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Introduzione a Igor Spanò (a cura di) Il Teatro e la festa. Il tempio, la piazza, la scena
No full textPer tre giorni gli studiosi che sono intervenuti al Convegno hanno riflettuto sul senso e sulle funzioni, sulle pratiche cultuali e rituali, sui luoghi che hanno definito nel corso del tempo i momenti della festa e sulle forme di rappresentazione agonistica (danze, corse, gare, giochi di abilità) o drammatica - di cui erano parte essenziale la musica e il canto - che, spesso intrinsecamente, li accompagnano. L'autore nella sua introduzione esamina le sfumature di significato che racchiude il termine utsava, “festa”, “gioia” in sanscrito.For three days the scholars who spoke at the conference reflected on the meaning and functions, on the cult and ritual practices, on the places that have defined the moments of the celebration over time and on the forms of competitive representation (dances, races, competitions, skill games) or dramatic - of which music and singing were an essential part - which, often intrinsically, accompany them. In his introduction, the author examines the nuances of meaning contained in the term utsava, "feast", "joy" in Sanskrit
In the footsteps of the cows: the ritual of gavāmayana between ancient and contemporary India
No full textCodified in classical Vedic times (8th-4th century BCE), the gavāmayana (‘the cow path’) was a year-long ritual session (sāmvatsarikasattra), which accompanied the succession of months of the Vedic religious calendar and ended with the celebration of mahāvrata (‘the great vow’) during the winter solstice. Marking the conclusion of the arduous ritual journey, it celebrated rebirth and consecrated the beginning of the new year. The book investigates gavāmayana based on a philological analysis of the texts and on a historical-religious and anthropological perspective, focusing on ancient India and some contemporary practices. The mahāvrata, in particular, seems to preserve the memory of very ancient ritual practices, whose representations reveal a complex play of symbolic exchanges linked to the alternation of the seasons and the growth of vegetation, to the myth of generation through
emptying and relocating, within the perimeter of the civilised world and the law, what appears disruptive and anomic (such as sexuality). In the various chapters, not only the intertwining themes of a political nature with those related to sexuality and the promotion
of fertility emerge, but also certain symbolic continuities, whereby changes in the use of cultic and ritual elements do not exhaust their values with the decline of Vedic rituality, but find new meanings in India, albeit in different historical contexts
Witchcraft-related Cases in India during the Outbreak of Covid 19 Pandemic
Full text linkIn India, the belief in witches is a phenomenon linked to specific elements of both Hindu cults and the belief systems of some indigenous communities. The latter have retained specific characteristics, in which the magical elements and the relationship with evil powers, from which the belief in witchcraft practices derives, are of primary importance. In this paper, I aim to reflect on the historical-religious roots of witch-belief, without neglecting aspects related to the social dimension in which witch-hunting episodes occur. In doing so, I propose to highlight the power relations that are based on patriarchy (or the processes of patriarchalisation that have occurred in recent decades) and the phenomena of Hinduisation and indigenisation. Furthermore, I present an assessment of the incidence of the phenomenon in 2020, at a particularly dramatic historical moment, marked by the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic. The data presented are partial but significant as they are collected through the daily monitoring of India's leading English-language newspapers and some national and local Hindi-language newspapers
Igor Spanò, Dal tempio alla piazza: il Karakāṭṭam o ‘danza della brocca’
No full textIn Indian cultural traditions, dance plays a significant role, closely connected, in most cases, to expressions of cultic and ritual life. In particular, the element of the jug held balanced on the head is present in religious contexts as early as the Vedic period in the description of a dance performed at the end of the mahāvrata ritual by a group of maidens: among the meanings of this performance emerges specifically that related to the promotion of fertility linked to female sexuality. Even in present-day India, several dances in the course of the choreography involve a particular skill on the part of the perfomers, often women or girls, in balancing a jug on their heads, symbolically representing the Goddess. There are notable differences, but also interactions and sometimes forms of symbolic borrowing or appropriation between folk dance forms and those legitimised by the Brahmanical tradition. Such characteristics emerge particularly in a dance belonging to the Tamil Nadu tradition, the karakāṭṭam or karagāṭṭam (the 'jug dance'), of which there are two forms of performance: the first, linked to temple celebrations and called sakthi karagam, is danced on the occasion of festivities linked to the cult of the goddess Mariyamman, the 'Lady of the Rain', and takes on an apotropaic significance aimed at propitiating rain and guaranteeing prosperity; the other, called ātta karagam, is a form of entertainment that constitutes a true expression of street performance today, particularly at folk festivals celebrating the harvest in farming villages. The study of the symbolism linked to the jug in the history of Indian religiosity makes it possible to glimpse a possible process of re-signification and re-use of ancient symbolic elements and to highlight analogies and forms of continuity, despite the changing contexts and the temporal distance that separates today's India from the expressions of Vedic religiosity, with contemporary performances and rituals
Queer types in ancient India. The categorisation and representation of non-heterosexual individuals in some passages of Vedic literature
No full textVedic culture has used a variety of terms to denote male individuals who do not fit within the canons of the heterosexual norm. Often, in the past, Vedic philology has provided homologating translations of these terms from outdated cultural constructs and imagery, which have often reduced differences to univocal meanings. In order to understand non-heteronormative sexualities and sexual practices, I have adopted in this study an approach based on the idea of the construction of the concept of gender and which aims to describe behaviour beyond definitions. The analysis of the semantic and conceptual domains identified by the different terms within the Vedic texts, as well as of the history of their use in different contexts, allows us to restore the variety of external manifestations that do not conform to social expectations related to a person’s sex
