Symposium Announcement

Tue Jan 30 21:08:02 UTC 1996

This event announcement is being forwarded to your mailing list from
the Events Calendar of The South Asia Gopher. Please contact event
organizers directly for any further information on this event. Do not
send such queries to The South Asia Gopher. Thank you.
David Magier (SAG)

=============================================================
Symposium Announcement:

"WHOSE VEDA?"
A research initiative and symposium of 
The Working Group on The Relevance of the Veda 
(sponsored by the Dharam Hinduja Indic Research Center
of Columbia University) 

dates:    FEBRUARY 16-18, 1996
location: University of Florida,
          Gainesville, Florida

For more information on this symposium (beyond the details supplied 
below), please contact:

Professor Vasudha Narayanan
Dept. of Religion
University of Florida
Gainesville, Flordia  USA

ph: 904-392-1625 
email: vasu at claf.ufl.edu

__________________________________________

THE VEDAS, which include the Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanisad
sections of the Rig, Sama, Atharva, and Yajur collections have functioned
both as revelation and as manuals of ritual for the many Hindu traditions. 
Notions of the unchanging, immutable, eternal sound of the Vedas have
coexisted with a pattern of dynamic interpretation whereby the perceived
meaning of the Veda has been made accessible and fitting to the changing
times and places.  While some sections of the Vedic texts and injunctions
have been recited and acted upon without major changes for at least the
last two thousand years, the process of understanding and decoding the
Vedas has not been static. While the Vedas themselves assert the force of
a "unifying" truth underlying the hymns and the philosophical speculation,
this truth has been interpreted in a manner that was fitting and
applicable to any given generation. The process of interpretation and
making the message relevant to any generation has been at the heart of
Vedic hermeneutics. 

Despite the composition of several works which have been more popular
among the masses than the Vedic revelation, the theoretical, ritual, and
epistemological significance of the Vedas has been unquestioned. Thus,
the highest honor given to a religious text which was important to any
religious tradition was to call that work the "fifth Veda."  In the last
two thousand years several such texts have claimed this title. 

The fifth Veda comprehends questions of legitimacy, legacy and spiritual
authenticity.  Many injunctive (ritual), mythological (Itihasa-Purana),
scientific, devotional and even biographical texts proclaim themselves to
be the fifth Veda, breaking through the traditional distinction between
sruti and smrti.  The key to breaking through the categories of sruti and
smrti is the public recognition of the authenticity and authority of
certain texts. For example, Bharata Muni, author of the Natya Sastra, the
primary text on the theory and practice of drama, relies on the
unprecedented nature of his enterprise to bring it into the orbit of
"Veda."  But Natya Sastra does not take this identification lightly or
simply analogically, but pleads its case by illustrating that the Vedas
themselves fall under the purview of natya. 

The Puranas employ several arguments in order to prove their identity as
Veda. One is that they are infallible because the supreme Lord is the very
embodiment of the Veda.  The Mahabharata, one of the two major Hindu
epics, was consistently called the "fifth Veda" because it was a
storehouse of religious and secular knowledge, both theoretical and
pragmatic. Vernacular compositions in the south, especially the
Tiruvaymoli ("Sacred Utterances") of Nammalvar in the ninth century and
the Periya Puranam, a hagiography of saints who were devotees of Siva,
were also considered to be equivalent to the Vedas. 

In the Kashmir Saiva tradition several agamic texts functioned as the
Veda.  These texts did not make even a cursory attempt to imitate or
reproduce the Sanskrit Vedas in any way, nor were they commentaries on the
Vedic texts.  They lay claim to the title "Veda" because the people who
venerated these works thought of them as containing the wisdom embodied in
the original Sanskrit Vedas. The concept of a fifth Veda expresses the
desire for any given community to negotiate the meaning of sruti and
mediate it to their milieu. 

It is not just within the Hindu tradition that the Veda of "Truth" is
important. Both Christians and Muslims in South India have appropriated
the notion of "Veda" and consider their scriptures to be revelation.  The
Veda is the vehicle to know the supreme, and in this sense both the Bible
and the Qur'an function as the "Veda." 

These are just some of the ways in which post-Vedic texts and traditions
appropriated the authority and authenticity of the Vedas. This is not to
say that the Vedic "tradition" suffered serious rupture, for this
extension is surely a natural result of a dynamic religious and literary
tradition that encouraged innovation while not losing sight of its
origins. 

