Conveners: Imre Bangha, Polly O'Hanlon, and Kate Sullivan de Estrada
Speaker: Robin Rinehart (Lafayette College)
Abstract:
The Dasam Granth, a text attributed to the tenth guru of Sikhism, Guru Gobind Singh, includes a composition with accounts of twenty-four avatars of the god Vishnu. The concluding story narrates the deeds of the future avatar Kalki and his battle with a figure named Mir Mahdi. Sikh exegesis of this text has often centered on why tales of Vishnu’s avatars appear in a Sikh text; this presentation will analyze this Kalki narrative in relation to other accounts of Vishnu’s final avatar and Indic accounts of the mahdi, a figure who in Islamic theology appears at the end of time.
Bio:
Robin Rinehart is Professor of Religious Studies at Lafayette College. Her publications include One Lifetime, Many Lives (Scholars Press 1999), a study of the hagiographies of Swami Rama Tirtha; Contemporary Hinduism: Ritual, Culture, and Practice (ABC-CLIO 2004); Debating the Dasam Granth (Oxford 2011); and articles on 19th and 20th century reform movements in the Punjab, on the Punjabi Sufi poet Bullhe Shah, and on the Dasam Granth.
Pre-registration required. Please visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/modern-south-asian-studies-seminar-series-hilary-term-tickets-135658737937 to book either for this seminar or the whole series.
