A Dictionary of Sikh Studies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pashaura Singh
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Sacred Sites ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
South Asian Studies ◽  
Northern India ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Over 350 entries This new dictionary provides accessible definitions of the terms that the growing number of students of Sikhism will encounter. It covers beliefs, practices, festivals, sacred sites, and principal languages, as well as the social and religious processes through which Sikhism has evolved. A major focus is the teachings of the founder of Sikhism, Gurū Nānak, and doctrinal developments under subsequent Gurūs. Incorporating the 500-year history of Sikhism, from its birth in northern India to its more recent spread around the world, it covers the interplay between the Sikh tradition and other religious traditions, including Hindu and Sufi. It is an invaluable first reference for students and teachers of Sikhism, religious studies, South Asian studies, philosophy, and the related disciplines of history, sociology, and anthropology, as well as for all practising Sikhs and anyone with an interest in Sikh religion and culture.

Modern Yoga Research as a Discursive Formation

2022 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Matteo Di Placido
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
The Self ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Discursive Formation ◽  
South Asian Studies ◽  
Modern Yoga ◽  
Specific Object

The practice of yoga is on the rise, as much as its academic scrutiny. Scholars, especially within the disciplinary boundaries of religious studies, South Asian studies, Indology, anthropology, and sociology, have recently started to critically inquire into the birth and transnational developments of modern forms of yoga, tracing their genealogies and textual roots. This expanding literature has in turn contributed to the constitution of the emergent and multidisciplinary field of modern yoga research, or yoga studies. The primary aim of this article is thus to analyze the field of modern yoga research as a ‘discursive formation’ (Foucault [1971]1972), that is, an ensemble of texts constituting – or contributing to the constitution of – a specific object of analysis, namely modern yoga. In so doing, it also aims to contribute to the advancement of the discursive study of religion more in general. The article relies on a ‘discursive study of religion’ approach (e.g., von Stockrad 2003, 2010, 2013) with a focus on its archaeological leaning (e.g., Foucault 1965, 1972, [1963] 1973, [1966] 2002). More specifically, I underline the affinity that modern yoga research’s discursive references have with a number of discursive currents that characterize the disciplines it emerged from, such as radical historicism, cultural relativism, modernism, Orientalism and neo-colonialism. Finally, I conclude by summarizing the main results of this contribution and exploring their relevance to the self-reflexive development of the overlapping fields of cultural analyses and the study of religion.

scholarly journals L’architettura del Deccan tra il XIV e il XVI secolo

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Mondini
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
South Asian ◽  
The South ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Architectural Style ◽  
Cultural Complexity ◽  
South Asian Studies ◽  
The Social

Moving from the analysis of the architectural style promoted by the Bahmani dynasty (1347-1527) in Deccan, the volume intends to offer a cross section of the social, religious and cultural complexity of the region. The identification of artistic models and vocabularies allows, as a matter of fact, to redefine conflicts and encounters in the region and to outline the reshaping of the diverse identities throughout the decades. The described scenario, together with the sharing of spaces and rituals, reveals the inapplicability of the preconceived categories that generally dominate the South Asian studies even in the artistic field: it rather redraws the Subcontinent’s sacred geographies and the relations among the communities settled in the region.

scholarly journals Elementary Algebra on Vedic Mathematics

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 82-94
Author(s):  
Krishna Kanta Parajuli
Keyword(s):  
South Asian ◽  
School Level ◽  
Elementary Level ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Elementary Algebra ◽  
Vedic Mathematics ◽  
South Asian Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Vedic Period

The South Asian region has a long history of discovering new ideas, ideologies, and technologies. Since the Vedic period, the land has been known as a fertile place for innovative discoveries. The Vedic technique used by Bharati Krishna Tirthaji is unique among South Asian studies. The focus of this study was mostly on algebraic topics, which are typically taught in our school level. The study also looked at how Vedic Mathematics solves issues of elementary algebra using Vedic techniques such as Paravartya Yojayet, Sunyam Samyasamuccaye, Anurupye Sunyamanyat, Antyayoreva and Lopanasthapanabhyam. The comparison and discussion of the Vedic with the conventional techniques indicate that the Vedic Mathematics and its five unique formulas are more beneficial and realistic to those learners who are experiencing problems with elementary level algebra utilizing conventional methods.

