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E-book Love in the Time of Scholarship : The Bhagavata Purana in Indian Intellectual History

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Penilaian

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If you walk into the Ra?jara?j??varan ?iva temple in Ta?ipparamba, in the Ka???r district of northern Kerala, you will see many standard features: lush green lawns, old stone architecture, the occasional elephant munching on grass, low tiled roofs housing an array of deities that surround the main shrine. Having paid your respects to the various spirits and goddesses around the periphery, you proceed to the namask?ra ma??apam, the plat-form of obeisance, placed before the sanctum. Here things get a little strange. Before peering into the sanctum, you walk over to the large granite sacrificial altar, the valiya balikkallu, a few feet from the entrance. Take a close look at the two figures carved into the niches on the east side of the decorative stone. One is ?iva as Dak?i?a?m?rti, the silent teacher, seated with one leg crossed over the other under a banyan tree. Across from him, however, is a little boy playing the flute, legs crossed in a dancing motion. Other oddities remind you of Kr???a as well. You witness the abhi??kam, the lustration ceremony, only to see that ?iva is not worshiped with bilva leaves but with tulsi, sacred to Vi??u. A loquacious old man seizes on your puzzled look and tells you the legend of the time when the goddess Lak?m? came to pay her respects. She entered the shrine only to see that ?iva had disguised himself as her husband, the four- armed Vi??u. When she turned to leave, she found that the door-keeper had closed the gates. She was able to slip out only when Vi??u dis-tracted ?iva by dancing before him in the guise of his own son Kuma?ra. Some people still call the place Lak?m? City.Shaking your head, you walk down the road to the Tr?ccambaram Kr???a temple. Here, surely, the iconography makes no mistake. The wood panels above the shrine are adorned with stories from the Bh?gavata Pur??a. But then the same uncle, eager to share unsolicited information, sidles up behind you and says that this Kr???a is in raudra bh?va, a violent mood, having just slain the elephant Kuvalaya?p??a before taking on his evil uncle Ka?sa. To you this sounds much less like the sweet, seductive Kr???a of the Bh?gavata and more like the fierce Bhairava, a criminal god for demon devotees.1 The incorrigible uncle points to an old tree in the compound that used to be frequented by an aty??ram?, often understood in a general sense as a celibate renunciant, but still the term of art in these parts for a ?aiva ascetic who de-liberately flouts caste boundaries. First a ?iva who is not quite a ?iva. Then a Kr???a who is not quite a Kr???a. What is going on? And why won’t Uncle leave you alone?

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

210.1 VEN l

Penerbit

USA : Oxford University Press., 2024

Deskripsi Fisik

257 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9780197776636

Klasifikasi

210.1

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Theory of Philosophy of Religion

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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