Search results for " hinduism"
showing 7 items of 7 documents
Vivere come donne in India: l'insolito genere delle comunità hijra
2021
The study aims to investigate the history and practices that characterize hijra communities in India in order to shed light on the specific reality of these heterogeneous communities of individuals who are placed outside the heteronormative identity codes, but who have historically been included within Indian society, with very specific roles, thanks to the elaboration of the notion of tṛtīya prakṛti (third gender). However, historical events, especially since the British colonial period, have made the position of hijras increasingly marginal: the various forms of discrimination and violence, which take place within the family of origin, the health system, and society in general, were furth…
Un Churel Mandir in Gujarat. Note sulla diffusione delle rappresentazioni della figura della strega in India
2021
The churels are figures of the folk imagery of a vast area of South Asia. They, commonly identified with witches, are spirits of women who died during pregnancy or childbirth, and who return to the world of the living, possessing them. The aim of this study is to provide an interpretative analysis of the representations of the churels and of the ambiguous climate that has been created around these figures in recent decades in India. A reflection on the power of the representations of the churels throughout history up to present-day India could be considered a key to penetrating the dense network of relationships and reinventions, but also of divergences and contradictions, sometimes with tr…
In the footsteps of the cows The ritual of gavāmayana between ancient and contemporary India
2022
Codified in classical Vedic times (8th-4th century BCE), the gavāmayana (‘the cow path’) was a year-long ritual session (sāmvatsarikasattra), which accompanied the succession of months of the Vedic religious calendar and ended with the celebration of mahāvrata (‘the great vow’) during the winter solstice. Marking the conclusion of the arduous ritual journey, it celebrated rebirth and consecrated the beginning of the new year. The book investigates gavāmayana based on a philological analysis of the texts and on a historical-religious and anthropological perspective, focusing on ancient India and some contemporary practices. The mahāvrata, in particular, seems to preserve the memory of very a…
Ragazze folli di miele, Il miele e la celebrazione della parola nel rito del mahāvrata
2021
In these pages, we will explore the rite of mahāvrata, a Vedic rite connected to the celebration of the new year, from a study perspective aimed at the performative dimension. Specifically, I will focus on the final scene of the rite, because it is only at this moment that the actors and the ritual dynamics compose a particular scenario, evocative of fertility, in which some maidens, the ritual fire, and honey are the protagonists. The maidens are called upon to dance around the mārjālīya hearth and to intone a chant in which they repeat the word madhu ("honey") in an increasingly frenzied manner. The words spoken, in some cases meaningless formulas, reveal a unitary sense and hint at the f…
Streghe per Covid. Le accuse di stregoneria in India durante la pandemia di Coronavirus
2020
This survey aims to present an initial assessment of the incidence of the phenomenon of witch-hunting in India during 2020, at a particularly dramatic historical moment marked by the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic. The data are partial, but indicative, and have been gathered through daily monitoring of the main Indian newspapers in English and some newspapers (national and local) in Hindi. In India, the belief in witches is a phenomenon that is linked to specific elements both of Hindu cults, whose devotional expressions and folkloric elements are rooted in the Vedic texts, and the belief systems of some indigenous communities. Indeed, although influenced by the expressions of the Hindu …
Divinità e colori nell'universo vedico
2008
Color symbolism in Vedic Deities
Jēzus lūgšana hesihasmā un mantra tantriskajā hinduismā: salīdzinošā analīze
2016
Maģistra darbs „Jēzus lūgšana hesihasmā un mantra tantriskajā hinduismā: salīdzinošā analīze” atspoguļo salīdzinājumu starp Jēzus lūgšanu hesihasma tradīcijā un mantru tantriskajā hinduismā. Darba mērķis ir noteikt kopīgos un atšķirīgos elementus šajās divās reliģiskajās praksēs. Darbs aptver divas atšķirīgas reliģiskās sistēmas, cenšoties atklāt tajās līdzīgas idejas par cilvēka dabu un tās galējo mērķi. Darba uzdevumi: hesihasma tradīcijas raksturošana, Jēzus lūgšanas prakses konteksta noteikšana, tantriskā hinduisma pamatprincipu apzināšana un mantras nozīmes tajā atspoguļošana. Par savienojošo elementu tiek izvirzīts šajās tradīcijās klātesošais antropoloģiskais skatījums. Kopīgais motī…