Panel Organizers:

Dr. Christiane Brosius - Department of Cultural Anthropology, South Asia Insitute, University of Heidelberg

Dr. Ute Hüsken - South Asia Institute, Department for Indology, University of Heidelberg.

Abstract

Generally, there is a tendency in Studies on South Asian rituals to perceive and confine those practices to the domain of the unchangeable and static, with no, or hardly any variability. They are alleged to follow strict rules and norms, and are highly repetitive, involving human agents whose positions are quite easy to identify and whose motivations are transparent and functional. However, what happens, for instance, if ritual competence, which is traditionally handed down within one family lineage, is challenged by new regulations of government certificates that now come to authorise this competence? How do temples and other religious institutions reach out and cater to new audiences, new ways of experiencing ritual performances by means of modern technologies and entertainment such as theme parks? What happens to rituals when they are shifted from a rather traditional rural context to the domain of the megacity, a performative space of the nation-state or a community in the global diaspora? What happens if critique of the ritual or the ritual space is articulated by marginal or dominant agents within such a field of discourse in terms of the ritual's ecology? What happens to rituals and ritualisation when the practices navigate between media (inter-rituality) or seemingly dichotomous domains such as the religious and the political, ‘the traditional' and ‘the modern'?

To some extent, these and other questions are discussed within the university of Heidelberg's long-term interdisciplinary research project on "Ritual Dynamics". As members of this research project we want to open up the debate and invite international scholars to apply, challenge and discuss some of the theoretical and methodological reflections emerging from within this relatively new scholarly field. It is the aim of the panel to contrast the prevalent view of South Asian rituals' - and in consequence, of its societies - invariability with dominant presupposition that change and failure, invention and reinvention, transfer and transformation are rather the ‘norm' for rituals.

Anindita Chakrabarti, Delhi University, Department of Sociology, Kerala, India

Rejecting Renunciation and Reinterpreting Rituals: the Swadhyaya Religious Movement in Western India

The paper draws on my doctoral dissertation on the Swadhyaya, a Hindu religious reform movement in western India. The Swadhyaya movement was founded by Pandurang Shastri Athavale (1920-2003), fondly addressed as Dadaji by his disciples, who believed that Hinduism needed to be reformed if Hindu society was to develop and change. Dadaji reinterprets the scriptures on the basis of the soteriological premise that moksha "salvation" is not possible outside society and therefore the institution of renunciation (sannyas) has been a serious misinterpretation of the Vedant! Drawing on the bhakti tradition of transcending renunciation through love and devotion and serving God through work, the Swadhyaya has emerged as a popular religious sect in western India. When he was alive Dadaji used to deliver discourses at Mumbai that were video-taped and shown at Swadhyaya congregations, known as Video Kendras. These kendras exemplify a new form of sacredness. The videocassettes are controlled and distributed by the Swadhyaya leaders. They are screened only in Swadhyaya congregations and never used for individual viewing. However, rendering the sacred amenable to technology is not a universal practice of the Swadhyayees. For example, the activists are not allowed to photocopy many Swadhyaya teachings and prayers. These have to be written out by hand. Though the Swadhyaya takes an ostensibly anti-ritualistic stand, a new form of ritualism pervades a number of Swadhyaya practices. There are (1) rituals that have come about as a result of the reinterpretation of traditional religious events such as Ekadashi, Ramnavami, Bhumipujan, (2) those that have been newly inculcated such as the commemoration of Dadaji's birthday as the Manusya Gaurav Din, Yogeshwar Day and (3) those combining tradition and innovation as in the case of the reconsecration ceremony (pathotsav) of a Swadhyaya temple. The Swadhyaya's theological innovation gets reflected in its rituals and in this paper I shall discuss how.

Alessandro Cisilin, Italy

The Kingly Ritual in Republican Karnâtaka

Today's Dasâra (« ten-days ») festival in Mysore replicates quite closely the celebrations described by english and kannadiga observers in the early twentieth century within the biggest Hindoo kingdom having survived British Colonization in South India as a Princely State.  At the same time, relevant differences with the ancient kingly ritual, namely today's absence itself of the king both from the top of the procession - with his ritual « renonciation » to weapons - and from the centre of a transactional system of gifts between the people and the Goddess Chamundî, underline both the institutional change of today's republican State and its main ideological framework.

However, beyond the touristic attraction of the main palace festival, the evidence of the old kingly system remains inact. The ancient ritual is still performed, not only within several households, including that of the last Mahârâja's son, but also - in its full « royal » significance - in many villages and in some modern caste mâthas (« monasteries »). In the first case, the « unofficial » village headman holds the functions of the king within his smoller « realm ». In the second case, that role is taken by the head of monastery, not only during the festival, but in the whole construction of his own authority and power. Moreover, its ritual transactional dynamics still characterizes the pattern of social and financial exchange within the villages as well as in pilgrimage centres.

