"On the trail of the Yak tail : Tangled histories of a symbol of ritual and power" talk by Prof. Kumkum Roy at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 29th November 2013
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : ‘On the trail of the Yak tail : Tangled histories of a symbol of ritual and power’ Public Lecture (Rethinking History Series) by Prof. Kumkum Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Abstract: One of the many challenges of early Indian history is to arrive at an understanding of the ways in which material resources were deployed to constitute symbols. One such artefact is the camara, often translated as flywhisk, a functional description, or yak tail fan, pointing to its material origins. The talk will begin with a brief enumeration of the material resources meant to be mobilized, reworked, displayed and consumed in rituals such as the asvamedha, drawing on the Satapatha Brahmana. This will be followed by a discussion on what is possibly the earliest, and certainly the most spectacular representation of the camara, held by a woman, the Didarganjyakshi. The talk will next turn to the ways in which animal resources are conceptualized in the Arthasastra before moving on to a consideration of the representation of the camara in courtly literature, exemplified by the Harsacarita. This will be followed by a brief survey of the some of the contexts within which the camara surfaces in later traditions. Finally, the speaker draws on ethnographies of contemporary yak pastoralists to raise questions about the significance of the camara and its uses. For instance, does the camara allow us to visualize the relationship between the courtly/ brahmanical worlds and less sedentary populations in more complex ways, beyond binaries of dominance and subordination?
Speaker: Prof. Kumkum Roy is Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her doctoral research was on the emergence of monarchy in north India, mid-first millennium BCE. This was based on a study of later and post-Vedic textual sources, which were analyzed to explore the complex connections between the emergence of political institutions and domestic relations. She has taught at Gargi College and Satyawati College, affiliated to the University of Delhi, and in the Department of History, University of Delhi for several years. She has also been keenly interested in the teaching of history in schools, developing curriculum and textbooks in collaboration with the Delhi SCERT and the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). One of her main areas of interest is in engendering studies of early Indian social history in particular and gender/ women’s studies in general. She has published two anthologies, Women in Early Indian Societies, consisting of published works on the theme, and The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power, an anthology of her own essays written over two decades. Her current research interests include exploring questions of inter-textuality in early and early medieval Sanskrit texts, with a special focus on representations of gender, marginalized peoples, and liminal spaces.
Related Events : Talks | History
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : ‘On the trail of the Yak tail : Tangled histories of a symbol of ritual and power’ Public Lecture (Rethinking History Series) by Prof. Kumkum Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Abstract: One of the many challenges of early Indian history is to arrive at an understanding of the ways in which material resources were deployed to constitute symbols. One such artefact is the camara, often translated as flywhisk, a functional description, or yak tail fan, pointing to its material origins. The talk will begin with a brief enumeration of the material resources meant to be mobilized, reworked, displayed and consumed in rituals such as the asvamedha, drawing on the Satapatha Brahmana. This will be followed by a discussion on what is possibly the earliest, and certainly the most spectacular representation of the camara, held by a woman, the Didarganjyakshi. The talk will next turn to the ways in which animal resources are conceptualized in the Arthasastra before moving on to a consideration of the representation of the camara in courtly literature, exemplified by the Harsacarita. This will be followed by a brief survey of the some of the contexts within which the camara surfaces in later traditions. Finally, the speaker draws on ethnographies of contemporary yak pastoralists to raise questions about the significance of the camara and its uses. For instance, does the camara allow us to visualize the relationship between the courtly/ brahmanical worlds and less sedentary populations in more complex ways, beyond binaries of dominance and subordination?
Speaker: Prof. Kumkum Roy is Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her doctoral research was on the emergence of monarchy in north India, mid-first millennium BCE. This was based on a study of later and post-Vedic textual sources, which were analyzed to explore the complex connections between the emergence of political institutions and domestic relations. She has taught at Gargi College and Satyawati College, affiliated to the University of Delhi, and in the Department of History, University of Delhi for several years. She has also been keenly interested in the teaching of history in schools, developing curriculum and textbooks in collaboration with the Delhi SCERT and the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). One of her main areas of interest is in engendering studies of early Indian social history in particular and gender/ women’s studies in general. She has published two anthologies, Women in Early Indian Societies, consisting of published works on the theme, and The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power, an anthology of her own essays written over two decades. Her current research interests include exploring questions of inter-textuality in early and early medieval Sanskrit texts, with a special focus on representations of gender, marginalized peoples, and liminal spaces.
Related Events : Talks | History
"On the trail of the Yak tail : Tangled histories of a symbol of ritual and power" talk by Prof. Kumkum Roy at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 29th November 2013
!["On the trail of the Yak tail : Tangled histories of a symbol of ritual and power" talk by Prof. Kumkum Roy at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 29th November 2013]()
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Friday, November 29, 2013
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