Sound and communication : an aesthetic cultural history of Sanskrit Hinduism /
Aesthetic cultural history of Sanskrit Hinduism
Annette Wilke, Oliver Moebus.
- 1 online resource (xxiii, 1112 pages) : illustrations.
- Religion and society, v. 41 1437-5370 ; .
- Religion and society (Hague, Netherlands) ; v. 41. .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 1051-1096) and index.
Foreword; Table of Contents; I. Methodology; 1 Hinduism as a Culture of Sound; II. History; 2 The Veda as a Basic Paradigm for Sacred Language and Sacred Sound; 3 Composition and Decomposition: Analytical Studies and Popularizations of the Veda -- Rationality and Aesthetics of Post-Vedic; 4 Pluralism and the Search for Orientation: De-Sacralization and Re-Sacralization of Language in Poetics, Linguistics, and Meta; 5 Performance and Sensuality: The Sound Universes of Tantra and Devotionalism; 6 Sensory Substance: Näda-Brahman in East and West; 7 Appendix: Music CD -- Accompanying Text.
In Hindu India both orality and sonality have enjoyed great cultural significance since earliest times. They have a distinct influence on how people approach texts. The importance of sound and its perception has led to rites, models of cosmic order, and abstract formulas. Sound serves both to stimulate religious feelings and to give them a sensory form. Starting from the perception and interpretation of sound, the authors chart an unorthodox cultural history of India, turning their attention to an important, but often neglected aspect of daily religious life. They provide a stimulating contribution to the study of cultural systems of perception that also adds new aspects to the debate on orality and literality.