The Memory of Gods: From a Secret Autobiography to a Nationalistic Project

Daniela Berti (1)

1 CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes

A form of oral repertory, widespread in many regions of South Asia, is what has been called "divine autobiographies" by anthropologists (cf. Campbell 1978, Unbescheid 1987). These involve stories which are supposed to be revealed by the deities themselves who, when speaking in the first person through the voice of their institutional mediums, recount the episodes in their life, where they come from, how they came to settle in their temples, what relations they established with local kings, and so on. In Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh, these divine autobiographies are called bharthas (lit. 'news') and concern a special category of temple deity who exercise their sovereignty over a territory. They control the weather, arbitrate conflicts, and establish rules. Though extremely valorised, bharthas are presented by local people as secret and as a kind of knowledge to which they have, in principle, no access. Moreover, bharthas are considered to be simply revealed,

Mots clés: religion, divinité, autobiographie, kullu

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Religions

Daniela Berti. The Memory of Gods: From a Secret Autobiography to a Nationalistic Project. Indian Folklife, 2006, 24, pp.15-18. ⟨hal-02334466⟩