ma thesis / tantric texts on a gh oras ādhanā

Tue Jul 3 15:30:07 UTC 2012

Dear All,

This newly released documentary film may be of interest to those seeking materials on Aghorī sādhus:

http://www.der.org/films/lover-and-beloved.html

Warning: there is some rather gruesome footage of cannibalism!

All the best,

Jim

On 29 Jun 2012, at 17:02, Astrid Zotter wrote:

> Dear Francois Voegeli, dear members of the list,
>  
> Colleagues have forwarded your request to me and I allow myself to use the list access of my wife for a reply and a related request of mine.
>  
> Unfortunately, there is very little material available on Aghorīs in Nepal. I am only aware of some scattered notions, e.g. Axel Michaels (“Der Hinduismus”, Munich: Beck, 1998) mentions the Aghorī ascetic Pagalānanda who lived at the cremation ground close to the Paśupatināth temple in Deopatan. For Northern India, though, the situation is different: while in the accounts of the colonial administration the Aghorīs are stereotypically depicted as a public nuisance (cp. Balfour 1897, Barrow 1893, Crooke 1896, 1908), more recent research aimed at drawing a more differentiated picture. (American) Social Anthropologists worked mainly in Banaras on the tradition of Bābā Kīnārām Aghorī and its social reforms under Avadhūt Bhagvān Rām (which – at least from hearsay – had an impact on some Nepalese Aghorīs too). See e.g.
>  
> Jonathan P. Parry.  “The Aghori Ascetics of Benares” In: Burghard, R. et al. (ed.): Indian Religion. London, 51-78, 1985. 
> Roxanne Gupta. The Politics of Heterodoxy and the Kinarami Ascetics of Banaras (unpubl. PhD diss., Syracuse University, 1993)
> -“The Kīnā Rāmī. Aughaṛs and Kings in the Age of Cultural Contact”. In: Lorenzen, David N. (ed.) Bhakti Religion in Northern India. Albany, 133-142.
> Ron Barrett. Aghor Medicine. Pollution, Death, and Healing in Northern India. Berkeley, 2008.
>  
> The works mentioned focus on different aspects of the Aghor tradition in its modern social context and contain only little information about the history of the movement or its literature. Both still deserve to be properly studied. Some more details on Kīnārām (and other Aghorī or Aughaṛ of his or of related traditions) and his literary work can be gathered from Indian publications, for example, Dharmendra Brahmacārī Śāstrīs Santmat kā Sarbhaṅg-Sampradāy (Paṭnā, 1953). Last but not least, over the last decades the Kīnārāmīs themselves have been publishing many pamphlets and books about their tradition.
>  
> In case you read German, I could send you my unpublished MA paper “Die Domestizierung der Aghorīs: Kīnārām und Gītāvalī” (Univ. Leipzig, 2004), which deals with the historical background of the Aghorīs and the hagiographical accounts on Kīnārām and contains a tentative translation of the Gītāvalī, one of the collections of poems said to be composed by Kīnārām.
>  
> Since I recently started working on a paper about aghor ritual (or, more precisely, on “ritual denial” taking the Kīnārāmī as an example), may I add a question to the list members on my own behalf? To my knowledge, not much has been done on the tantric texts related to aghorasādhanā, which is only rarely referred to by the Kīnārāmīs themselves (an exception is Rāmdulār Siṃha et al. (ed.): Aghora granthāvaliḥ. Collected Works of Aghora Manuscripts. Varanasi, 1986). As I did not touch the topic for several years I might not be up to date. So if someone could provide further information on the tantric tradition on aghora I would be very thankful.
>  
> Best regards
>  
> Christof Zotter
>  
> zotter at sai.uni-heidelberg.de
>  
> Research Fellow
> Collaborative Research Centre 619 Ritual Dynamics
> Heidelberg University
> South Asia Institute
> Department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology
> Im Neuenheimer Feld 330
> D-69120 Heidelberg
> 
> 
> Von: Francois Voegeli <francois.voegeli at GMAIL.COM>
> An: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk 
> Gesendet: 10:46 Freitag, 29.Juni 2012
> Betreff: Re: [INDOLOGY] ma thesis
> 
> Dear Patrick, Dear Members of the list,
> 
> I would appreciate locating that reference too. During a recent fieldtrip to Nepal, we met in Devghat a very interesting member of this community. The chief of our expedition has been doing some fieldwork with the aghoris  for some time, and this meeting will probably be mentioned in our report. 
> The personality of this aghori very much impressed me, and I became interested in this community I heard of, but never met closely. Any information on them would then be welcomed.
> 
> I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the people on this list who answered my question posted some time ago on p(a)uNDarIka (Mr/Dr/Prof. Eltschinger, Houben, Gengnagel, Salomon, Goldman). Actually, this question stemmed from a project I am pursuing in Lausanne, and which is starting to give some interesting results on the history of Vedic Ritual. I will post them on a website asap and advise the community. Thanks again.
> 
> F. Voegeli
> 
>  
> 
> 
>> Dear List,
>> 
>> I would appreciate any help in locating a copy of this MA thesis.
>> 
>> Hovedside > Samfunnsvitenskapelige fakultet > Sosialantropologisk institutt > Sosialantropologi
>> Forfatter:	Strøm, Herman
>> Tittel:	Approaching the Aghori
>> Undertittel:	spiritual transactions and social capital in a North-Indian religious community
>> Publisert år:	2006
>> Dokumenttype:	Masteroppgave
>> Språk:	Engelsk
>> BIBSYS:	BIBSYS
>> Permanent lenke:	http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-12926
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Here is the link 
>> 
>> -- 
>> All the best,
>> 
>> Patrick McCartney  
>> 
>> PhD Candidate - Anthropology
>> School of Culture, History & Language
>> College of the Asia-Pacific
>> Rm 4.30 Baldessin Precinct Building
>> The Australian National University
>> Canberra, Australia, 0200
>> 
>> skype - psdmccartney
>> W- +61 2 6125 4323
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfpCc8G_cUw&feature=related
>> 
> 
> Dr François Voegeli
> 
> Senior FNS Researcher
> Institut d'Archéologie et des Sciences de l'Antiquité
> Anthropole, bureau 4018
> Faculté des Lettres
> Université de Lausanne
> CH-1015 Lausanne
> 
> 
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20120703/36fd69ff/attachment.htm>