Ascetics and/or laypeople: Jain view on humam status in the world

2021 ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Natalia A. Zheleznova
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Spiritual Path ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right ◽  
Goal Realization

The article examines the ethical system of Jainism on the example of the lifestyle of ascetic monks and lay householders. The disciplinary rules for lay followers (both Digambara and Śvetāmbara branches of Jainism) are fixed in the texts of the śrāvakācāra genre compiled by ascetics. This reflects the hierarchical distribution of “roles” within the Jain community. Ascetics represent the most advanced part of the community on the spiritual Path of Liberation, while lay people have only just entered this path. The author focuses on the fact that in Jainism monasticism is considered as a spiritually higher stage, and not just a different (but equally significant) way of salvation. Only monks of certain ranks have the right to preach publicly, interpret the Scriptures, and instruct the laity. Householders can only do this in the absence of monks. At the same time, ascetics are almost completely dependent on the laity for their everyday life, since householders are obliged to provide them with everything necessary for life. The introduction of an intermediate, quasi-monastic way of life in the form of the bhaṭṭārakas (Digambra) and śrīpūjya (Śvetāmbra) in the middle ages allowed the Jain community to survive and even have a direct impact on the political and economic situation in various regions of India. The author emphasizes that written in all-India paradigm of the life regulations (artha, kāma, dharma and mokṣa), Jain system of domestic rituals, coupled with the practice of vows and limitations focused on training of householders to move towards self-improvement and eventually achieve the main religious goal – realization the nature of one’s own soul.

scholarly journals СВЕТЪТ НА МОНАХИНИТЕ ПО ЛЕКСИКАЛНИ ДАННИ / THE WORLD OF NUNS ACCORDING TO LEXICAL DATA

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (01) ◽  
pp. 46-64
Author(s):  
MARIYANA TSIBRANSKA-KOSTOVA
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The World ◽  
Female Monasticism ◽  
Lexical Data ◽  
Mental Constructs ◽  
Masculine Gender

The article aims at comparing the data on female monasticism in two types of sources – hagiographic works and canon law – in order to bring forward monastic everyday life as an object of cultural conceptology and study of the diachronic linguistic picture of the world. Examples are taken from the Life of St. Eupraxia in the 1359–1360 copy of the Bdin Collection and selected rules from penitential collections. Everyday life in the monastery can be presented by means of distinct thematic areas defined by specific ranges of concepts (mental constructs) and the respective linguistic nominations. The lexical data addressed in the article refer to: food, clothing, education, labour, customs and regulations in the monastery, relations between nuns. The data on female monasticism in the Middle Ages are more limited than those available for monks. This corresponds with scarce information from other types of sources, such as iconographic and archaeological sources. The nuns’ habits and some positions in the monastery are denoted predominantly by masculine gender lexemes due to commonalities in the way of life and the moral norms. The comparison of lexical data from texts of different genres remains a promising task towards the reconstruction of the medieval way of life in the monastery.

From the Gesta Romanorum to Werner Bergengruen

2021 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-123
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Long Period ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
The Baltic

Abstract Horribile dictu, the twenty-first century is witnessing a steady decline of democracy and the rise of autocratic, self-aggrandizing rulers in many countries across the world. How long will they stay in power, however? Already since the high Middle Ages, numerous poets across Europe explored the topic of the ‘emperor in misery,’ in which an angel takes on the appearance of the emperor, which forces the latter to go through a long period of extreme suffering, being denied all respect, rejected, beaten, imprisoned, suffering from hunger and cold. Eventually, the poor emperor learns to accept his destiny, repents his previous hubris, confesses his sins, and suddenly realizes that his doppelgänger is actually an angel sent from God to teach him a lesson. Once this transformation in his soul has happened, the angel explains the entire situation, warns the emperor never to commit his sins again, and disappears. Of course, it is doubtful whether these narratives might have ever had a direct impact on the political situation, but the warning for evil rulers resonated throughout the centuries and found a remarkable continuation in one of the novellas of the Baltic-German author Werner Bergengruen (1946).

