142251 UE Rituals and Society in Early Saivism: (2024S)

From the middle of the first millennium CE, when Vaishnava and Buddhist groups were already strongly rooted in South Asia’s society and religio-political environment, Shaivism gradually rose to become one of the most important religious movements. One of the earliest extant surviving works to comprehensively address and canonize Shaiva rituals, beliefs and socio-religious concepts is the Śivadharmaśāstra from the 6th/7th century. It became a popular and widely circulated work that was preserved in India and Nepal, and also known in Southeast Asia. The Śivadharmaśāstra thus represents a key work for reconstructing and exploring the early phase of the institutionalization of Shaivism.

The practices described in the work encompass various forms of worship of the śivaliṅga, ascetic observances (vrata) and the many ways in which Śaiva devotees were to support religious institutions by offering their services and providing land, valuables or money for the creation and expansion of religious infrastructures.

Content and method of the course: In this course, we will read selected text passages from the Śivadharmaśāstra. The selected passages will give students the opportunity to examine together the fundamental themes of Shaiva religious practices and beliefs in one of the earliest extant textual records, also with a view to what these materials tell us about the socio-religious environment of early medieval India. An introduction will contextualize the work in the larger framework of early Shaiva literature and give an overview of the material and inscriptional evidence for early Shaivism between the 4th-10th centuries.

Objectives:
(a) To learn about the central worshipping practices, beliefs and socio-religious concepts of early Shivaism
(b) To acquire basic knowledge of the history of early Shivaism and its various currents
(c) Developing and expanding knowledge of the Sanskrit language
(d) Develop skills to independently translate, analyse and critical interpret primary texts