No.230 Seminar ： The Continuity and Discontinuity in Pre-Modern and Modern Hinduism: Focusing on the Development of Sacred Places and Pilgrimages
- Tomoka MUSHIGA Graduate School of Letters, 13th batch, Assistant Professor
- 2023/06/06 4:30pm
- Research Administration Building, Basement Floor (Conference Rooms 1&2) and Zoom
- Japanese(Presentation slides and some other information will be provided in English)
- onsite and Zoom
Summary
It has been pointed out that the concept of “Hinduism” as a single religion was constructed by Westerners and Indian elites in the modern (colonial) period. On the other hand, as insisted especially by researchers on early modern India, we have not examined enough the forms of beliefs and practices in pre-modern India to analyze the Western influence properly. My Hakubi project deals with this issue, focusing on the history and actual condition of the Hindu sacred places and pilgrimage, which developed in the medieval and early modern period and are still very popular in India. This will contribute to my research goal for the future, to propose a combined method of fieldwork and analysis of Sanskrit texts for understanding present Hinduism. In this presentation, after giving the overview of my Hakubi project, I will introduce my papers about a sacred place “Gayā” in Bihar state in North India to demonstrate my research method and purposes.