[INDOLOGY] tapasya

Wed Aug 28 21:25:14 UTC 2024

 Greetings Howard and All,
Recall the related example of the tapas of Sita in the Ramayana. I copy and paste the following passage from my new introduction to Hinduism (Baltutis 2024: 106): 
Kidnapped by Ravan and taken captive to his capital of Lanka, she contrasts his awful behavior with that of the righteous Ram (dharma-atman), reminding Ravan of (and threatening him with) both her shri and her shakti. She tells Ravan:
It is only because I have not been so ordered by Rama and because I wish topreserve intact the power of my austerities (tapas) that I do not reduce youto ashes with my own blazing power (tejas), for that is what you deserve.(5.20.20 [Goldman and Sutherland Goldman 2021: 469])
In this threat, Sita combines social and cultural categories that are often kept separate. As a woman concerned with doing her wifely duties, she saves the demise of Ravan for her husband Ram, a warrior, king, and avatar of Vishnu who regularly relieves the earth of its burden of demonic evil. At the same time, however, she has accumulated through her performance of domestic duties the tapas and tejas that male renouncers typically earn through powerful yogic practices.
Best,Michael

Michael Baltutis
Professor, South Asian Religions
Chair, Department of Anthropology, Global Religions and Cultures
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
Book Review Editor, International Journal of Hindu Studies
What is Hinduism?: A Student's Introduction
The Festival of Indra

    On Wednesday, August 28, 2024 at 10:08:57 AM CDT, Michaels, Prof. Dr. Axel via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:  

I guess you know the following study (in German): Monika Shee:tapas und tapasvin in der erzählenden Partien des Mahābhārata. Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Inge Wezler, 1986.

It’s a detailed philological study. Pp. 204-14 (“tapas,yoga, saṃnyāsa” and ”tapas und Magie”) seem to be especially instructive for your question. If you need a scan, don’t hesitate to let it me know.

Best wishes,

Axel / Michaels

From:INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of "indology at list.indology.info" <indology at list.indology.info>
Reply to: Patrick Olivelle <jpo at austin.utexas.edu>
Date: Wednesday, 28. August 2024 at 16:12
To: Matthew Kapstein <mattkapstein at proton.me>
Cc: "indology at list.indology.info" <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] tapasya

There is also the book by Walter O. Kaelber, Tapta Mārga. 

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Tapta Marga: Asceticism and Initiation in Vedic India

amazon.com
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On Aug 28, 2024, at 3:20 AM, Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

Hi Howard,  

For some reason, I think that Heinrich Zimmer,

may have written about this, but I’m away from my library and can’t recall exactly where. Maybe Philosophies of India. He was a Schopenhauerian, which would make good sense here, as the problem of the autonomy or heteronomy of the will seems clearly central to the topic that interests you. 

good luck 

Matthew 

Sent from Proton Mail for iOS

On Wed, Aug 28, 2024 at 05:29, Howard Resnick via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Scholars,

Within various genres of Sanskrit literature, perhaps especially itihāsa-purāṇa, we find a pervasive belief that tapasya — serious austerity -- bestows power on the performer, either directly or through the agency of a Deva, Ṛṣi, or other superior being. The examples are almost innumerable.

I’m trying to explore this claim about the power of tapasya. On the empirical side, one can speak of the power of mental discipline and detachment from the body, etc. But of course empirically, there is nothing like the supernatural results obtained by serious ascetics in the ancient literature.

One common apologetic is to attribute or assign such powers to the previous three yugas, with the claim that those powers fail in Kali-yuga.

I bring this up because I am working on a reconstruction of the famous Mahābhārata story of Ambā who performed unimaginable tapasya, and then, as a result, took birth as Śikhaṇḍī and enabled the killing of Bhīṣma at Kurukṣetra.

The facile explanation of course is to invoke the notion of pre-scientific mythology. I am trying to take a more cautious approach. Of course tapasya as a source of power intersects the notion of attaining yoga-siddhis, a process in which tapasya is also heavily involved.

I bring this up in a heuristic, exploratory way and would be grateful for any observations, insights, or theories about this, especially the link between severe self-abnegation and power.

Thanks in advance!

Howard

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