Of Death and Birth

Schuler, Barbara:
Of Death and Birth : Icakkiyamman, a Tamil Goddess, in Ritual and Story with a Film on DVD by the Author / Barbara Schuler. - Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 2009. - XIV, 501 S. + DVD - (Ethno-Indology ; 8)
ISBN 978-3-447-05844-5
EUR 98,00
-- Angekündigt für Mai 2009 --

Beschreibung
Scholars of popular Hindu religion in India have always been fascinated by oral texts and rituals, but surprisingly only few attempts have as yet been made to analyse the relationship between rituals and texts systematically. This book contributes to the filling of this gap. Focusing on the dynamics of a local (non-Brahmanical) ritual, its modular organisation and inner logic, the interaction between narrative text and ritual, and the significance of the local versus translocal nature of the text in the ritual context, the study provides a broad range of issues for comparison. It demonstrates that examining texts in their context helps to understand better the complexity of religious traditions and the way in which ritual and text are programmatically employed. The author offers a vivid description of a hitherto unnoticed ritual system, along with the first translation of a text called the Icakkiyamman-Katai (IK). Composed in the Tamil language, the IK represents a substantially longer and embellished form of a core versio which probably goes as far back as the seventh century C.E. Unlike the classical source, this text has been incorporated into a living tradition, and is being constantly refashioned. A range of text versions have been encapsulated in the form of a conspectus, which will shed light on the text’s variability or fixity and will add to our knowledge of bardic creativity. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
List of Illustrations. xi
Conventions. xiii
Preface. xv
1. Prolegomena. 1
PART ONE: TEXTS
2. The Text Material. 7
3. Tracing the Name Nīli throughout Tamil Literature. 27
4. An Introduction to the Story of Icakkiyamman. 57
5. A Critical Edition and an Annotated Translation of the Icakkiyamman Katai (N1). 63
PART TWO: INTERPRETING THE TEXT
6. Notes on Major Themes in the Icakkiyamman Katai. 221
PART THREE: THE LIVING RITUAL CONTEXT
7. A Living Tradition: An Introduction to the Context of the Icakkiyamman Katai. 233
8. Ethnographic Notes on the Ritual Context of the koṭai Festival of Palavūr Icakki. 271
9. A Ritual System Observed. 281
10. The Relationship between Text and Ritual. 341
FINAL CONCLUSIONS. 345
Appendices. 349
   Appendix A: A Tabular Summary of the Ritual Sequence. 349
   Appendix B: A Tabular Comparison of Text Versions by Topic. 359
   Appendix C: The Encyclopaedic Apparatus: The 'Complete' Icakki katai. 361
List of Abbreviations / Table of Signs. 477
Glossary. 479
References. 481
Index. 495
DVD: Of Death and Birth

Autorin
BARBARA SCHULER studierte Indologie (klassische und moderne Sprachen), mit Schwerpunkt Tamilistik, indische Religionsgeschichte und Ethnologie an den Universitäten Heidelberg (Südasien-Institut), Madurai und Chennai (Südindien), Hamburg und an der Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ihr besonderes Interesse gilt Ritual- und Textstudien in lokalen südindischen Traditionen, insbesondere der Beziehung und Interaktion zwischen Ritual und Text. Ein weiteres Interessengebiet sind Kontinuitäten bzw. Diskontinuitäten in der Tamil-Literatur, sowie Visuelle Anthropologie. Zentrum für Buddhismuskunde, Universität Hamburg.

Quellen: Harrassowitz Verlag; Deutsche Nationalbibliothek; Buchhandel.de; Publikations-Ankündigung, Mailing-Liste "Indology", 10. April 2009.