International Journal for the Study of Hinduism Volume 26 No. 1. July 2014 ISSN 1016-5320 Nidān International Journal for the Study of Hinduism July 2014 Durban, South Africa Published at University of KwaZulu-Natal Nidān is an international journal which publishes contributions in the field of Hinduism and related Indian religions Articles published in Nidān have abstracts reflected in the Index to South African Periodicals Nidān is now distributed only through electronic media as a freely accessed journal from its main website: [http://nidan.ukzn.ac.za] Articles published in Nidān are also available on Sabinet [http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_nidan.html] Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief P. Pratap Kumar (Emeritus Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal) Associate Editor Ajaya K Sahoo (Associate Professor, University of Hyderabad, India) Guest Editors Amy L. Allocco (Distinguished Emerging Scholar and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Elon University, USA) James Ponniah (Assistant Professor, University of Madras, India) Local Editorial Board P. Pratap Kumar (Emeritus Professor of Hinduism, University of KwaZulu-Natal) Anand Singh (Professor of Anthropology, University of KwaZulu-Natal) Michel Clasquin (Professor of Religious Studies, University of South Africa) Goolam Vahed (Professor of History, University of KwaZulu-Natal) International Editorial Board T.S. Rukmani, (Emeritus Professor Concordia University, Canada) William Harman (Emeritus Professor, University of Tennessee, USA) Knut A. Jacobsen (Professor, University of Bergen, Norway) Martin Bauman (Professor, Universität Luzern, Switzerland) Purushottama Bilimoria (Melbourne University, Australia) Yoshitsugu Sawai (Professor, Tenri University, Japan) Ramdas Lamb (Professor, University of Hawaii, USA) Kim Knott (Professor, University of Leeds, UK) ISSN 1016-5320 © 2014 Copy Right Reserved: Nidān: International Journal for the Study of Hinduism Criteria for Submission of Articles Articles should relate to the study of any aspect of Hinduism or related Indian religions. As such, the study of Hinduism is broadly conceived to include, not merely the traditionally recognized areas within the discipline, but includes contributions from scholars in other fields who seek to bring their particular worldviews and theories into dialogue with Hindu studies. Articles that explore issues of history, ecology, economics, politics, sociology, culture, education and psychology in relation to Hinduism are welcomed. Papers will be subject to evaluation by referees drawn from a pool of local and international scholars. Papers are blind reviewed by two scholars anonymously. Papers should be prefaced by an abstract of approximately 100 words, setting out the gist of the paper and should include key words below the abstract. Although generally we encourage scholars not to exceed a word length of 6000 – 7000 words, editors are often flexible about the length at their discretion. Gender discriminating language should be avoided, unless it is necessary for the sense intended. The author’s full name, address, qualifications and current institutional affiliation as well as current email address must be supplied. Each paper must be accompanied by a signed declaration to the effect that the article is the original work of the author. Papers must be submitted electronically using an IBM or Macintosh compatible word processing programme. Papers should be saved as a Word Document. Note that the publication of papers cannot be guaranteed. Further, an paper, which is accepted for publication, maybe held over for a publication in a subsequent issue of the journal. For those who access Nidān through Sabinet website the following rates will apply: Subscription rates: Africa R120-00 Other Countries: US $ 30 Cheques should be made payable to: ‘UKZN-Nidān (V809)’ and must be sent through to the correspondence address. Correspondence Address The Editor: Nidān c/o School of Religion, Philosophy & Classics Private Bag X10, Dalbridge, 4041, Durban, South Africa. Tel: +27(31) 260 7303/7539 Fax: +27(31) 2607286 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Volume 26, No. 1. July 2014 International Journal for the Study of Hinduism Table of Contents Introduction Amy L. Allocco and James Ponniah i-vi The Blemish of “Modern Times”: Snakes, Planets, and the Kaliyugam Amy L. Allocco 1 The Age of Śani in Modern Delhi Carla Bellamy 22 The Age of Kālī: Contemporary Iterations of the Kaliyug in the Kullu Valley of the Western Himalayas Ehud Halperin 42 Alternative Discourses of Kali Yuga in Ayyā Vaḻi James Ponniah 65 The Kali Yuga as ‘the Wealth-Pursuit Era’: Perceptions of Patronage at a Hindu Shrine R. Jeremy Saul 88 Nidān, Vol. 26, No. 1, July 2014, pp.i-vi. Introduction