The Volatile World of Sovereignty : The Vratya Problem and Kingship in South Asia

This volume stems from the three-year Research Project Traces of a Heterodox Concept of Kingship in Ancient, Medieval and Modern India financed by the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna , developed by Cristina Bignami, Danila Cinellu, Ewa Debicka-Borek, Moreno Dore, Elena Mucciarelli, Chiara Neri and coordinated by Tiziana Pontillo. It mainly tries to postulate an alternative explanation to the vratya-phenomenon correlated with the heterodox facets of Indian sovereignty. Thus, the work consistently offers a new historical interpretation of the rise of the so-called orthodox Brahmanic (Shrauta-) culture that is understood as a reform . Moreover, it resorts to a large collection of ancient, medieval, and modern texts and documents, interpreted by means of philological and anthropological tools. In this manner, the Vratya problem is launched onto a interdisciplinary platform, in order to profit from a broad scenario as far as this issue is concerned. The first section focuses on the vratya culture, as it can be reconstructed from old (and middle) Indo-Aryan generally marginalized sources, and from medieval and modern documents where this culture seems to have left some traces. The second section seeks to substantiate the polar opposition between orthodox and heterodox sovereignty, of which vratyas appear to be a capital example.

Tiziana Pontillo is a Senior Lecturer (2002- ) in Sanskrit Language and Literature at the Philology, Literature and Linguistics Department of Cagliari University, Italy. She is the author of more than 80 contributions, among which Rule-Extension Strategies in Ancient India (Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, 2013), co-authored with Elisa Freschi. She also co-edited with Maria Piera Candotti Signless Signification in Ancient India and Beyond (London: Anthem, 2012).

Cristina Bignami completed her Ph.D. with a study on Medieval Indian Art at the University of Turin. She is a Research Fellow in the project Kings of the Wild: The Re-use of Local and Vedic Elements in the Legitimation Process of Medieval Karnataka , Tübingen University. Her contributions focus on Indian History of Arts and on the History of Medieval South India.

Elena Mucciarelli completed her Ph.D. with a study on semantic developments of the Vedic corpus. She is a Research Fellow in Kudiyattam: Living Sanskrit Theatre in the Kerala Tradition , Jerusalem and Tübingen University. She is also Principal Investigator of Kings of the Wild: The Re-use of Local and Vedic Elements in the Legitimation Process of Medieval Karnataka , Tübingen University. Her contributions focus on the Vedic period and on ritual and cultural aspects of south India.

Moreno Dore is a Research Fellow at the Philology, Literature and Linguistics Department of Cagliari University, Italy. He took his Ph.D. with a thesis on Vratya Ideology in the Atharvaveda (University of Turin, 2015). He is the author of several contributions on Vedic topics, often included in the proceedings of international conferences.