Memory, Desire, and “Magic”: Smará in the Atharvaveda

This essay analyzes the interconnection between memory, desire, and verbal performance in the three so called “women’s love spells” in Atharvaveda 6.130-132. This study unpacks the many interconnected meanings of the term smará, which is used repeatedly in these poems, “memory”, “desire”, or “effica...

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1. VerfasserIn: Cohen, Signe (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: MDPI [2020]
In: Religions
Jahr: 2020, Band: 11, Heft: 9
weitere Schlagwörter:B Atharvaveda
B Memory
B Magic
B Religion
B Hinduism
B Vedas
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Zusammenfassung:This essay analyzes the interconnection between memory, desire, and verbal performance in the three so called “women’s love spells” in Atharvaveda 6.130-132. This study unpacks the many interconnected meanings of the term smará, which is used repeatedly in these poems, “memory”, “desire”, or “efficacious ritual speech”. I challenge the traditional definition of these texts as “magical” and argue that applying “magic” as an analytical category to ancient Hindu texts is deeply problematic. Instead, I propose that these poems are better understood in their historical and religious context as examples of ritual speech.
ISSN:2077-1444
Enthält:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel11090434