Feeding the Dead: Ancestor Worship in Ancient IndiaOUP USA, 12.09.2013 - 187 Seiten Feeding the Dead outlines the early history of ancestor worship in South Asia, from the earliest sources available, the Vedas, up to the descriptions found in the Dharmshastra tradition. Most prior works on ancestor worship have done little to address the question of how shraddha, the paradigmatic ritual of ancestor worship up to the present day, came to be. Matthew R. Sayers argues that the development of shraddha is central to understanding the shift from Vedic to Classical Hindu modes of religious behavior. Central to this transition is the discursive construction of the role of the religious expert in mediating between the divine and the human actor. Both Hindu and Buddhist traditions draw upon popular religious practices to construct a new tradition. Sayers argues that the definition of a religious expert that informs religiosity in the Common Era is grounded in the redefinition of ancestral rites in the Grhyasutras. Beyond making more clear the much misunderstood history of ancestor worship in India, this book addressing the serious question about how and why religion in India changed so radically in the last half of the first millennium BCE. The redefinition of the role of religious expert is hugely significant for understanding that change. This book ties together the oldest ritual texts with the customs of ancestor worship that underlie and inform medieval and contemporary practice. |
Inhalt
Introduction | 1 |
1 Ancestral Rites in the Early Vedas | 25 |
2 The Solemn Ancestral Rites | 40 |
3 The Domestic RiceBall Sacrifice to the Ancestors | 56 |
4 The Śrāddha Rite | 70 |
5 Ancestral Rites in the Buddhist Literature | 86 |
6 Soteriology | 100 |
7 Mediation | 117 |
Conclusion | 138 |
Appendix | 143 |
Notes | 145 |
Glossary of Sanskrit Terms | 165 |
169 | |
185 | |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
ābhyudayika Adhvaryu Agni ancestor worship ancestral rites Āpastamba ApSS ĀśGS associated Āśvalāyana Atharva Veda Baudhāyana benefit Brahmins Buddha Buddhist Buddhist authors Caland central Common Era conception concern context darbha grass deceased described Dhammapāla dharma Dharmaśāstra Dharmasūtras discussion domestic rites domestic ritual manuals ekoddiṣṭa example feeding fire funerary ghosts gift gods grass Grhyasūtras householder householder’s hymn indicates integration invited Jamison later tradition Mahābhārata mantras Manu MDhŚ meat offerings mediator Ninth-Day Ancestral Offerings oblations occurs older Olivelle one’s Pāli Canon paradigm Pāraskara pārvaṇa performance Petavatthu piṇḍapitryajña pitryajña refers religious expert religious practice Rg Veda rice rice-balls ritual cycle ritual expert ritual obligations ritual space ritual tradition ritualist rituals of ancestor role Saṃhitā Saṅgha Śāṅkhāyana Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa ŚBM ŚGS solemn rite solemn ritual Soma soteriology śrāddha-rite śrauta Śrautasūtras sūtra term svadhā texts textual theological tion types of śrāddha-rite Vasiṣṭha Vedic priests Vedic ritual verses