Dispersion of the Yorùbá to the Americas: A Fatalist Hermeneutics of Orí in the Yorùbá Cosmos – Reading from Tutuoba: Salem’s Black Shango Slave Queen

Studies in African Diaspora ofen privilege the transatlantic slavery, Columbus’ discovery of the New World, and African cultural codes in the Americas. To expand the scope of the studies, this article examines the metaphysical and ontological questions on the enslavement of the Yorùbá – an African ethno-nation whose members were condemned to slavery and servitude in the Americas during the inglorious transatlantic slave trade. I used metaphysical fatalism as a theoretical model to interrogate prognostications about dispersion of the Yorùbá from their matrix as expressed in their mythology. Being a predestining agent, I examined the role of orí (destiny) within the context of rigid fatalism and its textualisation in Prince Justice’s Tutuoba: Salem’s Black Shango Slave Queen. The article argues that the transatlantic enslavement of the Yorùbá is a fait accompli willed by their Supreme Deity. Tough traumatic, transatlantic slavery reworlded Yorùbá cultural codes, birthed the Atlantic sub-group of the ethno-nation, and aided the emergence of Yorùbá-centric religions in the New World.

The Guru as Śiva

This article introduces and analyzes the Gurustutiratnāvalī, a sophisticated eighteenth-century Sanskrit hymn composed by Govinda Kaula of Kashmir in praise of his teacher’s teacher, the prolific author Sāhib Kaula. It evaluates the evidence for Govinda Kaula’s dating, lineage, and literary activity and presents the first published edition and translation of select verses of his Gurustutiratnāvalī based on four manuscripts. The analysis of the hymn focuses on the ways the author equates a specific guru in his lineage—Sāhib Kaula—with the supreme deity Śiva. Using this hymn as a starting point, the article considers the history of guru-praise (gurustuti) and guru-devotion (gurubhakti) in Kashmir as well as in South Asia more broadly. Lastly, it suggests that further work on this lineage and the religious dynamics of the eighteenth and nineteenth century will prove crucial for helping us understand the emergence of what came to be popularly known as “Kashmir Śaivism.”

Goddess Worship and Bhakti

The worship of goddesses has been a vital part of Hinduism for centuries. There are innumerable goddesses whose worship encompasses a wide range of perspectives and practices that vary by language, region, tradition, and context. Some goddesses’ stories and iconography are pan-Indian, such as the supreme Devī in the 6th-century Devī-Māhātmya, while other goddesses’ devotional arenas are regional or limited to a particular locale. Bhakti is generally defined as devotion to a personal deity, including a goddess, expressed in praise texts in Sanskrit and in devotional songs and poetry in vernacular languages. Some goddesses are part of devotional traditions within a Brahmanical socioreligious order and temple orthodoxy in which rituals are performed by a priest; others are part of bhakti movements that resist religious and social norms. Śāktism is, in brief, the worship of the fundamental cosmic power, śakti, conceived of as the Goddess, supreme deity, and ultimate reality, whereas in Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism the goddess is worshiped as the śakti of the male gods Śiva and Viṣṇu. The goddess is also equated with prakṛti, the material foundation of creation, so Śāktism centers on the sacredness and reality of the material world. Kathleen Erndl notes that although Śāktism pervades Hindu worship, it is more difficult to define than either Śaivism or Vaiṣṇavism (Erndl 2004, cited in General and Historical Overviews, “Śākta,” p. 140). In some Śākta traditions bhakti is the primary mode of attention to the goddess. Contemporary devotees may consider the goddess as transcendent and/or immanent; as ultimate reality and/or intimate Mother. Goddesses are worshiped in iconographic forms, such as images in temples and home shrines, natural sites in the landscape such as rivers or mountains, aniconic forms such as a stone under a tree, or the center of the human heart. Regular or occasional worship practices may be directed to a personal goddess, lineage deity, village protector, or goddesses with particular areas of power, and range from devotion to propitiation, divination, and healing. Rituals may be performed by priests or other specialists, but many are performed by devotees themselves, who may make a vow (Sanskrit vrata) to perform particular rites in exchange for desired goals; these rites include fasting, making particular offerings, body piercing, sacrificing an animal, possession, and going on pilgrimage. In Śākta tantra, the goddess may be worshiped in yantras or sacred diagrams and in mantras or sacred syllables, and women manifest the goddess in ritual contexts. Through esoteric yogic and ritual techniques the practitioner accesses the correspondences between the microcosm of the human body and the macrocosm of the universe to realize the fundamental identity with the goddess in order to achieve powers and ultimate liberation. This article focuses on worship and bhakti practices directed toward goddesses; for broader treatments of these topics, see the separate Oxford Bibliographies Online articles Bhakti, Goddess, and Shaktism. For the worship of goddesses with the gods Shiva and Vishnu, see Shiva and Viṣṇu.