Therefore, the study of continuity and change of this ritual with socio-political implications - supported by both historiographic and ethnographic materials - is an effective tool for the understanding the role of « kingship » in Karnâtaka's society and institutions, as well as the transactional and redistributive pattern of power and authority in pre-contemporary Mysore.

Fabrizio M. Ferrari, SOAS, Department of the Study of Religions, London, UK

"Love me Two Times!" From Smallpox to AIDS: Contagion and Possession in the Cult of Úîtalâ

Although smallpox was eradicated in the 1970s, the cult of Sitala, the Indian ‘the smallpox goddess', has resisted. The goddess is still worshipped to prevent the return of pox-viruses and is identified with more common, and less lethal, diseases. But with the spread of AIDS some modifications occurred. During my fieldwork in West Bengal, I observed how Sitala is increasingly worshipped as an AIDS-goddess. This phenomenon has also been observed in central and southern India. In Karnataka, doctors ‘artificially' created a new goddess, AIDS- amma (lit. "Mother AIDS"), to instruct the rural population on the risks of HIV. AIDS- ammas, both natural and artificial, are adaptations of local plague goddesses but also a response to a new threat. But if in the latter case, contraception and hygienic norms are meant as puja, in the cult of Sitala, devotees tend to believe their faith will protect them and look at contagion as a (desirable) form of possession. As it was for smallpox, when inoculation was preferred to vaccination, devotees continue to seek for the contact with the goddess which is invariably experienced as a form of love, in both maternal and sexual terms. By analysing the modifications, adaptations and transformations of protective-cum-malign goddesses, I aim to bear witness to a new phase of the cult of Sitala and, at the same time, to stress the resistance of ‘endemic' patterns of worship within popular Indic religions.

Martin Gaenszle, Leipzig University, Institute of Linguistics, Hirschberg, Germany

Dancing Towards the Origins: The Reinvention of the Sakewa Ritual in East Nepal

Every spring, on the full moon of Baisakh, the Rai in east Nepal celebrate what is now their major public festival: the Sakewa, a ritual performance which includes drumming and collective dancing. This celebration is based on local traditions, which vary to a considerable degree among the more than two dozen Rai "subtribes". However, since the formation of the ethnic roof organisation of the Rai, Yayokkha, the festival is constructed as a common and rather homogenous cultural trait of the Rai community as a whole. The paper looks at the religious background of this festival in different Rai groups (Mewahang, Chintang and Puma) and analyses its transformation into a symbol of unity in diversity. Since Rai ethnicity, which has become a strong idea and sentiment especially after the democratic movement of 1990, "suffers" from a high linguistic diversity (each "subtribe" possesses its own language), the public performance of unity is an important step toward cultural as well as political recognition within the nation-state. Especially in urban contexts the festival has become the focus of  a new communal identity. Thus the reinvented Sakewa celebration of the Rai, former rulers of the region, can be seen as the creative reflection of fundamental changes which they have dealt with in the recent past.

Saskia Kersenboom, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Marapu: Inherent Flexibility of Hindu Temple Ritual

Marapu refers to hereditary rights to ritual labour in Hindu temples. This paper examines the transformations of ritual music and dance in Tamilnadu based on informants accounts. According to the famous Nagasvara vidvan T.S. Natarajasundaram Pillai "marapu marutal alla".  This answer to the question whether 'tradition changes' deserves further reflection.

argument:

The verbum existentiae "to be" knows three variants in Tamil. The positive 'to be' reads 'ul' whereas its negative form 'not to be' offers 'il'; however, a third verbum existentiae is 'al' which means 'to be different', neither change nor stasis.  This 'difference' forms the point of departure for this paper. The consequences of a 'third modus' of continuation often dislodges our Indo-European perception that is based on binary oppositions.  On the other hand we will argue that this third possibility may seem to indicate a flexible continuation to the native speaker but in reality may mean the rupture and drainage of vitality and finally loss of erstwhile crucial ritual labour.

Stig Toft Madsen, NIAS - the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark

Homo Politicus Indicus Ex Situ

The paper will start with the VHP world congress in mid-80's held in Copenhagen. It will recount how the Hindutva spirit gained a slippery foothold in Denmark through one of the major projects of Hindus in Denmark, i.e. the project to establish a Bharatiya Mandir or Bharatiya Hindu Mandir temple facility near Copenhagen. A small number of dedicated activists put in considerable effort to establish the temple. Actual daily management of the temple proved factitious. Organizational shifts occurred between rule-based associational management with elections, and informal voluntary "sevakar" management. Discussions occurred about ritual form and content, but perhaps ritualistic issues were less important than issues of control and management.

