julia shaw
University College London, Institute of Archaeology, Faculty Member
- South Asian Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Indian Buddhism, Early Indian Religions, Buddhist Iconography, Religion and Ecology, and 36 moreGandhara, Archaeology of Central Asia, Tibetan Buddhism, Urban archaeology, Well-Being, Ecology, Archaeology of Religion, Environmental Archaeology, Agricultural History, Religious Studies, Buddhist Studies, Archaeology of Early Buddhism, Ancient Indian Archaeology, Buddhist art and architecture, Buddhist Art, Environmental History, South Asian Studies, Indian studies, South Asian Religions, South Asian Art, Environmental Anthropology, Environmental Ethics, Environmental Humanities, Environmental Activism, Historical Ecology, Asian Studies, Water History, Archaeology of food, History of Medicine, Anthropocene studies, Anthropocene, Medical Humanities, Medieval Disability Studies, Social History of Medicine, Disability History, and Disability Studiesedit
- Associate Professor in South Asian Archaeology My current research focuses on the history and archaeology of environ... moreAssociate Professor in South Asian Archaeology
My current research focuses on the history and archaeology of environmental ethics and attitudes, and the deep-time mindsets towards 'nature' that sustain both healthy and unhealthy human-animal environmental interactions in the past-present-future, with particular interests in South Asian archaeology.
Research interests:
Archaeology and art of South Asia: urbanisation, religious history, state-formation, agriculture, land-use and environmental control, historical water studies, ecological history; sectarianism, politics and archaeology; landscape and survey archaeology; archaeology of sacred geography and 'natural places'; rock-art.
Archaeology of Asian religions especially Buddhism and Hinduism.
Archaeology of medicine, healing and disability: interfaces between archaeology, the medical humanities and public ecological health discourse.
Interfaces between archaeology, anthropocene studies, and the environmental humanities: archaeologies of environmental ethics and intellectual responses to climate change; cultural attitudes towards 'nature' and human:animal:environment interactions; archaeology, religion and the environment; archaeology and environmental / climate-change
Staff profile: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/people/julia-shaw-associate-professor-south-asian-archaeologyedit
Shaw, J. (2000). Ayodhya's sacred landscape: Ritual memory, politics and archaeological ‘fact’. Antiquity, 74(285), 693-700. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00060087 **More recent discussion, and OPEN ACCESS excerpts from original paper in UCL... more
Shaw, J. (2000). Ayodhya's sacred landscape: Ritual memory, politics and archaeological ‘fact’. Antiquity, 74(285), 693-700. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00060087
**More recent discussion, and OPEN ACCESS excerpts from original paper in UCL Material Religions (Exploring the Basis of Religious Traditions) Blog (2014)
http://materialreligions.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/ayodhyas-sacred-landscape-ritual-memory.html
ABSTRACT
Great astonishment has been expressed at the recent vitality of the Hindu religion at Ajudhia [sic], and it was to test the extent of this chiefly that … this statement has been prepared. As the information it contains may be permanently useful, I have considered it well to give it a place here. This information is as correct as it can now be made and that is all that I can say CARNEGY(1870: appendix A)
After the destruction of Ayodhya's Babri mosque in 1992 by supporters of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the statement above seems laden with premonition of the events to come (Rao 1994). More importantly, Carnegy’s comments highlight that the mosque’s destruction was not simply the result of 20th-century politics. The events surrounding and following the outbreak of violence in 1992 have resulted in more ‘spilt ink’ than Carnegy could ever have imagined. This literature can be divided into two main categories; firstly, the initial documentation submitted to the government by a group of VHP aligned historians, which presented the ‘archaeological proof’ that the Babri mosque had occupied the site of a Hindu temple dating to the 10th and 11th century AD (VHP1990; New Delhi Historical Forum 1992). This was believed to have marked the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama (hence the name Rama Janmabhumi — literally ‘birthplace of Rama’), and been demolished at the orders of the Mughal emperor Babur during the 16th century. As a response, a second group of ‘progressive’ Indian historians began a counter-argument, based on the same ‘archaeological proof’ that no such temple had ever existed (Gopal et al. 1992; Mandal 1993). The second category is a growing body of literature which has filled many pages of international publications (Rao 1994; Navlakha 1994). Especially following the World Archaeology Congress (WAC) in Delhi (1994), and subsequently in Brač, Croatia (1998), this has been preoccupied with finding an acceptable route through the battlefield which arises as a result of the problematic, but recurrent, marriage between archaeology, folklore and politics (Kitchen 1998; Hassan 1995).
**More recent discussion, and OPEN ACCESS excerpts from original paper in UCL Material Religions (Exploring the Basis of Religious Traditions) Blog (2014)
http://materialreligions.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/ayodhyas-sacred-landscape-ritual-memory.html
ABSTRACT
Great astonishment has been expressed at the recent vitality of the Hindu religion at Ajudhia [sic], and it was to test the extent of this chiefly that … this statement has been prepared. As the information it contains may be permanently useful, I have considered it well to give it a place here. This information is as correct as it can now be made and that is all that I can say CARNEGY(1870: appendix A)
After the destruction of Ayodhya's Babri mosque in 1992 by supporters of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the statement above seems laden with premonition of the events to come (Rao 1994). More importantly, Carnegy’s comments highlight that the mosque’s destruction was not simply the result of 20th-century politics. The events surrounding and following the outbreak of violence in 1992 have resulted in more ‘spilt ink’ than Carnegy could ever have imagined. This literature can be divided into two main categories; firstly, the initial documentation submitted to the government by a group of VHP aligned historians, which presented the ‘archaeological proof’ that the Babri mosque had occupied the site of a Hindu temple dating to the 10th and 11th century AD (VHP1990; New Delhi Historical Forum 1992). This was believed to have marked the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama (hence the name Rama Janmabhumi — literally ‘birthplace of Rama’), and been demolished at the orders of the Mughal emperor Babur during the 16th century. As a response, a second group of ‘progressive’ Indian historians began a counter-argument, based on the same ‘archaeological proof’ that no such temple had ever existed (Gopal et al. 1992; Mandal 1993). The second category is a growing body of literature which has filled many pages of international publications (Rao 1994; Navlakha 1994). Especially following the World Archaeology Congress (WAC) in Delhi (1994), and subsequently in Brač, Croatia (1998), this has been preoccupied with finding an acceptable route through the battlefield which arises as a result of the problematic, but recurrent, marriage between archaeology, folklore and politics (Kitchen 1998; Hassan 1995).
Research Interests: Hinduism, Heritage Studies, Landscape Archaeology, Indian studies, South Asian Studies, and 9 moreAnthropology of Pilgrimage, South Asian Archaeology, Landscape archaeology (Anthropology), Archaeology and politics, Sacred Landscape (Archaeology), Archaeology of pilgrimage, Religious Conflict, Indian Temple Architecture, and Ancient Indian Art and Architecture
Julia Shaw, 2022. 'Buddhism and the “Natural” Environment', In, The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice. Edited by Kevin Trainor & Paula Arai. London/New York: OUP.... more
Julia Shaw, 2022. 'Buddhism and the “Natural” Environment', In, The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice. Edited by Kevin Trainor & Paula Arai. London/New York: OUP. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190632922.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190632922-e-10
This chapter explores archaeology's contribution to scholarly understandings of Buddhist attitudes toward the "natural" environment and the relevance of such material for global discourse on the contemporary climate-change and biodiversity crises. It draws on evidence from central India for monastic engagement with food production, land and water use in lowland zones, as well as attitudes toward, and engagement with, upland forested areas, including the monastic occupation of prehistoric rock-shelters clustered around hilltops that were developed into architectural monastery complexes during the late centuries BCE. Both sets of evidence need to be viewed together in order to address critically text-based discourse on Buddhist environmental ethics with its predominant focus on Buddhist attitudes toward the suffering of animals and the "beauty" of "nature," over and above human-centric variables, and to reassess art-historical discourse on monastic gardens as arenas for transcending and viewing "nature" from a distance. Such an approach also helps to break down socially constructed polarizations between "peripheral" forests and "productive" lowland agriculture that have long since shaped discourse on India's religious, political, and environmental history.
