Religious Interaction in Early Medieval Kamarupa: An Insight into the Kalikapurana

2021 ◽  
pp. 037698362110520
Author(s):  
Rashmi Rekha Bhuyan
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Brahmaputra Valley ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Other World

Like all other world religions, Brahmanism and Buddhism, the two prominent religious traditions of India, have histories of development and transformations since their inception. Depending on the socio-economic and political scenario, religions are subject to change, often in their basic beliefs and rituals, and at a certain point of time, the interaction between diverse religious traditions also becomes inevitable. Although opponent by nature in their early philosophies, Buddhism and Brahmanism got entwined at a certain phase of history, when many Buddhist deities and rituals were accommodated within the purview of Brahmanism and vice-versa. In the history of Brahmanical tradition, this interaction is traceable in the narratives of Puranic texts composed during the first millennium years of the Christian Era (ce). For the present study, one such Puranic text: the Kalikapurana, composed in Kamarupa (early Assam) during the early-medieval period, has been taken into account to understand the process of interaction between Brahmanism and Buddhism in the historical context of early Assam. Being primarily Brahmanical religious texts, the Puranas contain traces of Buddhism only in ‘covert’ form: in the form of myth. Focussing on some myths narrated in the Kalikapurana, the present study will discuss the existence of Buddhism in the early-Brahmaputra valley prior to the coming of Brahmanism. It will help us to understand the strategies adopted by the immigrant Brahmins to accommodate the prevailing traits under the purview of Brahmanical Hinduism.

Erotic asceticism: the razor's edge observance (asidhārāvrata) and the early history of tantric coital ritual

2016 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaman Hatley
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Contact ◽  
Early History ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Women's Roles ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Women’S Roles ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Diachronic Study

AbstractThis essay examines shifting representations of theasidhārāvrata(lit. “sword's edge observance”) across a range of Sanskrit literary and religious texts. Originally a Brāhmaṇical ascetic discipline, an observance (vrata) by this name is the earliest ritual involving sexual contact documented in the corpus of Śaivatantras. In its tantric adaptation, an orthodox practice for the cultivation of sensory restraint was transformed into a means for supernatural attainment (siddhi). Diachronic study of the observance in three early Śaiva texts – theNiśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, Mataṅgapārameśvara, andBrahmayāmala– reveals changes in ritual emphases, women's roles, and the nature of engagement in eroticism. Analysis of theasidhārāvratathus sheds light on the early history of tantric sexual rituals, which by the end of the first millennium had become highly diverse. It is argued that the observance became increasingly obsolete with the rise of Śaiva sexual practices more magical, ecstatic, or gnostic in orientation.

‘Emigrants’ and ‘Exiles’: migration in the early Irish and Scottish church

2007 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-155
Author(s):  
Brian Lambkin
Keyword(s):  
Forced Migration ◽  
Early History ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Irish Migrants

A central theme in both Irish and Scottish migration studies is the distinction between voluntary and forced migration, which is highlighted in the titles of major books in the field by the contrasting terms ‘emigrants’, or ‘adventurers’, and ‘exiles’.1 However, it has received relatively little attention with regard to the medieval period.2 Migration was central to the process by which the early Irish Church established itself in Scotland, most notably on Iona, in the sixth century. This article is concerned mainly with migration between Ireland and Scotland as evidenced by Adomnán's Life of Columba – ‘a source of the first importance for the early history of Ireland and Scotland’.3 In particular it is concerned with how the distinction between ‘emigrants’ and ‘exiles’ was understood, in both secular and sacred contexts, and it finds that in the early medieval period, c.300–800, as distinct from later periods, Irish migrants to Scotland and Irish and Scottish migrants further afield were thought of less as ‘exiles’ than as ‘emigrants’ or ‘adventurers’

scholarly journals SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE WESTERN CASPIAN REGION IN CONFRONTATION WITH ZOROASTRISM IN THE IV-VTH CENTURIES

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
М.Т. Гаджимурадов
Keyword(s):  
Caspian Region ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Contact Zones ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
History Of

Статья посвящена истории проникновения и распространения христианства в одной из так называемых контактных зон , а именно в Западном Прикапии в раннесредневековый период. Показана степень противостояния в данном регионе ведущих держав того периода Ирана эпохи династии Сасанидов и Византии периода династий Валентинов и Львов, а также их имперских религий зороастризма и христианства соответственно. Проблема распространения христианства в регионе рассматривается в трех аспектах: геополитическом, идеологическом и военном. Особое внимание уделено изучению деятельности первых христианских миссионеров и ведомых ими общин, которым пришлось пройти через тяжелейшие трудности в борьбе за свою веру. The article is devoted to the history of the penetration and spread of Christianity in one of the socalled contact zones , namely in the Western Caspian region in the early medieval period. The paper also describes the intensity of confrontation in this region between leading powers of the period the Iran of the Sassanid and Byzantine dynasty of the period of the Valentinian and Leonid dynasties, as well as between their imperial religions Zoroastrianism and Christianity, respectively. The problem of the spread of Christianity in the region is considered in three aspects: geo-political, ideological and military. Particular attention is paid to the activities of the first Christian missionaries and the communities they led, as they had to go through terrible hardships in the struggle for their faith.

