Non-Human Animals in South Asian Myth, Ritual and Folklore
Charming Beauties and Frightful Beasts consists of fifteen articles divided into five tantras. This book focuses on animals, but not from the perspective of scriptures, but from folk narratives. The first tantra focuses on the notion of animality by discussing talking animals in Indian literature (including some in Vedic literature), monstrous animals on Hindu temples and human and non-human indigenous animals are discussed within the colonial systems. The second tantra focuses on the struggle between tradition and modernity.
Collett discusses the anxieties of masculinity in Aśvaghosa’s Saundarananda in which Aśvaghosa uses animal, bird and reptile metaphors to explain such anxieties. Nesbitts discusses fauna in the Sikh tradition. Beggiora looks at how local myths and belief and rituals relate to the environment and local fauna by exploring Kondhs’ (a tribal community in Orissa) belief about the nocturnal transformation of their tribe members to tigers. The third tantra focuses on animals in the foundation myths. Vargas-O’Bryan explores the role played by nāgas (klus) in Tibetian religious, medical and environmental traditions. Chaudhuri discusses the role played by non-human animals in the construction of the economic, social and religious identity of Tani indigenous tribe in Arunachal Pradesh. De Clerq looks at various kinds of animal presence in Jain universal history and animal welfare in the Jain tradition. In the fourth tantra which is about love, Pinault discusses the role played by animals in South Asian Muslim rituals and myths. The status of animal in Muslim views is very different from Indic religion. Dähnhardt discusses the role of birds in Hindu-Urdu allegorical love stories. Dwyer discusses the portrayal of elephant in Indian cinema emphasizing that it portrayal may resemble animal, human or the divine. The final tantra discusses death, awe and fear. Zeiler discusses the role of the crow in South Asian religions. As an animal accompanying deity, crows are well-regarded but in everyday life, crows are often treated with anxiety and fear. Allocco explores the manifestations of the Snake Goddess in contemporary Tamil Nadu. In the last chapter through his discussion on Śītalā, the ass riding goddess, Ferrari highlights the possibility of alternative interpretations of established narratives is possible. He also points out that such alternative interpretations are important in further understanding South Asian culture.
The book is a presents a good discussion on how animals are presented and understood in Indian narratives. Body in Indic culture is not a rigid concept. This book clearly illustrates how the construction of the body is very flexible in Indic culture. Many articles in this book highlight that there are no clear separation between what is considered human, animal and the divine. The same ‘body’ can be considered animal, human or divine in different context. It also emphasizes that unlike the West, “in South Asia, the individualization of human being and the otherization of the ‘animal other’ is less definite” (pp. XIII). Exploring how the notion of animal and non-animal are portrayed in the context of Indian folk literature, allows for a deeper discussion on the fluidity of what animal and non-animal means. This book also highlights how the notion of power and fear are important in understanding the link between human and animal. This book offers a rich discourse of the animal, and brings forth the fundamental reconsiderations of nonhuman and human difference, otherness, and subjectivity.
Premalatha Karupiah, Universiti Sains Malaysia (prema@usm.my)