Sacred Groves, the Brahmanical Hermit, and Some Remarks on ahiṃsā and Vegetarianism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.25.2023.01.08Keywords:
sacred groves, forest, Ilā, Urvaśī and Purūravas, hermit, Dharmasūtras, Mānavadharmaśāstra, ahiṃsā, vegetarianismAbstract
The term sacred grove‘ is used to denote an area of vegetation that is afforded special protection on religious grounds. In India, where sacred groves are known by a wide repertoire of local names, such places may be found right from the Himalayas up to the far South. Sacred groves host veneration of natural phenomena or elements of landscape, but also ancestral, local, folk or tribal gods and Sanskritised deities; the use of their resources is strictly regulated. Research studies on sacred groves in India often consider them to be a legacy of archaic economic forms, possibly harking back to the stage of hunters-gatherers, and an expression of a religiosity dating back to a remote, non-Aryan, pre-Vedic antiquity. However, main sources for our knowledge of Indian antiquity, namely the literary sources, provide no direct record of voices of such archaic societies. Nonetheless, the same sources allow us to highlight some important aspects of the sacredness anciently ascribed to vegetation, forest, and specific places therein. The present paper proposes to focus on the Brahmanical hermit‘s distinct relationship with the forest and examine some aspects related to food.
PlumX Metrics of this article
References
Primary sources
Abhijñānaśākuntala = Kale, M. R. (ed.). 196910. The Abhijñānaśākuntalam of Kālidāsa. With the Commentary of Rāghavabhaṭṭa, Various Readings, Introduction, Literal Translation, Exhaustive Notes and Appendices.
Delhi–Varanasi–Patna: Motilal Banarsidass.
ĀDh = Āpastambadharmasūtra = see Olivelle, P. 2000.
BauDh = Baudhāyanadharmasūtra = see Olivelle, P. 2000.
GauDh = Gautamadharmasūtra = see Olivelle, P. 2000.
Manu = Mānavadharmaśāstra = see Olivelle, P. 2005.
MBh = Mahābhārata = Sukthankar, V. S. et al. (eds). 1933–1971.
The Mahābhārata. For the First Time Critically Edited. 19 Vols.
Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
Rām = Rāmāyaṇa = Bhatt, G. H. and U. P. Shah (gen. eds). 1960–1975.
The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. 7 Vols. Baroda: The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Oriental Institute.
Ṛg = Ṛgveda = Aufrecht, T. (ed.). 1877. Die Hymnen des Ṛigveda. Zweiter Teil. Maṇḍala VII–X. Nebst Beigaben. Zweite Auflage. Bonn: Marcus. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112691267
VaDh = Vasiṣṭhadharmasūtra = see Olivelle, P. 2000.
Vikramorvaśīya = Rao, V. N. and D. Shulman (transl., with text). 2009.
How Úrvashi Was Won, by Kālidāsa. Clay Sanskrit Library. New York: New York University Press–JJC Foundation.
Secondary sources and translations Agarwal, M. 2016. Conserving Water & Biodiversity: Traditions of Sacred Groves in India. In: European Journal of Sustainable Development, 5(4): 129–140. https://doi.org/10.14207/ejsd.2016.v5n4p129. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14207/ejsd.2016.v5n4p129
Alsdorf, L. 2010. The History of Vegetarianism and Cow-Veneration in India. B. Patil (transl.). Edited with Additional Notes, a Bibliography and Four Appendices by W. Bollée. Abingdon–New York: Routledge (1st ed. 1962, Mainz: Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203859599
Amirthalingam, M. 2016. Sacred Groves of India—An Overview. In: International Journal of Current Research in Biosciences and Plant Biology, 3(4): 64–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.20546/ijcrbp.2016.304.011. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcrbp.2016.304.011
Bareau, A. 1987. Lumbinī et la naissance du futur Buddha. In: Bulletin de l‘École française d‘Extrême-Orient, 76: 69–81. https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1987.1717. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1987.1717
Bronkhorst, J. 1993. The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism. Bern: Peter Lang.
Brown, W. N. 1927. Change of Sex as a Hindu Story Motif. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 47: 3–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/593238 (reprint in: Rocher, R. (ed.). 1978. India and Indology: Selected Articles by W. Norman Brown, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass: 201–211).
DeCaroli, R. 2004. Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religion and the Formation of Buddhism. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/0195168380.001.0001
Doniger, W. 1999. Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India. Chicago–London: The University of Chicago Press.
Doniger O‘Flaherty, W. 1980. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts. Chicago–London: The University of Chicago Press.
Emeneau, M. B. 1962. Barkcloth in India—Sanskrit valkala. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 82(2): 167–170. https://doi.org/10.2307/597920. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/597920
Heesterman, J. C. 1984. Non-Violence and Sacrifice. In: Indologica Taurinensia, 12: 119–127.
