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Posts tagged ‘libel case’

1. Krishna in the dock: the 1862 Maharaja libel case and its consequences – III

   “Through a long night of superstition and darkness, vile creatures like this Maharaj have been able to make their dens of vice and debauchery seem to their spell-bound followers to be the holy temples of God. But as soon as the morning light comes, the place is found in full corruption and uncleanness; magical spells lose all effect; and men of a better sort rise disgusted, and at any cost break loose from such a haunt.”
   Times of India May 2, 1862

   Some recent correspondence has reminded me that I had more to say about the Maharaja libel case. For this post, I’m going to examine some of the intersecting factors which allowed Gujurati social reformers to enter into a strategic alliance with Imperial law, with far-reaching effects. Continue reading »

   

   September 16th 2014

   Posted by Phil Hine in History, tantra

   Tags: colonialism, libel case, nineteenth century, Orientalist, Pustimarg, Vaisnava

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2. Krishna in the dock: the 1862 Maharaja libel case and its consequences – II

   “Amongst other articles of the new creed, Vallabha introduced one, which is rather singular for a Hindu religious innovator or reformer: he taught, that privation formed no part of sanctity, and that it was the duty of the teachers and his disciples to worship their Deity, not in nudity and hunger, but in costly apparel and choice food; not in solitude and mortification, but in the pleasures of society, and the enjoyment of the world.”
   Horace H. Wilson Sketch of the religious sects of the Hindus (1846, pp76-78)

   Before I get down to examining the 1862 Maharaja libel case in detail, I thought it would be useful to take a brief look at the particular sampradaya – at the heart of the case – the Vallabhacharyas – and examine aspects of its doctrines, practices, and historical development. Continue reading »

   

   September 20th 2013

   Posted by Phil Hine in History, tantra

   Tags: libel case, nineteenth century, Pustimarg, Vaisnava

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3. Krishna in the dock: the 1862 Maharaja libel case and its consequences – I

   The cardinal idea of the doctrine of Vallabhacharya is the incarnation in his person and in that of his descendents of Krishna, and the enjoyment for that reason, of the right to confer upon the faithful the privilege upon this earth of a personal union with the deity of their worship. Theoretically speaking, were this personal union to be regarded spiritually and held to elevate the mind to an intimate union with the highest moral principle; were it to hold forth by meditation and isolation some incentive to a consideration of self-annihilation and self-denial, this doctrine might have claims upon our attention as doing some, however limited, a good. But preached to a people who, from climatic influences and early conditions of puberty are peculiarly lascivious and prurient, the evil grows more and more enormous with the progress of the sect. …Gloomy faiths, bound to asceticism, have no real hold on the moral conduct of the professors of them, but a religion which rushes into an opposite extreme, and stimulates an evil too great already for the patience of mankind and civilisation, deserves to be trodden out.
   Anthropological Review, Vol.4, No.14, 1866

   Continue reading »

   

   April 30th 2013

   Posted by Phil Hine in History, tantra

   Tags: colonialism, libel case, nineteenth century, Orientalist, Pustimarg, Vaisnava

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4. Tantra’s Metahistory III: The Left-hand Path – II

   The Tantrists do not seem to go higher than the six visible and known plexuses, with each of which they connect the tattvas; and the great stress they place on the chief of these, the Muladhara Chakra (the sacral plexus) shows the material and selfish bent of their efforts towards the acquisition of powers.The Mahatma Letters (Letter CXIV, p480)

   In the last post I reviewed how the notion of the “left-hand path” and much of the themes which relate to it emerged out of nineteenth century Indology. I will now turn to how the concept of the left-hand path” was used by Madame Blavatsky and other early Theosophists. Continue reading »

   

   June 27th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult, tantra

   Tags: LHP, libel case, metahistory, nineteenth century, Orientalist, Theosophy

   3 comments »