Events and Programs

Spring 2007

January 31, 2007

7:00 p.m.

An Andal Evening: An Evening of Music, Classical Dance, and Discussion.
Harn Museum Auditorium

Public lecture, music and dance on the works of Andal, a ninth century woman saint from south India. Part of the Religion, Literature and the Performing Arts series.

The program will include:

• a dance on Andal's poem "A Thousand Elephants...' (varanam ayiram)
• musical renderings of Andal's Tiruppavai
• a brief demonstration of Temple style Recitation of some verses from the Tiruppavai
• Of Decoration and Disguise: Enjoying the Body of the Goddess at the Andal Temple in Srivilliputtur, a lecture by Professor Archana Venkatesan, St. Lawrence University
  
  Professor Venkatesan will also give a graduate / faculty seminar and speak in undergraduate classes.

Tuesday, Febuary 13

5:00pm to 6:00pm in TUR (Turlington) L005

Scroll paintings and Bardic Poetry in Bengal, a lecture by Professor Frank Korom

Frank Korom will explore the changing world of the Patuas, a community of itinerant scroll painters and singers residing in Medinipur District, West Bengal, India. These impoverished artists are adapting to modernity by expanding their repertoires to include contemporary social and political themes. Originally, they were Hindus who converted to Islam during the medieval period, but because they sing about Hindu gods and goddesses for Hindu patrons, they have not become fully accepted into the Muslim mainstream. Even though the tradition is changing rapidly as a result of modernity, Korom argues for a form of “alternative modernity,” which allows for change within the tradition while adhering to local aesthetic sensibilities. To demonstrate this “alternative modernity,” songs on modern themes sung in traditional meters will accompany photo illustrations.

Frank J. Korom is an Associate Professor of religion and anthropology at Boston University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 for a dissertation on Dharmaraj, a local village deity worshipped in rural regions of West Bengal from medieval times to the present. He is a Guggenheim fellow and guest curator of the exhibition Village of Painters: Narrative Scrolls from West Bengal, which is currently showing at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico until April 29, 2007. His accompanying book by the same name was published by the Museum of New Mexico Press in 2006. The Roy C. Craven, Jr. Memorial Lecture is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study Hindu Traditions, and the Center for the Humanities in the Public Sphere, in cooperation with the Jerome A. Yavitz Charitable Foundation.

Thursday, March 8

5:10 - 7:00 pm, Turlington Hall, L005

Hinduism and Hindustani Music, a A lecture and performance by Professor Guy Beck, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Guy Beck completed an M.A. in Musicology (1986) and Ph.D. in South Asian Religion (1989) from Syracuse University. He is the author of Sonic Theology: Hinduism and Sacred Sound (1993), and the editor of Sacred Sound: Experiencing Music in World Religions (2006). He is currently teaching Hinduism and Religion and Music at UNC Wilmington and Tulane University. In 2001, he delivered the Michaelmas Lectures on Hinduism and Music at Oxford University.

He has released two CD’s of classical and devotional music, SACRED RAGA (New Orleans, 1999), and SANJHER PRADIP (Calcutta, 2004).

Professor Beck’s has received several fellowships including a Fulbright (1992-93). He was recently awarded a Senior Performing Arts Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian studies (A.I.I.S.) for 2007-2008.

Guy Beck is one of the first Americans to become proficient in the tradition of North Indian Hindustani vocal music, and the first to appear in an All-India Music Conference (Tansen Sangit Sammelan, 1977 in Calcutta). Performing Hindustani vocal music for over twenty-five years, he has given concerts at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (1998), the International Congress of Vedanta (1994), and at Oxford University (UK) in 2001.  He has also performed on Radio Nepal and Indian TV Doordarshan.

Tuesday, March 20

5 pm, 471 Grinter Hall

Reframing the Erotic: Literary Change in Hindi, 1900-1930, a talk by Professor Valerie Ritter, University of Chicago.

In this paper, Professor Ritter addresses the question of how poetry in Hindi (now the national language of India) had to change once the classical erotic mode of srngara was deemed “obscene”. Reviewing ways in which cultural authenticity claims impinged upon literary depictions of women, she discusses criticism by Hindi authors of classically-styled erotic poetry and of women as poetic subjects. She also examines how later, in the 1920s, a justification for the erotic literary past emerges which claims that the erotic literary affect of srngara presents biological truths and actually informs the realist “scenes of nature” of modern literature.

Valerie Ritter is an Assistant Professor in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Her research has focused on late nineteenth and early twentieth century Hindi poetry and poetics, and their post-colonial interpretations.

Tuesday, April 10

Harn Museum, 6:00 pm

To the Divine through Beauty, a lecture by Dr. Vidya Dehejia

Vidya Dehejia provides a preview from her forthcoming book, "The Body Adorned" that addressees the dominance of the human form in India's art, the sensuous nature of the imagery used to portray deities to be approached with veneration, the intimate portrayal of divine couples, and the manner in which sacred spaces happily accommodate what might be termed "profane" imagery. A public lecture and graduate/faculty seminar. Dr. Vidya Dehejia is the Barbara Stoler Miller Professor of Indian and South Asian Art at Columbia University. The Roy C. Craven, Jr. Memorial Lecture is co-sponsored by the Center for the Study Hindu Traditions and the Harn Museum of Art.