Amy L. Allocco Elon University, USA [email protected] and James Ponniah University of Madras [email protected] “There is no science or art, no craft or skill, no yoga and karma that is outside the purview of drama” says Bharata in Nāṭyaśāstra (I. 116; Gupta 1999: 23). This special issue of Nidān: An International Journal for the Study of Hinduism looks at the Kali Yuga as something akin to a cosmological drama that unfolds in different fields of narrative possibilities and exhibits a “palpable tension between contingency and determinism” (Kloetzli and Hiltebeitel 2004: 582). The yugas, or world ages of Hindu traditions, progressively decrease in length and quality as they move from the Kṛta Yuga (the perfect age) to the Tretā Yuga, Dvāpara Yuga, and Kali Yuga (the age of discord). The Kali Yuga’s relationship to and implications for human agency are particularly complex; indeed, in some instances these may appear quite paradoxical. On the one hand, it appears that Hinduism’s yuga theory is deterministic in the sense that it frames this trajectory in terms of a predestined and catastrophic end. Understanding Kali Yuga as part of a pre-programmed cosmic design that moves inexorably towards a sure-to- occur destructive conclusion generates a perspective that comfortably accepts diminishing virtues and degenerating values as a natural sequence. On the other hand, however, by placing the Kali Yuga within the domain of the four-yuga cycle known as the mahāyuga (great yuga), which lasts for a total of 4,320,000 human years, and assigning the Kali Yuga a life span of only one-tenth of this period (Kloetzli and Hiltebeitel 2004: 563), Hinduism relativizes the Kali Yuga’s wretchedness, neutralizes its sting, and thus renders it a contingent reality that can be endured. Hinduism’s cyclical view of time demonstrates that the past, present, and future together comprise an unbroken chain that is destined to be repeated as i Introduction/Allocco and Ponniah the universe advances from one yuga to the next, each more degenerate than the last, and culminating in the degraded Kali Yuga. Against this backdrop, the five articles in this volume focus on contemporary understandings of the Kali Yuga drawn from disparate parts of India – Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and New Delhi – and explore their implications for the roles of human and divine agency in our present times. Grounded in fresh ethnographic research, vernacular sources, and new media, these contributions examine how the Kali Yuga is invoked and described in varied contexts, offering a contemporary set of perspectives on this age-old concept. Such perspectives add important new dimensions to our understanding of Hindu cosmology and conceptions of time and suggest novel directions in the study of contemporary Hindu traditions, particularly because the scholarly literature has tended to focus on the descriptions available in Sanskrit textual sources such as the Purāṇas, Mahābhārata, and various dharma texts. Taken collectively, these ethnographic examples reveal the heterogeneity, diversity, and fluidity that characterize local understandings of and engagements with the Kali Yuga paradigm, as well as the ways in which they may relate to, revise, or recontextualize the classic yuga schema as outlined in Hindu textual traditions. That is, our authors highlight ways in which local understandings are informed and influenced by depictions of the Kali Age found in Sanskrit sources and also point out where these textual portrayals may be recast and repositioned. In presenting situated discourses about the most degenerate of the Hindu world ages from different regions of India, these articles richly illustrate specific ways in which the Kali Yuga idiom is appropriated and reinterpreted to serve as a dynamic and locally meaningful framework through which actors respond to the myriad social, political, economic and religious changes they witness and experience in contemporary India. Amy L. Allocco’s article, ‘The Blemish of “Modern Times”: Snakes, Planets, and the Kaliyugam,’ (pp. 1-21) alerts us to a set of creative interpretations of the Kali Yuga underway in contemporary South India. She shows how nāga dōṣam, a negative astrological condition, is associated with and understood differently in Kali Yuga times, when it is regarded as an an increasingly prevalent affliction that the selfish and insincere people effectively bring upon on themselves, rather than simply as the result of killing or harming of a snake in this or a previous life as is more traditionally believed. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, ii Nidān, Vol. 26, No. 1, July 2014, pp.i-vi. Allocco argues that individuals invoke the concepts of the Kali Yuga and nāga dōṣam in tandem in an attempt to negotiate the challenges