Keywords: Anthropocene, Ayurveda, Buddhism and nature, environmental humanities, garden studies, lowland-upland interactions, monastic governmentality, religion and ecology, rock-shelters and caves, translocal deities
This chapter explores archaeology's contribution to scholarly understandings of Buddhist attitudes toward the "natural" environment and the relevance of such material for global discourse on the contemporary climate-change and biodiversity crises. It draws on evidence from central India for monastic engagement with food production, land and water use in lowland zones, as well as attitudes toward, and engagement with, upland forested areas, including the monastic occupation of prehistoric rock-shelters clustered around hilltops that were developed into architectural monastery complexes during the late centuries BCE. Both sets of evidence need to be viewed together in order to address critically text-based discourse on Buddhist environmental ethics with its predominant focus on Buddhist attitudes toward the suffering of animals and the "beauty" of "nature," over and above human-centric variables, and to reassess art-historical discourse on monastic gardens as arenas for transcending and viewing "nature" from a distance. Such an approach also helps to break down socially constructed polarizations between "peripheral" forests and "productive" lowland agriculture that have long since shaped discourse on India's religious, political, and environmental history.
Keywords: Anthropocene, Ayurveda, Buddhism and nature, environmental humanities, garden studies, lowland-upland interactions, monastic governmentality, religion and ecology, rock-shelters and caves, translocal deities
Research Interests: South Asian Studies, Ayurveda (Sanskrit language and literature), South Asian Archaeology, Religious Syncretism, Garden Archaeology, and 8 moreIndian Buddhism, Environmental Humanities, Historical Ecology, Archaeology of Medieval Monasteries, Religious Studies, Anthropocene, Cave Archaeology, and Buddhist monasticism
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Abstract This commentary paper responds to Riede's (this volume) well argued call for greater integration between archaeology and the aims and objectives of the environmental humanities including a much needed departure from the... more
Abstract
This commentary paper responds to Riede's (this volume) well argued call for greater integration between archaeology and the aims and objectives of the environmental humanities including a much needed departure from the geosciences:humanities polarisations that underscore prehistoric and historic research areas. In response I suggest three additional interdisciplinary alignments through which Riede’s ‘palaenvironmental humanities’ programme might be further enriched:
i) First I argue that more emphasis needs to be placed on the belief structures and ‘worldviews’ – religious, medico-environmental, or otherwise – that underscore the development of regionally and historically specific environment:human interactions and outcomes. Closer engagement with the anthropologies and text-based studies of religion is crucial if we are to move away from the prevalent focus on the technological drivers and solutions to climate change and environmental imbalance, and to give more weight to the underlying worldviews that perpetuate narratives of control over ‘nature’.
ii) Secondly, I argue for closer engagement between the environmental and medical humanities and recent strands of biomedical and public health enquiry such as Planetary Health and One Health agendas , that highlight the deeply entwined environment:human health outcomes of unsustainable environmental practices. I draw in particular on developments within Ecological Public Health discourse such as epigenomics and the related exposome concept, which by emphasizing lifetime and intergenerational health impacts of environmental exposures help to break down the nature:nurture division that has traditionally separated the environmental and medical sciences from their humanities counterparts. In particular, the recognition of the combined human, environmental and climate-change impact of synthetic chemical use and waste (United Nations 2019) is important for broadening the rather myopic emphasis within recent scholarly and activism contexts on ‘climate change’ as the predominant fallout of unsustainable environmental practice, rather than as just one of its many symptoms.
iii) A final closely related focus is the relevance of community forms of environmental control both past and present as a temper to the traditional emphasis on state-led environmental and ecological health-oriented directives. Not only do historical examples of community action, including those connected with ‘religious governmentality’, help to build more nuanced models of human-environment interaction in the past, but they are also instructive for present-day environmental and climate-change activism and for challenging the view that solutions to the human-environment imbalance depend largely on synergies between scientists and governmental legislators, whose own economic and political agendas are often at odds with the needs and interests of ecological public health and wellbeing. This is particularly crucial today when environmental activism is regarded as ‘subversive civil disobedience’ that may pose a threat to ‘national economic security’.
Full citation: Shaw, J. 2019. “Environmentalism as Religio-Medical ‘Worldview': New Synergies Between the Palaeoenvironmental Humanities, Ecological Public Health, and Climate-Change Activism”, Current Swedish Archaeology 26: 61-78. http://www.arkeologiskasamfundet.se/csa/vol26_2018.html
The above link provides OPEN ACCESS (no login required) to the complete special section on Deep Pasts, Deep Futures which explores archaeology's engagement with scholarly and activist discourse on human-environment relations as precipitated by our global climate change, biodiversity and environmental justice crises. My paper is one of several response papers (with other commentaries by Poul Holm, Paul Lane, Britt Solli, Christina Fredengren and Andrew Roddick) to Felix Riede's Keynote paper, concluding with a final response by Riede.
This commentary paper responds to Riede's (this volume) well argued call for greater integration between archaeology and the aims and objectives of the environmental humanities including a much needed departure from the geosciences:humanities polarisations that underscore prehistoric and historic research areas. In response I suggest three additional interdisciplinary alignments through which Riede’s ‘palaenvironmental humanities’ programme might be further enriched:
i) First I argue that more emphasis needs to be placed on the belief structures and ‘worldviews’ – religious, medico-environmental, or otherwise – that underscore the development of regionally and historically specific environment:human interactions and outcomes. Closer engagement with the anthropologies and text-based studies of religion is crucial if we are to move away from the prevalent focus on the technological drivers and solutions to climate change and environmental imbalance, and to give more weight to the underlying worldviews that perpetuate narratives of control over ‘nature’.
ii) Secondly, I argue for closer engagement between the environmental and medical humanities and recent strands of biomedical and public health enquiry such as Planetary Health and One Health agendas , that highlight the deeply entwined environment:human health outcomes of unsustainable environmental practices. I draw in particular on developments within Ecological Public Health discourse such as epigenomics and the related exposome concept, which by emphasizing lifetime and intergenerational health impacts of environmental exposures help to break down the nature:nurture division that has traditionally separated the environmental and medical sciences from their humanities counterparts. In particular, the recognition of the combined human, environmental and climate-change impact of synthetic chemical use and waste (United Nations 2019) is important for broadening the rather myopic emphasis within recent scholarly and activism contexts on ‘climate change’ as the predominant fallout of unsustainable environmental practice, rather than as just one of its many symptoms.
iii) A final closely related focus is the relevance of community forms of environmental control both past and present as a temper to the traditional emphasis on state-led environmental and ecological health-oriented directives. Not only do historical examples of community action, including those connected with ‘religious governmentality’, help to build more nuanced models of human-environment interaction in the past, but they are also instructive for present-day environmental and climate-change activism and for challenging the view that solutions to the human-environment imbalance depend largely on synergies between scientists and governmental legislators, whose own economic and political agendas are often at odds with the needs and interests of ecological public health and wellbeing. This is particularly crucial today when environmental activism is regarded as ‘subversive civil disobedience’ that may pose a threat to ‘national economic security’.
