There’s some discuss of this topic in the first couple of chapters of David Gordon White’s recent Daemons Are Forever.
Best, Assoc. Prof. Brian Collins (He/Him/His) Department Chair and Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy Department of Classics and Religious Studies 234 Ellis Hall Ohio University Athens, Ohio 740-597-2103<tel:740-597-2103> (office) On Feb 4, 2022, at 9:20 AM, Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <[email protected]> wrote: ________________________________ NOTICE: This message was sent from outside Ohio University. Please use caution when clicking links or opening attachments in this message. ________________________________ Hi Jonathan, I agree that divining is the primary focus, but if you go through the entire list, some of the items (e.g., bhūtavijjā, perhaps "conjuring ghosts") seem to be leaning towards what we think of as witchcraft, which of course is a somewhat vague term. best, Matthew Matthew Kapstein Directeur d'études, émérite Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies, The University of Chicago https://brill.com/view/title/60949<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbrill.com%2Fview%2Ftitle%2F60949&data=04%7C01%7Ccollinb1%40ohio.edu%7Ca37a3f9994d0492eae3608d9e7e9743b%7Cf3308007477c4a70888934611817c55a%7C0%7C0%7C637795812143982520%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=XwZzIfOMNOMM2he6OqpUpCTHy7mIlvY0lMitFnCVCZw%3D&reserved=0> https://ephe.academia.edu/MatthewKapstein ________________________________ From: Jonathan Silk <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, February 4, 2022 8:10 AM To: Matthew Kapstein <[email protected]> Cc: DIEGO LOUKOTA SANCLEMENTE <[email protected]>; Paolo Eugenio Rosati <[email protected]>; Indology <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] witchcraft info I well be wrong (it happens alarmingly often) but my sense is that the Pāli term generally (always?) refers to fortune telling and the like, although I could see that this might in some ways bleed into "witchcraft" for some. But in India there are certainly ideas about beings who manipulate reality in other ways ("sorcerers") and I do not think that this is to be connnected with tiracchānavijjā. Jonathan On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 2:56 PM Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Although not expressly involving persecution, the condemnation of "base arts" (tiracchānavijjā) as "wrong livelihood" (micchājīva) in the Pali Digha Nikaya (1.21-28 in Walshe's translation) may be worth considering. Many of the "arts" explicitly mentioned are frequently associated with "witchcraft." There are no doubt injunctions in the various Vinaya-s as well. Matthew Kapstein Directeur d'études, émérite Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies, The University of Chicago https://brill.com/view/title/60949<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbrill.com%2Fview%2Ftitle%2F60949&data=04%7C01%7Ccollinb1%40ohio.edu%7Ca37a3f9994d0492eae3608d9e7e9743b%7Cf3308007477c4a70888934611817c55a%7C0%7C0%7C637795812143982520%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=XwZzIfOMNOMM2he6OqpUpCTHy7mIlvY0lMitFnCVCZw%3D&reserved=0> https://ephe.academia.edu/MatthewKapstein ________________________________ From: INDOLOGY <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of DIEGO LOUKOTA SANCLEMENTE <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Friday, February 4, 2022 7:26 AM To: Paolo Eugenio Rosati <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Cc: Indology <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] witchcraft info Dear Paolo, Albeit short and less descriptive than we would wish, the three 3rd-4th Century Gāndhārī documents from Niya that mention the persecution and summary execution of witches, numbers 58, 63, and 248, are the one instance I can think of (you will find the texts in Boyer, A.M., E. J. Rapson, E. Senart, and P. S. Noble, 1920–29, Kharoṣṭhī Inscriptions Discovered by Sir Aurel Stein in Chinese Turkestan (Oxford: Clarendon Press), and Thomas Burrow's English translation in his 1940 A Translation of the Kharoṣṭhi Documents from Chinese Turkestan (James G. Forlong Fund. London: The Royal Asiatic Society), available online at https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/niyadocts.html). The tricky part here is to what extent one can consider Central Asian Shanshan/Nuava to be Indic/South Asian. My own take here—but there is a variety of opinion—is that it was a settler-colonial society in which Gandhāran culture informed the discourse of a mestizo elite, à la Latin America. The term khakhorda or khakhorna used for "witch" is particularly fascinating with its presumed Iranian etymology (~Avestan ka-xvarəδa). Given that the indigenous people of the kingdom were probably Iranian speakers, it is likely that the "witchcraft" reflected indigenous practices. I look forward to seeing if other people have more references. namaskaromi, Diego On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 12:42 AM Paolo Eugenio Rosati via INDOLOGY <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Dear Indologists, I am wondering if any pre-colonial written source on witchcraft/magic persecution in South Asia exists. Sincerely, Paolo -- Paolo E. Rosati PhD in Asian and African Studies https://uniroma1.academia.edu/paolo<https://uniroma1.academia.edu/PaoloRosati/>erosati/<https://uniroma1.academia.edu/PaoloRosati/> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Mobile/Whatsapp: (+39) 338 73 83 472 Skype: paoloe.rosati _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flist.indology.info%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Findology&data=04%7C01%7Ccollinb1%40ohio.edu%7Ca37a3f9994d0492eae3608d9e7e9743b%7Cf3308007477c4a70888934611817c55a%7C0%7C0%7C637795812143982520%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=PRwo6ZEP6j0mMRi9mTtpE2%2FRAtcoEdp7HBpR1w3GFBE%3D&reserved=0> _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flist.indology.info%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Findology&data=04%7C01%7Ccollinb1%40ohio.edu%7Ca37a3f9994d0492eae3608d9e7e9743b%7Cf3308007477c4a70888934611817c55a%7C0%7C0%7C637795812143982520%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=PRwo6ZEP6j0mMRi9mTtpE2%2FRAtcoEdp7HBpR1w3GFBE%3D&reserved=0> -- J. Silk Leiden University Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS Matthias de Vrieshof 3, Room 0.05b 2311 BZ Leiden The Netherlands website: www.OpenPhilology.eu<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.openphilology.eu%2F&data=04%7C01%7Ccollinb1%40ohio.edu%7Ca37a3f9994d0492eae3608d9e7e9743b%7Cf3308007477c4a70888934611817c55a%7C0%7C0%7C637795812143982520%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=MVpgfHfiIGizUU6Zfv6s%2FQfpwxhCBin0VIkFKLFvxTM%3D&reserved=0> copies of my publications may be found at https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JASilk _______________________________________________ INDOLOGY mailing list [email protected] https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
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