Viṣṇu's Children: Prenatal life-cycle rituals in South India

Ute Hüsken; Will Sweetman

doi:10.11588/hasp.1218

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Hüsken, Ute: Viṣṇu’s Children: Prenatal life-cycle rituals in South India, 翻译 Will Sweetman, Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, 2023 (Ethno-Indology: Heidelberg Studies in South Asian Rituals, 卷 9). https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1218

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https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1218

ISBN 978-3-948791-68-1 (PDF)

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05/04/2023

The print edition was published in 2009 by Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden. ISBN 978-3-447-05844-4

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Ute Hüsken, Will Sweetman (Übers.)

Viṣṇu's Children

Prenatal life-cycle rituals in South India

Ethno-Indology: Heidelberg Studies in South Asian Rituals

The Vaikhānasas, a group of Brahmanic priests in the Viṣṇu temples of south India, can look back on a long and turbulent history, that is characterized by the effort of claiming their status against rivalling priests. Central to this monograph is a controversy, ongoing for centuries, as to what makes a person eligible to perform the rituals in Viṣṇu temples: does birth or an initiation create the ideal intermediary between the god and humans? Since the 14th century CE the discussions in the relevant Sanskrit texs centre around the question of whether the Vaikhānasas priests must undergo an initiation including a branding on the upper arms, or whether their particular prenatal life-cycle ritual viṣṇubali makes them eligible to perform temple ritual. As hereditary temple priests the Vaikhānasas’ own stance is explicit: they are Viṣṇu’s own children, preordained for temple service already before birth. In addition to the textual perspective, three instances of local conflicts from the 19th/20th centuries about the question of whether the Vaikhānasas require an initiation are analysed in their contexts. Furthermore, three examples of present-day performances of the viṣṇubali ritual are presented and interpreted in the light of the relation between text and performance.

The films, which were originally published on a DVD accompanying the book, are archived in the heidICON multimedia database and can be viewed via the following links:

Introduction (length 08:10 min)
Full ritual (length 28:28 min)
Prepatory rites - Formal declaration (03:51 min)
Prepatory rites - Vitalisation of the sacrificial fire (06:45)
Main offerings - Pūjā for Viṣṇu's twelve forms (11:09 min)
Main offerings - Offering into the fire (09:01 min)
Main offerings - Viṣṇu marks the unborn child (09:53 min)
Atonement for ritual flaws (03:46 min)
Concluding rites (04:43)
Credits

Ute Hüsken is Professor of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology) at the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg. Her main areas of research are Buddhist and Hindu Studies, Ritual and Festival Studies as well as Gender Studies.

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Title

Contents

5-6

Preface

7-12

Introduction

13-22

1. The Daśavidhahetunirūpaṇa

23-52

2. Rituals in the Daśavidhahetunirūpaṇa

53-142

3. Branding for Vaikhānasas in the 19th and 20th Centuries

143-160

4. Saṃskāra performance in the early 21st century

161-256

5. Variation in life-cycle rituals and the stability of tradition

257-272

Sanskrit texts

273-278

Secondary literature

279-294

Appendix 1

Tabular view of six Guruparamparās

295-300

Appendix 2

Text of the DVD booklet

301-308

Appendix 3

Text of the "Introduction" to the DVD

309-312

Abbreviations

313-314

Index

315-322

Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing