Banaras jyotirliṅgas: constitution and transformations of a transposed divine group and its pilgrimage

Authors

  • Vera Lazzaretti

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/722

Abstract

Banaras (Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India) is renowned as one of the more notable pilgrimage destinations of India. The ways of approaching and investigating the sacred landscape and the religious practices of this city varied throughout times and are still a matter of discussion among scholars. The author firstly addresses this debate in order to re-conceptualize the need and intents of writing (still) about Banaras and its mainstream religious traditions. The contribution addresses one common pattern of Indian sacred geography, that is the spatial transposition of gods. The article, in fact, goes through the formation path of a transposed group of pan-Indian deities, namely the jyotirliṅgas, in a city which is presented by eulogistic literature as a universal tīrtha, where all sacred centres and gods dwell. Through the analysis of textual and visual material the author shows how these divine forms have been produced in the city’s territory throughout time and projected spatially in the various shrines and, eventually, in a procession. The pilgrimage circuit connected with the twelve local jyotirliṅgas is investigated as a recent and evolving practice of Banaras religious life and its currently deviating path is shown as something to be constantly rephrased and negotiated. Ritual transformations appear as challenged by the need to adapt and survive in a developing urban context, where sacred space is shared, contested and cyclically re-written.

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Author Biography

Vera Lazzaretti

Vera Lazzaretti (1982) svolge ricerche sulle pratiche religiose di Varanasi dal 2009, prima come titolare di una borsa di ricerca dell’Università degli Studi di Milano e della Fondazione Cariplo, poi come dottoranda di ricerca presso la Scuola di dottorato in studi euro-asiatici, indirizzo indologico e tibetologico, dell’Università degli Studi di Torino. Nel maggio 2013 discute la sua tesi di dottorato che verte sull’analisi delle dinamiche di costruzione della tradizione all’interno dei santuari che ospitano le repliche di jyotirliṅga a Varanasi. Attualmente sta sviluppando alcuni dei risultati della sua ricerca, in particolare, quelli relativi al mutamento dei circuiti di pellegrinaggio nella città contemporanea e la gestione dell’eredità culturale, religiosa e spaziale all’interno di complessi templari contesi. Nel I semestre dell’ a. a. 2013-2014 è docente del laboratorio “Percorsi di geografia sacra indiana: luoghi e tradizioni” presso l’Università degli Studi di Milano.

References

Textual sources

Kāśīkedāramāhātmya, Sanskrit-Hindī, ed. Sri Vijayananda Tripathi, Candra Śekar Paṇḍey, Śrī Kāśīkedārakhaṇḍa Adhyātmika Sansthā, Vārāṇasī, 2006.

Kāśīkhaṇḍa (Skanda Purāṇa), ed., G.V. Tagare, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1996.

Kāśīrahasya, ed. Jagdīś Nārāyaṇ Dūbe, Ādarśa Prakāśan Mandir, Vārāṇasī, 1984.

Tīrthavivecanakāṇḍa, Bhaṭṭaśrīlaksṃīdharaviracite Kṛtyakalpatarau aṣṭamo bhāgaḥ, ed. K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar, Gaekwad’s Oriental Series 98, Baroda, 1942.

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Published

2014-10-22

Issue

No. 17 (2013)

Section

Articles

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