Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism

Description

Foreword Table of Contents I. Methodology 1 Hinduism as a Culture of Sound 1.1 Notes on Theory, Method and Scope of Inquiry 1.2 Applied Aesthetics of Religion 1.3 Sanskrit Hinduism and Phonocentrism of Sanskrit Culture 1.3.1 Post Orientalism: Religion and Sanskrit Hinduism 1.4 Texts in Practice and the Performativity of Texts 1.4.1 Ritual Sound Spaces and Social Semiotics 1.4.2 Religious Readings and Holy Hearing 1.4.3 Program for a Sonic Literary History and Theory 1.5 Communication and Reception of Sounding Texts 1.5.1 Religion as Symbolic Communication and Sociology of Religious Experience 1.5.2 Aesthetics of Reception and Religion 1.5.3 Religious Aesthetics and Acoustic Piety 1.5.3.1 Modes and Multi-Dimensionality of Acoustic Piety 1.5.3.2 Animated Sound Explained 1.5.4 Review and Outlook for the "Sonic Paradigm" and Sound as Symbolic Form 1.6 Orientation on Scriptures and Orientation on Sounds -Religions Compared 1.6.1 Stone Tablets and Books that Come to Life 1.6.2 Memory Techniques and Internalization 1.6.3 Acoustic Piety in India and Europe 1.6.4 Historical and Cultural Dissonances in Semi-Literate Zones 1.7 The Power of the Media and Their Cultural Contingency 1.7.1 Orality-Literacy Debate and Sanskrit Culture 1.7.2 Orality or Literacy in Ancient India? 1.7.3 Sonality as a Third Space: New Aspects for Debate 1.7.4 Media Practice as Aesthetic Practice 1.7.5 Religious Practices and Literatures as Perception-Generating Networks 1.8 Literati in India and Europe 1.8.1 Audible Abstractions: Pânini's Grammar as Trendsetter of Science : 1.8.2 Scientific Practice and Aesthetic Style of Indian Mathematicians and Astronomers 1.8.3 The Indian Liturgical Model and the Greek Logocentric Model 1.8.4 Public Scholarly Disputes in Medieval Europe and India - Church and State Politics 1.8.5 Science and Religion - Correlation Spaces, Discursive Formations, Pragmatic Functions 1.9 From Media Technology to the Symbolic Forms as Cultural Media 1.10 Sound Rituals of the Goddess Language - Symbolic Forms of Language and Sound 1.10.1 The Language-Cow and Resources of the Brahmins 1.10.2 Mythos and Logos - On the Coexistence of Participation and Emancipation 1.10.2.1 Participatory and Emancipatory World Orientations 1.10.2.2 Magic and Myth 1.10.3 Mythical-Terminological Syntheses 1.10.3.1 The Language Goddess as Substance and Metaphor: "Code-Switching" Strategies 1.10.3.2 The "Cosmic Language" and Other Universal Myths 1.11 Considerations of Cultural Theory on Emancipation and Participation as Guiding Heuristic Difference II. History 2 The Veda as a Basic Paradigm for Sacred Language and Sacred Sound 2.1 Performance and Aura 2.1.1 Aesthetic Message and Forms of Reception 2.1.2 Mnemonic Techniques and Transmission 2.2 The Veda as Cultural Memory: Eternal Knowledge and the Ever Fresh Vedas 2.3 Evocation and Expression: the Early Rgveda 2.3.1 Hymns, the Food of the Gods 2.3.2 Lowing of Cattle and Croaking of Frogs 2.3.3 The Brahman as Poetic Magic 2.3.4 The Keeper of the Brahman 2.3.5 Language as a Goddess 2.3.5.1 "The Language Speaks": The Vâg Ämbhrni-Hymn 