The Self Possessed

The Self Possessed

Deity and Spirit Possession in South Asian Literature and Civilization

  • Author: Smith, Frederick
  • Publisher: Columbia University Press
  • ISBN: 9780231137485
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780231510653
  • Place of publication:  New York , United States
  • Year of digital publication: 2006
  • Month: December
  • Language: English

The Self Possessed is a multifaceted, diachronic study reconsidering the very nature of religion in South Asia, the culmination of years of intensive research. Frederick M. Smith proposes that positive oracular or ecstatic possession is the most common form of spiritual expression in India, and that it has been linguistically distinguished from negative, disease-producing possession for thousands of years.

In South Asia possession has always been broader and more diverse than in the West, where it has been almost entirely characterized as "demonic." At best, spirit possession has been regarded as a medically treatable psychological ailment and at worst, as a condition that requires exorcism or punishment. In South (and East) Asia, ecstatic or oracular possession has been widely practiced throughout history, occupying a position of respect in early and recent Hinduism and in certain forms of Buddhism.

Smith analyzes Indic literature from all ages-the earliest Vedic texts; the Mahabharata; Buddhist, Jain, Yogic, Ayurvedic, and Tantric texts; Hindu devotional literature; Sanskrit drama and narrative literature; and more than a hundred ethnographies. He identifies several forms of possession, including festival, initiatory, oracular, and devotional, and demonstrates their multivocality within a wide range of sects and religious identities.

Possession is common among both men and women and is practiced by members of all social and caste strata. Smith theorizes on notions of embodiment, disembodiment, selfhood, personal identity, and other key issues through the prism of possession, redefining the relationship between Sanskritic and vernacular culture and between elite and popular religion. Smith's study is also comparative, introducing considerable material from Tibet, classical China, modern America, and elsewhere.

Brilliant and persuasive, The Self Possessed provides careful new translations of rare material and is the most comprehensive study in any language on this subject.

  • Contents
  • list of illustrations
  • preface
  • acknowledgments
  • introduction
  • Part I. Orthodoxies, Madness, and Method
    • Chapter 1. Academic and Brahmanical Orthodoxies
      • Sanskritic Culture and the Culture of Possession
      • The Sanskritic Vocabulary of Possession
      • Problematics of Interpretation
  • Part II. Ethnography, Modernity,and the Languages of Possession
    • Chapter 2. New and Inherited Paradigms: Methodologies for the Study of Possession
      • Classical Study and Ethnography
      • Definitions and Typologies
      • The Devil’s Work
      • Possession as a Form of Social Control
      • Possession and Shamanism
      • Possession as Ontological Reality
      • Śakti, the Localization of Divinity, and the Possessed
      • Performative and Biographical Context
      • Conclusions
    • Chapter 3. Possession, Trance Channeling, and Modernity
    • Chapter 4. Notes on Regional Languages and Models of Possession
      • Lexicography, Languages, and Themes
      • Exorcists, Oracles, and Healers
      • Reflections on “Folk” and “Classical” in South Asia
  • Part III. Classical Literature
    • Chapter 5. The Vedas and Upaniùads
      • Embodiment and Disembodiment Among the ñùis
      • Possession in the Early Vedic Literature
      • Shape-Shifting and Possession
      • In the Beginning, God Possessed Heaven and Earth
      • Transfer of Essence
      • The Gandharva, the Apsaras, and the Vedic Body
    • Chapter 6. Friendly Acquisitions, Hostile Takeovers: The Panorama of Possession in the Sanskrit Epics
      • The Mahābhārata, Where Everything Can Be Found
      • Notes on Possession in the Rāmāyana
    • Chapter 7. Enlightenment and the Classical Culture of Possession
      • Possession as Yoga Practice
      • Possession and the Subtle Body in the Yogavāsiù•ha
      • Śaãkara’s Possession of a Dead King
      • Possession and the Body in the Brahmasūtras
      • Possession in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism
      • Conclusions
    • Chapter 8. Vampires, Prostitutes, and Poets: Narrativity and the Aesthetics of Possession
      • Culture, Fiction, and Possession
      • Possession in Sanskrit Fiction
      • Can There Be an Aesthetic of Possession?
    • Chapter 9. Devotion as Possession
      • Devotional Possession in the Gītā and Ānandavardhana
      • Vallabhācārya’s Concept of Āveśa
      • Śrī Caitanya and the Gaubīya Concepts of Āveśa, Avatāra,and Multiple Bodies
      • Āveśa and Bhāva
      • Āveśa, Bhāva, and Alternative Vedāntas
  • Part IV. Worldly and Otherworldly Ruptures: Possession as a Healing Modality
    • Chapter 10. Possession in Tantra: Constructed Bodies and Empowerment
      • Samāveśa as Tantric Realization
      • Discipline and Enlightenment
      • Divinizing the Body
      • Possession in Buddhist Tantras
      • Tantric Possession and Images of a Multiple Self
    • Chapter 11. Tantra and the Diaspora of Childhood Possession
      • The Śaiva and Buddhist Tantras and the South Indian Texts
      • Svasthāveśa and the Prasenā
      • Epigraphical Evidence for the Practice of Svasthāveśa
      • The Ritual of Svasthāveśa
      • Possession Across the Himalayas
      • Aweishe: The Indic Character of Chinese Possession
      • Svasthāveśa in South India
      • The Mantramahodadhi
      • The Tantrarāja
      • Indian Āveśa and Chinese Aweishe: A Comparison
      • Conclusions
    • Chapter 12. The Medicalization of Possessionin Āyurveda and Tantra
      • Disease-Producing Spirit Possession
      • Bhūtavidyā: Vedic and Āyurvedic Demonologies
      • Other Indic Demonologies
      • Piśācas and the Piśācmocan Temple
      • Childsnatchers and Therapy to Counter Demonic Possession (Piśacagóhītabhaiùajyam)191
      • Healing and the Circulation of Knowledge
      • Possession and Exorcism in Contemporary Āyurveda
      • Diagnosing Possession
      • Conclusions: Notes on the Textuality of Āyurveda
    • Chapter 13. Conclusions: Identity Among the Possessed and the Dispossessed
      • Variation and Vocabulary
      • Possession and Embodiment
      • Sudden and Gradual
      • Questions and (a Few) Answers
      • Bringing It All Back Home: The Mahābhārataand Traditions of Possession
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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