While the VHP in India was unable or unwilling to micro-manage the internal affairs of the temple in Denmark, it also seems that the push for temple construction did not provide a strong platform for the personal aggrandizement of the main contenders. What came to Denmark was not so much a new religion or a new elite, but an Indian political culture.

Karin Polit, South Asia Institute, Department of Anthropology, Heidelberg, Germany

Changing Rituals and Performing Theater: A case study from Uttaranchal

The idea that rituals are dynamic and ever changing is not new in anthropological discourses. And that rituals create and sustain solidarity as well as a sense for a common past, present, and future through performative actions was proposed nearly a century ago. However, what happens when "traditional" rituals are suddenly and intentionally changed into a performance at a different place, with different people, different costumes and different audiences. It a ritual still a ritual, when it is performed on a theatrical stage or does it become something else? The relationship between ritual and action or performance has been a major concern in ritual studies. My paper wishes to address some of the leading discussions of ritual as performance and especially deal with the question of what distinguishes a ritual performance from a theatrical performance. This becomes central in my case study, where local people from the Himalayan state of Uttaranchal in India perform the "traditional" rituals off their villages on theatre stages in Delhi or Dehra Dun. What is understood in the local discourse as the preservation of heritage and authentic performances may be interpreted by the outsider as the creation of a common heritage and the performance of a common identity.

Gauri Raje, University of Warwick, Centre for the History of Medicine, Coventry, United Kingdom

The Bhagat and the Sabari: A Traditional Healer's Narrative on the Hinduisation of the Dangs

In this paper, I look at one single narrative of a traditional healer in the Dangs district of tribal (adivasi) Gujarat in western India. The Dangs has been identified as the ‘karmabhumi' (the place for sacred practices) by right wing ideologues of the RSS and its sympathisers. Though the religious clashes in 2000 brought this little tribal district to international renown; before and after the clashes between Christian and Hindu groups, there has been a sustained effort on the part of the organisations affiliated to the Hindutva ideology to redefine the cultural landscape of this tribal district in western India.

As part of their efforts to redefine the cultural and religious identity of the various adivasi groups in the Dangs, the RSS has been identifying sacred sites in this area based on various associations with the Ramayana, one of the main mythologies of the greater Hindu tradition. The traditional healers of this region are often recruited as priests of ‘adivasi' characters in the Ramayana, such as Sabari, who has been subsequently deified in the Dangs. This paper attempts to examine the narrative of the priest/traditional healer, who has been employed by the local hindutva based groups to ‘worship' the idol of Sabari.

Through this extensive narrative, I attempt to look at the various understandings of religio-political organisations and their efforts to ‘hinduise' the adivasis among the Dangis. The healer's interview and narrative offers an insight into the ways in which the guardians of the local histories and sacred identities in the Dangs seek to understand the continuities between their traditions and the greater Hindu tradition, and the dilemmas created therein.

Barbara Schuler, University of Hamburg, Dept. of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Hamburg, Germany

Dynamics of Ritual in a Local Tradition

Basing myself on case studies from Tamilnadu (South India), I aim to examine an annual ritual performed  in honour of a local goddess who, as her legend demonstrates, is capable of killing. Of particular relevance here is the fact that the cult of the goddess became the focus of social and political interests, in regard to which different communities compete with one another. The three main competing groups are 1) an influential social group which is traditionally the dominant agent for the ritual tradition, 2) a social group, now economically  successful, which is traditionally associated with the performance of the goddess's legend, and 3) an economically weak group, which traditionally had no ritual competence. Due to social changes, patronage of the yearly ritual performance also became a concern of groups 2 and 3. My paper, being predominantly empirically oriented, asks: What happens to the ritual and narrative when they are adopted by another social group? What happens when the responsibility for them is handed over from a particular social group to a governmental authority? The ritual practice seems to modify in the process of being adopted; the text, however, does not. As cultural attitudes, social realities and perceptions of the social groups are varied, the change in context not only has an effect on the function and meaning of the ritual, but also on the inner organisation and design of the ritual practice, and thus, on its efficacy. I intend to demonstrate this on the basis of dynamic concepts of framing. I will also in this regard explore the relevance of certain aspects which are an important part of the rituals of one group, but which do not appear in the rituals of another group and will show how the ritual's function undergoes transformation.