Jörg Gengnagel Livres

The study of the history of South Asian cartography has long been interpreted based on Western cartographic traditions. Maps of the South Asian subcontinent were assumed to be produced by foreigners – not by South Asians themselves. Maps actually produced in South Asia were neglected as a category in their own right. The present study focuses on the religious cartography of Banaras. It deals with visualizations of the sacred topography of Banaras as represented by various kinds of “maps”, including painted pictorial maps, printed pilgrimage maps and simple spatial charts. The introduction to the volume is followed by a study of the textual background of the studied cartographic material. It then presents a nineteenth century debate on the Pancakroshi procession as a case study on the interrelation of maps, texts and pilgrimage practice. The following section presents the first detailed study of four pilgrimage maps produced during the 18th and 19th century. The volume concludes with extensive indices that provide access to the numerous names of gods, places and temples contained in the studied maps, texts and processions.

Words and Deeds is a collection of articles on rituals in South Asia with a special focus on their texts and context. The volume presupposes that a comprehensive definition of “ritual” does not exist. Instead, the papers in it avoid essentialist definitions, allowing for a possible polythetic definition of the concept to emerge. Papers in this volume include those on Initiation, Pre-Natal Rites, Religious Processions, Royal Consecration, Rituals which mark the commencement of ritual, Rituals of devotion and Vedic sacrifice as well as contributions which address the broader theoretical issues of engaging in the study of ritual texts and ritual practice, both from the etic and the emic perspective. These studies show that any study of the relationship between the text and the context of rituals must also allow for the possibility that different categories of performers can and do subjectively constitute the relationship between their ritual knowledge and ritual practice, between text and context in differing and nuanced ways.

International conference proceedings, 2005, Universitèat Heidelberg.

Der „Tattvaprak a“ des König Bhoja (ca. 11. Jhdt.) bietet eine Ein-führung in die Ontologie des dualistischen Ivaismus. Wirkungsge-schichtlich bedeutsam wurde der Text durch die systematisierende Auslegung in Aghora ivas „Tattvaprak avrtti“ (Mitte 12. Jhdt.). Aghora iva steht in der Tradition dualistischer Exegeten des aiva Siddhnta und hat den tamilischen aiva Siddhnta beeinflußt. Seine Auslegung des „Tattvaprak a“ führt eine strikte Trennung zwischen Geist und Materie (m y ) durch. Dies bewirkt u. a. eine vom Grund-text abweichende Interpretation des tattva-Schemas und der akti-Konzeption; der gesamte Kommentar stellt in kohärenter Form Ag-hora ivas ivaitische Theologie vor. Das Werk besteht aus einer Einführung in Lehrtradition, Textüberlieferung und Forschungsstand, einer Studie der Aussagen in der „Tatt-vaprak avrtti“ sowie den Übersetzungen von Bhojas des „Tatt-vapra-k a“ und Aghora ivas Kommentar.