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Hell as “Eternal” Punishment? On the Depiction of Hell in Vīlhojī’s Kathā Gyāncarī

  • Susanne Kempe-Weber EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 31. Juli 2018
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Abstract

This paper engages with the literature of the Biśnoī Sampradāya, a religious tradition that emerged in the fifteenth century in Rajasthan and traces itself back to the Sant Jāmbhojī. The paper specifically examines a composition of the sixteenth-seventeenth century poet-saint and head of the tradition Vīlhojī. His Kathā Gyāncarī is a unique composition among the corpus of Biśnoi literature with regard to its genre, style and content. The text revolves around the consequences of one’s actions after death, particularly punishment in hell. This paper aims to illustrate that the Kathā Gyāncarī depicts suffering in hell as the eternal consequence of committing sins or crimes, which is unique not only for Biśnoī literature, but for Sant literature in general. It argues that the depiction of hell as eternal punishment was used as a rhetorical strategy at a time the Biśnoī Sampradāya faced intense difficulties. In another vein, this depiction of hell could indicate the Biśnoīs’ close connection to the Indian Shi’a community of the Nizārī Ismā’īlīs. This is reflected not only in the Kathā Gyāncarī’s function of hell as a eternal punishment for disbelievers and sinners, but also in the soteriological role of the teacher or guru as well as in the appearance of various Nizārī figures and motives in the text. In either way picturing hell as eternal suffering serves to amplify the authority of the Biśnoī teachers and the supremacy of the Biśnoī religious doctrine.

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Published Online: 2018-07-31
Published in Print: 2018-08-28

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
  3. Les manuscrits du sud de la vallée de l’Indus en écriture khojkī sindhī: état des lieux et perspectives
  4. Hell as “Eternal” Punishment? On the Depiction of Hell in Vīlhojī’s Kathā Gyāncarī
  5. Entwicklungen in der Darstellung Buddhistischer Erzählstoffe in Sri Lanka
  6. Mack the Knife and Knife-Black Dorothy Appositional Metaphoric Compounds: A Comparison and Contrast of the Varying Approaches in Sanskrit Treatises on Grammar and Poetics
  7. Music Theory, Mathematics, and Patterns of Innovation in the Saṅgītaratnākara
  8. Considerations About Traditions Influential in the Ahirbudhnyasaṃhitā
  9. Meanings Out of Rules. Definitions, Functions and Uses of Paribhāṣās in Śrautasūtras, Gṛhyasūtras, Vyākaraṇa, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta
  10. A General Overview
  11. The paribhāṣās in the Śrautasūtras: Problems, Opportunities and Premises for an Investigation
  12. Towards a Methodology for Applying the paribhāṣās in the Kauśikasūtra (II)
  13. From Commentary to paribhāṣās: Kātyāyana and Patañjali vis-à-vis Vyāḍi
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  15. … And What about the Vedānta Paribhāṣā’s paribhāṣātva? Some hypotheses on the use of paribhāṣās in later Advaita Vedānta
  16. Meanings Out of Rules: The Editor’s Overview
  17. Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
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  19. Rezension – Compte rendu – Review
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