Frederick Smith will deliver a lecture on ‘New Research in Possession, Agency, and Narrative Formation’. It will be chaired by Rajeev Bhargava organized by Parekh Institute of Indian Thought, CSDS. Please join us for tea at 4.30 pm.
ZOOM ID: 85624908663 PASSCODE: csdsdelhi
Narratives of possession are embedded in local versions of the Mahābhārata, which are radically different from the Sanskrit text. One of these is in Garhwali, in a single manuscript. This text is recited (always with countless spontaneous variants) both by itself and as accompaniment to performances of Pāṇḍav līlās and other allied cultural events. I will speak about these, about the shared agency of actor/reciter and local divinity, and about the history of these performances, about which not much has been written.
Frederick Smith is Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit & Classical Indian Religions at the University of Iowa. His fields of interest include the Mahābhārata in both its Sanskrit and local language versions; the philosophy of Vallabhācārya (1479-1531), the Vaiṣṇava founder of the Puṣṭimārga; deity and spirit possession in South Asia; and the history of Vedic sacrificial (śrauta) ritual. He has published three books, approximately a hundred academic articles, and hundreds of book reviews.
Rajeev Bhargava is the Director of Parekh Institute of Indian Thought, CSDS, Delhi.
Monday, 7 October 2024, 5 pm, Seminar Room and Zoom https://bit.ly/3N1mGOw
