[INDOLOGY] Ear

Tue Nov 1 04:19:28 UTC 2016

What Prof. Patrick J Olivelle was asking for was a textual reference. If it
is the question of the details of the actual ritual, its altogether
different big story.

1. Touching the ears is not just a ritual as part of worship of a deity. It
is a gesture as part of daily speech adopted into the ritual. In north
India, it is a common practice even today to pull one's own ear with one's
own hand infinitesimally slightly down to indicate 'I apologise'. This has
many complex nuances including those of expressions in romance in which
case the gesture is made along with a mischievous smile.

2. This gesture has a variation of criss-crossing the hands to hold the
lower tip of the ear of the left ear with the right hand and vice versa.
This is similar to the criss-crossing of hands by a Vaidika male for self
introduction with gotra etc. But the semiotics here is that of obedience
rather than asking for forgiveness. The gesture too is little different .
In the self introduction the ear is closed with the back of the palm with
the tips of the fingers facing upwards.

3. In south India, the variation of criss-crossing the hands to hold the
lower tip of the ear of the left ear with the right hand and vice versa is
part of the ritual of considered to be typical of Ganesha worship and is
performed even during the briefest of Darshan of Ganesha. But here, this
gesture is essentially part of sit-stand series expressing asking for
forgiveness.

4. In any case, touching the ground is not part of these gestures or
rituals employing them.

5. What probably is being viewed as touching the ground is sAshTAnga
namaskAra which is an expression of surrender rather than asking for
forgiveness. These two rituals are different from each other.

6. To show that surrender ritual and ritual for asking for forgiveness are
different, I am providing this link
<https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1640465872858615&id=1616344738604062>
to
a general popular description of a Devi-worship ritual:

which has

15) क्षमायाचना :-

आवाहनं न जानामि न जानामि विसर्जनम् ।
पूजां चैव न जानामि क्षम्यतां परमेश्वरि ॥
मंत्रहीनं क्रियाहीनं भक्तिहीनं सुरेश्वरि ।
यत्पूजितं मया देवि परिपूर्ण तदस्तु मे ॥३॥
पापोहं पापकर्माहं पापात्मा पाप संभव: ॥
त्राहि मां पर्मेशानी सर्वपापहरा भव॥४॥
अपराधसहस्त्राणि क्रियंतेऽहर्निशं मया ।
दासोऽयमिति मां मत्वा क्षमस्व परमेश्वरी ॥

16)आत्मसमर्पण मंत्र :- एक आचमनी जल लेकर निम्न मंत्र पढ़कर सामने पात्र मे छोड़
दं -
इत: पूर्वं प्राणबुद्धिदेह धर्माधिकारतो जाग्रतस्वप्न सुषुप्त्य- वस्थासु मनसा
वाचा कर्मणा हस्ताभ्यां पद्भ्यामुदरेण शिश्ना यत् कृतं यत् स्मृतं यदुक्तं
तत्सर्वं ब्रह्मार्पणं भवतु, मां मदीयं सकलमाद्या कालीपदाम्भो अर्पयामि ॐ
तत्सत् |( महानिर्वाण तंत्र)

7. The gesture of pulling the lower tip of the ear with or without
criss-crossed hands has its origin in the mild punishment method of
pinching the ear. This gesture has the semiotics of self-punishment. Series
of sit-stand movements too has a similar punishment to self-punishment
'derivation'.

8. Rotating around oneself is also part of  क्षमायाचना. But it has a
different semiotic 'derivation'.

Thanks for your patience.

On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 12:54 AM, Herman Tull <hermantull at gmail.com> wrote:

> There is a lovely (short) scene in the newly released documentary,
> Gurukulam (http://www.gurukulamfilm.com/) that shows this ritual sequence
> of events (bowing to the floor, touching of the ears).
>
> Herman Tull
>
> On Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 11:37 AM, stella sandahl <ssandahl at sympatico.ca>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Madhav and Patrick,
>> I understood that touching the ground first is also part of the "ritual",
>> not just the ears.
>> Best to all
>> Stella
>>
>> On Oct 30, 2016, at 9:15 AM, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Dear Patrick,
>>
>>      Take a look at the attached page (28) from Lanman's Sanskrit Reader,
>> line 2 from bottom.
>>
>> Madhav
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 9:01 AM, Olivelle, J P <jpo at austin.utexas.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> A colleague asked me about the practice of holding one’s ear, especially
>>> in asking forgiveness. Are there textual sources for it? I have seen this
>>> practice in texts, but cannot find them right now. If, off the top of your
>>> heads, you can find one, do let me know. Thanks.
>>>
>>> Patrick
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>>
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>
>
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-- 
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )

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