****
Whose Veda?
A symposium
________________________________

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH
RUTH MCQUOWN ROOM, 219 DAUER HALL
University of Flordia, Gainesville
7:30 PM

Welcome     Dr. Vasudha Narayanan
	     University of Florida, Gainesville, 
	     Co-Chair of the Working Group on the Relevance of the Veda, 
             Dharam Hinduja India Research Center

Greetings   Dr. Mary McGee, Director, Hinduja Center, Columbia University

Lecture	    Dr. Philip Lutgendorf, University of Iowa
          	   "Tulsidas' Ramayan as the Hindi Veda"

*

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH
349 J.WAYNE REITZ UNION
University of Florida, Gainesville
MORNING SESSION: 9:00 AM-12:00 PM

Opening Remarks
Dr. Mary McGee, Columbia University
Dr. Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida
Dr. Frederick Smith, University of Iowa

Presentations
Dr. Frederick Smith, University of Iowa
"Injunction, Ideology, and Nostalgia: 
Questions of Vedic Self-Identity"

Dr. Natalia Lidova, Dept. of Oriental Literatures, Institute of World 
Literature, Moscow
"The Natyasastra as the Veda 
at the Breakage of the Vedic Age"

Dr. Gary A. Tubb, Columbia University
"Continuing Revelation: 
Kavi as Seer in Classical Sanskrit Poetics"

Dr. James Fitzgerald, University of Tennessee
"Observations on Brahmins in the Fifth Veda: Brahmin Resentment
and Apocalypsism in the Mahabharata"

*  AFTERNOON SESSION: 2:00-5:00 PM  *

Dr. Glenn Yocum, Whittier College
"The Holy Book in a Contemporary Tamil Saiva Environment:
The Tiruvacagam at Avadaiyar Koil"

Dr. Thomas Thangaraj, Emory University
"The Veda-Agama in South Indian Christianity"

Dr. Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida
"The Four Luminous Vedas of Tamil Islam"

* SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH *
361 J. WAYNE REITZ UNION
University of Florida, Gainesville
-- 9:00-11:30 AM

Discussion led by 
Dr. Francis X. Clooney, Boston College

Sunday's discussion will explore the implications of different usages of
the term "Veda" in various historical, literary, and religious contexts. 
How does the meaning of Veda translate into different traditions?  Does
Veda/scripture function differently in different traditions?  Has the Veda
ceased to be the exclusive property of the Hindus and become the common
heritage of all South Asians?  Was the Veda ever the exclusive property of
Hindus? What about the Buddhists and Jains who reject the authority of the
Vedas?  How do these communities conceive of the Vedas and how do they
respond to other communities' appropriation of the concept Veda?  Can the
concept of Veda, as it is appropriated by different religious communities
in South Asia, be used as a bridge for interreligious understanding and
dialogue, or has its appropriation created misunderstandings and
barriers?  How does an understanding of Veda in its different contexts
lead us to a better understanding of these religious communities
differences and similarities? 

****
__________________________________________

The Dharam Hinduja Indic Research Center
at Columbia University

Mary McGee, Director
Associate Professor of Classical Hinduism

The Dharam Hinduja Indic Research Center was established at Columbia
University in 1994 with three primary goals: a) deepening and advancing
research on Indic traditions of learning; b) addressing practical problems
in the modern world, especially those that come within the purview of
science and medicine; and c) advancing the causes of tolerance and
interreligious understanding.  Through academic research, educational
workshops, publications, and outreach, the Hinduja Center seeks to foster
an environment in which research scholars can pursue the contributions of
Indic cultures to human civilization, while investigating how those
contributions may advance solutions to problematic issues present in many
of our cultures today, such as illness, violence, prejudice, and the
decline of our environment. 

Much of the Center's research is channeled through its small working
groups, which draw together scholars with shared concerns and enable them
to advance their research collaboratively.  Currently five working groups
are actively pursuing research centered around the following concerns: 

* Ayurveda and Indic Traditions of Healthcare
* Gender & Traditional Authority in Indic Religions
* Indic Traditions of Conflict Management
* The Exact Sciences in Indic Traditions
* The Relevance of the Veda

For more information about the Hinduja Center and its programs, contact:

Nancy E. Braxton, Coordinator
Dharam Hinduja Indic Research Center
Columbia University
1102 International Affairs Building
New York, NY 10027 USA

telephone: 212-854-5300
fax: 212-854-2802
email: dhirc at columbia.edu
__________________________________________