Full citation: Shaw, J. 2019. “Environmentalism as Religio-Medical ‘Worldview': New Synergies Between the Palaeoenvironmental Humanities, Ecological Public Health, and Climate-Change Activism”, Current Swedish Archaeology 26: 61-78. http://www.arkeologiskasamfundet.se/csa/vol26_2018.html
The above link provides OPEN ACCESS (no login required) to the complete special section on Deep Pasts, Deep Futures which explores archaeology's engagement with scholarly and activist discourse on human-environment relations as precipitated by our global climate change, biodiversity and environmental justice crises. My paper is one of several response papers (with other commentaries by Poul Holm, Paul Lane, Britt Solli, Christina Fredengren and Andrew Roddick) to Felix Riede's Keynote paper, concluding with a final response by Riede.
Research Interests: Climate Change, Environmental Archaeology, South Asian Studies, Religion and Ecology, Medical Humanities, and 10 moreSouth Asian Archaeology, Monasticism, Epigenetics, Environmental Humanities, Environmental Activism, Wellbeing, Climate change and human health, Anthropocene, Social Model of Disability, and Buddhist monasticism
Julia Shaw & Naomi Sykes, 2018. 'New directions in the archaeology of medicine: deep-time approaches to human-animal-environmental care', World Archaeology, 50:3, 365-383.... more
Julia Shaw & Naomi Sykes, 2018. 'New directions in the archaeology of
medicine: deep-time approaches to human-animal-environmental care', World Archaeology, 50:3, 365-383. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2018.1574393 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
This is the Introduction to our edited volume:
N. Sykes and J. Shaw, (eds.), 2018. Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare, Special volume of World Archaeology 50(3): 365 383, https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rwar20/50/3?nav=tocList
medicine: deep-time approaches to human-animal-environmental care', World Archaeology, 50:3, 365-383. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2018.1574393 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
This is the Introduction to our edited volume:
N. Sykes and J. Shaw, (eds.), 2018. Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare, Special volume of World Archaeology 50(3): 365 383, https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rwar20/50/3?nav=tocList
Research Interests: Medical Anthropology, Zooarchaeology, Bioarchaeology, History of Medicine, Buddhist Studies, and 10 moreReligion and Ecology, Disability History, South Asian Archaeology, Environmental Humanities, Social History of Medicine, Climate Change and Environmental Archaeology, Anthropocene studies, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ecological Public Health, and Planetary Health
Shaw, J. (2019). 'Breathing life into monuments of death: the stupa and the "Buddha Body" in Sanchi's socio-ecological landscape', In S. Kaul (ed), Eloquent Spaces: Meaning and Community in Early Indian Architecture, 34-68. New Delhi:... more
Shaw, J. (2019). 'Breathing life into monuments of death: the stupa and the "Buddha Body" in Sanchi's socio-ecological landscape', In S. Kaul (ed), Eloquent Spaces: Meaning and Community in Early Indian Architecture, 34-68. New Delhi: Routledge.
https://www.routledge.com/Eloquent-Spaces-Meaning-and-Community-in-Early-Indian-Architecture-1st/Kaul/p/book/9780367225964
https://www.routledge.com/Eloquent-Spaces-Meaning-and-Community-in-Early-Indian-Architecture-1st/Kaul/p/book/9780367225964
Research Interests: Indian Philosophy, Landscape Archaeology, Buddhist Studies, Environmental Ethics, Archaeology of Religion, and 8 moreSouth Asian Archaeology, Indian Buddhism, Historical Ecology, Archaeology of Ritual, Mortuary archaeology, Buddhist art and architecture, Indian Philosophy and Religion, and Relics and Relic Veneration
Shaw, J. 2018. 'A ”reflexive” multi-stage survey methodology for historical landscape research in Central India: fieldwalking, local knowledge, and satellite imagery as archaeological site prospection and mapping tools in the Sanchi... more
Shaw, J. 2018. 'A ”reflexive” multi-stage survey methodology for historical landscape research in Central India: fieldwalking, local knowledge, and satellite imagery as archaeological site prospection and mapping tools in the Sanchi Survey Project', Current Science 113(10), 1918-1933 (Special Section on Geospatial Techniques in Archaeology, edited by R. Korisettar and R.R. Navalgund).
http://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/show_article.php?volume=113&issue=10&titleid=id_113_10_1918_1933_0&page=1918
(OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
Abstract:
The present article evaluates the relative usefulness of systematic versus unsystematic field-walking, local knowledge frameworks and satellite imagery as archaeological prospection and mapping tools for the Sanchi Survey Project (SSP) in central India. While
the satellite imagery proved helpful as a supplementary site prospection and mapping tool during later phases of the project, initial site identification was more effectively facilitated through ground-based explorations, and a ‘reflexive’ approach that included a sensitivity to local memory and the continued currency of archaeological sites in today’s socio-ritual landscape. Set within discussions of the role of local traditions in ‘reflexive’ field methodologies, as well as broader public archaeology discourse, the article stresses the importance of local perceptions of place and history in the development of a regionally specific research design.
http://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/show_article.php?volume=113&issue=10&titleid=id_113_10_1918_1933_0&page=1918
(OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
Abstract:
The present article evaluates the relative usefulness of systematic versus unsystematic field-walking, local knowledge frameworks and satellite imagery as archaeological prospection and mapping tools for the Sanchi Survey Project (SSP) in central India. While
the satellite imagery proved helpful as a supplementary site prospection and mapping tool during later phases of the project, initial site identification was more effectively facilitated through ground-based explorations, and a ‘reflexive’ approach that included a sensitivity to local memory and the continued currency of archaeological sites in today’s socio-ritual landscape. Set within discussions of the role of local traditions in ‘reflexive’ field methodologies, as well as broader public archaeology discourse, the article stresses the importance of local perceptions of place and history in the development of a regionally specific research design.
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. 2016. "Archaeology, Climate-Change and Environmental Ethics: Diachronic Perspectives on Human:Non-Human:Environment Worldviews, Activism and Care." World Archaeology 48(4): 449-465.... more
Shaw, J. 2016. "Archaeology, Climate-Change and Environmental Ethics: Diachronic Perspectives on Human:Non-Human:Environment Worldviews, Activism and Care." World Archaeology 48(4): 449-465. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2016.1326754
[Introduction to special volume on Archaeology and Environmental Ethics]
Abstract:
This paper calls for archaeological engagement with the ethical dimension of past:present:future global environmental discourse and Anthropocene studies. In contrast to the recent chronological focus of archaeology’s engagement with Anthropocene studies, and its often rather generalised call for recognising the relevance of historically attested adaptive responses to climate change to current challenges, it highlights the need to examine the individual contributing and resulting factors of climate change and extreme environmental events. It advocates an approach that combines archaeology’s traditional focus on the practical and material elements of disaster management, with one that explores historical epistemologies of human:non-human care and entanglement, and socio-religious and collective ideological movements as driving forces behind historically specific environmental ethics. In relation to the ‘non-human’ element of the human:non-human:environment configuration there is special emphasis not only on non-human animals, but also conceptualisations of divine, ‘supra-human’, and numinous entities and spheres such as gods, spirits, and sacred places which are essential for attaining fully syncretic perspectives on diachronic environmental ethics. A key argument is that recognition of the multi-directional dynamics of human: environment entanglement, drawing on developments within religious studies, the environmental and medical humanities, as well as environmental health discourse, is crucial for achieving more widespread engagement with environmental activism, and movement towards long term behavioural changes that ultimately reduce global suffering and increase environmental, economic and human wellbeing.
