Devī Māhātmya

The Sanskrit narrative text Devī Māhātmya—“The greatness of the Goddess” (also known as Durgā Saptaśatī and Caṇḍī Pāṭha, henceforth DM)—extols the tripartite triumphs of the all-powerful Goddess (Devī, Ambikā, Caṇḍikā, Durgā) over the universe-imperiling demons. Devī manifests for the protection of the gods, and cosmic order as a whole, in times of dire need. These exploits of this formidable feminine power constitute the first articulation of a Great Goddess within the Indian subcontinent. While the DM equates supreme reality with the feminine Hindu concepts of maya (illusion, magic), śakti (power, force, energy), and prakṛti (material nature), it posits no systematic theory. As only narrative can, the DM instead masterfully interweaves these philosophical strands, along with preexisting feminine faces within the Vedic fold, into the figure of a feminine divine whose greatness surpasses that of the Vedic pantheon, and even that of the cosmic Trimurti comprised of the “Great Gods” Brahma, Vishnu [Skt. Viṣṇu], and Shiva [Skt. Śiva]. The DM serves not only to exalt the Goddess as supreme, but also celebrates her paradoxical nature: she is both one and many, immanent and transcendent, liminal and central, gentle and fierce, motherly and martial. Yet there is no ambiguity in her status as all-powerful. She is utterly invincible. While power is something the gods possess, power is something the Goddess is. It is she, then, who ultimately creates, preserves, and destroys the universe and all beings within it. Variously dated between the 4th and 8th century ce, the DM finds a home as part of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, comprising chapters 81–93 thereof. Far from a textual relic, the DM is recited as liturgy in goddess temples, during individual daily spiritual practice, and at temples and homes especially during the autumnal navaratra (“nine nights”) Hindu Goddess festival, commonly known as Durgā Pūjā. The DM independently circulates not only within this rich liturgic life, but as a standalone mythological, philosophical, and theological authority on the Hindu Goddess. In this respect, it is not dissimilar from the Bhagavad Gita’s circulation independent of the Mahābhārata in which it is couched. The DM’s recitation is considered beneficial for listeners and reciters alike. As exemplified and overtly stated in the DM, engaging the glories of the Goddess invariably secure her protection and benediction.

Provincialising International Relations through a reading of dharma

This article will attempt to ‘provincialise’ (Chakrabarty, 2000) the ‘secular cosmology’ of International Relations (IR) through an examination of the relational cosmology of dharma. We argue that IR is grounded in ‘secularised’ Judaeo-Christian assumptions concerning time, relations between self and other, order, and the sovereign state that set the epistemic limits of the discipline. These assumptions will be ‘provincialised’ through an engagement with dharma based on a reading of The Mahābharāta, one of the oldest recorded texts in the world. We argue that the concept of dharma offers a mode of understanding the multidimensionality of human existence without negating any of its varied, contradictory expressions. By deconstructing notions of self and other, dharma illustrates how all beings are related to one another in a moral, social, and cosmic order premised on human agency, which flows from ‘inside-out’ rather than ‘outside-in’ and that is governed by a heterogenous understanding of time. This order places limits on the state's exercise of power in a given territory by making the state responsible for creating social conditions that would enable all beings to realise their potential, thus qualifying the principle of state sovereignty that remains the foundation of the ‘secular cosmology of IR’.

MODELS OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN THE ANCIENT EAST

The article is devoted to the historical investigation of the peculiarities of the ancient Eastern models of political leadership. The accent has been made on the specific features of political power in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, China and India. It has been concluded that any leadership model has its own social and cultural context and reflects the ideological and cultural specifics of the era. The common feature of ancient oriental models of leadership is bright mystical-religious character – the personality of the leader is deified and endowed with special, supernatural qualities which are often opposed to natural and social being. The personality of the ruler is always a kind of sacred authority that is worshiped and which guarantees the integrity and stability of the cosmic order. Key words: Ancient East, Leader, Ruler, Power, Oriental History, Culture.

