On Pilgrimage: Seeking the presence of Śiva: Salvific space in early Hindu pilgrimage practices

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Abstract

In the centuries around the beginning of the Common Era, the conceptualization of sacred space shifted from the Vedic model, where temporary ritual sites were prepared to invoke gods for the duration of the ritual, to that of classical Hinduism, where gods were installed in permanent places of worship. This gradual localization of gods was blended with the early “locative strand of Hindu piety” (Eck 1981), rooted in non-Vedic local traditions, in which certain places in nature – especially river sides – were considered as sacred crossings (tīrtha) to the other world and thus functioned as powerful and auspicious sites for dying, as well as for religious and spiritual practices. This particular concept of salvific space is at the root of early Hindu pilgrimage culture, which saw places such as Varanasi on the holy river Ganges in India or Pashupatinath on the holy river Bagmatī in Nepal emerge as important pilgrimage sites in the early medieval period. Both places are associated with the presence of the Hindu god Śiva, who is worshipped in the śivaliṅga, the main cult object considered to be the god’s tangible manifestation on earth. Considering early material remains as well as inscriptions and other newly edited textual sources on ritual and mythology, this presentation will look at the role of śivaliṅga shrines in the transformation of profane into sacred space and highlight how this mechanism led to the growth of sacred centres such as Varanasi and Pashupatinath.

Nina Mirnig is an Elise Richter Fellow (Senior Postdoc) at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and teaches at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. Since 2019 she leads an Austrian Science Fund (FWF) sponsored research project on the religious, cultural and political landscape of early medieval Nepal (FWF V 755-G), with special focus on the study of Sanskrit Licchavi-period inscriptions (c. 5^th–8^th cent. CE). In her approach, she is eager to develop collaborative approaches that combine text-based philological studies with archaeology and art history and has been collaborating with the Durham’s UNESCO Chair since 2014.

Suggested Readings

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Forsten. Eck, D. 1981. India’s tīrthas: ‘Crossings’ in sacred geography. History of Religions 20.4: 323-344.

Jacobsen, K. A. 2013. Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space. London: Routledge.

Kreisel, G. 1986. Die Śiva-Bildwerke der Mathurā-kunst: Ein Beitrag zur Frühhinduistischen Ikonographie. Stuttgart: Steiner.

Mirnig, N. 2016. Early Strata of Śaivism in the Kathmandu Valley: Śivaliṅga Pedestal Inscriptions from 466–645 CE. Indo-Iranian Journal 59.4: 309-362.

Mirnig, N. 2019. ‘Rudras on Earth’ on the eve of the Tantric Age: The Śivadharmaśāstra and the making of Śaiva lay and initiatory communities.” In N. Mirnig, M. Rastelli, and V. Eltschinger (eds.), Tantric Communities in Context: 471–510. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press.

Olivelle P. 2010. The Temple in Sanskrit Legal Literature. In (ed.) H.P. Ray (ed.), Archaeology and Text: The Temple in South Asia: 191–204. Oxford: Oxford University Press.