DEPARTMENT ASSOCIATES

Todd Lewis has taught at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, since 1990. His previous academic positions were at Montclair State University (1989-1990), Rutgers University (1988-89), Carleton College (1988), Columbia University (1983-1987), and the University of California, Berkeley (1983).

Professor Lewis is a specialist in the religions of the mid-montaine Himalayan region and the social history of Buddhism. His special research focus for over twenty years has been Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley, particularly the traditions found among the Newars, the indigenous population of Nepal's capital. Beginning with his scholarly training at Columbia University (where he earned his Ph.D. in Religion in 1984), Professor Lewis' research and teaching has been interdisciplinary, linking anthropology and the history of religions. In addition to scholarly books and articles published in journals, Professor Lewis has shot, directed, and produced films for classroom use. His most recent books are World Religions Today (co-authored with John Esposito and Darrell Fasching) just published by Oxford University Press, and Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal: Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism, published by the State University of New York Press in 2000.

In 1992 Dr. Lewis became the founding co-chair (1992-1996) of the "Tibetan and Himalayan Religions" group, the first unit in the American Academy of Religion whose members are specialists in the region. He continues to serve on the steering committee. Professor Lewis has since 1978 been a member of the Nepal Studies Association and from 1989 until the present has been a member of its Board of Directors. In addition, he has served since 1993 as an Associate Editor of the Association's journal, The Himalayan Research Bulletin, editing the Book Reviews section.


Richard Frasca writes: I have a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in South Asian Studies with specialties in Tamil Language and Literature, Sanskrit Language and Literature, and the Hindu and Buddhist Traditions. I have taught Tamil language and literature and Religious Studies at several universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California at Davis. I have had a book published by the University of Hawaii Press entitled The Theatre of the Mahabharata and numerous academic articles.

Dr. Frasca describes his current research, entitled: "The Dicegame and the Disrobing (Pakatai Tuyil): Translation, Textual Analysis, and Ritual Commentary"

A movement of importance in the mosaic of the South Indian Hindu tradition focuses on the worship of various figures in Tamil language manifestations of the epic Mahabharata. Alf Hiltebeitel in his definitive study of this movement has called it "the Draupadi cult." In my first book and several articles focusing on its ritual performative aspects, I have referred to it as "the Mahabharata cult." While it has diffused over a significant area of present-day South India, Hiltebeitel argues convincingly that its area of origin is in northeastern Tamilnadu. My research has focused on ritual dramatic performances called kuttu that are central to the most important celebration of this cult's ritual calendar, the Parata Vila (Mahabharata Festival). The Parata Vila is an 18 to 20 day festival that is conducted annually and oftentimes less frequently within the locales of the Tiraupataiyamman (Goddess Draupadi) temples found throughout the area of the Mahabharata cult, primarily in rural areas but also in some highly urbanized areas such as Madras City, now called Chennai. These festivals are multifaceted, all-encompassing celebrations that in the course of the devotees' worship of the various sacred personages of the Mahabharata transform the contexts of each temple into the various sacred locales of the most powerful episodes of the epic. These very localized re-creations of the sacred narrative are accomplished by rituals and performances of various types that are conducted day and night throughout the entire eighteen days of a festival.

Each festival represents a particular temple community's unique re-creation of the epic. I have presented an in-depth study and model of a Parata Vila in chapter five of my study of the kuttu entitled The Theatre of the Mahabharata: Terukkuttu Performances in South India (University of Hawaii Press, 1990). The sacred transformations of a Parata Vila are manifested through temple rituals, community rituals, epic recitations, large-scale performances, and most importantly, an 8 to 10-day cycle of all-night kuttu performances that are the ritual core of each festival. The temple locales are immersed in the epic time and space engendered by the sacred and ritually powerful epic events and transitions re-created by these performances. To use western terminology that is only partially appropriate, one may describe kuttu as a ritually powerful form of operatic religious theatre that employs chant, song, memorized and improvised prose, choreographed and improvised dance, and strikingly stylized makeup and costuming to re-enact and re-create episodes from Tamil language manifestations of the Mahabharata epic. The original sense of the single Tamil term kuttu encapsulates all of these aspects of sacred performance including its oftentimes ecstatic nature. Several important kuttu episodes ritually charge and saturate the performances to the point that at certain powerful points and transitions both performers and audience lapse into a form of sacred entrancement or possession called avesam in Tamil. I have chosen to focus on one of these episodes in my research. This is the episode entitled Pakatai Tuyil (The Dicegame and the Disrobing).

