Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala

Embodying the Goddess-Clan
Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-90-04-43899-6
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 166, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 583 g

Reihe: Numen Book Series

In previous studies of South Asian Tantric ritual, scholars tend to focus on one region or context. For the first time, Tantra, Ritual Performance and Politics in Nepal and Kerala: Embodying the Goddess-clan offers a comparative approach to Tantric mediumship as observed in two locales: Navadurga rituals in Bhaktapur, Nepal, and Teyyattam in North Kerala. In this book, Matthew Martin advances a new theory of ritual, which spotlights the way dancer-mediums embody medieval goddess-clans and ancestor deities, through offerings of food and sacrifice, that synchronize their denizens with the land in spiralling web-like ritual networks. Uniquely interdisciplinary in style, this study synthesizes cultural history, ethnography, and theory to explore the continuities – historical, societal, and political – that characterize these ritual traditions across the subcontinent.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Martin, Matthew

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sonstige Religionen: Kult, Riten, Feiertage, Zeremonien, Gebete
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Vergleichende Religionswissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

Abbreviations

Style, Format, and Interview Transcriptions

Introduction: Methodology and Context

1 Folk Sakta Performances: Sovereignty, Goddesses, and Macro-Clans

2 Teyya??am and Navadurga Compared: The Research Process

3 Methodological Orientations

4 Fieldwork Locations & Informant Introductions

5 Contextual Background

Part 1

1 Introducing the Southern Case Study—Teyya??am, Northern Malabar, Kerala

1 Ancestors, Land, and Divinities (Teyyam) in Northern Kerala

2 Lineages, Clans, and Ritual Kinship

3 Blood Sacrifices, Offerings, and Swords

4 Cosmology, Metaphysics, and Textual History

5 Caste Identities, Politics, and Performance in North Malabar

2 Introducing the Northern Case Study—Navadurga, Bhaktapur, Nepal

1 Hindu-Buddhist Tantra in Newar Society: The Case of Bhaktapur

2 Bhaktapur City: Blood Symbols, Goddess-Clan, Space, and Society

3 Monsoon, Power, and the Goddess-Clan: Banmala Dancer-Mediums during the Ritual Cycle

4 Blood Sacrifice, Mohani, and the Navadurga Cycle

5 Cosmology, Tantric Texts, and Newar Hinduism in Bhaktapur

6 Politics and Caste Structures in Bhaktapur

Part 2

3 Dancer-Medium Communities and Ritual Kinship

1 Introduction

2 Dancer-Medium Communities: Teyya??am and Navadurga

3 Teyya??am

4 Navadurga

5 Conclusion

4 History and Assimilation in Tantric Cosmology

1 Introduction

2 Teyya??am

3 Navadurga

4 Conclusion

5 Sacrifice, Earth Cycles, and Self-Reflexive Affect

1 Introduction

2 Teyya??am

3 Navadurga

4 Conclusion

6 Politics, Ritual Performance, and Caste

1 Introduction

2 Marxist-Influenced Politics and Ritual Performance in Postcolonial South Asia

3 Teyya??am

4 Navadurga

5 Conclusion

Conclusion

1 Teyya??am and Navadurga Compared: Revisited

2 Dancer-Medium Communities and Ritual Kinship

3 History and Metaphysical Underlays of Folk Sakta Ritual

4 Blood Sacrifice and Self-Reflexive Affect

5 Politics and Caste Structure

Glossary of Key Terms

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Matthew Martin, D.Phil. (2019), University of Oxford, is an independent scholar of religion, ritual, and society in South Asia.