Al-Maʿarrī’s Anxious Menagerie: The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule

Around the year 411/1021, blind author and controversial freethinker Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (449/1057) wrote Risālat al-ṣāhil wa-l-shāḥij (The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule), a meandering prose work populated by animal characters who talk about Syrian society on the eve of the crusades. The story exudes a brand of fictionality, namely creative literary exaggeration designed to call forth mental pictures, that sets it apart from other animal texts due to the overwhelming ambiguity it creates. The animal characters suffer existential anxiety when, for instance, they realize that concepts like genus (jins) and species (nawʿ) turn out to be fuzzier than they thought, thereby calling into question whether any species—be it biological or linguistic—is a stable class. Animal ontology gets further confused by just-so stories about hybrids and crossbreeds, and by terms for philosophical contingency that question whether talking animals even exist—this is not just a story that did not happen, but a story that cannot happen except in the imagination. On the other hand, those same philosophical terms may yet affirm that speaking animals could exist, and that they have value in themselves, by hinting at their place in a cosmic order that radiates the goodness of its Source.

THE PETATE AND THE COSMIC ORDER: DISCOVERIES FROM A CLASSIC PERIOD RESIDENTIAL GRAVE IN MICHOACÁN, MEXICO

This article explores the symbolism of the petate in light of an unprecedented archaeological discovery. Excavations carried out in a Classic context in northern Michoacán revealed the impression of a petate marking the location of a burial. In addition, the lower section of the burial pit was covered over with andesite slabs, including one with grid-like and spiral incisions. After a brief overview of the ancient and modern uses of the petate and relevant archaeological evidence, I present the data that allow the testing of different hypotheses, in particular the symbolization of power through the petate. Contextual analysis suggests that both the woven mat and the incised slab served as thresholds, if not barriers, between the world of the living and the underworld. I propose that the petate was placed over the grave to serve as a regulator, ensuring that entities were properly separated and that they remained in their respective places. As such, it was an object protecting the cosmic order. I further suggest that the petate may have acted as a temporal gate, guaranteeing the continuous exercise of authority and argue that it was, as a finished object, endowed with power.

Travelling/Wandering/Mapping

Dante deploys in the Commedia archetypal tropes of travel, including pilgrimage, biblical exodus, the journey to the underworld and to Italy, and the Bonaventuran itinerarium mentis in Deum, as an antidote to the existential experience of wandering in exile. His cosmological poem involved nothing less than a remapping of the cosmos, of the inhabited world, and of Italy. The poet re-inscribes his own place in the cosmos by alluding to his birth in Florence in three signature passages that reaffirm the Florentine citizenship denied the exiled poet and his sacred destiny within the cosmic order. The three passages are positioned strategically according to the medieval practice of numerical composition, one in each of the three canticles: Inferno XXIII, 94-6; Purgatorio XIV, 16-21; and Paradiso VI, 52-4.

Prophesying the Demise of Egyptian Religion in Late Antiquity: The Perfect Discourse and Antoninus in Canopus

When the demise of traditional Egyptian religion took place is much debated. Some scholars have portrayed vibrant cults continuing well beyond the 4th century, embattled by Christianity, whereas others see a marked decline in the late 2nd and early 3rd century, leaving a blank slate for Christianity in the fourth century. The present contribution interprets the apocalyptic prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus in the Perfect Discourse to reflect a priestly insider’s perspective of the decline in temple-cult in the early 3rd century, and its projected catastrophic consequences for Egypt and indeed the cosmic order. Yet, despite the general neglect of temple-cult and literacy in the Egyptian priestly scripts, certain temples remained in use. The second part of the article is devoted to the survival and apparent rejuvenation of the temple of Osiris/Serapis in Canopus, in the second half of the 4th century. This case shows that at this late date there were still self-consciously traditionalist devotees of Egyptian gods, though our sources do not permit us to see to what degree their temple-cult corresponded to the old “standard model.” The temple’s alliance with the non-Egyptian Neoplatonist Antoninus suggests that the image of Egypt as the temple of the world is now championed in the language of Hellenism, and Antoninus updates the now nearly two-centuries-old prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus to predict the fall of the Serapis temples in Alexandria and Canopus after his death. Both the Perfect Discourse and Antoninus are testimonies of a literate elite that saw the great temples as the essence of Egyptian religion, and their demise as the end of Egypt and the world.