Towards a Jewish Theology of World Religions

2012 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Alon Goshen-Gottstein
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Face ◽  
Other World ◽  
Theological Challenge

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the broad range of issues that must be re-examined in order to construct a contemporary Jewish theology of world religions. Two interrelated conceptual foci underlie Jewish particularity: faith in revelation and faith in the election of the Jewish people. It is not simply the faith in one God that distinguishes Judaism from other world religions, for some of those others share that faith. Rather, differences arise with regard to how God reveals himself and which community receives his word and carries it through history to eschatological fulfilment. The theological challenge that any Jewish theology of world religions must meet is how to uphold faith in the Jewish particularity arising from these two core beliefs, with an openness that makes space for the spiritual and religious existence of others. This is not simply a conceptual or theological challenge, but also a cognitive and psychological one. These two doctrines shape not only Jewish faith but also a Jewish mentality that is often characterized by withdrawal and separation. The chapter then considers the legitimacy of other religious traditions, particularly Christianity and Islam; the problem of avodah zarah; and the challenge of safeguarding Jewish identity and continuity in the face of world religions.

THE GOLD AND GARNET CHAIN FROM ISENBÜTTEL, GERMANY: A POSSIBLE PIN SUITE WITH ANGLO-SAXON PARALLELS

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Hilgner
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Lower Saxony ◽  
State Museum ◽  
History Of ◽  
Loop Chain ◽  
And Function

The ‘Isenbüttel gold necklace’, now in the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover, was found almost a century ago in Lower Saxony, an area with no history of early medieval gold finds or richly furnished burials. As no parallels are known for the object, scholars have long debated the dating, provenance and function of this unique loop-in-loop chain, with its animal-head terminals and garnet cloisonné. Recent excavations of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating to the seventh century have, however, added new finds to the small corpus of objects known as ‘pin suites’, consisting of comparatively short pins perhaps designed to fix a veil or a light shawl in the collar area, with ornate pinheads, linked by chains. This paper focuses on Anglo-Saxon pin suites from high-status burials of the second half of the seventh century and seeks to set the finds group in its wider social and historical context, revealing the far-reaching relationships that existed between early medieval elites.

scholarly journals A Later prehistoric house and Early Medieval buildings in Northern Scotland: excavations at Loch Shurrery and Lambsdale Leans, Caithness, 1955, with a note on Lower Dounreay

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair MacLaren ◽  
Ewan Campbell ◽  
Gordon Cook ◽  
Janet Hooper ◽  
L Wells ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
The South ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
The North ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Northern Edge

Two rescue excavations at the northern edge of a rather sparsely occupied part of the interior of Caithness are reported here, lying near to one of the largest clusters of archaeological sites in the modern county. In the event, the monuments were not threatened, and survive.Because of the limited nature of the excavation at Loch Shurrery (NGR ND 043568),the main value of the evidence about the hut circle relates to its structure and dating. The excavated remains represented a medium-sized oval house with a west-facing entrance. It had an off-centre hearth of rectangular construction. It was rather different in structure to the majority of the small group of such sites which have been excavated in the northern part of the Scottish mainland, as it did not appear to have an internal ring of post holes. In addition, its western entrance is not matched at the other sites, where entrance orientations are to the south, east or south-east. The wall of the Loch Shurrery house was fairly thick and the excavation suggested that it was complex, while the entrance passageway was quite long. The existence of door checks is also an unusual feature and may relate to the entrance structures of brochs and other substantial roundhouses. Two samples of charcoal from the hearth inside the hut circle were submitted for radiocarbon dating: the determinations produce calibrated ranges (at 2-sigma) of 346-4 cal BC and 341 cal BC-1 cal AD. It is likely that most of the excavated, undecorated pottery is also Iron Age, part of a broad tradition of very coarsely tempered pottery. Not-withstanding evidence of extended occupation, the whole period of construction and occupation may have occurred within the Iron Age.The mound of Lambsdale Leans (NGR ND 051548)lies in Reay parish, situated on low-lying ground at the head of Loch Shurrery and close to where its main tributary (the Torran Water) enters the loch from the south. The main characteristics of the this partially-excavated site are the presence of what appeared to be two extended inhumations and the remnants of possible structures associated with several layers of burnt material. Lambsdale Leans itself was a natural mound, of elongated shape and composed largely of sand, into which were set the burials and structural remains. The burials (one certainly female, the other probably so) were not in cists. The structural remains, while not fully excavated, accord well with the general tenor of the available evidence of later first millennium AD buildings in the north of Scotland. Both structures at Lambsdale Leans had floors comprising roughly laid paving, edged with upright slabs, and with an outer kerb of stones. The earliest-dated pottery sherds, unstratified, are from a single grass- tempered handmade vessel whose form cannot be determined. Overall,on one interpretation the Lambsdale Leans evidence favours a context within the Early Medieval period in Caithness. The pottery however, being mostly C12-C13 oxidised wheel-thrown vessels, can be seen to support the suggestion that occupation on the site may have begun in the Medieval period.

