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Life Stories in the Lives of Texts: Reconsidering Biography and Hagiography in South Asian Religions

Submitted to Program Units
1: South Asian Religions Unit

Jack Hawley, Barnard College, Columbia University, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

The genre categories of biography and hagiography have generally, albeit not always uncritically, been adopted in South Asian religious studies circles. Given the propensity of scholarship and religious traditions themselves to focus on the life stories of central individuals, this panel argues that a reconsideration of biography and hagiography is in order with a concern towards genre. Counter to the common after-the-fact use of genre terms, this panel focuses on the process of genre: of establishing narrative norms, of the competing interests of participating parties, and of the vagaries of literary and social history. We draw our examples from Hinduism, Islam, and Jainism in specific historic and linguistic contexts to reconsider these genres more broadly. All papers situate specific life stories in the production of authority within their respective communities, in the process of remembering past individuals, and in the construction of an individual to perpetuate "future memory" and authority.

Papers

  • Steven Lindquist, Southern Methodist University

    Lifestyles of the Ṛṣi and Famous: Proto-Biographical Narrative in Late Vedic Literature

    Abstract

    This presentation examines the "proto-biographical roots" of Late-Vedic life stories in the brāhmaṇas and argues how these serve as a basis for narrative expansions into "life scenes" (i.e., stray references taking on greater and greater narrative context). The paper examines the references of several individuals named in these texts, where the references serve as kernels for expansion, both within these texts, but then into later literature where "life scene" may become "life story." Producers of such ritual manuals, of course, did not see their project as "biographical" or "hagiographical," but the paper suggests how a shifting model of textual and ritual authority produced a "biographical impulse" towards teacher-sage life stories in later literature.

  • Adil Mawani, University of Toronto

    Rejuvenating Muhammad in Memory: Exploring the Impact of a Nineteenth-Century Urdu Sacred Biography

    Abstract

    This presentation examines genre in sacred life stories through a close study of al-Khutb̤ āt al-Aḥmadīyah (1870), a sīra (biography of the Prophet Muhammad) by Sir Sayyid Aḥmad Ḳhān. Sir Sayyid directly engages questions about the types of writing that ought to be employed for a sīra, concluding that it should mirror styles resembling the facticity and objectivity of historical writing. This paper historically situates this argument by contrasting it with the writing types and the objectives that sīra have traditionally sought to employ and fulfill. The presentation focuses on two questions. First, how did South Asian scholars read and respond to the conception of sacred biography laid out by Sir Sayyid; second, what impact did this proposal for sacred biography have on three early twentieth-century compositions.

  • Steven Vose, University of Colorado, Denver

    The Work of Hagiography in the Age of Social Media Gurus: On the Grammar and Purpose of a Multiplatform Life Story Unfolding in Real Time

    Abstract

    This paper examines the hagiographical structures in social media posts about Rakesh Jhavery (b. 1966), the guru of the Shrimad Rajchandra Mission in Dharampur, Gujarat. The mission boasts the largest online presence of any Jain organization, appealing mainly to upper-class Gujarati Śvetāmbar youth in India and the diaspora. Jhavery’s persona is constructed on two types of posts: (1) YouTube videos and his Wikipedia page, which portray him as a “spiritual prodigy” closely modeled on twentieth-century biographies of Śrīmad Rājacandra (1867-1901); and (2) on Instagram and Facebook using the hashtag #sadguruwhispers. The first employs empiricist language to establish Jhavery’s divine status, while the second uses aphorisms and images to assert his divinity. I will examine three key elements of hagiographical writing in both and show how SRMD's social media posts construct a dynamic archive, contributing to an ongoing hagiographical campaign.

  • Sahaj Patel, Vanderbilt University

    Smṛti Practices in Nineteenth-Century Gujarat

    Abstract

    This presentation analyzes the practices and discourses concerning smṛti surrounding experiences with and life stories of Swaminarayan in the nineteenth century. He argues that smṛti, which generally translates to remembering, is the central operating factor in the processes of biography and hagiography production and reception. Examining texts from the community, which include recorded discourses of Swaminarayan elaborating on the topic and several texts by monks who demonstrate the practice, presenter #4 proposes the concept of (re)experiencing to explain smṛti practices in the context of life stories. (Re)experiencing is a generative framework that situates biography/hagiography as a category in a more complex web of material and cognitive practices by which Swaminarayan followers actively engaged with episodes they experienced personally or through some other medium.

Responding
Martha Ann Selby, Harvard University
Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen
Play Audio from Laptop Computer
Podium microphone

Full Papers Available

No
Program Unit Options

Session Length

2 Hours

Schedule Preference

Sunday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Schedule Info

Monday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Session Identifier

A25-226