Dr. Deehjia has authored over twenty major books and numerous articles on Indian art history, Buddhist archaeology and inscriptions, and Tamil devotional poetry. As the deputy director and chief curator of the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery and the Arthur M.Sackler Gallery from 1994-2002, she organized several important exhibitions, including 'The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India," (American Federation of Arts, New York, jointly with Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 2002), "India Through the Lens: Photography 1840?1911." (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.,2000) and "Devi: The Great Goddess." (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1999.)

Dr. Dehejia received her PhD from Cambridge University, England. Over the past thirty years, she has combined research with teaching and exhibition-related activities around the world. Extensive field travel in South Asia, with visits to sites of importance in Southeast Asia, has given her first hand familiarity with the art of the region.

Dr. Dehejia incorporates her knowledge of classical Sanskrit and Tamil, her lyrical translations of ancient poetry, and material from unpublished manuscripts, to illumine art. She has explored the theoretical basis for the portrayal of visual narratives in the context of India?s sculpture and painting, and has examined issues of gender and colonialism. Over time, her work has ranged from Buddhist art of the centuries BCE to the esoteric temples of North India, and from the sacred bronzes of the South to the art of British India. Management and curatorial experience at the Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries has provided broader scope to convey the excitement of her field to non-specialist audiences.

Saturday, April 21

3:00-5:00 pm, HPNP Auditorium, University of Florida

Carnatic music concert on the Jaltarangam by Mrs Seetha Doraiswamy and Ms Ganavya Doraiswamy accompanied by Abishek Raaja on the mridangam. Free for students with ID; $15 per person or $25 per family. Cosponsored by the Center for World Arts.

Seetha Doraiswamy (82) is the only female professional player of the jaltarangam instrument. She has given over a thousand concerts in India, the middle east and USA and has given recitals for many television and radio stations in India. Mrs Doraiswamy is committed to spreading the knowledge of this little known art form to anyone who is interested.

Jalatarangam ("Water waves") is an instrument with a set of at least 15 porcelain cups of different sizes and thickness filled with water to various levels. The cups are arranged in the form of a semi circle, in front of the player. These are struck with bamboo sticks to get the right note.

Each cup gives a different tone, and this has to be adjusted to get the required tone by adding or reducing water. The larger and thicker cups give low tones while the smaller and thinner one, the shriller tones. Hence, each cup has to be suitably filled with water to get the different tone for each raga, and hence changing from one song to the next of a different raga could be time consuming. In cold climates, only hot water has to be used as cold water does not give the required effect.

A pair of small bamboo sticks of not more than 9 inches in length (23 cms) neatly cut and tapering at one end is used for playing the instrument. One needs to have a perfect hand coordination between the two hands and excellent knowledge of the Raagas and Tala (rhythm) to produce a perfect recital.

Fall 2007

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

7 pm, 219 Dauer Hall (Ruth McQuown Room)

Nathan McGovern (University of California, Santa Barbara) presents Brahma in Thailand: Buddhists worshipping a Hindu God?

In this presentation, Nathan McGovern will argue that our knowledge of Asian religions is still framed by colonial and Euro-centric ideas of "religion" that obscure our understanding of Hinduism and Buddhism in subtle yet profound ways. He will discuss the worship of Brahma in Thailand, the ways in which Buddhists worship a "Hindu" creator deity, and show how this phenomenon is especially apt for exposing the limitations of Western understandings of religion.

Nathan McGovern received his BA in Physics and Religious Studies from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He now is a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he studies South Asian religions and Thai Buddhism. His major interests include the history of Indian Buddhism, early Buddhist canonical literature, Theravada Buddhism, and the relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism in South Asia. Nathan's recent research focused on “Brahma Worship in Thailand: The Erawan Shrine in its Social and Historical Context,” in which he explores issues of syncretism and Indianization in Southeast Asia using the contemporary Thai worship of Brahma as a focal point. Nathan is now conducting further research on Thai religion comparing the roles that Brahmanical and Buddhist monastic lineages have played in Thai history, especially with respect to Thai monarchical institutions.

Tuesday, October 9

7 pm, CSE E119

Dr. Kelly Alley, Alumni Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Anthropology Program, Auburn University, presents River Goddesses, River Linking: From Sacred to Transferable Waters. Co-sponsored with the Water Institute.

Thursday, October 18

1:55 pm, Anderson Hall, Room 32

Gandhi's Weapons of Truth and Non-Violence: The Power of Sung-Prayers and Ritual, a lecture by Cynthia Snodgrass, Stirling University, Scotland

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Lecture Demonstration: 4.00-4.30 pm
Concert: 5-7 pm, HPNP Auditorium, University of Florida

An Evening of Hindustani Music with Vaijayanthi Gopinath (vocal), Dr Tanmay Lele (Tabla), and Venkatesh Srinivasan (Harmonium).

Vaijayanthi Gopinath (Jacksonville) is a student of Smt. Lakshmi Shankar, the renowned singer and exponent of the Patiala Gharana style of music. Mrs Gopinath has been learning Hindustani Classical music for over twenty years and has given several performances both as a solo artist and with her teacher all over the country.

Tanmay Lele is on the faculty of Chemical Engineering at UF. He learned tabla for many years from Shri Anant Lele in Bombay.

Venkatesh Srinivasan (Merrill Lynch, Jacksonville) had his original training in Bombay. His unique style of playing the Harmonium with western chords and improvisation techniques come from his training at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Bangalore.

This is a Benefit Concert in support of CHiTra’s Classical Indian Music Endowment Fund at the University of Florida Foundation. The endowment will be permanent and the earnings will go toward future lecture/demonstrations, concerts, and music workshops

Events

• 2008 Events
• 2007 Events
• 2006 Events

>> top