scholarly journals А COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE HISTORY OF SLAVIC ETHNIC GROUPS OF THE PAGAN PERIOD: THE TRIBES OF SOUTH-EASTERN AND NORTHERN RUS

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Andrii Kovalenko
Keyword(s):  
Early Medieval ◽  
Forest Zone ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Archeological Artifacts ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Burial Rite

The paganism of the ancient Slavs is not in itself a unique phenomenon in the world history of cultures, it is a Slavic variant of the universal pagan massif, but the variant is unique. This is a whole worldview, that is, a holistic system of ideas about the world and man's place in it. However, in science this topic is insufficiently studied, which attracts many researchers, becoming a topical issue. In the historical literature, one of the central is the problem of the origin of the people (ethnogenesis). Clarification of the question of the ethnogenesis of the Eastern Slavs is the first link in the process of restoring the pedigree of the Ukrainian nation. Therefore, the article analyzes the first written references to the Slavs, which were left by ancient Roman, Byzantine authors, the compiler of the Tale of Bygone Years. On the basis of comparison of archeological and written sources the area of settlement of separate East Slavic tribes is traced. Material evidence of burial practices that existed in the Slavic environment, in particular mounds, is characterized. During the early medieval period of the history of the Eastern Slavs, the genesis of the burial rite can be traced to the northerners, Vyatichi, Radimichi, Smolensk-Polovsk and Pskov Krivichi. The archeological artifacts and features of cremation described in the article provide grounds to assert the separate development of these tribes, which was due primarily to the geographical factor. Given the above, the opinion is substantiated that the territory of residence of the Eastern Slavs was divided into four large segments: the forest zone of the Dnieper right bank, the southern, southeastern and northern zones. It was within these limits that the life of the early medieval pagan Slavic tribes took place, which was characterized by a set of original cultural features.

scholarly journals Chinese-Buddhist Encounter

Asian Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-111
Author(s):  
Fan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Mural Painting ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Buddhist Art ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Multiple Meanings

The standard pictorial formula of Fuxi and Nüwa, a pair of indigenous Chinese deities, started to absorb new motifs from Buddhist art during the early medieval period when Buddhism became more prominent in China. In this paper, I focus on the juxtaposition of Fuxi-Nüwa and cintamani, a magic Buddhist jewel, depicted on the ceiling of the corridor in the tomb of Lady Poduoluo, Pingcheng, Shanxi (435 CE). Through a detailed visual analysis, I explain the multiple meanings embedded in the combination of the Chinese mythological figures with the Buddhist symbol in the funerary space, thus challenging the previous studies that understand cintamani only as a substitute for the sun and moon. This paper furthers the discussion on the hybrid image by investigating the mural painting on the ceiling of Mogao Cave 285 in Dunhuang. Despite their different spatial and temporal contexts, both the tomb of Lady Poduoluo and Mogao Cave 285 present a similar pictorial formula, featuring the hybridization of cintamani and the Fuxi-Nuwa pair. This phenomenon invites us to explore the transmission of such motifs. I, therefore, situate the production of the syncretic scheme of Fuxi-Nüwa with cintamani within a broader historical context and examine the artistic exchange between Pingcheng and Dunhuang by tracing the movements of images, artisans, and patrons in early medieval China.

scholarly journals From under the elbow to pointing to the palm: Chinese metaphors for learning medicine by the book (fourth–fourteenth centuries)

BJHS Themes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Marta Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Longue Duree ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Medical Manuscripts ◽  
Medical Books

AbstractThis article focuses on transformations in the main metaphors in ancient to late medieval titles of Chinese medical books used to convey to potential readers their ‘learning-by-the-book’ contents. It finds that in contrast to the European preference for hand metaphors in the genre terms – enchiridions, manuals and handbooks – the Chinese medical archive preserves bodily metaphors within which the hand metaphor appears only rarely in the early medieval period and is then superseded by metaphors that rely on the fingers and palms more than the hands per se. This longue durée survey from roughly the fourth to the fourteenth centuries of the wide-ranging metaphors for ‘handy medical books’ places their historical emergence and transformation within the history of Chinese medical manuscripts and printed texts. Metaphors in medical titles conveyed to potential readers at the time significant textual innovations in how medical knowledge would be presented to them. For later historians, they provide evidence of profound changes in managing an increasingly complex and expanding archive of Chinese medical manuscripts and printed texts. Innovations in textual reorganization intended to facilitate ‘learning by the book’ were often creatively captured in an illuminating range of genre distinctions, descriptors and metaphors.

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