Elicüra: The “Feasts of Merit” Shawl of the Chakhesang Naga of Northeast India

2021 ◽  
pp. 0972558X2199079
Author(s):  
Yekha-ü ◽  
Queenbala Marak
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Gift Economy ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

Feasts of Merit are an important social way of life among different tribes in the world, especially in Southeast Asia. In Northeast India, the different Naga tribes were well-known for this practice before the advent of Christianity. However, among the Chakhesang Nagas, after the advent of Christianity, the practices of giving feasts continue to this day with minor modifications in terms of rituals and taboos while the symbolic meaning and values behind this practice are retained. The Feasts of Merit, among them, are intricately connected to their worldview, whereby the feast-givers distribute their wealth in terms of sacrificing mithun, buffalo, and/or other livestock, in consecutive feasts, and receiving in return a higher social rank and the right to wear a special shawl (“Feasts of Merit” shawl), variously known as hapidasa, elicüra, and thüpikhü and the right to adorn the house with special architecture (mithun and buffalo wood carvings on the wall, and to put up a horn at the pinnacle of the house front). This article discusses the “Feasts of Merit” shawl and how it is connected intrinsically to the ethos of the tribe, and in doing so it states that the Chakhesang feasts can be looked upon as gift economy.

scholarly journals Hungary: Orban’s atypical programme of solving the crisis

2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-319
Author(s):  
Misa Djurkovic
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reform ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
Socialist Government ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

The article deals with the political and economic situation in Hungary in the last several years. The author firstly points to the causes of decline of influence of the previous socialist government and the heavy defeat of the socialists in the 2010 elections and the success of the right party Fidesz. After winning the elections, the Viktor Orban government started, at an accelerated rate, to implement the pre-election programme of Fidesz that had been prepared for a long time while it was an opposition party. The author is of the opinion that this programme is atypical, very radical and unique by many characteristics in the Europe of today. He points out that only a year after Fidesz victory the government and the parliament adopted quite a number of laws, a new Constitution and a set of risky measures of recovery that should lead to a substantial economic reform. The author particularly underlines the fact that the government decided to break of negotiation with IMF, reject its recommendations and try to overcome over-indebtedness by carrying out its own ideas.

The German Elections of 1928

1928 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 698-705
Author(s):  
James K. Pollock
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The Political ◽  
City Councils ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Methods ◽  
Political Consolidation ◽  
National Socialists ◽  
The Right ◽  
Intensive Work

The elections which were held throughout Germany on May 20, 1928, are of considerable interest and importance not only to Germany but also to the rest of the world. These elections, to be sure, did not have the dramatic interest which attended the Reichstag elections of December, 1924. But they deserve attention for a number of reasons: first, because they are the first elections to be held in the Reich under what may be called normal conditions; second, because elections for five Landtags and several city councils were held at the same time; and third, because the elections gave a further test, and supplied additional evidence of the operation, of the German system of proportional representation.Despite the intensive work of the political parties, the people were not aroused to much enthusiasm during the campaign. The old Reichstag was dissolved before Easter, but not until the last week of the campaign could one detect any excitement. Never before had the electors been bombarded with so much printed matter, posters, and, last but not least, loud-speakers and films. All the modern methods of appealing to the voters were tried by the numerous political parties. There were lacking, however, the overpowering issues and the battlecries which were so effective in 1924. Parades, demonstrations, meetings, and all the rest were carried through successfully on the whole, but they were quite dull and uninteresting. Only the two extreme parties, the National Socialists or Hitlerites on the right, and the Communists on the left, could appear enthusiastic. Nevertheless, the lack of what the Germans call a “grosse Parole” and the lack of excitement are not to be deplored; their absence probably indicates progress toward social and political consolidation.

Military cosmopolitanism and romantic indigeneity: Crafting claims to statehood in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss and Easterine Kire’s Bitter Wormwood

2020 ◽  
pp. 002198941989730
Author(s):  
Sushmita Sircar
Keyword(s):  
West Bengal ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Indigenous Identity ◽  
The World ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The Many

The world wars definitively changed the relations with the state of the peoples of India’s northeastern frontier. The wars were both fought on their terrain (with the invasion of the Japanese army) and led to the recruitment of people from the region to serve in the British Army. The contemporary Anglophone Indian novel documents the lingering effects of this militarization in the many insurgencies that have fragmented the region in the postcolonial era. Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (2006) depicts the Gorkhaland uprising of the 1980s in the Kalimpong district of West Bengal, which demanded a separate state, while Easterine Kire’s Bitter Wormwood (2011) describes the Naga peoples’ traditional way of life against the backdrop of attempts to declare independence from the Indian state. In this article I argue that these novels capture how these secessionist movements use the experience of the world wars to craft a political identity based on military brotherhood to claim independence from the Indian state. These movements thus undertake a complex reworking of the valences of the figure of the “soldier”, central to so many accounts of national integrity. At the same time, reproducing the nationalist logic of the Indian state, these novels more readily recognize an “indigenous” identity based on a claim to the land as the political basis of nationhood. Hence, these novels about secessionist struggles reveal how certain narratives of nation formation become the only legitimate means for making claims for political rights and independent statehood over the course of the twentieth century.

