Mikael Aktor

The Hindu pañcāyatanapūjā in the aniconism spectrum

ABSTRACT The Hindu pañcāyatanapūjā is the worship of five deities that can be in the form of five stones collected from various locations in South Asia. Each of these stones has visual properties which form points of reference to the iconography of the same gods’ anthropomorphic forms. And although the ritual use of these five stones is a clear example of an aniconic cult, their worship evokes anthropopathic properties and, depending on the specific context, anthropomorphic visual characteristics. These visual links and ritual movements between the aniconic, the anthropopathic, and the anthropomorphic are examples of a general fluidity that is characteristic of much of the material that has been described as ‘aniconic.’ Different categories of aniconic religious objects are therefore best understood within a spectrum that encompasses aniconic and figural, as well as theriomorphic and anthropomorphic, properties. The article attempts to situate aniconism within such a wider spectrum of representational options.

Asymmetrical Religious Commitments?: Religious Practice, Identity, and Self-Presentation among Western Scholars of Hinduism and Buddhism

The starting point of this article is the observation that more scholars of Buddhism seem to be engaged in Buddhist practices than their colleagues in the study of Hinduism are engaged in Hindu practices. It aims to examine this observation more closely and discuss the involved problematics in a more general perspective of the scholar’s responsibilities in relation to the public. The evidence examined consists partly of different types of public material including scholarly works, institutional and personal webpages, and the results from two anonymous questionnaire surveys set up on Hindu and Buddhist scholarly e-lists. Whereas the former type of evidence seems to confirm the original observation, the latter shows that the difference in the amounts of practicing scholars is more a matter of openness than of identity. The last part of the article, therefore, looks at the stereotypes that are inherited from the modernization of both religions in their transition to the Western world. How far a religiously engaged scholarship is acceptable or not is finally discussed at the institutional level.

Hinduism and Globalization

Hinduism, a unified religious entity that boasts an extraordinary diversity in its beliefs and customs claims over 1.08 billion adherents (2007) or 15 % of the world’s people. Its diversity has promoted its traditional liberality and its freedom allowed for individuals to follow many different paths in their quest for the divine. In India, Hinduism inhabits three spaces: (1) “Village Hinduism” prevails in rural India (68 % of the population), a set of “Little traditions” combining ritual and shamanism; (2) “Sanskrit, Vedic Hinduism”, the “Great Tradition” preserved by Brahmin priests, pandits, and monastic orders that propagates the ancient scriptures and mythology; and (3) “Renaissance Hinduism,” which is popular among the new urban middle class and associated with the teachings of saints in missionary programs within India and worldwide. Hinduism is a diverse religious and cultural phenomenon which contains several key teachings of value for the modern world. These include: a living belief in the sacredness of the Earth; fundamental belief in the interconnectedness of all life; commitment to dharma, a moral duty for service to the Earth and humanity; belief in karma, the law of consequences; and deep commitment to simple lifestyles and the greater benefit of spiritual than material wealth. Of course, Hinduism also faces many challenges caused by the globalized values of materialism, consumerism and individualism and by the legacies of 700 years of Indian subjugation. Hinduism is also defended from many of globalization’s adverse effects for its open-minded theology and its penchant for absorption and reinterpretation.

Louis Dumont: Verdensforsagelse, hierarki og renhed

English Abstract: This brief article reviews two main contributions by the French sociologist Louis Dumont, his essay “World Renunciation in Indian Religions” and his major work on the Indian caste system, Homo Hierarchicus . Some of the critique of Dumont’s ideas about renunciation, hierarchy and purity is discussed with special focus on three points: (1) The creative role of renunciation in the history of Hinduism; (2) the Indian caste system as a hierarchy regulated according to ritual purity and the alternative model by A. M. Hocart of the Indian society as a ritual organization; and (3) theoretical discussions regarding the need to go beyond the purity-impurity dichotomy and integrate another opposition, that between the auspicious and the inauspicious, in order to develop a more precise analytical tool in the research of Hindu culture. Dansk resume: Denne korte artikel diskuterer to vigtige bidrag af den franske sociolog Louis Dumont, hans essay “World Renunciation in Indian Religions” og hans hovedvaerk om det indiske kastesystem, Homo Hierarchicus. Noget af den kritik, der blev rejst mod Dumonts ideer om verdensforsagelse, hierarki og renhed, diskuteres med saerlig fokus pa tre punkter: (1) Verdensforsagelsens kreative betydning for hinduismens udvikling; (2) Dumonts model af det indiske kastesystem som et hierarki reguleret i forhold til rituel renhed og A. M. Hocarts alternative model, der ser hindusamfundet som en rituel organisation koncentrisk centreret omkring kongen; (3) de teoretiske diskussioner om nodvendigheden af at supplere rent-urent dikotomien med endnu en dikotomi, nemlig mellem det lykke- og ildevarslende, for at udvikle et mere praecist analyseapparat i udforskningen af hinduismen.