Scholarly Approaches to the Concept of "Evil" and the Figure of Māra in South Asia
In this article, I survey prominent themes in the scholarly analysis of the concept of `evil’ in South Asian religious traditions. Some of the issues I highlight in this regard are the problems in defining `evil’ in the South Asian context and the past tendency to privilege philosophical materials o...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2010
|
| In: |
Religion compass
Year: 2010, Volume: 4, Issue: 9, Pages: 530-537 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this article, I survey prominent themes in the scholarly analysis of the concept of `evil’ in South Asian religious traditions. Some of the issues I highlight in this regard are the problems in defining `evil’ in the South Asian context and the past tendency to privilege philosophical materials over literary sources. Besides this general topic, I also focus particularly on past scholarly approaches to and interpretations of the Buddhist figure `Māra,’ which to a great extent have illustrated the general trends laid out in the first section. Finally, I conclude that future approaches to the South Asian concept of `evil’ in general, and Māra in particular, ought to find ways to blend philosophical and literary materials, as well as maintain sensitivity to how the notion of `evil’ has played a social role among South Asian religious traditions. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1749-8171 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion compass
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2010.00238.x |