Open AccessViṣṇu As a Hunter: Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās on Hunting Procession/Festival
Author(s) -
Ewa Dębicka-Borek
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
cracow indological studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.103
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2449-8696
pISSN - 1732-0917
DOI - 10.12797/cis.21.2019.02.02
Subject(s) - ruler , procession , realm , tranquillity , power (physics) , history , geography , ethnology , ancient history , archaeology , psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
The paper examines Pāñcarātra prescriptions pertaining to a hunting procession/festival (mṛgayātrā/mṛgayotsava), chiefly as held on two main occasions: on the 8th day of mahotsava and on the vīralakṣmyutsava, the latter corresponding with vijayadaśamī which concludes mahānavamī/ navarātri. Through equating the god with a hunter, a ritual hunt displays strong associations with royal power. However, these two occasions of sending the deity for hunting seem to deal with different models of a ruler and his relation to his realm: a ruler who enjoys it (as in terms of a hunting game in a garden) and a ruler who subjugates it (as in terms of new territories traversed while hunting in a forest). As I argue, a key issue in discerning those models appears to be an event of crossing the border of a domesticated space, which also makes the presence of Viṣṇu’s wives on his side impossible.