Religion, Epic and Cultural Memory: The Construction of the Significant Past in Sanskrit and Hindi Mahābhāratas
This paper reflects a deep interest in the way in which social groups put together ideas of their shared past. In South Asia, an enduring resource for the fashioning of ideas of the significant past has been the religious epic, the Mahabharata. From at least the Guptan era (329-650 C. E.) to present...
| Published in: | Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Diagonal-Verlag
2012
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | This paper reflects a deep interest in the way in which social groups put together ideas of their shared past. In South Asia, an enduring resource for the fashioning of ideas of the significant past has been the religious epic, the Mahabharata. From at least the Guptan era (329-650 C. E.) to present, the story of two feuding branches of one family, and their horrific mutual slaughter, has been »good to think with«. In this paper, I will take up two particular examples of this textual tradition, one a contemporary Hindi source, the other, an ancient Sanskrit text. My goal is to shed light upon the form and function of the construction of the past in the two texts. |
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| ISSN: | 2194-508X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/zfr.2007.15.2.179 |