[Introduction to special volume on Archaeology and Environmental Ethics]
Abstract:
This paper calls for archaeological engagement with the ethical dimension of past:present:future global environmental discourse and Anthropocene studies. In contrast to the recent chronological focus of archaeology’s engagement with Anthropocene studies, and its often rather generalised call for recognising the relevance of historically attested adaptive responses to climate change to current challenges, it highlights the need to examine the individual contributing and resulting factors of climate change and extreme environmental events. It advocates an approach that combines archaeology’s traditional focus on the practical and material elements of disaster management, with one that explores historical epistemologies of human:non-human care and entanglement, and socio-religious and collective ideological movements as driving forces behind historically specific environmental ethics. In relation to the ‘non-human’ element of the human:non-human:environment configuration there is special emphasis not only on non-human animals, but also conceptualisations of divine, ‘supra-human’, and numinous entities and spheres such as gods, spirits, and sacred places which are essential for attaining fully syncretic perspectives on diachronic environmental ethics. A key argument is that recognition of the multi-directional dynamics of human: environment entanglement, drawing on developments within religious studies, the environmental and medical humanities, as well as environmental health discourse, is crucial for achieving more widespread engagement with environmental activism, and movement towards long term behavioural changes that ultimately reduce global suffering and increase environmental, economic and human wellbeing.
Research Interests:
Julia Shaw (2016) Religion, ‘nature’ and environmental ethics in ancient India: archaeologies of human:non-human suffering and well-being in early Buddhist and Hindu contexts, World Archaeology, 48:4, 517-543... more
Julia Shaw (2016) Religion, ‘nature’ and environmental ethics in ancient India: archaeologies of human:non-human suffering and well-being in early Buddhist and Hindu contexts, World Archaeology, 48:4, 517-543
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2016.1250671
Keywords: Archaeology as Environmental Humanities; Indian religion and ‘nature’; Agriculture, food change and environmental control; Violence and non-violence; Purity and Pollution; Monasteries as gardens
This paper assesses archaeology’s contribution to debates regarding the ecological focus of early Buddhism and Hinduism and its relevance to global environmentalism. Evidence for long-term human:non-human entanglement, and the socio-economically constructed element of ‘nature’ on which Indic culture supposedly rests, challenges post-colonial tropes of India's utopian, 'eco-friendly' past, whilst also highlighting the potency of individual human:non-human epistemologies for building historically grounded models of Indian environmentalism. For early Buddhism,I mediate between two polarized views: one promoting the idea of ‘eco-dharma’, as a reflection of Buddhism’s alignment with non-violence (ahiṃsā), and the alleviation of suffering (dukkha); a second arguing that early Buddhist traditions have been misappropriated by western environmentalism. I argue that the latter view subscribes to canonical models of passive monks removed from worldly concerns, despite archaeological evidence for socially-engaged monastic landlordism from the late centuries BC. Others cite this evidence only to negate Buddhism’s eco- credentials, thereby overlooking the human:non-human entanglement theme within modern environmental discourse, while the predominant focus on non-human suffering overlooks convergences between modern and ancient ecological ethics and environmental health. Case studies include examples of Buddhist land and water management in central India, set within discussions of human v. non-human-centric frameworks of well-being and suffering, purity and pollution, and broader Indic medico-ecological epistemologies, as possible models for collective responses to environmental stress.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2016.1250671
Keywords: Archaeology as Environmental Humanities; Indian religion and ‘nature’; Agriculture, food change and environmental control; Violence and non-violence; Purity and Pollution; Monasteries as gardens
This paper assesses archaeology’s contribution to debates regarding the ecological focus of early Buddhism and Hinduism and its relevance to global environmentalism. Evidence for long-term human:non-human entanglement, and the socio-economically constructed element of ‘nature’ on which Indic culture supposedly rests, challenges post-colonial tropes of India's utopian, 'eco-friendly' past, whilst also highlighting the potency of individual human:non-human epistemologies for building historically grounded models of Indian environmentalism. For early Buddhism,I mediate between two polarized views: one promoting the idea of ‘eco-dharma’, as a reflection of Buddhism’s alignment with non-violence (ahiṃsā), and the alleviation of suffering (dukkha); a second arguing that early Buddhist traditions have been misappropriated by western environmentalism. I argue that the latter view subscribes to canonical models of passive monks removed from worldly concerns, despite archaeological evidence for socially-engaged monastic landlordism from the late centuries BC. Others cite this evidence only to negate Buddhism’s eco- credentials, thereby overlooking the human:non-human entanglement theme within modern environmental discourse, while the predominant focus on non-human suffering overlooks convergences between modern and ancient ecological ethics and environmental health. Case studies include examples of Buddhist land and water management in central India, set within discussions of human v. non-human-centric frameworks of well-being and suffering, purity and pollution, and broader Indic medico-ecological epistemologies, as possible models for collective responses to environmental stress.
Research Interests: Hinduism, Buddhist Studies, South Asian Studies, Environmental Ethics, Indian ancient history, and 15 moreSouth Asian Archaeology, Environmental Activism, Historical Ecology, Ancient Agriculture & Farming (Archaeology), Religion and nature, Anthropocene studies, Religious Studies, Archaeology of food, Archaeology of Early Buddhism, early Buddhism, Archaeology of the body, Ancient Indian Medicine, Ancient Indian Religion, Enviromental Humanities, and Early Indian Buddhism
Shaw, J.,2011. Monasteries, monasticism, and patronage in ancient India: Mawasa, a recently documented hilltop Buddhist complex in the Sanchi area of Madhya Pradesh, South Asian Studies 27(2);111-130.... more
Shaw, J.,2011. Monasteries, monasticism, and patronage in ancient India: Mawasa, a recently documented hilltop Buddhist complex in the Sanchi area of Madhya Pradesh, South Asian Studies 27(2);111-130. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02666030.2011.614409
ABSTRACT:
This paper presents data from a recently documented hilltop Buddhist complex called Mawasa, in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, central India, about 15 km to the east of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Sanchi. It was documented during the Sanchi Survey Project, a multi-phase exercise aimed at relating the histories of Buddhist monasticism and urbanism as represented by the sequences at Sanchi and nearby Vidisha respectively to archaeological patterns within their hinterland. The dataset at Mawasa offers a well-preserved and representative sample of many of the main architectural types found at Phase II (c. 2nd - 1st century BC) Buddhist sites in the study area. It includes a well-preserved stūpa, a carved slab with an early and unusual Brahmi donative inscription (attesting to an individual donation in the causative form), and a group of interesting platformed monasteries with well-preserved internal details. All of these provide important new insights into the nature of patronage and the history and chronology of Buddhist monasticism and monastery architecture during this early period of Buddhist propagation. Further, an enigmatic structure, the precise function of which remains unclear is located within the site. It may be a very early shrine of a hitherto unstudied form, and thus has potential relevance for the wider history of early temple architecture.
