions
* linked with older dance traditions (Devadāsīs) that were performed in temples and at courts
* linked (imaginatively and non) with an authoritative textual tradition of codifying the arts in scientific treatises in Sanskrit or in regional languages
* performed on the theatre stage

Question 52

classical theatre

Answer 52

Sanskrit theatre Kutiyattam
* the only living form of Sanskrit theatre exists in Kerala, South India
* only single acts are performed over many nights
* probably took its present form around the 15th c. but the form is older
* performed traditionally in temples during seasonal festivals or commissioned
* performed by the Chākyars (male actors) together with Nangyars (female actresses) and Nambyars (drummers)

Question 53

The actor as a vessel (vs possession)

Answer 53

The actor does not access the aesthetic emotions:
he is considered a pātra, a vessel, a goblet, which cannot savour the juice of the rasa that is contained in it. The actor is only the means of of its transferal:
→ argument: otherwise he would get lost in the emotion and forget to follow the rhythm and tempo. The actor should be in control of his/her mind

4 registers of acting (abhinaya):
* āṅgika-abhinaya: ‘bodily representation’,
* vācika-abhinaya: ‘vocal representation’,
* āhārya-abhinaya: ‘ornamental representation’, make up, costume, ornaments
* sāttvika-abhinaya: ‘emotional or psychophysical representation’, through mindfulness

Question 54

possession

Answer 54

• from ā-⎷viś (to enter, be entered)
• possession is part of religious experience, for instance in left-hand tantric rituals “altered states of consciousness”)
• controlled/ecstatic possession
• part of ritual theatre, sometimes making the boundaries
  between theatre and ritual blurred
• often, but not always, connected with female deities/beings
• especially available to lower social classes, not for Brahmins
• signs of possession: trembling, dancing frantically, imitating a god’s behaviours

Question 55

Mudiyettu

Answer 55

• ritual theatre performed as an offering in various temples of the Goddess Bhadrakālī in central Kerala
• it is a theatre in its form, an enactment of the myth of Dārikavadham (”Slaying of the demon Dārikan”) in 7 scenes
• relatively fix scenography, theatrical props, musical accompaniment
• performed by Marar and Kuruppu castes
• 7 characters
• main character is the goddess Bhadrakālī, impersonated by the senior mutiyettukar (wearing the wooden headgear, valiya muṭi) in her costume, carrying her attributes ((sickle shaped sword, fangs, metal anklets)

Question 56

Possession and divine presence

Answer 56

• the senior muṭiyettukar is the only character who gets possessed by Bhadrakālī through the headgear
• he is not enacting or representing the Goddess, he is the Goddess → Mudiyettu is also a ritual that makes the Goddess present
• an interactive narration of the myth of Dārikan, and active reactualization of the Goddess’ cosmic combat
  “Possession in Mudiyettu is based on the idea that imitation, i.e. the iconic realization of the goddess is the goddess”

Question 57

Performance as ritual

Answer 57

• Performances are given nowadays mainly as votive offering (valipāṭu), sponsored by individuals in response to a wish granted by the Goddess
• deity and devotee get physically close, and this nurtures devotion
• Mudiyettu enacts a battle and a killing and have the same effects as real ones: they engender impurity, attract evil spirits, generate dangerous powers. The temple is closed and has to ritually cleansed after the Mudiyettu

Question 58

The identification process of (indian) deities:

Answer 58

• liṅgas of Śiva, identification process is retrospective
• Viṣṇu ?
  A retrospective reasoning From a region to another

Question 59

The identification process of female deities

Answer 59

Fantastic anatomy less often encountered
Either no attributes or always the same ones or…
examples:
- An ivory artefact fromIndia, found at the Roman site of Pompei, 2D BCE? From which part of India?
- A woman, a queen, a goddess….
- Holds a lotus
- She stands
- She is bathed by elephants

Question 60

Gaja-Lakṣmī, Bhumī and other female figures

Answer 60

• “Gaja-Lakṣmī” = are presentations of a female deity, a symbol of prosperity, bathed by elephants and marking the entrance of a house, a palatial one, a temple.
  A figure of the soil, the earth, as many goddesses;
• they share with other figures characteristic attributes, characteristic postures, characteristics environments:
• The earth that is bathed by the clouds, an embodiment of fertility and fecondity, a strong relation with water.

Those goddesses can be said to be pan-Indian as they are certainly not specific to a region, a period of time or a religious movement.
Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism
North, Centre, South…
Their iconographic scheme is attested from the 2d BCE and still common today.

Question 61

Śrī, the fickle one
Bhūmī, the stable one
Lakṣmī, the Prosperity

Answer 61

In classical Sanskrit, these auspicious goddesses have names that can be considered as linked to Vedic literature

Question 62

The identification process of female deities:

Answer 62

i.e. on Gupta cold coins (5.-6. century)
* a lotus, two arms, a posture, a location, an environment … not that
easy to recognize, to name.
* Different religious context and the same goddess, the embodiment of Prosperity.
* OR The goddess is the same in appearance, but she’s another…

Question 63

Devīmāhātmya (7-8th c.)

Answer 63

In this Devīmāhātmya, there is a fight between a goddess and a buffalo. A buffalo who is suffocated Pouring blood.
But this fight is not the main episode. The main story revolves around two demons,
Sumbha and Nisumbha, that are virtually never represented in sculpted form.

the Devīmāhātmya,
Probably composed in the 7th c. EC
It depicts a female deity who brings together all the known female deities. Her very body, her mūrti, is made up of the energies emitted by the manifestations of all the male gods above whom she is placed in this text.

Question 64

iconography given to a female deity

To distinguish between the representation of a woman and the one of a goddess is not always possible.

Answer 64

To distinguish between the representation of a woman and the one of a goddess is not always possible.
To distinguish between the different types of goddesses is not always possible: an apsaras, a local, regional, pan-Indian deity?

The same figure of a goddess belongs to religious movements that are considered distinct ones as Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism: a pan-Indian goddess is not only a trans-regional deity but also / or also a deity worshipped by people who claim they have this or that religious affiliation.

The iconography given to a female deity can be entirely reinterpreted in texts to promote another goddess, to suit the needs of another region, etc.

The link between the textual universe and the visual domain is considered as often puzzling in India. It is not always that complicated but regarding goddesses, it is clear that the mythology corresponding to this or that female deity was introduced in the classical texts long after the images were first created.

Question 65

Sculptures

Answer 65

• Sculptures always seem to be feared: it is more difficult to obtain information about them, more difficult to come into contact with the material data about them: location, possibility of seeing, touching, etc.
• This very difficulty of access allows the researcher to question the categories that he creates on the basis of the documents he has seen: good or bad omen, the divine personality of the goddesses proves to be particularly plastic and the difficulty of the field means that the documents are considered from a new angle.
  ​
  Difficulties of access: the sculpture is rejected, buried in a pond, broken, etc.