Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I INTRODUCTION
- II DISCOURSE, CONDITIONS AND DYNAMICS OF TRADITION IN SOUTH ASIA
- III HOW TO PRODUCE, CONSTRUCT AND LEGITIMATE A TRADITION
- IV EXPERIENCING BOUNDARIES WITHIN TRADITION: THE CASE OF THE SANSKRIT GRAMMARIANS
- V VIOLATING TRADITION AND ITS BOUNDARIES
- Traditions against Tradition. Criticism, Dissent and the Struggle for the Semiotic Primacy of Veridiction
- The Nonconformity to Tradition of the Mahānubhāvs
- Tradition of Protest: the Development of Ritual Suicide from Religious Act to Political Statement
- VI THINKING ABOUT TRADITIONS IN SOUTH ASIA TODAY
Traditions against Tradition. Criticism, Dissent and the Struggle for the Semiotic Primacy of Veridiction
from V - VIOLATING TRADITION AND ITS BOUNDARIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- I INTRODUCTION
- II DISCOURSE, CONDITIONS AND DYNAMICS OF TRADITION IN SOUTH ASIA
- III HOW TO PRODUCE, CONSTRUCT AND LEGITIMATE A TRADITION
- IV EXPERIENCING BOUNDARIES WITHIN TRADITION: THE CASE OF THE SANSKRIT GRAMMARIANS
- V VIOLATING TRADITION AND ITS BOUNDARIES
- Traditions against Tradition. Criticism, Dissent and the Struggle for the Semiotic Primacy of Veridiction
- The Nonconformity to Tradition of the Mahānubhāvs
- Tradition of Protest: the Development of Ritual Suicide from Religious Act to Political Statement
- VI THINKING ABOUT TRADITIONS IN SOUTH ASIA TODAY
Summary
The voices of dissent as an essential element in understanding the textual production of an ‘orthodox’ tradition
In a short essay written in 1990, Friedhelm Hardy drew attention to a singular gap in the field of Indological studies. Taking as his example the minor and marginal position to which certain South Asian religious traditions have been consigned, Hardy raised various thorny methodological issues. On the one hand, he indicated how many of the supposed monolithic ‘givens’ (as the ‘true Vedic life’) to which we are accustomed are such only by virtue of the history of the discipline. On the other hand, he argued that the part played by ‘unorthodox distortions’ and ‘sectarian developments’ has not been attributed sufficient weight, and that their historical role may have been anything but secondary or marginal. With the penetrating originality characteristic of his work, Hardy outlined a short but intensive research program:
Naively it has been assumed that what the dharmashastras lay down as rules corresponds to actual life. In fact, it is no more than an ideal, a blueprint for a perfect society. […] From this follows that a considerable amount of religious life has been going on that is not as such described in the books on the Vedic dharma. No doubt these books, along with the belief in the Vedas etc., played a far wider role as prestigious norms and ideals than such a hypothetical calculation reveals. But they prescribe, not describe. […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011