The particular text I will be working with is a kuttu version of Pakatai Tukil that I tape-recorded, documented with notes and photographs, and transcribed while I was doing fieldwork in India in the 1980s. The text is unique and important in various ways. First, it is a performance text, that is, it is not a published version of the episode, but a version that represents an actual in-context re-creation of the epic events in kuttu performance. As such it contains performative and ritual expansions and improvisations that do not appear in previously published chapbook versions of the episode. Another unique aspect of this text is that I transcribed it with an important kuttu teacher/performer from the core area of the Mahabharata cult, not only guaranteeing the accuracy of the transcription but also enabling me to include extensive performative and ritual annotations throughout it. Accordingly, I was able to include this kuttu performer's annotations of all of the instances of sacred possession-entrancement that take place throughout the performance among both performers and audience members. These relate to the segments of the episode that are ecstaticized, that is, which catalyze the onset of avesam (sacred possession/ entrancement). It has been my observation that in the contexts of South Indian amman (goddess) cults, such sacred entrancement or possession accompanies transitions from one ritual state or condition to another. As an Associate of the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, I will be completing the translation from Tamil into English of the 250-page performance text. As noted above, I transcribed the text from a nine-hour tape recording of an all-night performance of Pakatai Tuyil. Additionally, I will be doing a textual analysis and developing a ritual commentary that will discuss and elucidate various textual and performative elements including the concept of bhakti (devotional worship), the role of humor, the figure of the Kattiyankaran (clown/herald), the use of poetry, music, and dance in sacred theatre, the concept and occurrence of avesam (sacred entrancement or possession), and numerous other areas. Over the course of the year, I expect to produce a manuscript of publishable quality of a translation of the important kuttu episode Pakatai Tuyil with an introduction and scholarly commentary. This is a text of central importance in a powerful Tamil religious movement that has grown out the great epic tradition of Hindu South Asia and as such its translation will be a vital contribution to our records and our study of the Hindu tradition and world religions.

Kevin McGrath, PhD 2001/Current Department Associate, has published Maleas (Philadelphia, 2002). The Sanskrit Hero is forthcoming in 2002 (Univ. of Illinois Press). Dr. McGrath is presently researching Stri: Women In The Mahabharata, and plans for a field trip to Gujarat in the Summer of this year. He is also a Founding Member of the Mahabharata Reading Group which meets each week during the year. During the Spring of 2001, Dr. McGrath lectured for the Alumni Association in Northern India. In July of 2001, he swam The Hellespont.

FACULTY AND STAFF (Click here for faculty photos)

Ali Asani Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Culture Barker Center #305; 495-5755
Diana L. Eck Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies Barker Center #307; 495-5781
Rena Fonseca (on leave Fall 2001) Lecturer on Sanskrit and Indian Studies Mather House Senior Tutor; 495-4829
Naseem A. Hines Preceptor in Urdu-Hindi Vanserg B-11; 496-7196
Stephanie Jamison Head Tutor & Dir. of Graduate Studies Gardner Cowles Associate Prof. of Sanskrit and Indian Studies 2 Divinity Avenue; 384-7774
Leonard W J van der Kuijp Chair Professor of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies 2 Divinity Avenue 130B; 496-6871
Shafique Virani Preceptor in Urdu-Hindi Vanserg B-11; 496-7196
Michael Witzel Wales Professor of Sanskrit 2 Divinity Avenue 130A; 496-2990
Jennifer L. Petrallia Department Administrator 2 Divinity Avenue 132; 496-8571