The Study of Yoruba Religious Tradition in Historical Perspective

Numen ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob K. Olupona
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conducting Research

AbstractThis essay presents an overview of past and recent scholarship in Yoruba religion. The earliest studies of Yoruba religious traditions were carried out by missionaries, travellers and explorers who were concerned with writing about the so called "pagan" practices and "animist" beliefs of the African peoples. In the first quarter of the 20th century professional ethnologists committed to documenting the Yoruba religion and culture were, among other things, concerned with theories about cosmology, belief-systems, and organizations of Orisà cults. Indigenous authors, especially the Reverend gentlemen of the Church Missionary Society, responded to these early works by proposing the Egyptian origin of Yoruba religion and by conducting research into Ifá divination system as a preparatio evangelica. The paper also examines the contributions of scholars in the arts and the social sciences to the interpretation and analysis of Yoruba religion, especially those areas neglected in previous scholarship. This essay further explores the study of Yoruba religion in the Americas, as a way of providing useful comparison with the Nigerian situation. It demonstrates the strong influence of Yoruba religion and culture on world religions among African diaspora. In the past ten years, significant works on the phenomenology and history of religions have been produced by indigenous scholars trained in philosophy and Religionswissenschaft in Europe and America and more recently in Nigeria. Lastly, the essay examines some neglected aspects of Yoruba religious studies and suggests that future research should focus on developing new theories and uncovering existing ones in indigenous Yoruba discourses.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald R. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
South Asian Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Literature History ◽  
Constant Source

Between 1930 and 1962, the eminent Sanskritist and lawyer Pandurang Vaman Kane (pronounced KAH-nay) produced a five-volume monograph entitled History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law), published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, India. This work of over 6,500 pages provides much more than a narrow focus on law or the special genre of Sanskrit literature devoted to religious and legal duties, the Dharmaśāstra. It contains rather something close to an intellectual history of Hinduism, from its origins in the Vedic texts to contemporary debates about the “reform” of Hinduism in nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Kane understood his task as presenting the broadest possible survey of the role legal, religious, and ethical thought in the history of Hinduism, with regular incursions into other religious traditions as well. A modern scholar of Dharmaśāstra, Richard Lariviere, is fond of saying, “We all make our living from Kane’s footnotes.” Indeed, Kane’s work has become a constant source of reference and orientation in South Asian studies of law, religion, ritual, literature, history, and more. It is a work that has perhaps literally launched a thousand dissertations because it is so easy to refer a student or a colleague to the appropriate section of Kane as a way to get their bearings in relation to hundreds of topics in the fields of Hindu studies or Indian social and intellectual history....

A Review of South Asian Studies

1988 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
John Harriss
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
South Asian Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Working Groups

In 1986 the International Activities Committee of the Economic and Social Research Council decided to undertake reviews of progress in ‘area studies’, and to do this by means of small, inter-disciplinary conferences. A review conference on South Asian studies was held in Cambridge, and attended by forty-one scholars from different disciplines and from India, France, Holland and the USA as well as from Britain. The purpose of the review was understood to be a ‘stock-taking’ in different fields of research, intended to identify conceptual, theoretical and substantive issues at the frontiers of enquiry; and to examine the implications and contributions of research on South Asia for historical research and for the social sciences in general. In the pursuit of these objectives the conference had three components. First came sessions in which two economists (Toye and Chaudhuri), two historians (Tomlinson and Washbrook), an anthropologist (Fuller) and a sociologist (Hawthorn) presented views of ‘progress and problems’ in their fields. Then came two pairs of concurrent working groups on broad themes, drawing partly on the earlier papers and discussions; and finally three panelists (Bharadwaj, Breman and Lipton) offered commentary on the proceedings. The review papers by Toye, Tomlinson and Washbrook appear in this issue of Modern Asian Studies. What follows here is a commentary on some of the themes that emerged in the papers and discussions.

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