ABSTRACT:
This paper presents data from a recently documented hilltop Buddhist complex called Mawasa, in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh, central India, about 15 km to the east of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Sanchi. It was documented during the Sanchi Survey Project, a multi-phase exercise aimed at relating the histories of Buddhist monasticism and urbanism as represented by the sequences at Sanchi and nearby Vidisha respectively to archaeological patterns within their hinterland. The dataset at Mawasa offers a well-preserved and representative sample of many of the main architectural types found at Phase II (c. 2nd - 1st century BC) Buddhist sites in the study area. It includes a well-preserved stūpa, a carved slab with an early and unusual Brahmi donative inscription (attesting to an individual donation in the causative form), and a group of interesting platformed monasteries with well-preserved internal details. All of these provide important new insights into the nature of patronage and the history and chronology of Buddhist monasticism and monastery architecture during this early period of Buddhist propagation. Further, an enigmatic structure, the precise function of which remains unclear is located within the site. It may be a very early shrine of a hitherto unstudied form, and thus has potential relevance for the wider history of early temple architecture.
Research Interests: Landscape Archaeology, Buddhist Studies, South Asian Studies, Buddhist Art, Indian ancient history, and 12 moreSouth Asian Archaeology, Archaeology of Ritual, Buddhist art and architecture, Indian Archaeology and History of Art, Archaeology of Early Buddhism, Indian Epigraphy, Indian Epigraphy (Bramhi, Nagari, Persian and Old Kannada), Art, Iconography and Religion (Hindu and Buddhist)., early Buddhism, Early Indian Insciptions, Buddhist monasticism, and Indian Temple Architecture
Shaw, J. 2015. 'Buddhist and non-Buddhist mortuary traditions in ancient India: stūpas, relics and the archaeological landscape', in Death rituals and social order in the ancient world: Death shall have no dominion. Eds. C. Renfrew, M.... more
Shaw, J. 2015. 'Buddhist and non-Buddhist mortuary traditions in ancient India: stūpas, relics and the archaeological landscape', in Death rituals and social order in the ancient world: Death shall have no dominion. Eds. C. Renfrew, M. Boyd, and I. Morely. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 382-403
http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9781316014509&cid=CBO97813
Abstract - Death is central to the Buddhist perspective on life. The concepts of life and death are not mutually dichotomous, but rather life is seen as a preparation for death, as reflected in prescribed monastic meditations on impermanence and non-attachment to life aimed at achieving ‘death without fear’. Monks' meditational practice is intimately bound up with death as a focus for death preparation, but their involvement with death rites for the laity provides an additional means of ensuring freedom from death (Cuevas & Stone 2007, 2). The preoccupation with death is further illustrated by certain, albeit marginal, meditation practices that take place in cremation grounds, with corpses providing the central focus (Schopen 1996). Archaeological evidence from Buddhist sites datable to the late centuries BC show that stūpas, repositories of the Buddhist relic, were situated so as to be visually prominent within the monastic complex, and in later periods were positioned within the central courtyard of monasteries themselves (Shaw 2000; 2007). This situation may be contrasted with the orthodox Brahmanical tradition in which cremation grounds are kept away from settlement zones due to the negative and polluting associations of the physical remains of the dead. An oft cited exception to this rule within orthodox contexts is Varanasi, which despite being known as the sacred city of the Hindus, has the main cremation ground at the very heart of its sacred and commercial centre (Parry 1994). But the evidence suggests that Varanasi did not emerge as a pan-Indian Hindu centre until at least the mid-first millennium AD with the rise of the Pāśupata ascetical tradition (Bakker 1996; Bakker & Isaacson 2004) whose own inversion of orthodox concepts of purity and pollution may in itself have been influenced by Buddhist practices. The main aim of this paper is thus to explore how and why the relic and stūpa cult with its direct associations with mortuary remains became so central to the spread of Buddhism and the formation of a pan-Buddhist geography, and how it related to wider conceptions (both orthodox and heterodox) of death, and evidence for mortuary traditions in ancient India.
http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9781316014509&cid=CBO97813
Abstract - Death is central to the Buddhist perspective on life. The concepts of life and death are not mutually dichotomous, but rather life is seen as a preparation for death, as reflected in prescribed monastic meditations on impermanence and non-attachment to life aimed at achieving ‘death without fear’. Monks' meditational practice is intimately bound up with death as a focus for death preparation, but their involvement with death rites for the laity provides an additional means of ensuring freedom from death (Cuevas & Stone 2007, 2). The preoccupation with death is further illustrated by certain, albeit marginal, meditation practices that take place in cremation grounds, with corpses providing the central focus (Schopen 1996). Archaeological evidence from Buddhist sites datable to the late centuries BC show that stūpas, repositories of the Buddhist relic, were situated so as to be visually prominent within the monastic complex, and in later periods were positioned within the central courtyard of monasteries themselves (Shaw 2000; 2007). This situation may be contrasted with the orthodox Brahmanical tradition in which cremation grounds are kept away from settlement zones due to the negative and polluting associations of the physical remains of the dead. An oft cited exception to this rule within orthodox contexts is Varanasi, which despite being known as the sacred city of the Hindus, has the main cremation ground at the very heart of its sacred and commercial centre (Parry 1994). But the evidence suggests that Varanasi did not emerge as a pan-Indian Hindu centre until at least the mid-first millennium AD with the rise of the Pāśupata ascetical tradition (Bakker 1996; Bakker & Isaacson 2004) whose own inversion of orthodox concepts of purity and pollution may in itself have been influenced by Buddhist practices. The main aim of this paper is thus to explore how and why the relic and stūpa cult with its direct associations with mortuary remains became so central to the spread of Buddhism and the formation of a pan-Buddhist geography, and how it related to wider conceptions (both orthodox and heterodox) of death, and evidence for mortuary traditions in ancient India.
Research Interests:
Shaw, J., 2013, 'Archaeologies of Buddhist propagation in ancient India: 'ritual' and 'practical' models of religious change', World Archaeology 45.1, 83-108 (special volume on Archaeology of Religious Change (ed. J. Shaw).... more
Shaw, J., 2013, 'Archaeologies of Buddhist propagation in ancient India: 'ritual' and 'practical' models of religious change', World Archaeology 45.1, 83-108 (special volume on Archaeology of Religious Change (ed. J. Shaw).
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2013.778132 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
ABSTRACT:
This paper assesses the degree to which current ‘ritual’ and ‘practical’ models of religious change fit with the available archaeological evidence for the spread of Buddhism in India during between the third and first centuries BC. The key question is how Buddhist monastic communities integrated themselves within the social, religious and economic fabric of the areas in which they arrived, and how they generated sufficient patronage networks for monastic Buddhism to grow into the powerful pan-Indian and subsequently pan-Asian institution that it became. While it is widely recognized that in time Indian monasteries came to provide a range of missionary functions including agrarian, medical, trading and banking facilities, the received understanding based on canonical scholarship and inadequate dialogue between textual and archaeological scholarship is that these were ‘late’ developments that reflected the deterioration of ‘true’ Buddhist values. By contrast, the results of the author's own landscape-based project in central India suggest that a ‘domesticated’ and socially integrated form of Buddhist monasticism was already in place in central India by the late centuries BC, thus fitting closely with practical models of religious change more commonly associated with the later spread of Islam and Christianity.
