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Acta Orientalia ACTA ORIENTALIA EDIDERUNT SOCIETATES ORIENTALES DANICA FENNICA NORVEGIA SVECIA CURANTIBUS LEIF LITTRUP, HAVNIÆ HEIKKI PALVA, HELSINGIÆ ASKO PARPOLA, HELSINGIÆ TORBJÖRN LODÉN, HOLMIÆ SIEGFRIED LIENHARD, HOLMIÆ SAPHINAZ AMAL NAGUIB, OSLO PER KVÆRNE, OSLO WOLFGANG-E. SCHARLIPP, HAVNIÆ REDIGENDA CURAVIT CLAUS PETER ZOLLER LXXVIII Contents ARTICLES CLAUS PETER ZOLLER: Traditions of transgressive sacrality (against blasphemy) in Hinduism ......................................................... 1 STEFAN BOJOWALD: Zu den Wortspielen mit ägyptisch „ib“ „Herz“ ................................ 163 MAHESHWAR P. JOSHI: The hemp cultivators of Uttarakhand and social complexity (with a special reference to the Rathis of Garhwal) ........................................................................................... 173 MICHAEL KNÜPPEL: Überlegungen zu den Verwandtschaftsverhältnissen der Jenissej- Sprachen bei Georg Heinrich August Ewald.................................... 223 DR DEEPAK JOHN MATHEW AND PARTHIBAN RAJUKALIDOSS: Architecture and Living Traditions Reflected in Wooden Rafters of Śrīvilliputtūr Temple ........................................................................ 229 BOOK REVIEWS B. J. J. HARING/O. E. KAPER/R. VAN WALSEM (EDS.). The Workman´s Progress, Studies in the Village of Deir el-Medina and other documents from Western Thebes in Honour of Rob Demarée, reviewed by Stefan Bojowald........................................................... 267 Acta Orientalia 2017: 78, 1–162. Copyright © 2017 Printed in India – all rights reserved ACTA ORIENTALIA ISSN 0001-6438 Traditions of transgressive sacrality (against blasphemy) in Hinduism Claus Peter Zoller University of Oslo Deorum offensae diis curae Crimes against the gods concerns the gods only Tiberius Caesar Dīvī Augustī Fīlius Augustus (42 BC – 37 AD) Where there is no belief, there is no blasphemy Salman Rushdie The satanic verses (1988: 380) Abstract The following essay pursues the question whether a possible non- singular immigration-encounter-event between speakers of dialects of Indo-Aryan and (as maintained in this essay) speakers of dialects of Austro-Asiatic (mostly Munda) have not only left marks in the linguistic history of Indo-Aryan (analyzed in Zoller forthcoming), but also in the cultural and political history of North India. My argumentation will follow several lines of nested arguments, but the most general is this: Whereas in the Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Islam a combination of proclivity for expansionism plus proclivity for religious violence have led to a virtual eradication or at least a 2 Claus Peter Zoller subjugation of infidel traditions in the core areas of their religious/political powers (i.e. Europe and Middle East), this venture was less successful in case of South Asia. Thus the most salient aspect of this historical contingency is the fact that cultural historians – but also historical linguists – can see much deeper and much more unimpeded into the prehistory and early history both of the Indo-Aryan and the non-Indo-Aryan (= mainly Austro-Asiatic) North Indian world. The opposition between Abrahamic monotheists and Hindu ‘infidels’ manifests also in the contrast between the topics of blasphemy and transgressive sacrality. The former is typically associated with Abrahamic religions, whereas there is an abundance and great variety of examples of transgressive sacrality in Hinduism. Keywords: Hinduism, Abrahamic religions, transgressive sacrality, blasphemy, religious impersonations, ecstatic warriordom. Contents 1. Synopsis 2. Theoretical backgrounds 2.1 Characteristics of blasphemy 2.2 Characteristics of transgressive sacrality 2.3 Abrahamic religions and intrinsic violence? 2.4 Norbert Elias and Max Weber 2.5 Max Weber and George Bataille 2.6 Taboo and its transgression versus blasphemy 2.7 Antinomianism 2.8 India’s progress in civilizing 3. Theoretical-(pre)historical aspects 3.1 The beauty of the male warrior 3.2 Transgressive nakedness 4. Primary data for transgressive sacrality First part: transgressive violence 4.1 Religion in ancient India 4.2 The origin and etymology of bráhman 4.3 Ecstatic warriors-sacrificers in the Vedas 4.31 The Dīkṣita 4.32 The Yāyāvara and the Yātsattra ‘continuous sacrifice’ Traditions of transgressive sacrality in Hinduism 3 4.33 The Vrātya 4.4 Some parallel Indo-European youthful war bands outside India: wolf-impersonation, monocular vision 5. Primary data for transgressive sacrality Second part: Indian warrior republics and modern warrior cultures 5.1 Qualities of a warrior republic and the Mahābhārata 5.2 Thodā: A martial Mahābhārata game of the Khasha people 5.3 Ecstatic heroes in the Bangani tradition 5.4 Impersonations of ‘historical’ kings in the Central Himalayas 