Divine Domesticities in Hindu Theistic Traditions. Patricia Dold

Transcription

1 RST 33.1 (2014) 1 5 Religious Studies and Theology (print) ISSN doi: /rsth.v33i1.1 Religious Studies and Theology (online) ISSN Divine Domesticities in Hindu Theistic Traditions Patricia Dold Memorial University of Newfoundland pdold@mun.ca The articles presented here represent a first effort to explore divine domesticities, or domestic relationships among gods and goddesses of Hinduism and the many ways Hindu texts and traditions use these relationships symbolically, theologically, and devotionally. After several years of teaching about Hindu religious traditions, and especially after teaching about the theistic traditions of Hinduism, I had become all too aware of the difficulties many students have with the tremendously rich corpus of sacred narratives, visual representations, theologies, and symbolic interpretations they encounter when first exposed to Hindu Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, and Śākta traditions. To be sure, frameworks from within Hinduism offer some assistance. For example, it is helpful to students to be able to organize data according to their focus on Viṣṇu and his incarnations as Vaiṣṇava, those that focus on Śiva as Śaiva traditions, and those that center on the Goddess as Śākta. But even this framework becomes problematic, since Śiva appears in Vaiṣṇava mythic traditions, for example, the many forms of the Goddess appear everywhere, and frequently Hindu theistic traditions see all deities as individual manifestations of whichever deity is considered supreme. A further complication is the fluidity of the categories human and divine within Hindu traditions. Viṣṇu s avatāras are an obvious illustration here, but so too are the heroes and heroines of Hindu epics, including both classical and folk epics. It gradually dawned on me that family relationships might provide an extremely helpful framework for teaching Hindu theisms. Divine domesticities, I realized, are ubiquitous and have clearly been one important framework for Hindu traditions themselves. Family relationships help explain the connections among deities, whether as husband to wife, parent to child, sibling to sibling. Once we pay attention to the marriage of Śiva to Pārvatī, or Viṣṇu to Lakṣmī, we understand why, for example, the Goddess (or forms of the Goddess) of Śākta traditions appears in Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava narratives, temples, festivals, and theologies (and, Office 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX

2 2 Divine Domesticities in Hindu Theistic Traditions theologically is often viewed as a feminine cosmic principle that complements the masculine). Such domestic roles also contribute to theological understandings of the nature of one or more divine being (a point that emerges clearly from the articles contributed by Austin and Mann). Family or domestic relationships are frequently employed as metaphors used to describe how human worshippers might relate to divine beings or indeed to provide a framework for devotees expression of the emotionally intense experiences in their relationship with a supreme deity. Since Hindu devotees, such as vernacular devotional poets, use such relationships to share their experiences with others, I became convinced that divine domesticities needed to be more fully explored in scholarship. In 2011, I organized conference panels around the theme of divine domesticities in Hinduism in which several colleagues presented papers exploring the theme of family relationships in their specific areas of research expertise. The abstract for these conference panels outlined our collective focus as follows: The papers in these panels are explorations of a hunch: that domestic relationships provide central thematic and structural principles within Hindu sacred narratives and as such, they serve as a foundation for Hindu religious belief and practice. Gods, goddess, divine or semi-divine heroes and heroines, devotees human and otherwise are often connected to each other as spouses or lovers, as siblings, as parents and children. What range of religious significance is then accorded to domestic relationships, to the dharma of family and household, among deities? For all their color and cosmic scope, their high drama and epic heroism, their promise of divine grace for reverent devotion, is it possible that Hinduism s vast traditions of sacred story are fundamentally expressions of the paradigmatic nature of home, marriage, and family? If so, has scholarship duly appreciated the significance of family for Hindu religious traditions? 1 The articles presented in this special issue of Religious Studies and Theology focus either on gods and goddesses of Hinduism (Austin, Mann and Sandness) or on Hindu epic heroes and heroines whose divine or semidivine status is often clear, though in some cases hidden beneath the limitations and frailties of their human nature (Beck and Ford). As scholars of Hinduism, we are all engaged in the study of a living reli- 1. Early drafts of the articles in this issue were presented in these panels during the 2011 meeting of the CSSR (the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion), at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities in Fredericton New Brunswick.