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2013.778132 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
ABSTRACT:
This paper assesses the degree to which current ‘ritual’ and ‘practical’ models of religious change fit with the available archaeological evidence for the spread of Buddhism in India during between the third and first centuries BC. The key question is how Buddhist monastic communities integrated themselves within the social, religious and economic fabric of the areas in which they arrived, and how they generated sufficient patronage networks for monastic Buddhism to grow into the powerful pan-Indian and subsequently pan-Asian institution that it became. While it is widely recognized that in time Indian monasteries came to provide a range of missionary functions including agrarian, medical, trading and banking facilities, the received understanding based on canonical scholarship and inadequate dialogue between textual and archaeological scholarship is that these were ‘late’ developments that reflected the deterioration of ‘true’ Buddhist values. By contrast, the results of the author's own landscape-based project in central India suggest that a ‘domesticated’ and socially integrated form of Buddhist monasticism was already in place in central India by the late centuries BC, thus fitting closely with practical models of religious change more commonly associated with the later spread of Islam and Christianity.
**URL listed above links to FREE, OPEN ACCESS full text (ie no login required)
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. 2020. Stūpas, Monasteries and Relics in the Landscape: Typological, Spatial, and Temporal Patterns in the Sanchi Area (景観の中のストゥーパ・僧院・聖遺物 ̶サーンチー地域における型式学的・空間的・時間的パターン). In South Asia: From the Maurya Empire to the Gupta Empire,... more
Shaw, J. 2020. Stūpas, Monasteries and Relics in the Landscape: Typological, Spatial, and Temporal Patterns in the Sanchi Area (景観の中のストゥーパ・僧院・聖遺物 ̶サーンチー地域における型式学的・空間的・時間的パターン). In South Asia: From the Maurya Empire to the Gupta Empire, edited by Akira Miyaji and Yasuko Fukuyama, Asian Buddhist Art Anthology (『アジア仏教美術論集』), 12 vols, Series editors: R. Hida, Masaaki Itakura, and Akira Miyaji. Chuo Koron Bijutsu Shuppan 中央公論美術出版 Tokyo, Japan), 127-168.
The English original of this paper appeared as: Shaw, J. (2009). ‘Stūpas, monasteries and relics in the landscape: typological, spatial, and temporal patterns in the Sanchi area’, In Buddhist Stūpas in South Asia: Recent Archaeological, Art-Historical, and Historical Perspectives, A. Shimada, and J. Hawkes, (eds.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 114-145. The permission of Oxford University Press to have it reprinted (unchanged) in Japanese is duly acknowledged. Scholarly discourse on the archaeology of early Indian religion has developed significantly since this article was first published, further discussion of and citations for which can be found in the following publications: for the stūpa and relic cult and its relationship to non-Buddhist mortuary traditions, see Shaw 2015, 2018a; for monasteries, monasticism and patronage, see Shaw 2011; for monastic landlordism, water and land-use, and human-environment relationships see Shaw 2013a, 2016, 2018b, 2018c; Sutcliffe, Shaw and Brown 2011; and for broader settlement patterns and site distribution, see Shaw 2013b.
The English original of this paper appeared as: Shaw, J. (2009). ‘Stūpas, monasteries and relics in the landscape: typological, spatial, and temporal patterns in the Sanchi area’, In Buddhist Stūpas in South Asia: Recent Archaeological, Art-Historical, and Historical Perspectives, A. Shimada, and J. Hawkes, (eds.). New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 114-145. The permission of Oxford University Press to have it reprinted (unchanged) in Japanese is duly acknowledged. Scholarly discourse on the archaeology of early Indian religion has developed significantly since this article was first published, further discussion of and citations for which can be found in the following publications: for the stūpa and relic cult and its relationship to non-Buddhist mortuary traditions, see Shaw 2015, 2018a; for monasteries, monasticism and patronage, see Shaw 2011; for monastic landlordism, water and land-use, and human-environment relationships see Shaw 2013a, 2016, 2018b, 2018c; Sutcliffe, Shaw and Brown 2011; and for broader settlement patterns and site distribution, see Shaw 2013b.
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. 2018. 'Early Indian Buddhism, Water and Rice: Collective Responses to Socio-ecological Stress - Relevance for Global Environmental Discourse and Anthropocene Studies', in Altaweel, M., Zhuang, Y. (eds.), Water Technologies and... more
Shaw, J. 2018. 'Early Indian Buddhism, Water and Rice: Collective Responses to Socio-ecological Stress - Relevance for Global Environmental Discourse and Anthropocene Studies', in Altaweel, M., Zhuang, Y. (eds.), Water Technologies and Societies in the Past and Present. London: UCL Press, pp 223-255
https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/87852 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
This chapter focuses on early forms of community engagement with
water and environmental control in ancient India, as responses to
environmental and climate-change challenges to human health and
well-being, and the relevance of this material to global debates within
contemporary environmental humanities-based studies on the one
hand, and environmental, public and ‘planetary’ health discourse on
the other. A key argument is that despite environmental archaeology’s
recent engagement with Anthropocene studies, its traditional emphasis
on the practical and technological responses to environmental stress and
climate change tends to overlook the religio-philosophical and epistemological
roots of historically specific human–environmental relationships.
Conversely, within the environmental humanities, ancient traditions of
religious-philosophical knowledge are often cited as an inspiration for
global environmental ethics. Yet the question of whether such traditions
in early Indian contexts support attitudes towards nature and its
resources in ‘eco-friendly’ ways has seen little input from archaeology.
Drawing on landscape data from central India, and with a particular
emphasis on the Buddhist tradition, this chapter assesses the degree to
which archaeological evidence can aid scholarly understanding of early
Indian attitudes towards animals, plants, food production, and land and
water use. It examines early Buddhism’s relationship with land and water
management, and new forms of food production as responses to social
and environmental stress on the one hand, and as agents of new cultural
attitudes towards food and the body on the other. Drawing on ‘devolved’
examples of religion-based institutional management of land and water
resources, it argues that water control was central to the gradual and
long-term process of monumentalisation of early Buddhist monasticism
and its entanglement with its broader socio-ecological environment.
https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/87852 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
This chapter focuses on early forms of community engagement with
water and environmental control in ancient India, as responses to
environmental and climate-change challenges to human health and
well-being, and the relevance of this material to global debates within
contemporary environmental humanities-based studies on the one
hand, and environmental, public and ‘planetary’ health discourse on
the other. A key argument is that despite environmental archaeology’s
recent engagement with Anthropocene studies, its traditional emphasis
on the practical and technological responses to environmental stress and
climate change tends to overlook the religio-philosophical and epistemological
roots of historically specific human–environmental relationships.
Conversely, within the environmental humanities, ancient traditions of
religious-philosophical knowledge are often cited as an inspiration for
global environmental ethics. Yet the question of whether such traditions
in early Indian contexts support attitudes towards nature and its
resources in ‘eco-friendly’ ways has seen little input from archaeology.