Natural and Cultural Borders in Vedic Culture
No full textStarting from Diodorus Siculus’ statements on the borders of India, this paper aims to explore the notion of border, both geographical and cultural, expressed in some Vedic passages, focusing on the semantic valences that, depending on the contexts of use, some nouns denoting the border or frontier have acquired. This will better clarify the semantic and cultural connotations that Vedic culture has given to the representation of borders or boundaries, bringing out those aspects that lead from geographical connotations to culturally constructed ones. The multiple references to the ‘borders’ that separated Rgvedic Indo-Āryans communities from other peoples, and to those established to separate roles and functions between the male and female genders and between humans and deities, will thus be brought to light
Una forma leggiadra. Simboli sessuali dell'altalena in India nel rito del mahavrata e in alcune pratiche contemporanee
No full textIn the grammar of rituals described in Vedic texts, the swing was an object whose meanings referred to the propitiation of fertility and solar symbolism. Although its use remains in various contemporary festive contexts, its meaning has been differently defined. By analyzing the passages from works belonging to the ancient religious literature, this article examines the description of the swing’s construction and the rite performed on it by the officiant named hotr. Such an approach allows us to focus on the symbolic elements related to the swing in one of the focal points of the sequence of the mahavrata ceremony. Through a diachronic investigation and considering the data from the comparative perspective, this article suggests glimpsing the stratification of metaphors and preUpanisadic and postUpanisadic symbolic values, which the Upanisadic reflections have impacted. In this way, the continuity
and changes in the use of the swing in ritual language emerge
L’amore di Śiva per la Montagna. Il tempio di Kedarnath nel complesso sacro di Panch Kedar
No full textIndian myths have identified the mountain as a ‘sacred’ place, primarily as the seat of the deities: the gods and goddesses inhabit Mount Meru, the mountain at the centre of the world, according to ancient Indian cosmography. In particular, Brahmanical culture and the influence of certain local traditions have built around the figure of the god Śiva a series of myths linking him to mountain settings, particularly the Himālaya range. Not only is one of Śiva's most common epithets Yogīśvara, ‘the Lord of yogins’, i.e., ascetics who retreat to mountainous places to meditate, but the mountain is the god's own bride personified in Pārvatī, the ‘Daughter of the Mountain’. Śiva, the ‘erotic ascetic’ represented in aniconic form by his liṅga (the phallus), retreats to the mountain peaks for long meditative sessions, but at the same time, on the mountain, which is his bride, he engages in long amplexes. Therefore, the Mountain/Pārvatī, represents the same feminine energy (śakti) that embodies the dynamic and kinetic aspect as opposed to the static male pole. The religious values that Indian culture has attributed to the mountain are thus delineated: the setting of an otherness made up of vast solitary places frequented by ascetics, which at the same time are the theatre of a living and life-giving presence, personified in the companion of the god Śiva. This bond between the god and the mountain-bride seems to find a privileged place in the Himālayan region of Gaṛhwal, where the five Śivaite sanctuaries named Panch Kedār (or Pañcakedāra) stand. A tradition accepted by the Śiva Purāṇa and widespread in the Himalayan regions links the sacredness of these places to the final events narrated in the Mahābhārata and has it that Śiva dismembered himself, penetrating with the different parts of his body the five places where five temples stand today, the object of a long tradition of worship and pilgrimages. Here, the god has united himself forever with his bride, incorporating himself into the mountain, and the pilgrims who undertake the very difficult journey that progressively touches the five sites seem each time to reconstitute the unity of that divided body that has forever identified with the mountain itself
La scena sacrificale in India. Lo yajña tra ritualità antica e reinterpretazioni contemporanee e il caso del gavāmayana
No full textIn Vedic India, śrauta-type sacrifices constituted the sacred scene par excellence on which the religious, political, and social dynamics and aspirations of the time were represented. Between historical reconstruction and religious reconstructionism, the scholar reflecting on today's performance of these ancient rituals is confronted with several problematic issues. They raise not only Indological and historical-religious interests but also a series of questions revolving around the meaning and objectives of their revival in contemporary India. On the one hand, the assertion of their authenticity serves as an instrument of legitimation that sanctions the authority of those who perform and finance them; on the other hand, decontextualised with regard to the ancient belief system, these performances feed the rhetoric of identity assertion and nationalistic political propaganda that would like to redefine the Vedic tradition as the foundation on which to base the cultural orientation of contemporary Indian society
Vita da hijra: amore e passioni oltre i margini
No full textThe hijras are members of traditional Indian communities of transgender women, who historically have occupied marginal and liminal roles within Indian culture. The historical analysis of the roles and rituality of hijra communities is conducted through the constant reference to the particular emotional universe that unfolds with respect to the choices and fractures that influence the lives of these individuals, insisting above all on the knot of love and erotic passion, which, in contrast to the ascetic imagery to which the hijra communities traditionally refer, strongly marks the lives of these people, often in new and unexpected ways
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