GEORGI KRASTEV
EPHE Paris \/ University of Vienna\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 gkrustev@yahoo.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DIVINE VISION (DIVYACAK\u1e62US<\/em>), ORACULAR HEARING (UPA\u015aRUTI<\/em>) AND THE POWER OF YOGA AND SPLENDOUR: EVIDENCE OF ARCHAIC RITUAL ELEMENTS WITHIN TWO STORIES FROM THE UDYOGA<\/em>– (13\u201315) AND THE ANU\u015a\u0100SANAPARVAN<\/em> (41,1\u201335) <\/p>\n\n\n\n As with the famous account of Yoganidr\u0101 in the M\u0101rka\u1e47\u1e0deyapur\u0101\u1e47a<\/em>, many Indian mythological narratives hold particular moralistic teachings, social conventions, cultural values, and occasional footprints of a more archaic (or more vernacular) reality which the Brahmanical world view most certainly disapproved of, but which, ironically, survived through serving the purpose of providing good contrast to the values, conduct and morals which Brahmanical culture strove to promote. Such is also the case of two stories from the Udyoga<\/em>– (13\u201315) and the Anu\u015b\u0101sanaparvan<\/em> (41,1-35), where Indra is cast as both victim and villain, and both of which preach the values of being faithful in matrimony in the face of external pressure. Despite these moralistic overtones, however, the powers, conduct and plot of the stories betray a ritual and conceptual reality where power over others, paralysing them, entering their bodies, becoming invisible or seeing into the Unseen World of higher or hidden levels of reality is both possessed by particular divine personages, but also obtainable by those who are virtuous through the power of yoga <\/em>and tapas<\/em>.\u00a0 In the Udyogaparvan <\/em>narrative, the yogin<\/em> Vipularestrains Deva\u015barman\u2019s beautiful wife Ruc\u012b from succumbing to Indra\u2019s advances by essentially possessing her body and mind, then frightens Indra with his yogic tejas<\/em>, reprimands him and treats him like nothing but a pesky incubus<\/em> or a bh\u016bta<\/em>. Thanks to this feat, in fact, Deva\u015barman is later capable of walking through the deserted forest with his wife without fear\u2014the very same forest that is the usual abode of vighna<\/em>s, yak\u1e63a<\/em>s, bh\u016bta<\/em>s,\u00a0 pi\u015b\u0101ca<\/em>s, and graha<\/em>s, and which, in another context, is a favourite place for tantric rituals and practice.\u00a0 In the Anu\u015b\u0101sanaparvan <\/em>the roles are reversed and Indra is the \u201cvictim\u201d. The evil Nahu\u1e63a has claimed his place as king of the gods and wishes to claim Indra\u2019s wife \u015aac\u012b as well. Despite the overall Brahmanical flavour of the narrative, \u015aac\u012b does not manage to find her husband through regular means, even other gods cannot help her. It should not, then, go unnoticed, that it is not \u015bruti<\/em> that leads \u015aac\u012b to find her hidden husband in a secret ma\u1e47\u1e0dala<\/em>-esque hideout on an island in a lake beyond the Himalayas, but her appeal is heard by the curious personification of the power of an oracular voice\u2014the goddess Upa\u015bruti. This becomes all the more curious when august voices such as Var\u0101hamihira outright condemns upa\u015bruti <\/em>as one among a number of practices a daivavit<\/em> should not take seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GEORGI KRASTEVEPHE Paris \/ University of Vienna\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 gkrustev@yahoo.com DIVINE VISION (DIVYACAK\u1e62US), ORACULAR HEARING (UPA\u015aRUTI) AND THE POWER OF YOGA AND SPLENDOUR: EVIDENCE OF ARCHAIC RITUAL ELEMENTS WITHIN TWO STORIES FROM THE UDYOGA– (13\u201315) AND THE ANU\u015a\u0100SANAPARVAN (41,1\u201335) As with the famous account of Yoganidr\u0101 in the M\u0101rka\u1e47\u1e0deyapur\u0101\u1e47a, many Indian mythological narratives hold particular moralistic teachings, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2189","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2189\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicsep.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}