3 Patricia Dold 3 gious tradition and, although the data for the articles in this collection are primarily texts and religious history from before the modern period, we make an effort to be sensitive to the concerns of modern Hindus and to be clear about our goals as scholars who do not practice Hinduism. Further, because these papers focus on family relationships among the gods and goddesses, we want to be as clear as possible about the nature and scope of our work. We are not commenting on the state of actual family relationships in Hindu communities, past or present, and we are aware that the texts we are working with are not literally applied to family relationships or to the day-to-day life of Hindus. We understand that family and family relationships are represented in Hindu religious texts in symbolic ways to express philosophical or theological truths and these truths are not understood to apply to human beings marriages or family relationships. Sometimes, sacred narratives use elements of human life in ways that directly contradict the ideals of Hindu communities, large and small. Sometimes, sacred narratives use elements from human life to uphold cultural and social ideals, but, it is crucial in the academic study of religion to ask, Whose ideals and whose goals are represented here? For the academic study of religion, texts and the ideals they present are examined against specified historical contexts. When those same texts are understood and interpreted in another historical period, the meaning perceived is likely to be different. One way in which all the articles presented here approach Hindu texts in a manner that endeavors to be respectful of the tradition while yet upholding secular academic standards, is by attributing religious continuity as much importance as historical specificity. Rather than, for example, reducing the meaning of one text, or one textual passage solely to its specific historical origin, say the time and place of its composition, all papers here attempt to understand any given text more holistically: how does this passage or even this detail mean within the larger religious whole its tradition places it? Though this was not planned, all five authors here have in fact adopted the kind of approach to Hindu texts recommended by A. K. Ramanujan. He criticizes the scholarly tendency to treat Indian texts as if they were loose-leaf files, rag-bag encyclopedias. He calls on scholars to examine context-sensitive designs such as the connections between a given narrative and its framing dialogue. Such designs, according to Ramanujan, do not aim at unity (in the Aristotelian sense), but they do result in texts that have more than accidental and physical unity as piles of palm leaves tied together to form individual Epics or Purāṇas. Such

4 4 Divine Domesticities in Hindu Theistic Traditions context-sensitive designs, he proposes, lend coherence to Indian narrative texts (Ramanujan 1990, 49). Thus, Christopher Austin s analysis treats the Harivaṃśa, the appendix (khila) of the Mahābhārata, as a text whose primary purpose is to complete or supplement the epic itself, rather than as a random collection of secondary material. This more holistic approach is not only consistent with the Harivaṃśa s description of itself, it permits Austin to uncover continuity between the two text s treatments of Kṛṣṇa. More specifically, Austin demonstrates how the Harivaṃśa s treatment of Kṛṣṇa s marriage with Rukmiṇī draws upon details about Kṛṣṇa that the Mahābhārata knows but leaves unexplained. Richard Mann examines Mahābhārata accounts about the parents of Skandha. But rather than dismissing differences between the epic s accounts of Skandha s parentage as contradictions (or worse, confusions), he considers the ways that the fatherhood of Agni and the fatherhood of Śiva address significant but different religious concerns. In each case, Skandha s father and the nature of the father-son relationship is consistent with a specific religious concern. With Agni, the concern relates to the Vedic value of the preservation of order in the face of chaos, a concern the narrative realizes through the transformative effects of family ties. On the other hand, Mann argues that the nature of Śiva s fatherhood, which emphasizes the authority of the father over the son, is in keeping with a Śaiva perspective that dictates Śiva s divine superiority. To be sure, Mann places these narratives against a shifting historical background, even while identifying patterns or context sensitive designs that in this case pertain to the power of family relationships. Jessica Ford and Brenda Beck each examine subtle layers of meaning in epic literature and in each case that layer concerns the nature and role of a female heroine who is both human and divine. Rather than overlooking or dismissing these heroines and their unusual natures, each identifies a pervasive pattern that is part of the richness of meaning in each epic. Draupadī s birth from fire, Ford argues, presents a key element of the Mahābhārata s broader characterization of her as the wife of the Pāṇḍava heroes and her role in dramatic events of that classical Sanskrit epic. Beck, discussing a folk epic from South India that has been a major focus for her work throughout her academic career, describes a dimension of the Annanmar Katai (simplistically translated as The Story of the Elder Brothers centered on the sister of these elder brothers. Her article demonstrates the hidden divinity of the little sister and also the apocalyptic consequences of the brother s neglect of their duties to their little sister. Here, the collapse of the sibling relationship gradually but inexorably leads to mass

5 Patricia Dold 5 destruction, which only Tangal, the little sister, survives. Last but by no means least, Adéla Sandness guides us through the tapestry of Vedic thought and highlights some of the ways family relationships are invoked by Vedic poets to describe gods, goddesses, the creative and created, the many and the one. While indicating in certain instances the development of Vedic thought through time, her primary approach to the Vedic corpus begins by assuming coherence and proceeds to seek out and explore how Vedic texts express connections and interconnections between divinity, materiality, and humanity. It is clear to all five authors that these papers are only a first exploration of the theme of divine domesticities with Hinduism. Each author could easily have expanded their present discussion or shifted focus to any number of other texts and other relationships. Obviously, we do not consider these papers to be representative in any comprehensive way, of this theme. They are simply examples that hint at further richness. Reference Ramanujan A. K Is there an Indian Way of Thinking? An Informal Essay. In India through Hindu Categories, edited by McKim Marriot, New Delhi: Sage.

6