African religions, spirituality, and mental health healing practices

Traditional African religions are diverse with each having its own rituals and symbolisms and often defining an ethnic and language group. Even though most subscribe to the notion of a supreme deity, a common feature of these religions is their polythetic philosophy in which there are many layers of deities and ancestral spirits. The African gods are not jealous, making religious fundamentalism alien to the adherents of traditional religions. African traditional healing practices, rooted in African religious beliefs, are commonly sought because they are thought to get at the root causes of illness and not just to provide relief from symptoms. In the face of globalization as well as pervasive influence of Western cultures, the Abrahamic religions of Christianity and Islam now jostle for dominance and for the sole occupation of the spiritual space. However, even when the average African subscribes to an Abrahamic faith, it is common for them to retain a world view steeped in traditional spirituality. An appreciation of this dualism is important when addressing the mental health condition of the African patient.

On the dynastic cult of the rulers of Bukhara Sogd in the Early Middle Ages (to the interpretation of the murals of the Varakhsha palace)

Varakhsha hillfort is located in the Bukhara oasis (Uzbekistan). From the 6th to 8th c., it was the residence of the rulers of Bukhara Sogd. Archaeological investigations of the Varakhsha were carried out in the late 1930s, and then later in 1947 and 1949–1954. During the excavations of the palace, wall paintings were discovered in the Red (Hindu) and East (Blue) Halls (7th–8th c.). In the East Hall, the center of the art composition on the south wall was dominated by a massive figure of a ‘king’ with a golden sword, seated on a throne with protomas of winged camels. Depicted next to him was a group of five people sitting on their knees — the king's family. The elder man is making an offering to the fire on an altar. On the base of the altar, there is a male figure, seated on a throne in the form of a lying camel. This figure represents Vretragna, the Avestan deity of Victory. Mythogenically, Vretragna is close to the Vedic god of thunder Indra. In Avesta, Vretragna appears in various guises: a Bactrian camel; the bird of prey Varagn; a man with a golden sword. In Sogdian iconography, the image of the Bactrian camel is most often associated with Vretragna. The characters of the murals in the Blue Hall (the king’s family) bring offering to the fire lit in tribute to the deity — to Vretragna. The central figure of this composition was identi-fied by V.A. Shishkin as a king. In our opinion, it rather depicts Vretragna. This is implicitly indicated by the protomas of the throne in the form of winged camels and by the image of ‘the king with the golden sword’. The walls of the Red Hall of Varakhsha were decorated with a scene of hunters riding elephants. Each elephant was ridden by a servant-mahout and a lord, whose figure would be disproportionately large. They are slaying huge monsters. According to researchers, an image of the Sogdian deity Adbag is repeated here. The epithet ‘Adbag’ — ‘Supreme deity’ is associated with Ahuramazda. B.I. Marshak and A.M. Belenitsky note, that here Adbag-Ahuramazda is likened to Indra riding a white elephant. It seems to us quite probable that such an epithet could be applied to various gods of a high status. Notably, it could be Vretragna depicted here, who is akin to Indra. We think that the image of Vretragna held a special place in the visual arts of Varakhsha, as the patron deity of the Bukhar-Khudat dynasty. He was depicted in the center of the com-position in the Blue Hall in his Avestan hypostasis, and in the Red Hall he was depicted in the form of Indra.

Iconographic Volatility in the Fuxi-Nüwa Triads of the Han Dynasty

Over the span of some two hundred years, from the late Western Han to the late Eastern Han, triad images featuring a prominent central being flanked by two smaller, snake-bodied figures, occurred on murals and carved stones in Henan, Shandong, and adjacent areas. The iconographic schema of the flanking figures, Nüwa and Fuxi, appears mature and stable, with their identities consistently determined by their half-human, half-serpent, and gendered bodies as well as by the divine objects they hold—sun and moon, compass and T square, numinous mushrooms. The iconography of the third being, however, appears far less consistent and somewhat elusive, yielding many different identifications by scholars. The seemingly anomalous pictorial program speaks to the issue of iconographic volatility in Han art. Looking across the corpus of triad images, this essay identifies the volatile third being as the Grand One, and proposes that its figural metamorphoses were predicated on the amorphousness of the supreme deity of Daoist cosmogony. Distilling the three most important formal aspects of the Grand One—a therianthropic being, a forceful facilitator, and a regal icon—this essay argues that the triad images embodied a coherent program depicting the cosmogonic origin of the world that began with the Grand One conjugating yin and yang, associated with Nüwa and Fuxi respectively. The emergence of this triad imagery coincided with evolving Daoist thought during the Han dynasty.