5.5 Warrior frenzy and etymology 5.6 The Himalayan Wild Hunt and contemporary dog cults 6. Primary data for transgressive sacrality Third part: Serpent cults 6.1 Serpent worship and serpent impersonations 6.2 Prehistoric and early historic glimpses 6.3 The myth of Kadrū and Vinatā: some roots and reflexes 6.4 Snakes and Pāṇḍavas 6.5 More details on mentality and physical characteristics of divine/demonic Nāgas 6.6 Names of divine/demonic Nāgas 6.7 J. Ph. Vogel’s Nāga names (a selection, see p. 191) 6.8 Traditions of Nāga impersonations in South India: sarpam pattu, sarpam thullal, etc. 6.9 Nāga ancestry, kinship systems and life cycles 7. Primary data for transgressive sacrality Fourth part: the ‘Good Shepherd’, Indian hero stones, and cosmogonic myths 7.1 Human pastoralists of gods and goddesses 7.2 Ancient and modern Indian cosmogonies and myths of averted incest 7.3 The Vrātya (and the Brahmin) as the Lord of the World 7.4 Kashmir Śaiva monism and transgression 7.5 ‘Monistic’ and transgressive aspects among contemporary Himalayan bards 8. Summing up 4 Claus Peter Zoller 1. Synopsis This essay is an outcome of a prolonged engagement of the members of the South Asia section at the University of Oslo with the topics of transgression – more specifically transgressive sacrality – in Indian religions and, progressively more recently, with the topic of blasphemy. For obvious reasons, the topic of blasphemy has presently greater urgency than transgressive sacrality. However, since I argue that blasphemy and sectarian violence are peripheral and ephemeral – and in any case rather recent – phenomena in the history of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, whereas transgressive – in some circumstances also violent – sacrality is of great relevance especially in Hinduism, I opted for a more thorough analysis of transgressive sacrality in India. Nonetheless, the section following the synopsis (2. Theoretical backgrounds) does deal with blasphemy and how it differs from transgressive sacrality,1 which then allows a more detailed exploration of the much more intricate cultural complex of transgressive sacrality in Hinduism. This section 2. comprises eight sub-sections, one of them dealing with the topic of intrinsic religious violence in Abrahamic religions (2.3 Abrahamic religions and intrinsic violence?).2 For almost twenty years, this topic has kept an intensive (and still ongoing) academic controversy, running especially in Germany. I will present the main arguments of the controversy, which, in my eyes, are closely related with blasphemy matters. Transgressive sacrality is integral part of a persistent current in Hinduism throughout its history. This is not true for blasphemy. Consequently, the topic of blasphemy – and the phenomenologically related topic of intrinsic violence in ‘Abrahamic’ religions – will occupy only a modest place in this essay. I will argue that blasphemy is conceptually dependent on an understanding of transgressive sacrality. Transgressive sacrality comprises two divisions: the division of ecstatic and violent warriorhood and the division of norm-violating forms of sexuality and eroticism. This essay deals mainly with ecstatic and violent warriorhood even though transgressive sexuality is also touched on. My historical points of departure are transgressive, frequently 1 Several members of our South Asia section are presently preparing with other colleagues a volume on blasphemy in South Asian countries. 2 I use this term only in a phenomenological sense and not in the sense of an allegedly essential unity of the three religious traditions. Traditions of transgressive sacrality in Hinduism 5 youthful warrior bands and fraternities found in many ancient Indo- European societies, including (Pre-)Vedic India. As examples, I may name here just the Germanic Berserks and the Indian Vrātyas. Although usually these bands were led and inspired by a religious ideology that encompassed also different forms of super- and subhuman impersonation rituals, the (Pre-)Vedic Vrātya traditions notwithstanding exhibit some peculiar features, which are rarely known from other Indo-European ecstatic warrior tradition. In fact, right from the oldest documentations in Sanskrit, 3 the Vrātyas (and kindred ecstatic warrior groups) do not just represent warriorhood but rather warrior-asceticism or warrior-priesthood. Whereas other Indo- European warrior traditions are usually only marked by ritual animal impersonations (foremost wolf and dog impersonations), we encounter in the (Pre-)Vedic Vrātya traditions in addition different forms of superhuman impersonations and transformations, i.e. a strong tendency for the divinization of Indian warrior-ascetics.4 Thus, the constant current of transgressive sacrality in Hinduism manifests in
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