Faculty of Social Sciences at South Asian University
New Delhi
Presents
New Delhi
Presents
Contributions
to Contemporary Knowledge - 2013
The Coming of Brahmin Migrants:
The Sudra Fate of an Indian Elite in Sri Lanka
The Sudra Fate of an Indian Elite in Sri Lanka
By
Gananath Obeyesekere
Professor
of Anthropology, Emeritus
Princeton University
Princeton University
Chaired
by
Patricia Uberori
Formerly, Professor of Sociology, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi;
Vice Chairperson, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi
Formerly, Professor of Sociology, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi;
Vice Chairperson, Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi
Date and
Time:
31st
January 2013; 05.30 PM
Venue:
The Auditorium
Nehru
Memorial Museum and Library
New Delhi
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
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 19th 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 16th 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 18th 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
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