Related Papers
Education About Asia, "Special Issue: Water and Asia"
Cultural Associations of Water in Early Chinese and Indian Religion and Medicine
2017 •
Pierce Salguero
While it invariably has been recognized as a necessary part of human life, water has been understood and spoken about in a variety of ways across cultures over the course of history. This article briefly provides an overview of the prevailing cultural associations of water in early Chinese and Indian traditions of religion and medicine. I take a comparative approach, drawing attention to both points of connec- tion and di erence between Chinese and Indian systems of thought. While it cannot be comprehensive in such few pages, it is hoped that this short piece may provide starting points for further exploration of the rich webs of connotations water has had in premodern societies globally, and in Asia in particular.
Terje Oestigaard
Hydrology and Water Resources Management in Ancient India
2020 •
Dr. Pushpendra Kumar Singh
China-India: Revisiting the 'Water Wars' Narrative
Zhang Hongzhou
Terje Oestigaard
Divination of Water in Vedic Literature and its significance to contemporary world
Veena Maheshwari
The worldwide practice of Hinduism encompasses a wide variety of beliefs. However, a prevailing belief that is shared by most, if not all, Hindus is the importance of physical and spiritual cleanliness and well-being... a striving to attain purity and avoid pollution. This widespread aspiration lends itself to a reverence for water as well as the integration of water into most Hindu rituals, as it is believed that water has spiritually cleansing powers. Also, the river Ganges is referred to as a Goddess and is said to flow from the toe of Lord Vishnu to be spread in the world through the matted hair of Lord Siva. And the ritualistic banks of this river are well known for being cremation grounds for people all across the world. But Ganges is one among the rivers which is one of the most polluted rivers in whole world. Irony, of being the purest, holiest water and being a goddess herself, cannot escape the evils of mankind. Even though gaining a status as same as a person recently, these rivers are poorly treated same as the women is this country. And this paper also tries to unearth the real reasons behind the drying up of Saraswati River. It is very fascinating to understand the water politics in the vedic period and ancient water conservation techniques which are worth adapting to contemporary period.
Water Management and Mismanagement in Early China
Bruce Jones
They say that History is shaped by people who conquer and control people. But in the 1970's Karl Wittfogel argued that History is shaped by people who conquer and control Water. In the case of China, he imght have been correct. China's history is a legacy of floods, canals, irrigation, and disaster on a scale that is colossal by all standards. Recent archaeological excavations are opening windows on what were always believed to be Legends. In this talk we will expose China's hydrological story. And tell the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
ZEF Working Paper 61.
Water Management across Space and Time in India.
Saravanan V. Subramanian
Tauris, London
A History of the Ideas of Water. Deconstructing Nature and Constructing Society: A History of Water: Series II Vol. I
2010 •
Terje Tvedt, Terje Oestigaard
The Tradition Everybody concerned with the history of ideas, knows that the history of ideas itself has a history. The history of ideas of water has, however, no such history, since it has yet to be written. Few scholarly works have been published about how water has been conceptualised and perceived at different times and in different societies, although all social systems have a hydraulic dimension and water has been interwoven with social interaction from profane activities to religious ceremonies all over the world from time immemorial. This historiographic state-of-affairs continues even though water's centrality in many belief systems has been acknowledged: The influential historian of religious ideas, M. Eliade, for example, writes: " Water symbolises the whole of potentiality: it is the fons et origo, the source of all possible existence … water symbolises the primal substance from which all forms came and to which they will return " (Eliade 1979: 188). And religious texts from all over the world underline the same point. The wording of the famous sanscrit text Mahäbhärata (XII.83.-4) summarises water's general position: " The creator first produced water for the maintenance of life among human beings. The water enriches life and its absence destroys all creatures and plant-life. " Images of and ideas about water have been and are central in creation stories and in narratives about " the end of the world " , in rituals and rites de passage, in scientific theories about creation and evolution and as a seemingly unending reservoir for metaphors in languages all over the world. So why then, has so very little attention been given to a reconstruction of its history?
A History of Water
Water, Hindu mythology and an unequal social order in India
2006 •
Deepa Joshi
