Homo Ritualis

Hindu Ritual and Its Significance for Ritual Theory

Axel Michaels

Oxford Ritual Studies

First book to present a Hindu theory of rituals
Based on extensive textual studies and field work in Nepal and India

Homo Ritualis

Hindu Ritual and Its Significance for Ritual Theory

Axel Michaels

Description

Is the richness and diversity of rituals and celebrations in South Asia unique? Are Indians or Hindus more involved in rituals than people of other faiths and other places? If so, what makes them special? Can we speak of a homo ritualis when it comes to India or Hinduism?

Drawing on extensive textual studies and fieldwork in Nepal and India, Axel Michaels demonstrates how the characteristic structure of Hindu rituals employs the Brahmanic-Sanskritic sacrifice as a model, and how this structure is one of the distinguishing features of Hinduism more generally. Many religions tend over time to develop less ritualized or more open forms of belief, but Brahmanical Hinduism has internalized ritual behavior to the extent that it has become its most important and distinctive feature, permeating social and personal life alike. The religion can thus be seen as a particular case in the history of religions in which ritual form dominates belief and develops a sweeping autonomy of ritual behavior.

Homo Ritualis analyzes ritual through these cultural-specific and religious contexts, taking into account how indigenous terms and theories affect and contribute to current ritual theory. It describes and investigates various forms of Hindu rituals and festivals, such as life-cycle rituals, the Vedic sacrifice, vows processions, and the worship of deities (puja). It also examines various conceptual components of (Hindu) rituals such as framing, formality, modality, and theories of meaning.

Homo Ritualis

Hindu Ritual and Its Significance for Ritual Theory

Axel Michaels

Oxford Ritual Studies

Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Plates and Figures
Pronunciation of Indian Words

Introduction

Part I: Framing
1. The Beginning of Rituals
1.1 The Solemn Intention (samkalpa)
1.2 Greeting and Ritualized Greeting (namaskara)
Conclusion

Part II: Formality
2. Repetitive Rules (vidhi)
2.1 The Grammar of Rituals
2.2 A Preliminary "Grammar" of Newar Life-cycle Rituals
2.3 Rituals in Handbooks (paddhati)
3. Agency in Ritual
3.1 Ritual Competency (adhikara)
3.2 Atonements for Ritual Mishaps (prayascitta)
3.3 The Comic Side of Ritual Formality
4. Performed and Played Rituals (lila)
4.1 Music and Ritual Music
4.2 Dance and Ritual Dance
4.3 Emotions and Ritual Emotions
Conclusion

Part III: Modality
5. Individualized and Domestic Rituals (samskara)
5.1 The Boy's Initiation
5.2 The Girl's Initiation
5.3 The Marriage
5.4 Death Rituals and Redemption
6. Collective and Public Rituals
6.1 Temple Festivals (utsava)
6.2 Vows (vrata)
6.3 Pilgrimages and Processions (yatra)
7. Transcendence in Rituals
7.1 The Vedic Sacrifice (yajña)
7.2 The Fire Sacrifice (homa)
7.3 Worship and Prayer (puja)
7.4 E-darshan and Cyber-puja
Conclusion

Part IV: Meaning
8. Meaning and Function
8.1 The Cultural Studies Approach
8.2 The Cognitive Sciences approach
9. The Purvamimamsa Theory of Ritual Efficacy
Conclusion

Part V: The Hindu Path of Ritual-Summary

Appendix: Automatic Detection of Ritual Structures
Glossary
References

Homo Ritualis

Hindu Ritual and Its Significance for Ritual Theory

Axel Michaels

Oxford Ritual Studies

Author Information

Axel Michaels is a scholar of Indology and religious studies. Since 1996, he has been Professor of Classical Indology at the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg.

Homo Ritualis

Hindu Ritual and Its Significance for Ritual Theory

Axel Michaels

Oxford Ritual Studies

Reviews and Awards

"Michaels's book is a positive contribution to ritual studies and to the study of Hindu ritual within the larger conversation of ritual theory. The ethno-Indological approach taken by Michaels is, furthermore, an innovative and rewarding method for the study of Hindu ritual, particularly as these two fields-ethnography and Indology-have sometimes been seen as at odds with each other."--Adam Newman, Reading Religion

"Michaels's key contributions are twofold: first, he offers a unifying theory of the complex structure and variety of South Asian ritual performances in their own hermeneutical terms, and second he demonstrates that a theoretically sophisticated understanding of such rituals can make significant contributions to the field of ritual studies."--Jarrod Whitaker, Journal of Religion

"Axel Michaels' Homo Ritualis indicates something of a mini-renaissance at the intersection of ritual studies and South Asian studies...This is the greatest achievement of Homo Ritualis: to translate the contemporary field of ritual theory into digestibly South Asian terms; to pose adhikara as 'agency'; to place the history of Indology (from Hillebrandt to Houben) opposite textbook figures in the study of religion (from Durkheim to Lawson and McCauley). The book is worth reading simply for this exercise of cross-cultural theorizing."--Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"It has been evident at least since the time of Marcel Mauss that the study of ritual ought to draw more than it does on the rich indigenous tradition of ritual theory produced within Hinduism. Until now few have possessed the necessary skills to bring these fields together. Axel Michaels is a Sanskritist, a founder of the field of ethno-Indology, and the leader of a major research program within ritual studies. He is therefore ideally placed to be the confluence where Indology, South Asian ethnography, and ritual studies flow together and produce an important new synthesis. Homo Ritualis will be an essential point of reference for all three fields." --David N. Gellner, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Oxford