Comparative Perspectives on White and Indigenous Women's Political Citizenship in Queensland: The 1905 Act to Amend the Elections Acts, 1885 to 1899

2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Grimshaw
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
White Women ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short List ◽  
Political Citizenship ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right ◽  
Second World

The centenary of the passage in early 1905 of the Act to Amend the Elections Acts, 1885 to 1899, which extended the right to vote to white women in Queensland, marks a moment of great importance in the political and social history of Australia. The high ground of the history of women's suffrage in Australia is undoubtedly the passage of the 1902 Commonwealth Franchise Act that gave all white women in Australia political citizenship: the right to vote and to stand for parliamentary office at the federal level. Obviously this attracted the most attention internationally, given that it placed Australia on the short list of communities that had done so to date; most women in the world had to await the aftermath of the First or Second World Wars for similar rights.

Temporal and Spiritual Regalia during the Reigns of St. Louis and Philip III

Traditio ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 351-383
Author(s):  
Gerard J. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Lay Leaders ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right ◽  
Gregorian Reform ◽  
Spiritual Freedom ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

The Gregorian reform of the eleventh century mounted a massive attack on lay control over churches and church appointments, yet the degree to which this attack succeeded in attaining its objectives varied from country to country. Local conditions and personalities were important in determining the outcome of the struggle over investiture and other related questions, but neither side achieved a complete victory, because the final agreements between clerical and lay leaders were a compromise which produced the usual mixture of satisfaction and disappointment. The church gained the most substantial victory, for the smothering stranglehold of the laity over the church and churchmen was broken, nevermore to be restored in the Middle Ages. Increased spiritual freedom for the church in subsequent centuries resulted from the struggle of the mid-eleventh century. Nevertheless, the church had not broken completely from its close ties with the world of feudalism. If bishoprics, abbeys, and parish churches were not feudal possessions of kings and nobles, laymen still retained many rights reminiscent of the earlier days when laymen claimed a proprietary right over the churches in their areas. The purpose of this paper is to consider one of these remnants of earlier days: the right of regalia I will examine the right of regalia, temporal and spiritual, together with some related institutions during the reigns of St. Louis and Philip III of France.

Labouring for Kashmir’s azadi: Ongoing violence and resistance in Maisuma, Srinagar

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-50
Author(s):  
Sarbani Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Central Area ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

While much has been said about the historicity of the Kashmir conflict or about how individuals and communities have resisted occupation and demanded the right to self-determination, much less has been said about nature of everyday life under these conditions. This article offers a glimpse of life in the working-class neighbourhood of Maisuma, located in the central area of the city of Srinagar, and its engagement with the political movement for azadi (freedom). I argue that the predicament of ‘double interminability’ characterises life in Maisuma—the interminable violence by the state on the one hand and simultaneously the constant call of labouring for azadi by the movement on the other, since the terms of peace are unacceptable.

Femininity: The Trap

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone de Beauvoir ◽  
Marybeth Timmermann
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Civil Code ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Independence ◽  
Personal Consumption ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Scene ◽  
The Middle Ages

The French have never been feminists. Of course, they’ve always loved women, but in the manner of Mediterranean peoples, which is the way ogres love little children—for their personal consumption. In the middle ages, the law denied French women the possession of land and separated them from the political scene. Later, the civil code denied them the same rights as men. It is also known with what stubbornness aging senators have consistently turned a deaf ear when the feminists claimed the vote and full rights of citizenship. Since the war of 1914–18, the situation has changed somewhat. Lack of manpower brought women into many fields to replace men, and they began to acquire economic independence. This war completed the evolution. In the Resistance, in concentration camps, women proved their right to participate in the reconstruction of their country on an equal basis as men. The civil code was modified in their favor and they were given the right to vote, to be elected; there are few jobs which are today forbidden them. It appears, therefore, that in France the old quarrel between feminists and antifeminists is settled, and there is no reason to return to it. But I ask myself if on the contrary it is not today that the question rises most ...

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