<p>The use of codified sacred utterances, formulas or hymns called “mantras” is widespread in India. By and large, scholarship over the last few decades studies and explains mantras by resorting to Indian sources from over a millennium ago, and by applying such frameworks especially related to language as speech-act theory, semiotics, structuralism, etc. This research aims to understand mantra, and the visionary experience of mantra, from the perspectives of practitioners engaged in “mantra-sadhana (personal mantra practice).” </p><p>The main fieldwork for this project was conducted at three communities established around “gurus (spiritual teachers)” regarded by their followers as seers, i.e., authoritative sources with visionary experience, especially of deities. The Goddess, in the forms of Kali and Lalita Tripurasundari, is the primary deity at all three locations, and these practitioners may be called tantric or Hindu. Vedic sources (practitioners and texts) have also informed this research as they are a part of the history and context of the informants. Adopting an immersive anthropology and becoming a co-practitioner helped erase boundaries to get under the skin of mantra-practice. Fieldwork shows how the experience of mantras unravels around phenomena, seers, deities, intentionality and results. Practitioners find themselves seers mediating new mantras and practices, shaping tradition. Thus, practitioners are the primary sources of this research. </p><p>This dissertation is structured in three phases: preparation (Chapters One and Two), fieldwork (Chapters Three, Four and Five) and conclusions (Chapter Six). Chapter One discusses the groundwork including a literature review and methodological plan— a step as crucial as the research itself. Chapter Two reviews two seers in recent times who have become role-models for contemporary mantra practitioners in Andhra-Telangana. Ethnographic chapters Three, Four and Five delve into the visionary experience and poetics of mantra-practice at three locations. Chapter Six analyses the fieldwork findings across all three locations to arrive at a number of conclusions.</p><p>Chapter Three takes place in Devipuram, Anakapalle, where a temple in the shape of a three-dimensional “Sriyantra (aniconic Goddess form)” was established by the seer AmritanandaNatha Sarasvati. Chapter Four connects with the community surrounding the seer Swami Siddheswarananda Bharati whose primary location is the Svayam Siddha Kali Pitham in Guntur where the (image of the) deity manifested in front of a group of people. Chapter Five enters the experience of mantras at Nachiketa Tapovan ashram near Kodgal with Paramahamsa Swami Sivananda Puri and her guru, Swami Nachiketananda. </p><p>Across these three locations, which I find akin to “mandalas (groups, circles of influence, chapters),” practitioners describe their experiences including visions of deities and mantras, and how mantras transformed them and brought desired and unexpected results. More significantly, practitioners share their processes of practice, doubts, interpretations and insights into the nature of mantras and deities. Practitioners who begin “mantra-sadhana (mantra-practice)” motivated by some goal are encouraged by phenomena and results, but they develop attachment to deities, and continue absorbed in sadhana. Practitioners care to discriminate between what is imagined and what actually occurred, but they also consider imagination crucial to progress. Deities are sound-forms and powerful other-worldly friends existing both outside and within the practitioner’s (not only material) body. We learn about mantras received from deities, seen and heard mantras, hidden mantras, lost mantras, dormant mantras, mantras given silently, mantras done unconsciously, and even the “no”-mantra. </p><p>Chapter 6, Understanding Mantras Again is an exploration of the fundamental themes of this research and a conceptual analysis of the fieldwork, keeping the mantra-methodologies and insights of practitioners in mind—what are mantras and how do they work in practice, what is visionary experience in mantra-practice, what are deities and how do they relate to mantras, and other questions. I conclude with a list of the primary sources of this research— practitioners.</p> / Dissertation

Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Dans un contexte de crise urbaine, cette thèse s'interroge sur le déclin des petites villes en Inde et sur les conditions de leur développement. Saisissant l'opportunité d'une décentralisation administrative intervenue dans les années 1983-85 en Andhra Pradesh, cette étude explore le rôle dévolu aux petites villes, prises entre des métropoles toujours plus attractives et des villages en transformation. La recherche est menée à deux échelles, celle du district de Krishna, une région prospère de la côte du Coromandel, et sur un échantillon de six petites villes. Après une revue de la littérature sur le phénomène « petite ville » dans le Tiers Monde et en Inde, une analyse historique présente l'évolution de l'urbanisation en Andhra Pradesh. La définition de l'objet d'étude, les petites villes, est comparé dans les différentes sources mobilisées, puis une nouvelle définition élaborée pour déterminer l'échantillon d'étude. A l'échelle du district, les conditions du dynamisme des petites villes sont analysées en prenant en compte l'évolution démographique, socio-professionnelle et les activités, dominées par le tertiaire tant public que privé. La réforme des mandai, en multipliant les centres administratifs par trois a été un des facteurs de l'éclosion d'une nouvelle génération de petites villes en Krishna. La thèse s'achève sur une analyse fine de l'importante mobilité de la population, déplacements quotidiens et migrations pour un échantillon de quatre centres. Les flux remontants des villages ou descendants des grandes villes mettent en évidence des aires migratoires très vastes. La vitalité des petites villes montre leur rôle essentiel dans la hiérarchie urbaine, ainsi que leur place dans le passage de la ruralité à l'urbanité.