2.3.5.2 "Sifted words" - The Brhaspati Ängirasa Hymn 2.4 Professionalisation of the Sacrificial Language: Late Samhitä and Brähmanas 2.4.1 The Voice and the "Inexhaustible": the Late Rgveda 2.4.2 The Riddle in the Hymn of Dirghatamas 2.4.2.1 The New Brahman 2.4.2.2 The Thousand-Syllabled Buffalo Cow 2.4.3 Metrical Magic with Numbers 2.4.4 Sound Rituals for the Vedic New Year 2.4.4.1 The Great Litany 2.4.4.2 The Syllable of Life 2.4.4.3 Earth-Drum and Life-Harp - Eschatological Carneval Music 2.5 Semanticization and Language Act: the Yajur-Veda 2.5.1 Mantras as Speech Acts and Language Acts 2.5.2 The Disciplined Spirit and the Dionysic 2.5.3 Cosmogonic Function of Language 2.5.4 Etymology as an Interpretation of Reality 2.6 Sound Rituals: the Säma-Veda 2.6.1 Mimetic Magic 2.6.2 "Caterwauling" and Howling Storms 2.6.3 "Incorporeal Songs" 2.6.4 The "Inexpressible" Syllable OM 2.6.5 Humming Pithecanthropoi and "Sososoooonging" 2.6.6 How to Sing Oneself into the Other World 2.7 OM in the earlier Upanisads 2.7.1 OM as "Essence" (Chändogya-Upanisad) 2.7.2 Language Skepticism (Taittiriya-Upanisad) 2.8 OM in the later Upanisads 2.8.1 OM as Tool for Contemplation (Mundaka-Upanisad) 2.8.2 OM as Superstructure (Mändükya-Upanisad) 3 Composition and Decomposition: Analytical Studies and Popularizations of the Veda - Rationality and Aesthetics of Post-Vedic Literatures and Performing Arts 3.1 The Nostalgia of the Bards 3.2 Theistic "Topping" of the Veda in Litanies and Puränas 3.2.1 The Hundred and the Thousand Names of the Universal God 3.2.2 Hearing That Brings Deliverance 3.3 Auxiliary Vedic Studies: Systematics and Abstractions 3.3.1 Grammarians 3.3.1.1 Patafijali's Arguments in Support of Grammar 3.3.1.2 The Phonetic Alphabet 3.3.1.3 Sütra Technique and Pânini's Meta-Language ' 3.3.1.4 "Sivasüträni" and the Code Systems it Inspired ' 3.3.1.5 "Growth" and Other Participatory "Survivals" 3.3.2 Phoneticians 3.3.2.1 Training the Mind through Sounds 3.3.2.2 Phonetics and Aesthetics 3.4 Theater as the Fifth Veda and the Theory of Aesthetic Moods 3.4.1 Phenomenology of Moods 3.4.2 Sensitization of Gestures 3.4.3 Expressive Vocalization 3.4.4 Onomatopoeic Codes: the Language of Drums 3.5 Entertaining Learning in Theater and Remythification of the Science of Grammar in Light Reading 4 Pluralism and the Search for Orientation: De-Sacralization and Re-Sacralization of Language in Poetics, Linguistics, and Metaphysics 4.1 Courtly Poetry: Ornate and Expressive Speech 4.1.1 The Language Workshop of the Ornamentalists 4.1.1.1 Language Ornamentation 4.1.2 The School of Suggestion 4.2 Brahmanical Aggiornamento: Rationalist Challenges and the Rise of Veda Hermeneutics 4.3 The Pürva-Mimämsä and Their Theory of the Eternal Validity of Words and Sounds 4.3.1 Philosophical Fundamentals and Pragmatic Rationality 4.3.2 On the Theory of the Eternity of Linguistic Statements 4.3.2.1 Eternal Existence of Phonemes 4.3.2.2 Eternal Existence of Words 4.3.3 Areligious Religion 4.4 The Uttara-Mimämsä and Their Communication of the Non-Verbal 4.4.1 On the Limits of Language 4.4.2 Exegesis and Teaching Method of tat tvam asi 4.4.3 Revelation and