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Hn Encyc~Opedir HN ENCYC~OPEDIR RFGHHNISTRNIDHNGLRDESH IINDIR INEPHL IPRHISTRN ISRI LHNHR MHRGHRETn. Ml~~s. PETER J. c~nus. HNOSHRHH OIHMONO. EDITORS Routledge New York London s SACRED GEOGRAPHY to house it; the temple can therefore be located wher­ Sacred geography is an aspect of a people's cosmology, ever its patron desires. In folk religion, by contrast, gods part of the way they see the world as ordered and sig­ manifest themselves at particular spots in "self-formed" nificant. In South Asia this topic encompasses religious (svayambhii), unhewn rocks. People recognize the man­ valuations of nature; ideas about the earthly locations ifestation because the place is marked by a spontaneous of gods and goddesses; memories of the locations of flow of blood, by a cow lactating onto the ground, or events in the lives of saints, founders, and divine in­ by some other natural wonder. carnations; notions of center and periphery, and ideas In many cases, a pai1icular place of worship of a de­ about directional orientation; notions of replication and ity is understood to be the locus of some event in the microcosm; and ideas about the holiness of certain re­ deity's life-the killing of a demon, for instance, or the gions and territories. deity's wedding. When a god (or, less often, a goddess) The religious valuation of nature in South Asia is understood to have descended to earth in human form focuses on mountains, rivers, and the wilderness. las an avutiira), a number of different spots are identi­ Mountains and rivers are not only the abodes of deities fied as loci of specific episodes in the avatara's life story. but also, in some cases, themselves divine. Mountains The same is true of places associated with the lives and are most often associated with the god Siva, by virtue deaths of religious founders (whether divine or not), of his ascetic nature and their appropriateness for as­ saints, and holy persons. Such places are particularly ceticism and because their shape identifies them with important in Buddhist, Jain, and Muslim religious ge­ the lingu, the aniconic or phallic representation of Siva. ography, as well as in the religious geography of Hindu Rivers are most often goddesses, or the homes of god­ devotional (blwkti) and ascetic groups. desses. The sexual imagery is at its most explicit in the A more abstract kind of sacrality inheres in places portrayal of Siva as a male human with the Ganges (In­ that are viewed as the center of the world or of some part dia's holiest river, worshipped as a goddess) as a small of it. In Southeast as well as South Asia, such places female figure entwined in his hair. are sometimes seen as analogous to Mount Meru, the Other religious values are associated with forests cosmic mountain at the center of the world in some ver­ and the wilderness. From within the settled agricultural sions of Sanskrit cosmology. Often a holy place will be village, these areas appear dangerous and frightening, surrounded by a sacred precinct, its paiicakrosf, the area the abode of tigers, serpents, hunters, and robbers. But within a radius of approximately ten miles of it; some­ forests and wilderness are also another preferred abode times the periphery of such a sacred area will he marked of ascetics and hermits and an important source of re­ by shrines of guardian deities in the four cardinal and newal oflife in the village and kingdom. Trees in temple four intermediate directions. The direction in which a courtyards and elsewhere bring an element of wild na­ temple or shrine faces is also often significant: east, ture into the settlement and are sometimes worshipped for instance, toward the rising sun, for most temples as deities or abodes of deities. of Siva and many other gods; south, toward the realm Gods are located at other places as well. In brah­ of death, for less auspicious deities and some guardian manical temple religion, priests invoke the life (prli1za) figures. In paying honor to a deity, shrine, or city, one of the deity into an image that artisans have prepared circumambulates it, keeping one's right side toward it. 525 S/\CRED GEOGR/\PflY. /\FGH/\NIST/\N Major holy places are often replicated elsewhere, and Mela; Pilgrimage; Sacred Geography, Afghanistan; they frequently contain replicas of other holy places. Sacred Places; Shrines; Water Lore; Worship; Ziyarat The best example of this is Varai;iasT (Banaras. Kasi). This most holy city contains shrines of important gods from all over India and is itself replicated in many other SACRED GEOGRAPHY, AFGHANISTAN cities and towns. Most frequently, it is holy places and The tradition of associating hallowed locations with the rivers of North India with which other places and rivers esteemed is widely manifest in Islamic