Hi Jonathan,

I agree that divining is the primary focus, but if you go through the entire list, some of the items (e.g., bhūtavijjā,
perhaps "conjuring ghosts") seem to be leaning towards what we think of as witchcraft, which of course is a somewhat vague term.

best,
Matthew

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études, émérite
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago



From: Jonathan Silk <kauzeya@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 4, 2022 8:10 AM
To: Matthew Kapstein <mkapstei@uchicago.edu>
Cc: DIEGO LOUKOTA SANCLEMENTE <diegoloukota@ucla.edu>; Paolo Eugenio Rosati <paoloe.rosati@gmail.com>; Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] witchcraft info
 
I  well be  wrong (it happens alarmingly often) but my sense is that the Pāli term generally (always?) refers to fortune telling and the like, although I could see that this might in some ways bleed into "witchcraft" for some. But in India there are certainly ideas about beings who manipulate reality in other ways ("sorcerers") and I do not think that this is to be connnected with tiracchānavijjā.
Jonathan

On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 2:56 PM Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Although not expressly involving persecution, the condemnation of "base arts" (tiracchānavijjā) as "wrong livelihood" (micchājīva) in the Pali Digha Nikaya (1.21-28 in Walshe's translation) may be worth considering. Many of the "arts" explicitly mentioned are frequently associated with "witchcraft." There are no doubt injunctions in the various Vinaya-s as well.

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études, émérite
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago



From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> on behalf of DIEGO LOUKOTA SANCLEMENTE <diegoloukota@ucla.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 4, 2022 7:26 AM
To: Paolo Eugenio Rosati <paoloe.rosati@gmail.com>
Cc: Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] witchcraft info
 

  Dear Paolo,
 
  Albeit short and less descriptive than we would wish, the three 3rd-4th Century Gāndhārī documents from Niya that mention the persecution and summary execution of witches, numbers 58, 63, and 248, are the one instance I can think of (you will find the texts in Boyer, A.M., E. J. Rapson, E. Senart, and P. S. Noble, 1920–29, Kharoṣṭhī Inscriptions Discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in Chinese Turkestan (Oxford: Clarendon Press), and Thomas Burrow's English translation in his 1940 A Translation of the Kharoṣṭhi Documents from Chinese Turkestan (James G. Forlong Fund. London: The Royal Asiatic Society), available online at https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/niyadocts.html).
  The tricky part here is to what extent one can consider Central Asian Shanshan/Nuava to be Indic/South Asian. My own take here—but there is a variety of opinion—is that it was a settler-colonial society in which Gandhāran culture informed the discourse of a mestizo elite, à la Latin America.
  The term khakhorda or khakhorna used for "witch" is particularly fascinating with its presumed Iranian etymology (~Avestan ka-xvarəδa). Given that the indigenous people of the kingdom were probably Iranian speakers, it is likely that the "witchcraft" reflected indigenous practices. I look forward to seeing if other people have more references.

  namaskaromi,
 
  Diego

 

 


On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 12:42 AM Paolo Eugenio Rosati via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Indologists,

I am wondering if any pre-colonial written source on witchcraft/magic persecution in South Asia exists.

Sincerely,
Paolo

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Paolo E. Rosati
PhD in Asian and African Studies
Mobile/Whatsapp: (+39) 338 73 83 472
Skype: paoloe.rosati

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J. Silk
Leiden University
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
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