Reason 4.5 Bhartrhari's "Linguistic Turn" and His Metaphysics of Language 4.5.1 Linguistic Theory 4.5.2 Metaphysical Theory 4.5.3 The Communicative Global Network of Meanings 4.5.4 Culture and Language 4.5.5 The Three Dimensions of Language 5 Performance and Sensuality: The Sound Universes of Tantra and Devotionalism 5.1 The Tantric "Weaving Frame": Notes on Definition, Actors and Politics 5.2 Sex and Crime with the Tantrists: Othering Discourses in East and West 5.3 Mantras as Divine Self-Revelation 5.4 Power Religion and Occult Sounds 5.4.1 The Heavenly Ear 5.4.2 The Singing Skull and the Birth of Bija Mantras 5.4.3 Clanking Ether, Ominous Noises and "Non-Struck Sound" 5.4.4 Mimetic Sound Magic 5.5 The Mantra of the Synthetic Tantras 5.5.1 The Mantric "First Aid Kit" 5.5.2 Morphology of the'Seed Sounds' 5.5.3 Mantra Rituals 5.5.3.1 Encoding and Visualization of Mantras 5.5.3.2 Somatic Applications: Nyâsa 5.5.3.3 Graphic Applications: Yantra and Mandala 5.6 Phonematic Cosmogonies 5.6.1 Energy 5.6.2 Original Matter and Original Sound 5.6.3 Language Creation and World Creation 5.6.4 The Communicative Brahman as a Coiled Snake and Energetic Presence in the Body 5.7 Mantras as Contemplative Instruments 5.7.1 The Cosmo-Grammar of the Srîvidyâ 5.7.2 The Language Goddess on the Shoulders of the Hermeneutist 5.7.3 1103.333 Milliseconds of Eternity 5.8 Abhinavagupta - Language as Reflected Presence 5.8.1 Poetic Biography and Subjective Landscape 5.8.2 Holistic Perception and Cosmic Language 5.8.3 Phenomenology of the Alphabet 5.8.3.1 The Inner Trinity (a, i, u) 5.8.3.2 The Trinity Relevant to Soteriology (a, h, m) 5.8.4 The Four Levels of Language 5.8.5 The Audible Peacock's Tail 5.9 Divine Atmospheres: Text and Music in the Devotional Traditions 5.9.1 Hearing and Sensing the Buffalo-Demon-Slayer 5.9.2 Individual Musical Forms of the "Flood of Beauty" 5.9.3 The Disappearance of Language in Music 6 Sensory Substance: Näda-Brahman in East and West 6.1 A Little Researched Symbolic Form and ist Transreligious Impact 6.2 The Näda-Brahman as a Means of Healing for Western "Eye-People": the "World is Sound" in New Age 6.3 The Näda-Brahman as an Indigenous Category: the "World is Sound" in the Indian Middle Ages 6.3.1 Music as a Yoga for Everybody and the Sound Mysticism of the Indian Musicologists 6.3.2 Developments in the Term "Brahman" and the Transformations of the Language Goodess 6.3.3 The Yogic Tantric Legacy and its Recoding 6.3.4 Devotional Näda-Yoga in South Indian Classical Music 6.3.5 Cultivation of Great Transcendencies and Social Sense Systems 6.3.6 From the Liminal to the Sublime and Popular 6.3.7 Confluence of Traditions in the Näda-Brahman and Transreligiosity 6.3.8 The Mood of Näda-Brahman 6.3.9 The Tämpüra as Total Representation of the Näda-Brahman 6.3.10 Cultural Boundaries and Delimiting Culture 6.3.11 Music of the Universe and Näda-Brahman 6.3.11.1 "Glass Bead Game" in Europe and India 6.3.11.2 Transnationalization of the Näda-Brahman 6.4 Concluding Theses on India's Significance for Modern Spirituality 7 Appendix: Music CD - Accompanying Text Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index