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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Rites of the God-King: Santi and Ritual Change in Early Hinduism

Rites of the God-King: Santi and Ritual Change in Early Hinduism

Geslani, Marko

Hardcover

Series: Oxford Ritual Studies

AnthropologyHinduism

ISBN10: 0190862882
ISBN13: 9780190862886
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Jul 9 2018
Pages: 336
Weight: 1.27
Height: 1.20 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
Scholars of Vedic religion have long recognized the centrality of ritual categories to Indian thought. There have been few successful attempts, however, to bring the same systematic rigor of Vedic Scholarship to bear on later Hindu ritual. Excavating the deep history of a prominent ritual category in classical Hindu texts, Geslani traces the emergence of a class of rituals known as santi, or appeasement. This ritual, intended to counteract ominous omens, developed from the intersection of the fourth Veda - the oft-neglected Atharvaveda - and the emergent tradition of astral science (Jyotisastra) sometime in the early first millennium, CE. Its development would come to have far-reaching consequences on the ideal ritual life of the king in early-medieval Brahmanical society. The mantric transformations involved in the history of santi led to the emergence of a politicized ritual culture that could encompass both traditional Vedic and newer Hindu performers and practices.

From astrological appeasement to gift-giving, coronation, and image worship, Rites of the God-King chronicles the multiple lives and afterlives of a single ritual mode, unveiling the always-inventive work of the priesthood to imagine and enrich royal power. Along the way, Geslani reveals the surprising role of astrologers in Hindu history, elaborates conceptions of sin and misfortune, and forges new connections between medieval texts and modern practices. In a work that details ritual forms that were dispersed widely across Asia, he concludes with a reflection on the nature of orthopraxy, ritual change, and the problem of presence in the Hindu tradition.

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