Laurie Patton
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520240872
- eISBN:
- 9780520930889
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520240872.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. The book takes a new look at mantra as “performed poetry” and in five case studies ...
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This book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. The book takes a new look at mantra as “performed poetry” and in five case studies draws a portrait of early Indian sacrifice that moves beyond the well-worn categories of “magic” and “magico-religious” thought in Vedic sacrifice. Treating Vedic mantra as a sophisticated form of artistic composition, it develops the idea of metonymy, or associational thought, as a major motivator for the use of mantra in sacrificial performance. Filling a long-standing gap in our understanding, the book provides a history of the Indian interpretive imagination and a study of the mental creativity and hermeneutic sophistication of Vedic religion.Less
This book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. The book takes a new look at mantra as “performed poetry” and in five case studies draws a portrait of early Indian sacrifice that moves beyond the well-worn categories of “magic” and “magico-religious” thought in Vedic sacrifice. Treating Vedic mantra as a sophisticated form of artistic composition, it develops the idea of metonymy, or associational thought, as a major motivator for the use of mantra in sacrificial performance. Filling a long-standing gap in our understanding, the book provides a history of the Indian interpretive imagination and a study of the mental creativity and hermeneutic sophistication of Vedic religion.
Rembert Lutjeharms
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198733508
- eISBN:
- 9780191797958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198733508.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter attempts to offer not a historical overview of Vaiṣṇava practice, but an overview of the ways Vaiṣṇavas have viewed their own practice. Given the enormous variety of Vaiṣṇava traditions ...
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This chapter attempts to offer not a historical overview of Vaiṣṇava practice, but an overview of the ways Vaiṣṇavas have viewed their own practice. Given the enormous variety of Vaiṣṇava traditions and their very regional nature, any overview of Vaiṣṇava practice is necessarily selective. The chapter draws upon the writings of Vaiṣṇavas from most major traditions, and on a wide range of scriptural texts. After an analysis of the Vaiṣṇava understanding of bhakti, I discuss just four distinct Vaiṣṇava practices, which Vaiṣṇava Purāṇas proclaim to be the principal practices for the four cosmic ages (yuga): Vedic ritual, image worship, praising God, and meditation. Examining the various practices indicated by just these four, while not exhaustive, does demonstrate the great diversity of Vaiṣṇava practice, and also brings to light how these practices, despite their apparent differences, are all interconnected and, in the Vaiṣṇava mind, all have the same aim: constant remembrance of God.Less
This chapter attempts to offer not a historical overview of Vaiṣṇava practice, but an overview of the ways Vaiṣṇavas have viewed their own practice. Given the enormous variety of Vaiṣṇava traditions and their very regional nature, any overview of Vaiṣṇava practice is necessarily selective. The chapter draws upon the writings of Vaiṣṇavas from most major traditions, and on a wide range of scriptural texts. After an analysis of the Vaiṣṇava understanding of bhakti, I discuss just four distinct Vaiṣṇava practices, which Vaiṣṇava Purāṇas proclaim to be the principal practices for the four cosmic ages (yuga): Vedic ritual, image worship, praising God, and meditation. Examining the various practices indicated by just these four, while not exhaustive, does demonstrate the great diversity of Vaiṣṇava practice, and also brings to light how these practices, despite their apparent differences, are all interconnected and, in the Vaiṣṇava mind, all have the same aim: constant remembrance of God.
Robert A. Yelle
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226585451
- eISBN:
- 9780226585628
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226585628.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Chapter 6 considers two case studies that reject the idea that salvation can be purchased through exchange, whether of gifts, sacrifices, or money. The first study is of the Roman or papal Jubilees ...
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Chapter 6 considers two case studies that reject the idea that salvation can be purchased through exchange, whether of gifts, sacrifices, or money. The first study is of the Roman or papal Jubilees that commenced in 1300 CE and that grew out of the penitential economy of the medieval Catholic Church. During the Jubilee, the pope offered plenary indulgence to those pilgrims who visited Rome and performed certain rituals including monetary payments. As the economy of indulgences, together with the Roman Jubilees, expanded, it grew increasingly complex and eventually helped to precipitate Martin Luther's Reformation as a counterreaction. The second case study is ancient India ca. 500 BCE. As many scholars have noted, this period witnessed a movement of wandering renunciants (Śramana) who either marginalized or rejected (as Buddhists did) the performance of Vedic sacrifice. The Vedic texts had explained sacrifice as the repayment of debt, making salvation a matter of purchase. Against this idea, the Upanisads and early Buddhists expressed the idea of a state of liberation beyond the principle of exchange and quid pro quo (karma). Both cases resist the reduction of salvation to the mundane economy.Less
Chapter 6 considers two case studies that reject the idea that salvation can be purchased through exchange, whether of gifts, sacrifices, or money. The first study is of the Roman or papal Jubilees that commenced in 1300 CE and that grew out of the penitential economy of the medieval Catholic Church. During the Jubilee, the pope offered plenary indulgence to those pilgrims who visited Rome and performed certain rituals including monetary payments. As the economy of indulgences, together with the Roman Jubilees, expanded, it grew increasingly complex and eventually helped to precipitate Martin Luther's Reformation as a counterreaction. The second case study is ancient India ca. 500 BCE. As many scholars have noted, this period witnessed a movement of wandering renunciants (Śramana) who either marginalized or rejected (as Buddhists did) the performance of Vedic sacrifice. The Vedic texts had explained sacrifice as the repayment of debt, making salvation a matter of purchase. Against this idea, the Upanisads and early Buddhists expressed the idea of a state of liberation beyond the principle of exchange and quid pro quo (karma). Both cases resist the reduction of salvation to the mundane economy.