Drawing on landscape data from central India, and with a particular
emphasis on the Buddhist tradition, this chapter assesses the degree to
which archaeological evidence can aid scholarly understanding of early
Indian attitudes towards animals, plants, food production, and land and
water use. It examines early Buddhism’s relationship with land and water
management, and new forms of food production as responses to social
and environmental stress on the one hand, and as agents of new cultural
attitudes towards food and the body on the other. Drawing on ‘devolved’
examples of religion-based institutional management of land and water
resources, it argues that water control was central to the gradual and
long-term process of monumentalisation of early Buddhist monasticism
and its entanglement with its broader socio-ecological environment.
Research Interests:
Sutcliffe, J., J. Shaw, and E. Brown 2011. 'Historical water resources in South Asia: the hydrological background', Hydrological Sciences Journal -JOURNAL DES SCIENCES HYDROLOGIQUES, 56 (5), 775-788.... more
Sutcliffe, J., J. Shaw, and E. Brown 2011. 'Historical water resources in South Asia: the hydrological background', Hydrological Sciences Journal -JOURNAL DES SCIENCES HYDROLOGIQUES, 56 (5), 775-788. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2011.587425 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
ABSTRACT: The development of historical water resources in the South Asian subcontinent has been largely dependent on the hydrological background. The runoff patterns are derived from climate statistics and the historical developments in different areas are related to these patterns.
KEY WORDS: South Asia; climate statistics; runoff patterns; historical water resources
The dominant feature of the climate over most of South Asia is the contrast between the short monsoon season, when rainfall is abundant, and the longer dry season, when water is in short supply. As demonstrated in this paper, a number of strategies have been used to provide water supplies to historical communities. Their characteristics have varied with regional climate and geology of populated areas. Because in most areas the rainfall was concentrated into one season, the challenge is to retain sufficient seasonal supply throughout the year. There are two possible solutions: if the topography is suitable, storage can be constructed to a depth greater than evaporation and percolation during the dry season; alternatively, if the near-surface geology can store water below the level from which it could evaporate, a well can be dug below the water-table and water extracted as required. In such areas, sources of water have developed into the village reservoir or the village well.
As argued elsewhere (Shaw and Sutcliffe 2001), small populations could have relied initially on rainfed cultivation, where sufficient rainfall and soil moisture storage could supply a single crop. As populations grew or spread into new regions, the use of irrigation could become necessary. Because of the greater water requirement, more storage would be needed. Irrigation may depend on run-of-river water supply where significant dry-season river flow is available. Where river flow is available for a limited period, seasonal runoff could be spread over an area by a low embankment, so that the soil moisture storage is saturated, or alternatively stored and applied to an irrigated area downstream. It may be necessary to divert river flows to overcome water shortage or avoid flood damage. Perennial irrigation, depending on overyear storage to meet shortages in dry years, would need more sophisticated control structures and spillways than seasonal storage systems.
There are few studies emphasising the physical background to historical water use. In areas dominated by the seasonal monsoon, like South Asia and West Africa, a simple hydrological model can be used to estimate available runoff or surplus. It will be shown that hydrological factors affect the form of water resources development. The aim of this paper is to describe the influence of hydrology on the development of historical water resources across South Asia.
ABSTRACT: The development of historical water resources in the South Asian subcontinent has been largely dependent on the hydrological background. The runoff patterns are derived from climate statistics and the historical developments in different areas are related to these patterns.
KEY WORDS: South Asia; climate statistics; runoff patterns; historical water resources
The dominant feature of the climate over most of South Asia is the contrast between the short monsoon season, when rainfall is abundant, and the longer dry season, when water is in short supply. As demonstrated in this paper, a number of strategies have been used to provide water supplies to historical communities. Their characteristics have varied with regional climate and geology of populated areas. Because in most areas the rainfall was concentrated into one season, the challenge is to retain sufficient seasonal supply throughout the year. There are two possible solutions: if the topography is suitable, storage can be constructed to a depth greater than evaporation and percolation during the dry season; alternatively, if the near-surface geology can store water below the level from which it could evaporate, a well can be dug below the water-table and water extracted as required. In such areas, sources of water have developed into the village reservoir or the village well.
As argued elsewhere (Shaw and Sutcliffe 2001), small populations could have relied initially on rainfed cultivation, where sufficient rainfall and soil moisture storage could supply a single crop. As populations grew or spread into new regions, the use of irrigation could become necessary. Because of the greater water requirement, more storage would be needed. Irrigation may depend on run-of-river water supply where significant dry-season river flow is available. Where river flow is available for a limited period, seasonal runoff could be spread over an area by a low embankment, so that the soil moisture storage is saturated, or alternatively stored and applied to an irrigated area downstream. It may be necessary to divert river flows to overcome water shortage or avoid flood damage. Perennial irrigation, depending on overyear storage to meet shortages in dry years, would need more sophisticated control structures and spillways than seasonal storage systems.
There are few studies emphasising the physical background to historical water use. In areas dominated by the seasonal monsoon, like South Asia and West Africa, a simple hydrological model can be used to estimate available runoff or surplus. It will be shown that hydrological factors affect the form of water resources development. The aim of this paper is to describe the influence of hydrology on the development of historical water resources across South Asia.
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. 2013. Archaeology of Religious Change: Introduction [EDITORIAL ARTICLE], World Archaeology 45.1: 1-11, Special volume on Archaeology of Religious change, ed., J. Shaw... more
Shaw, J. 2013. Archaeology of Religious Change: Introduction [EDITORIAL ARTICLE], World Archaeology 45.1: 1-11, Special volume on Archaeology of Religious change, ed., J. Shaw
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.2013.783968
ABSTRACT: This issue explores archaeology’s contribution to the study of religious change, transmission, interaction and reception. While the study of how certain religious traditions move into new areas and relate to pre-existing religious, cultural, political and economic structures has been dominated by sociology, anthropology and comparative religion, archaeology has made significant contributions to the field. The aim of this volume is to bring together recent field-based research on the material correlates of religious change. Of particular interest are those studies which look beyond the traditional ritual-based focus of religious change, to its wider economic,
political or ‘practical’ ramifications.
The resulting papers encompass a broad chronological and geographical scope, ranging from the fifth millennium BC to the sixteenth century AD, and including case studies from Australia, the Indian subcontinent, South America, Scandinavia, Spain and northern England. Eight out of a total of ten papers deal with three of the major ‘religions of the book’, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, and their interaction with pre-existing traditions; the remaining two deal with the origins of prehistoric religions in northern Europe (Bradley and Numara), while Eeckhout focuses on early Peruvian traditions prior to European contact.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00438243.2013.783968
ABSTRACT: This issue explores archaeology’s contribution to the study of religious change, transmission, interaction and reception. While the study of how certain religious traditions move into new areas and relate to pre-existing religious, cultural, political and economic structures has been dominated by sociology, anthropology and comparative religion, archaeology has made significant contributions to the field. The aim of this volume is to bring together recent field-based research on the material correlates of religious change. Of particular interest are those studies which look beyond the traditional ritual-based focus of religious change, to its wider economic,
political or ‘practical’ ramifications.
The resulting papers encompass a broad chronological and geographical scope, ranging from the fifth millennium BC to the sixteenth century AD, and including case studies from Australia, the Indian subcontinent, South America, Scandinavia, Spain and northern England. Eight out of a total of ten papers deal with three of the major ‘religions of the book’, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, and their interaction with pre-existing traditions; the remaining two deal with the origins of prehistoric religions in northern Europe (Bradley and Numara), while Eeckhout focuses on early Peruvian traditions prior to European contact.
