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(2015) Nature in Indian philosophy and cultural traditions, Dordrecht, Springer.
After secular ideas of landscape ecology, this chapter deconstructs the understanding of sacred nature and natural landscapes in the subcontinent. Religious and philosophical thought has always influenced people's social and ecological behaviour in India. The unique world views of nature in Indian thought through relationships between place, the idea of sacred, and narratives about sacred landscapes called sthala purāna are elucidated. The chapter also explains how secondary narratives called sthala māhātmya recount the human experience of the sacred and create a moral relationship between landscapes and people. As practices around sacred geography and pilgrimages are prevalent even today, I conclude this chapter with suggestions of the possible place centric, relationship-based ethics of sacred landscapes.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-2358-0_7
Full citation:
Baindur, M. (2015). Sacred geographies and an ethics of relating with reverence, in Nature in Indian philosophy and cultural traditions, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 119-138.
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