Afghanistan, are identified or connected. In addition to KasT, places despite the fact that Islam does not encourage sai11tcults that arc particularly prominent in this respect include and numbers of Islamic societies actively suppress the Prayag (Allahabad), Gaya, and the Ganges river. The veneration of shrines. replication can take the form of a simple assertion of Sites all over Afghanistan are honored because of identity (a local place is Gaya, or it is the "Southern their linkage with events or personalities mentioned in Gaya"); of an expression of the power of the local the Qur· an, with relics of the Prophet Mul.iammad. or place in terms of the power of the distant, more fa­ with eminent early Islamic heroes. A few may be ex­ mous place (the local place destroys as many sins as, ploited simply for commercial or political advantage, or provides ten times as much merit as, Prayag); of ev­ but typically, in addition to offering hope for sought­ idence of the physical connection of the local place to after boons, cures, or solace, sites connected with the the more distant, more famous one (a lemon dropped renowned serve to bond individuals to their heritage and into the Ganges comes out in the tank of a local temple strengthen personal identities by adding significance to far to the south); of a story indicating a god's prefer­ their immediate surroundings. Pilgrims to Chishmah-i ence for the local place (Siva left Varai:iasT and came to I::Iayat (Spring of Life) in Samangan Province, north of stay at the local place because he liked it better); and the Hindu Kush, hope to meet there the green-robed so on. Khwaja Khiir, the only being who can show the way In some cases, it is not only individual places but to the spring of eternal life. While Khwaja Khiir may whole areas that are viewed as holy. Such, for exam­ roam the world to succor the lost and needy, many be­ ple, is the Braj area for devotees of Kr~1Ja. who lived lieve his abode is actually at this spring of northern there, or the GodavarT river valley for Mahanuhhavs, Afghanistan. Those aftlicted with boils visit Chismah-i whose founder, Cakradhar, wandered there. In other Ayyub, a shrine built over a hot spring in Balkh Province cases, holy places are thought of and visited in sets: where Ayyub (Job) is believed to have rested while jour­ the twelvejyotirliilgas ("lingas of Light"), for instance, neying through Afghanistan. spread throughout India, or the live or six holy places Similarly. according to Surah 18 in the Qur'an, cer­ of the god Muruka11 in Tamil Nadu. By encouragi11g tain Seekers of Truth were put to sleep in a cave by pilgrims to travel throughout the area in which they Allah to await the day of Revelation. Jordan and Iraq are scattered. by enabling the pilgrims to meet others also claim the site of this cave, but the brotherhood at the from that area, and even hy allowing people who do not A~IJab al-Kahf (People of the Cave) near Maymanah in travel to the places to think of the area as a whole, such northern Faryab Province, reverently lead pilgrims to sets of places can foster the development of regional or a cave where the Seekers and their faithful hound still national consciousness. slumber under shrouded mounds. Paramount among the locations associated with such References venerated figures or events are those honoring the life and miraculous exploits of 'AIT ibn Abi Talib, cousin Clothey, Fred W. 1972. Pilgrimage centers in the Tamil cultus of Murukan . .!011mal of' the A111cric111lAcade111v of' Religion 40: and son-in-law of the Prophet Mu~ammad, fourth 79-95. caliph of Sunni Islam (656-661 C.E.) and first legiti­ Eck, Diana. 1982. Bonaras: city of' light. New York: Alfred mate imam in the ShT'a tradition. l~a?;rat 'AITis revered A. Knopf. for his role as an intermediary against tyranny. Feldhaus, Anne. 1995. Water and 11·0111anhuod:reli?,io11s mcan­ Mazar-i Sharif (Noble Shrine), from which the cap­ inqs of' rivers ill Ma/l(lmshtm. New York: Oxford University Press. ital city of Balkh Province in Northern Afghanistan Parry. .Jonathan. 1994. neath ill Banams. Cambridge: takes its name, is a shrine held sacred as the tomb of Cambridge University Press. Ha?;rat 'AIT. altho11gh many Sunni and Shfa Muslims believe that after he was assassinated in 661 C.E., 'Ali ANNE FELDHAUS was buried in Najaf, Iraq. According to Afghan legend, SEE ALSO 'AITwas interred in Balkh because his followers, fearing Buddhist Sacred Geography. Sri Lanka; Dargah; Fairs desecration by his enemies, placed the body on the back and Festivals; Goddesses, Place, and Identity in Nepal; of a white she-camel and allowed her to wander until she 526 SACRED GEOGRAPI !Y, AFGHANISTAN lo offer his respects and comission the construction of another splendid building.
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