Hertel, J. 1911. Die Geburt des Purūravas. In: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 25: 153–186.
Houben, J. E. M. and K. R. van Kooij (eds). 1999. Violence Denied: Violence, Non-Violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History. Leiden–Boston–Köln: Brill.
Hughes, J. D. and M. D. S. Chandran. 1998. Sacred Groves Around the Earth: An Overview. In: P. S. Ramakrishnan et al. (eds). Conserving the Sacred for Biodiversity Management. New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Pub.: 69–86.
Jamison, S. W. and J. P. Brereton (transl.). 2014. The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. 3 Vols. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kent, E. F. 2013. Sacred Groves and Local Gods: Religion and Environmentalism in South India. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199895465.001.0001
Kosambi, D. D. 1962. Myth and Reality: Studies in the Formation of Indian Culture. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.
Malhotra, K. C. et al. 2001. Sacred Groves of India: An Annotated Bibliography. New Delhi: Indian National Science Academy and Development Alliance.
Malhotra, K. C. et al. 2007. Sacred Groves in India: An Overview. Bhopal–New Delhi: Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya–Aryan Books International.
Nugteren, A. 2005. Belief, Bounty, and Beauty: Rituals around Sacred Trees in India. Leiden–Boston: Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047415619
Olivelle, P. 1990. Village vs. Wilderness: Ascetic Ideals and the Hindu World. In: A. B. Creel and V. Narayanan (eds). Monastic Life in the
Christian and Hindu Traditions. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen: 125–160 (reprint in: Olivelle, P. 2008. Collected Essays II: Ascetics and Brahmins: Studies in Ideologies and Institutions. Firenze: Firenze University Press: 43–62).
Olivelle, P.1991. From Feast to Fast: Food and the Indian Ascetic. In: J. Leslie (ed.). Rules and Remedies in Classical Indian Law. Leiden–New York–København–Köln: Brill: 17–36 (reprint in: Olivelle, P. 2008.
Collected Essays II: Ascetic sand Brahmins: Studies in Ideologies and Institutions. Firenze: Firenze University Press: 71–89).
Olivelle, P. 1993. The Āśrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution, New York–Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195083279.001.0001
Olivelle, P. 1995. Review of J. Bronkhorst, The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 115(1): 162–164. https://doi.org/ 10.2307/605355. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/605355
Olivelle, P. (ed., transl.) 2000. Dharmasūtras: The Law Codes of Āpastamba, Gautama, Baudhāyana, and Vasiṣṭha. Annotated Text and Translation. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Olivelle, P. 2002. Food for Thought: Dietary Rules and Social Organization in Ancient India. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (reprint in: Olivelle, P. 2008. Collected Essays I: Language, Texts, and Society: Explorations in Ancient Indian Culture and Religion. Firenze: Firenze University Press: 367–392).
Olivelle, P. (ed., transl.) 2005. Manu‘s Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra. With the Editorial Assistance of Suman Olivelle. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195171464.001.0001
Olivelle, P. 2008. The Beast and the Ascetic: The Wild in the Indian Religious Imagination. In: P. Olivelle. Collected Essays II: Ascetics and Brahmins: Studies in Ideologies and Institutions. Firenze: Firenze University Press: 91–100. DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/88-8453-527-1
Pieruccini, C. 2006. Landscapes of Feelings: Descriptions of Forests in the Rāmāyaṇa. In: J. Vacek (ed.). Pandanus ‘06. Nature in Literature and Ritual. Prague: Charles University–Triton: 115–129.
Pieruccini, C.2023. Natural Sceneries: Recreating Patterns in Sanskrit Court Plays. In: E. Poddighe and T. Pontillo (eds). Resisting and Justifying Changes II. Testifying and Legitimizing Innovation in Indian and Ancient Greek Culture. Pisa: Pisa University Press: 205–222.
Pontillo, T. 2009. Where the Ascetics Lead Their Life of Austerities, There Peace and Beauty Are: What Makes a Place an āśrama in the Mahābhārata and in Kālidāsa‘s Work. In: P. M. Rossi and C. Pieruccini (eds). Kings and Ascetics in Indian Classical Literature: International Seminar, 21–22 September, 2007: Proceedings. Milano: Cisalpino: 43–57.
Ray, R. et al. 2014. Biodiversity and Ecological Assessments of Indian Sacred Groves. In: Journal of Forestry Research, 25(1): 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11676-014-0429-2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-014-0429-2
Thapar, R. 2001. Perceiving the Forest: Early India. In: Studies in History, 17(1): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/025764300101700101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/025764300101700101
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
