The renovation ritual in a south Indian temple: the 1995 kumbha¯bhiseka in the Mi¯na¯ksi¯ Temple, Madurai

2004 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. FULLER
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Symbolic Logic ◽  
The South ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Indian City

This article is a description and analysis of the twelve-day renovation ritual or kumbha¯bhiseka (‘water-pot bathing ritual’) celebrated in the Mi¯na¯ksi¯ Temple in the south Indian city of Madurai in 1995. After briefly discussing the historical background, the article describes the priests' division of labour at the kumbha¯bhiseka, the preliminary rituals—including the transfer of the deities' power from their images into water-pots—and the most crucial rituals: the series of ya¯gapu¯ja¯ (‘sacrifice-worship’) rituals, which mainly consisted of fire-sacrifices to enhance the power in the water-pots, and the culmination of the entire event, when the pots were emptied over the Temple's towers and images, so that the power flowed back in. The article concludes that despite its extreme elaborateness, the kumbha¯bhiseka's symbolic logic and purpose, especially as displayed in the spectacular destruction of the fire-sacrifices and then the final water-pouring, are unusually transparent compared to many other temple rituals.

Mappila Muslim Masculinities: A History of Contemporary Abjectification

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 542-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammadali P. Kasim
Keyword(s):  
Public Domain ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Structural Elements ◽  
The South ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
Indian State ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Colonial

This article explores multiple dimensions of stereotyping Mappila Muslim masculinities in the south Indian state of Kerala, as abject and demonized other. I begin with a survey of the British colonial construction of Mappila masculinity as, for example, militant religious fanatic, against the historical background of encounters between the two. It follows an examination of the new ways of reproducing these constructs in a changed yet hegemonic narrative public domain of the contemporary where Hindu majoritarian nationalism gathers its momentum. In so doing, this article also scrutinizes the larger mythological and structural elements of the contemporary refiguring. Drawing from these historical and contemporary trajectories, I argue that abjectification of Muslim masculinities is one of the basic ingredients of Islamophobia at work, often in banal forms.

Photographic art and technology in contemporary India

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
Aileen Blaney
Keyword(s):  
Entry Point ◽  
Road User ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
The South ◽  
Urban Streets ◽  
Art And Technology ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Art Practices ◽  
Indian City

Abstract The algorithmic turn in photography raises the question of whether an algorithmically generated image is even a photograph at all. This paradox is abundant on India's urban streets, where the pedestrian or road user is met with giant photo saturated flex hoardings printed with political and community messages and photo-shopped portraits of gods, chief ministers and party workers. In this article, attention to photo-based political posters alongside art practices sharing common elements of digital capture and postproduction contextualizes a reading of technologically produced visual landscapes in the South Indian city of Bangalore. Informed by Vilèm Flusser, the techno-materiality of hoardings are interpreted as visual practices whose reliance on Microsoft and Adobe softwares reveal more than the semiotic information that is ostensibly transmitted; in so doing the extent to which photography is a useful entry point for assessing the visuality in which we're currently living and how this gets locally inflected in the case of India is explored.

The Navarātri festival in Madurai

1985 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Fuller ◽  
Penny Logan
Keyword(s):  
Full Moon ◽  
The State ◽  
The South ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Indian City ◽  
New Moon

Navarātri (Tam. Navarāttiri) is one of the most popular and important annual festivals in the south Indian city of Madurai. The same is true elsewhere in the state and, in somewhat different forms, the festival is also popular in many other regions of India, notably Bengal (where it is known as Durgā Pūjā) and Karnataka (where it is called Dasarā). Navarātri means ‘nine nights’ and throughout India the festival is celebrated on the first nine lunar days (tithi) of the bright fortnight (i.e. the fortnight ending on full moon) of the lunar month of āśvina. In the Tamil calendar, however, the year is divided into twelve solar months and Navarātri is said to occupy the nine lunar days beginning with the day after new moon in the solar month of puraṭṭāci (September-October). Very occasionally, the Tamil formula may supply the wrong date. In many years, the festival only lasts eight weekdays, as two lunar days may fall within one weekday. (In some parts of India, a Navarātri festival is celebrated in the spring, but that is not discussed here.)

scholarly journals The construction of incompetency: moving beyond embedded paternalism toward the practice of respect

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Supriya Subramani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Respect For Persons ◽  
The South ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Indian City ◽  
Normative Justification ◽  
Depth Interviews

This paper illustrates the less-acknowledged social construction of the concept of “incompetency” and draws attention to the moral concerns it raises in healthcare encounters in the south Indian city of Chennai. Based on in-depth interviews with 16 surgeons, drawn from qualitative research, this study reveals that surgeons subjectively construct the idea of incompetency through their understanding of the perceived circumstantial characteristics of the patients and family members. The findings largely suggest that surgeons dismiss their capacity based on constructed assessments, which leads to paternalistic practice. The findings illustrate how these assessments structure the surgeons’ practices and provide the moral and practical justifications for their actions. The constructed knowledge becomes a source for drawing normative justification for surgeons’ actions and, in conjunction with socially enforced relationships, leads patients and family members to be on the receiving end of disrespectful attitudes. By employing the ethical framework, this paper argues for physicians to pursue “respect for persons,” beyond the framework of “capacity/autonomy,” and to practice respect in hospital settings.

A Study on the Impact of Demonetization on Utilisation of Private Health Care Services in a South Indian City

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 485
Author(s):  
Vijay K. Yalanchmanchili ◽  
N. Partha Sarathy ◽  
U. Vijaya Kumar ◽  
M. Ravi Kiran ◽  
Kalapala Abhilash
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Private Health Care ◽  
Care Services ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Indian City ◽  
The Impact
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