Interpretation of Symbols, Veneration and Divine Attributes in Dieng Temple Complex, Central Java

This study aims to discuss the divine symbols and attributes used as a medium of worship in the Dieng Plateau. The research was phased in according to Wallace's empirical cycle and was conducted in the Dieng Plateau, Central Java, Indonesia, a spiritual centre in ancient Java. The discovery of the Śiva Triśirah statue in the Dieng Temple Complex reveals new things in the past Hindu Nusantara Theology construction. Several divine symbols and attributes are served as a medium of worship at the Temple Complex in the Dieng Plateau. The concept of Deity in the Dieng Plateau is Śivaistic in character with the worship of Lord Śiva Triśirah, that is, Śiva with three faces and four hands, as the Supreme Deity. However, some divine symbols and attributes also serve as a medium of worship and connected to divinity. In Hinduism, the sacred symbols and attributes of God are inseparable. Divine attributes generally define God. In the discussion of theology, God is described with various excellent attributes. The central divine attributes found are as follows: Omnipotence, Creatorship, Omniscience, Eternity and Omnipresence, Personhood, Goodness⁄ Perfection, Non-Physicality, Necessary, Existence, Simplicity, Immutability, and Impassibility. These divine attributes are depicted in various forms of sacred symbols found in the Dieng Plateau.

Hari the Fallen Prophet

Born into the degenerate and idolatrous line of Kābil (Cain), Hari (Kr̥ṣṇa) is the only Hindu god who punctuates the line of traditional Islamic prophets after Ādam. The narrative unit on Hari is the singular focus of this chapter. Hari’s tale exemplifies Sultan’s effort to minimize local competition to the Prophet of Islam: the inclusion of this “fallen” god-turned-prophet—one of the most popular deities of medieval Bengal, and the supreme deity of the Gauṛīya Vaiṣṇavas—appropriates and marginalizes a native rival through his demotion to human status, and his conversion to Islam. He is upheld as a warning to the people of Bengal, a false god and seductive icon, whose adultery would lead only to divine wrath and the punishments of hell. In examining the complex strategies by which Sultān simultaneously demolishes the Kr̥ṣṇa avatāra while establishing the Prophet Muḥammad as the avatāra for the Kali age, this chapter shows how missionary translation is a form of creative iconoclasm.

Royal women-sistrophoroi: to the interpretation of sistrum symbolism un cultic practice of the New Kingdom Period

The present article deals with the symbolism of the sistrum in the cultic and ceremonial practice of the New Kingdom period. As a sacred musical instrument, closely associated with Hathor and other goddesses identified with her (Tefnut, Sakhmet, Bastet, Iusaas, Nebet-Hetepet), the sistrum of two types (sSSt and sxm) was widely used in performing various religious rituals and ceremonies. Since the dominant type in the iconography of the king’s wives and mothers of the New Kingdom is their image playing the sistrum/sistra, the author focuses primarily on the main female representatives of the royal family. The article provides a brief overview of iconography, laudatory epithets of royal women and accompanying inscriptions to the use of sistra. A study of official cultic and ceremonial scenes with royal women shaking sistra, allows the author to define three main objects of veneration: a. gods; b. goddesses; c. king. The author also puts into doubt the interpretation widespread in modern Egyptology, according to which, the sexual energy of the supreme deity was stimulated through playing music. Moreover, the absence of the important title “god’s wife/hand” in the protocol of some royal women does not allow reducing their cultic role to the personification of the consort/daughter of a solar deity. A critical approach to this interpretation makes it possible to state that playing sistra was not an exclusively female prerogative and was not limited to the strict opposition “royal woman – god”. Besides, one can conclude that the use of sistra as liturgical objects was a prerequisite for performing offering rituals.

The Doctrine of Śrī (Lakṣmī) and its Origins in Viśiṣṭādvaita-Vedānta

The doctrine of Śrī-tattva (ontology of the goddess Lakṣmī) in the philosophy of viśiṣṭādvaita-vedānta is one of the most disputable. It raises a number of ques­tions within the tradition and from other philosophical schools. The Supreme Re­ality (Brahman) has its personified form, represented as Viṣṇu with his spouse Śrī. However, it is not always clear whether the goddess acts autonomously, or she is completely subordinate to God. Whether it is the potency of God, the metaphysical principle, or she is the Supreme deity along with Viṣṇu. This doc­trine became one of the most disputable between the Tengalai and Vadagalai śrī­vaiṣṇava schools of the South India in the 13th – 14th centuries. The ācāryas criticized various theories about Lakṣmī in the debates and in their works, as to her being the means of liberation (mokṣa), as to her being Paramātmā or just a part of Brahman, as to her being infinite etc. Viśiṣṭādvaita’s philosophers quote the Vedic texts and Pāñcarātra samhitas as the most authoritative sources of knowledge when they explain this doctrine. This article discusses references in these texts to Śrī-Lakṣmī, its nature, attributes and functions, as well as its sta­tus in relation to Nārāyaṇa and the Universe.