Studien behandlar bevattningsgivornas storlek av avloppsvatten längs Peerzadiguda bevattningskanal i Andhra Pradesh, Indien. Peerzadiguda bevattningskanal är belägen norr om Musifloden nedströms Hyderabad som är huvudstad i delstaten Andhra Pradesh i Indien. I regioner med knappa vattenresurser kan avloppsvatten vara en värdefull resurs i jordbruk som kräver bevattning. Så är fallet längs Musifloden som innehåller Hyderabads orenade och delvis renade avloppsvatten. Studieområdet är den del av marken runt Peerzadiguda bevattningskanal som är bevattnad av densamma. Flödet i kanalen mättes, vattenförlusterna uppskattades och bevattningen över hela området beräknades. I ett geografiskt informationssystem (GIS) beräknades arean på studieområdet och några kartor tillverkades. För några fält i området beräknades också den aktuella bevattningen med mätningar av flödet i bevattningskanalerna på fälten och med hjälp av intervjuer med lantbrukarna. Bevattningen av fälten utfördes med bassängbevattning. Den aktuella bevattningen användes i vattenbalansberäkningar för rotzonen för de grödor som växte i området: grönsaker, fodergräs och ris. En optimal bevattning beräknades. Bevattningen över hela studieområdet beräknades till 41 mm per dag. Den aktuella bevattningen som uppmättes på fälten var mindre men de utförda vattenbalansberäkningarna visade att vattenförluster förekom, i vissa fall stora sådana. När den optimal bevattning användes i beräkningarna minskade förlusterna. Stora vattengivor och användningen av bassänbevattning och leder till vattenförluster och att stora mängder patogener tillförs jorden. / This thesis focuses on the amounts of wastewater irrigating the land along Peerzadiguda irrigation canal in Andhra Pradesh, India. The Peerzadiguda irrigation canal is located north of Musi river downstream Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state Andhra Pradesh. In regions where the freshwater resources are scarce, wastewater can become a valuable resource in irrigated agriculture. This is the case along Musi river that contains Hyderabad’s untreated and partly treated wastewater. The study area is the land around Peerzadiguda irrigation canal that is irrigated with water from the canal. The flow in the irrigation canal was measured, water losses were estimated and the irrigation amount over the whole study area was quantified. In a Geographical Information System (GIS) the size of the study area was measured and a few maps produced. The actual irrigation on a few farms was also calculated from measurements of the irrigation canals on the farms and from data from interviews with the farmers. The irrigation of the fields was preformed with basin irrigation. The values of the actual irrigation was used in water balance calculations of the root zone for the crops growing in the area: vegetable, paragrass and paddy rice. An optimal irrigation scheme was then calculated. The irrigation over the whole study area was calculated to 41 mm per day. The actual irrigation measured on the fields was lower but the water balance calculations showed that the irrigation leads to water losses, in some cases large losses. With the optimal irrigation amount used in the water balance the water losses were reduced. The use of basin irrigation and the large amount of irrigation water leads to water losses and larger amounts of pathogenic organisms is added to the soil.

Doctoral thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

The southern Indian state Andhra Pradesh has today among the lowest fertility rate among all the major Indian states (1,8 children per woman). In recent years some studies has point to the role of mass media exposure in lowering fertility in Andhra Pradesh. Questions have been raised, however, about the nature and interpretation of this evidence. This study attempts to address this issue by examining the determinants of fertility variation in Andhra Pradesh in a multivariate framework, using Sub-district-level data from census 2011. However, to provide a deeper understanding of how mass media may have shape people’s views and opinions about childbearing, a comparative case study has also been carried out. The study´s result shows that mass media exposure emerges as the most important factor explaining fertility variation in Andhra Pradesh. Moreover, poverty reduction, low child mortality, urbanisation and low levels of son preference also contribute to fertility variation. By contrast, general indicators of development such as female and male education bear no significant association with fertility variation in Andhra Pradesh.

The present study is completely a literature study, where the limelight has been on Rāmāyaṇa. Focusing on the Rāmāyaṇa written by Valmiki and comparing it to the oral tradition (songs) from Andhra Pradesh, sung by Brahmin women presented in Paula Richman’s book Many Ramayanas (1991); The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Two female characters have been chosen to understand the polarities of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ in woman characters presented within the story of Rāmāyaṇa; Sitā is compared therefore to Śūrpanakhā. Two primary questions have led the study forward, the first being to understand characteristical similarities and differences between the female characters; Sitā and Śūrpanakhā. and the other being narrational differences found in Valmiki’s Rāmāyaṇa compared to Paula Richman’s description of oral traditions of Brahmin women of Andhra Pradesh. Qualitative content analysis is the method that runs through the veins of this study, content analysis which is a branch of textual analysis is a method used to study and describe characteristics of written messages, which in this study is Rāmāyaṇa. In the conclusion the research question was answered and the result was that it could be argued that Sitā and Śūrpanakhā are both different but also similar to each other within the characteristical framework and also that Sitā and Śūrpanakhā are portrayed as each other's alter egos. Where Sitā is portrayed as light, good, pure, auspicious and submissive, Śūrpanakhā is portrayed as her opposite; dark, evil, impure, inauspicious and independent. And within a narrational framework it was clear that there were many differences between Valmiki’s narration  to the oral traditions, where Valmiki narrated Rāmā in limelight the oral traditions had women’s aspects of Rāmāyaṇa in focus.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-266). Also available on the Internet.

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