The symbolic merger of body, space and cosmos in Hindu Tamil Nadu

Beck, Brenda E. F.

doi:10.1177/006996677601000202

Cited by 63 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Perhaps then the terraces were built for settlement, and provided additional living space on hills, as well as a way of organizing people and cattle. In either case, and regardless of whether a functional explanation for the hypothesized eastern patterning is eventually discerned, it is probable that the landscape remodelling that was carried out at Southern Neolithic sites was also understood in terms of a cosmological worldview that, as in many cultures documented ethnographically and archaeologically (see, for example, Beck 1976;Ortiz 1969;Tilley 1994; and papers in Grøn et al 1991;Ucko & Layton 1998;Williamson & Farrer 1992a), attached symbolic significance to the cardinal directions and the movement of the sun. The east-west axiality of landscape modification may well have mirrored an important east-west axis in a wider cosmos that extended beyond the immediate human world.…”

Section: Central Deccan Neolithic Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape and Cosmology in the South Indian Neolithic: New Perspectives on the Deccan Ashmounds

Boivin¹

2004

CAJ

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The ashmounds of the central Deccan Plateau remain one of the most enigmatic features of the South Indian Neolithic. While Allchin proposed a primarily ritualistic interpretation for the large mounds of burnt cattle dung, more recent discussion has often stressed more prosaic understandings, underlining the adaptive or economic significance of the ashmounds as indicators of pastoralism or stressing the possibility that they represent accidental or sanitation-related fires. This article argues for a return to more symbolic perspectives on the ashmounds, and offers further support for a ritualistic reading based on evidence relating to the landscape context of ashmounds and other Neolithic remains in the central Deccan region. The article explores the landscape associations of ashmounds in the Bellary District of Karnataka, and in particular draws on new discoveries at the sites of Kudatini and Toranagallu in order to reconstruct aspects of a Southern Neolithic ‘world view’ or cosmology. The article also explores the implications of the ashmounds to subsequent developments in the Indian subcontinent, particularly those relating to the symbolic importance of cattle, dung and ash in Hindu practices, and argues for long-term continuities in certain prehistoric material symbols (though not their associated meanings). In addition, the article takes a wider comparative approach, and explores the implications of South Indian Neolithic practices for our understanding of the Neolithic ‘process’ in general, and in particular the emphasis on transformative processes that appears to distinguish Neolithic approaches to the material world from those that preceded them.

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Section: Central Deccan Neolithic Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape and Cosmology in the South Indian Neolithic: New Perspectives on the Deccan Ashmounds

Boivin¹

2004

CAJ

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“…Below, I briefly share one line of reasoning that Ganapathi pursued that evening while attempting to share with me core aspects of his cosmology. But first let me note that at different points in our conversation, his ideas both complemented and contrasted with descriptions I had encountered in classical Hindu texts, which are aptly summarized by such scholars of Hindu cosmology such as Beck () and Das (). Having explored Hindu ideas of time and space as part of my preparation for fieldwork, I was tempted to challenge some of Ganapathi's interpretations but resisted doing so, as this would have interfered with his process of cosmos building.…”

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confidence: 65%

One Man's Dreams, Another Man's Cosmology

Nichter

2013

Anthropology and Humanism

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In this article, I examine a series of conversations that I had with a South Indian Ayurvedic practitioner (vaidya) about a dream I had while in the field. The dream provided him an opportunity to engage me as cultural broker and creatively reconstruct his own cosmology. The article at once details the reasoning, diagnosis, explanation, and treatment of traditional Ayurvedic practitioners at large, and one vaidya's idiosyncratic project that has legitimacy within the larger discursive field provided by the register of Ayurveda. Further, the article also provides an example of how ongoing conversations with an anthropologist shape the knowledge produced by informants in context. In this article, I make use of a Boasian model of the elite informant as a creator of ethnographic texts that are inventive and idiosyncratic in the cultural milieu. These texts constitute a form of intellectual creativity (lila) that leads the vaidya to feel renewed in his commitment to his cosmology. As Durkheim pointed out long ago, ecstatic emotions are what generate a conviction of the presence of the transcendent. Durkheim focused on collective rituals. In this article, I provide a case in which such emotions are generated by the thrill of insight. [cosmology, reflexivity, Ayurveda, culture, and creativity]

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“…Pred, 1991, p. 117). However, it would be interesting to interpret the built environment of traditional cities and individual Hindu houses in north India as Beck (1976) and Moore (1989) have done for parts of the south.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hindu cosmology and the orinetation and segregation of social groups in villages in northwestern india

Singh

Khan

1999

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography

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1999: Hindu cosmology and the orientation and segregation of social groups in villages in Northwestern India. Geogr. Ann. , 81 B (1):ABSTRACT. This paper presents a cultural analysis of the directional orientation and segregation of castes in villages in a part of the northwestern plains of India. It interprets the built environment in terms of Hindu cosmology. Recent literature in cultural geography interprets the landscape "as text" or through symbols. The symbolic approach has greater relevance for traditional societies where clear schemata are discernible in built environments. This paper attempts a critical appraisal of Hindu cosmology as a schema for interpreting built environments in Indian villages.Challenging the widely held view that Indian villages lack order, the paper demonstrates that there is a religiously ordained order in the landscape. The order is manifested in the form of orientation of several features of landscape, especially the caste mohallās (wards) to the cardinal directions. Orientation of caste mohallās to the 'sacred' directions in a settlement follows a system evolved by Indian civilization to harmonize the fractured social order with the segmented cosmic order. The paper also demonstrates that segregation is an inherent characteristic of orientation.As a background for regional diversities, empirical evidence reveals that in the study region Hindu cosmology is impressed on villages, though often in a modified form. Villagers believe that the social space known as kheṅā slopes down from west to east, while the southern sector is the 'lowest' segment of the village. Dominant castes characteristically reserve for themselves the best western site of the village and low castes are placed in lower social spaces, with scheduled castes being generally placed in the south.

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The symbolic merger of body, space and cosmos in Hindu Tamil Nadu

Cited by 63 publications

References 2 publications

Landscape and Cosmology in the South Indian Neolithic: New Perspectives on the Deccan Ashmounds

Landscape and Cosmology in the South Indian Neolithic: New Perspectives on the Deccan Ashmounds

One Man's Dreams, Another Man's Cosmology

Hindu cosmology and the orinetation and segregation of social groups in villages in northwestern india

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