Search results for "Vedic Studie"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
Le molteplici risonanze di Vāc
2021
introduction to the publication of the works of the conference held on 25 and 26 June in Palermo
Una forma leggiadra. Simboli sessuali dell'altalena in India nel rito del mahavrata e in alcune pratiche contemporanee
2022
In the grammar of rituals described in Vedic texts, the swing was an object whose meanings referred to the propitiation of fertility and solar symbolism. Although its use remains in various contemporary festive contexts, its meaning has been differently defined. By analyzing the passages from works belonging to the ancient religious literature, this article examines the description of the swing’s construction and the rite performed on it by the officiant named hotr. Such an approach allows us to focus on the symbolic elements related to the swing in one of the focal points of the sequence of the mahavrata ceremony. Through a diachronic investigation and considering the data from the compara…
Queer types in ancient India. The categorisation and representation of non-heterosexual individuals in some passages of Vedic literature
2022
Vedic culture has used a variety of terms to denote male individuals who do not fit within the canons of the heterosexual norm. Often, in the past, Vedic philology has provided homologating translations of these terms from outdated cultural constructs and imagery, which have often reduced differences to univocal meanings. In order to understand non-heteronormative sexualities and sexual practices, I have adopted in this study an approach based on the idea of the construction of the concept of gender and which aims to describe behaviour beyond definitions. The analysis of the semantic and conceptual domains identified by the different terms within the Vedic texts, as well as of the history o…
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…
Il corpo della parola. Inni, poemi e performance nell'India antica e contemporanea
2021
Nella storia culturale dell’India la riflessione sulla Parola e sui suoi molteplici significati attraversa ambiti e discipline diversi, intersecantisi a loro volta tra loro, nelle riflessioni che riguardano il mito, il rituale, la poesia, la scienza, la storia, il teatro, in una serie incessante di implicazioni e di allusioni che potremmo descrivere come un albero, le cui vertiginose ramificazioni abbracciano un arco di tempo che si estende dal corpus vedico all’India contemporanea. I diversi aspetti e i vari usi della parola investono sia il contesto pubblico sia quello privato, la sfera politica così come quella religiosa, dove performance, dottrine, riti e speculazioni fissano i confini …
Ape in India
2021
The honey bee is mentioned in some ancient Indian religious texts as a symbol of the sacrificial act; it also appears in some myths throughout Indian religious history with meanings partly related to representations of the divine feminine.