Author - S.S. Toshkhani
ISBN - 978-81-8274-475-2
Year - 2010
Price - Rs. 1500.00
Binding - Hardback
About
the Book:
Rites can be described as established patterns of religious activity embedded
in the cultural consciousness of a people, seeking to link the mundane or
natural reality with the divine or trans-natural. Although scholars all over
the world have evinced a marked interest in the study of Hindu, and in
particular Vedic, ritual in the recent years, viewing it from different
perspectives, there has been hardly any focus on the ritual behaviour of
Kashmiri Brahmins, or Kashmiri Pandits as they are more commonly known, as a
separate area of scholastic inquiry. This is perhaps because the fundamental
core of their rites and rituals is much the same as that of the ritual system
prevailing among Hindus in other parts of the country. At the same time, with
regional factors or deshachara coming into play, a whole body of new
accoutrements has grown around this core over the centuries which can be
characterized as distinctly Kashmiri. From this point of view, there is much
in the ceremonies and sacraments which characterize the religious life of
Kashmiri Brahmins that could form a fascinating field of study for the
religious historian as well as the social anthropologist.
Prompted by such an intent this book sets to examine the ritual activity of
the numerically small but culturally rich community of Kashmiri Pandits,
seeking to explore its distinguishing features and also to comprehend the
"formative consciousness" and epistemological foundations on which
their ritual system is based. This system, as this study points out, remains
anchored in the ordainments of the Grihyasutras of Laugakshi associated with
the Kathaka school of Black Yajurveda which is replete with Vedic elements and
forms the substratum of the sacramental beliefs and domestic rituals of the
Kashmiri Brahmins.
Later, from the 7th century, the esoteric cults of Tantrism came to occupy the
centre-stage in the religion practiced in Kashmir with an exclusive body of
liturgical texts primarily propagating the doctrine of the union of Shiva and
Shakti. In the 10th century, the great Abhinavagupta synthesized and
integrated the Tantric Krama, Kula and Trika schools into the monistic vision
of what is known as Kashmir Shaivism. Many of the practices of these schools
came to be incorporated in the ritual system followed by Kashmiri Hindus
today. Along with this the goddesses cults also gained popularity and
predominance, in particular those dedicated to the worship of the most popular
local goddesses Ragnya and Sharika who came to be identified with the great
Mother Goddess herself.
Dividing the rites and ceremonies of the Kashmiri Hindus into the broad
categories of samskaras or life-cycle rituals and other domestic rituals, puja
or worship rituals including festivals and ritual arts, this book looks at
them as patterns of culture and aspects of social life peculiar to the
community. It uses the methodology of both examining the source texts and
undertaking field work, while focusing on the elements that lend these rituals
their distinct colour and flavour and providing interesting insights into an
exclusive scenario of religious activity hardly known to the world outside.
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