booknotice (occasioned by Civility on the List: "heresy" discussion)

[Jan E.M. Houben]

how did "hairesis" -- originally a rather neutral concept (as Ven Tantra and
Stephen Hodge pointed out) --  get its heavy connotations of terror and
reprobation? Its literal meaning is simply and (in contrast with these
connotations) beautifully just 'taking', 'choice', 'adopting'.
One of the decisive periods in the European genesis of the concept of
"heresy" was the early middle ages, and one of the formative influences in
that period came "from the east". A book came recently on my desk which is
rich in material on this period; because of the above and for some of its
sections it may be of interest to readers of this list and to anyone
interested in comparative history:

Before the Burning Times: Rediscovering the Lives, Beliefs and Deaths of
Witches, Pagans, and Heretics. Written and Illustrated by Mark Chapman. Ca.
880 pp. Rus Publishing, P.O. Box 471, Altona, Victoria, Australia 3028.
www.ruspublishing.com.au

The book deals with an enormous amount of data related to the folk
migrations of Persian and Asiatic Easterners into Mediaeval Eastern (esp.
the area of present day Russia) and Western Europe. In the words of the
author, p. 806: "Much of Before the Burning Times examines and recreates the
era of the Magian presence in Mediaeval Rus', the conversion of that country
to Christianity, and the role the ensuing exodus of Pagan Magi and dualist
sorcerers played in the re-emergence of magic and heresy in Western Europe
during the Middle Ages." A few chapters would be directly relevant to
readers of this list: Chapter I: The Beginnings contains sections on "The
Indo-Europeans", "The Aryan Hordes". Chapter V: The White Rites, sections on
"The coronation of a king", "Soma (Sima) rituals", "Asvamedha".  The way
data from different disciplines and areas are brought together is often
inspiring and stimulating. Yet, even at this stage of quickly looking at
several passages some serious criticisms come to my mind. The way the
concepts of race and nation are used to bring
order in the mass of data are not very convincing. A theory of Aryan hordes
conquering India is adopted which is nowadays accepted by hardly anyone. The
author would have been on safer grounds if he took as his startingpoint e.g.
The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and
Ethnicity, edited by George Erdosy, Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 1995,
rather than Mallory's by now somewhat dated book In search of the
Indo-Europeans (1989). The chronology of the Vedas' oral and written
tradition is occasionally fantastic and appears without proper supportive
references on p. 489: "The Vedas are said to have been held in oral form for
some 3,000 years before the Aryan Hindu priests finally recorded them on
birch papyri once they acquired the use of brahmi Asoka sanskrit [sic!],
which was itself influenced by Semitic scripts, ingeniously adapted for
Indo-Aryan use. This occurred in India c. 700 BC", is supported with a
reference to Encyclopedia Britannica (no page or volume indicated). On p.
259, however, we read: "The Rig Veda, Yajur Veda and Sama Veda texts of the
Indo-Aryans are thought to have originated sometime between 1200-900 BC . .
. " with a reference to O Flaherty, The Rigveda, p. 119-137. On pp. 260 ff.
the Soma-plant is identified as the European Mountain Ash or Rowan tree
(Sorbus Aucuparia), whereas the Haoma is distinctly identified as the Golden
Ash or Fraxinus Excelsior Aurea (p. 279), in my view on very flimsy grounds,
and without even mentioning one of the major theories among Indologists for
several decades which identifies Soma/Haoma as Ephedra (the Amonita muscaria
theory is mentioned). From the point of view of Indo-european and
Indological studies the book is rather vague in its references and
arguments, but it does bring together interesting pieces of information
(which one would have to check in the
cited sources before trusting them and building on them).
One of the author's main conclusions is that the European pagans have strong
ties with the Persian Magi (cf. p. 806). I thought this was already known
(some early indologist, if I am not mistaken, linked the "thread" which the
Inquisition regarded as one of the signs of an accused being "pagan" with
the initiatory thread of the Zoroastrians, which in turn is related to the
thread of the Indian upanayana)
although so far no attempt was made to bring together so many relevant data
esp. from Eastern Europe and Russia.

Jan E.M. Houben,
Research Fellow of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Kern Institute, Leiden University,
P.O. Box 9515, NL-2300 RA   Leiden
jhouben at RULLET.LeidenUniv.NL