Indian Asceticism

Abstract

Indian cultural discourses and narratives about ascetics are examined to understand the powers exhibited by ascetics, which are byproducts of their path, and the ways that these powers are interconnected to issues of violence and forms of play (eroticism, the demonic, the comic, and the miraculous). The argument includes evidence from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The book culminates in the final chapter with an attempt to re-imagine the nature of power. While on their spiritual path, an ascetic gains the ability to fly, walk on water, read other minds, know former lives, see into the future, or levitate one’s body. These types of powers gives a student a glimpse into their violent nature that gives rise to a consideration of the relationship between power and violence within Indian asceticism.

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