Contributions to Contemporary Knowledge Lecture Series 2013

Faculty of Social Sciences at South Asian University
New Delhi

Presents

Contributions to Contemporary Knowledge - 2013

The Coming of Brahmin Migrants:
The Sudra Fate of an Indian Elite in Sri Lanka

By

Gananath Obeyesekere

Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus
Princeton University

Chaired by

Patricia Uberori
Formerly, Professor of Sociology, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi;
Vice Chairperson, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi

Date and Time:

31^st January 2013; 05.30 PM

Venue:

The Auditorium

Nehru Memorial Museum and Library
New Delhi

About the series: The annual lecture series, Contributions to Contemporary Knowledge was formulated by the Faculty of Social Sciences at South Asian University in 2011 to showcase selected work of eminent scholars from any part of the world whose work would be of relevance to South Asia. It is launched for the first time in 2013 and will continue thereafter annually in every January. Invited speakers, in addition to one major public engagement will also offer a series of seminars at South Asian University on selected themes for its faculty and students, which will also be open for external participants. In 2013, the lecture and seminars will be facilitated by the Department of Sociology.

Abstract of lecture: Most Sri Lankans assume that due to the contemporary absence of a Brahmin presence there have been no Brahmins in Sri Lanka at all, particularly among the Sinhalas, except in Jaffna and other Hindu areas where a small number of Brahmin and non-Brahmin kurukkals officiate in major temples.  For Sinhala Buddhist areas there is no record of Brahmins from the 19^th century onwards although it is evident from historical evidence that Brahmin purohitas were present in most, if not all the kingdoms of Sri Lanka.  It is often assumed that Brahmins were not part of the general population, in spite of the fact that there were constant South Indian migrations throughout history.  Over the last ten years, the speaker and his research assistants have collected palm leaf manuscripts written from the 16^th century onwards by village intellectuals, and these texts mention not only the mass immigration of South Indian peoples but also deal with Brahmin movements into Sri Lanka, and list some of the villages they were settled in.  Several contain the term Brahmin or bamunu and hence village names such as Bamunugama and Kiribamuna.  Texts from an important shrine for Skanda in the Uva District mention its founding by two Brahmin brothers and their descendants who have non-Brahmin names.  Dutch sources mention the existence of Brahmins in the city of Kandy during the reign of King Vimaladharmasuriya (1591-1604). The question then is: where have all the Brahmins gone? A clue is found in two palm leaf manuscripts from the mid 17 and mid 18^th centuries that list the names of important families in the Matale district, north of Kandy.  They mention several prominent goyigama/vellala (farmer caste) families with the name ‘Brahmana’ attached to it.  The hypothesis presented by Prof Obeyesekere suggests that given the numerical and political importance of the goyigama caste, various migrant groups, be they merchants or Brahmins, were assimilated into that caste with the more prominent Brahmins often enough placed in its aristocratic segment (radala).  Recent research indicates the constant movement of Brahmins from the north to the very south of India from ancient times, and it is improbable that they did not extend their journeys into Sri Lanka.  This lecture will demonstrate their movement into Sri Lanka where they were in a sense “demoted” in terms of the classical varna scheme but “promoted” in terms of Sri Lankan values. The speaker will also briefly discuss the local variations of the varna scheme in relation to Brahmin migratory movements.

About the speaker: After receiving his undergraduate education from the University of Ceylon (1955), Prof Gananath Obeyesekere later studied at University of Washington from where he received his MA in anthropology in  1958 and PhD also in anthropology in 1964. He initially taught at University of Ceylon from 1964 to 1966 and at University of Washington from 1966 to 1968. From 1968-1972 he was Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Ceylon and from1972 to1980, he was Professor at Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego. From 1980 to 1983, he was Professor at Department of Anthropology, Princeton University and from 1983 to 1988 he served as its Chair. He retired from Princeton University in 2000, and is at present Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus at Princeton. He is best known for the books Land Tenure in Village Ceylon: A Sociological and Historical Study (Cambridge University Press, 1967); Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience  (University of Chicago Press, 1981); The Cult of the Goddess Pattini (University of Chicago Press, 1984); Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka (with Richard Gombrich, Princeton University Press, 1988); The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology (University of Chicago Press, 1990);  The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific (Princeton University Press, 1993); Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth (University of California Press, 2002); Cannibal Talk: The Man-eating Myth and Human Sacrifice in the South Seas (University of California Press, 2005); The Awakened Ones: Phenomenology of Visionary Experience (Columbia University Press, 2012).

Invitations: if you would like to have an invitation to the lecture, please send a request with your name, postal address, email addresses to the following email address: sociology@sau.ac.in

For more information, please contact: sociology@sau.ac.in