Research Interests:
Shaw, J., J. V. Sutcliffe, L. Lloyd-Smith, J-L. Schwenninger, and M.S. Chauhan, with contributions by E. Harvey and O.P. Misra, 2007. 'Ancient Irrigation and Buddhist history in Central India: Optically Stimulated Luminescence and... more
Shaw, J., J. V. Sutcliffe, L. Lloyd-Smith, J-L. Schwenninger, and M.S. Chauhan, with contributions by E. Harvey and O.P. Misra, 2007. 'Ancient Irrigation and Buddhist history in Central India: Optically Stimulated Luminescence and pollen sequences from the Sanchi dams', Asian Perspectives 46(1): 166-201.
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/17262 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
This paper presents the results of a recent pilot project aimed at obtaining optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates from a group of ancient irrigation dams in central India. The dams are all situated within an area of 750 km2 around the well known Buddhist site of Sanchi, the latter established in c. third century B.C. and having a continuous constructional sequence up to the twelfth century A.D. They were documented during earlier seasons of the Sanchi Survey, initiated in 1998 in order to relate the site to its wider archaeological landscape. The pilot project builds upon earlier hypotheses regarding the chronology and function of the Sanchi dams and their relationship to religious and political history in Central India. The principal suggestion is that the earliest phase of dam construction coincided with the rise of urbanization and the establishment of Buddhism in central India between c. third and second centuries B.C.; and that they were connected with wet-rice cultivation as opposed to wheat, the main agricultural staple today. Similarities with intersite patterns in Sri Lanka, where monastic landlordism is attested from c. second century B.C. onward, have also led to the working hypothesis that the Sanchi dams were central to the development of exchange systems between Buddhist monks and local agricultural communities. The pilot project focused on two out of a total of 16 dam sites in the Sanchi area and involved scraping back dam sections created by modern road cuttings. This cast new light on aspects of dam construction and allowed for the collection of sediments and ceramics for OSL dating. The results confirmed the suitability of local sediments to OSL dating methods, as well as affirming our working hypothesis that the dams were constructed-along with the earliest Buddhist monuments in Central India-in the late centuries B.C. Sediment samples were also collected from cores hand drilled in the dried-up reservoir beds, for supplementary OSL dating and pollen analysis, which shed useful insights into land use.
KEYWORDS: irrigation, dams, rice agriculture, OSL dating, pollen analysis, ancient India, spread of Buddhism, religious change, theories of state.
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/17262 (OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
This paper presents the results of a recent pilot project aimed at obtaining optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates from a group of ancient irrigation dams in central India. The dams are all situated within an area of 750 km2 around the well known Buddhist site of Sanchi, the latter established in c. third century B.C. and having a continuous constructional sequence up to the twelfth century A.D. They were documented during earlier seasons of the Sanchi Survey, initiated in 1998 in order to relate the site to its wider archaeological landscape. The pilot project builds upon earlier hypotheses regarding the chronology and function of the Sanchi dams and their relationship to religious and political history in Central India. The principal suggestion is that the earliest phase of dam construction coincided with the rise of urbanization and the establishment of Buddhism in central India between c. third and second centuries B.C.; and that they were connected with wet-rice cultivation as opposed to wheat, the main agricultural staple today. Similarities with intersite patterns in Sri Lanka, where monastic landlordism is attested from c. second century B.C. onward, have also led to the working hypothesis that the Sanchi dams were central to the development of exchange systems between Buddhist monks and local agricultural communities. The pilot project focused on two out of a total of 16 dam sites in the Sanchi area and involved scraping back dam sections created by modern road cuttings. This cast new light on aspects of dam construction and allowed for the collection of sediments and ceramics for OSL dating. The results confirmed the suitability of local sediments to OSL dating methods, as well as affirming our working hypothesis that the dams were constructed-along with the earliest Buddhist monuments in Central India-in the late centuries B.C. Sediment samples were also collected from cores hand drilled in the dried-up reservoir beds, for supplementary OSL dating and pollen analysis, which shed useful insights into land use.
KEYWORDS: irrigation, dams, rice agriculture, OSL dating, pollen analysis, ancient India, spread of Buddhism, religious change, theories of state.
Research Interests:
Beck, A., Shaw, J., and Stott, D. (2007). Best practice approaches for applying satellite imagery for landscape archaeological applications: a case study from the world heritage site of Sanchi, India. Proc. SPIE (Remote Sensing for... more
Beck, A., Shaw, J., and Stott, D. (2007). Best practice approaches for applying satellite imagery for landscape archaeological applications: a case study from the world heritage site of Sanchi, India. Proc. SPIE (Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring, GIS Applications, and Geology VII, 674905), 6749
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=824199
ABSTRACT
Satellite imagery is an increasingly important tool for cultural and natural heritage management. It has particular relevance in those areas of the world where the heritage resource is poorly understood. In these areas what is known may be significantly biased: i.e. heritage management strategies may have been skewed towards a specific type of
remain (normally monumental architecture). This paper will present work undertaken in the landscape around the UNESCO World Heritage site of Sanchi, a major early-historic Buddhist site in Madhya Pradesh, India. Rather than discuss the merits of individual sensors this paper takes a more holistic approach and examines the 'life-cycle' of satellite
imagery for an archaeological project. This means that satellite imagery is viewed not just as a source of archaeological information but also as a data source that can be used to contextualise and interpret the archaeological resource. Hence this paper provides a framework which should allow archaeological investigators to select, manipulate and integrate different satellite sensors to provide information which is fit for purpose. This paper discusses the implications of satellite sensors for different activities, including archaeological prospection, landuse mapping and terrain modeling and considers how the synergies of different satellite and archaeological data can be exploited.
Keywords: India, Landscape, Satellite, Prospection, Contour, Landuse, Landsat, Quickbird, Ikonos, Corona, SRTM
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=824199
ABSTRACT
Satellite imagery is an increasingly important tool for cultural and natural heritage management. It has particular relevance in those areas of the world where the heritage resource is poorly understood. In these areas what is known may be significantly biased: i.e. heritage management strategies may have been skewed towards a specific type of
remain (normally monumental architecture). This paper will present work undertaken in the landscape around the UNESCO World Heritage site of Sanchi, a major early-historic Buddhist site in Madhya Pradesh, India. Rather than discuss the merits of individual sensors this paper takes a more holistic approach and examines the 'life-cycle' of satellite
imagery for an archaeological project. This means that satellite imagery is viewed not just as a source of archaeological information but also as a data source that can be used to contextualise and interpret the archaeological resource. Hence this paper provides a framework which should allow archaeological investigators to select, manipulate and integrate different satellite sensors to provide information which is fit for purpose. This paper discusses the implications of satellite sensors for different activities, including archaeological prospection, landuse mapping and terrain modeling and considers how the synergies of different satellite and archaeological data can be exploited.
Keywords: India, Landscape, Satellite, Prospection, Contour, Landuse, Landsat, Quickbird, Ikonos, Corona, SRTM
Research Interests: Landscape Archaeology, Survey (Archaeological Method & Theory), South Asian Archaeology, Satellite remote sensing, Remote sensing and GIS applications in Landscape Research, and 9 moreGIS and Landscape Archaeology, Archaeological field survey, GIS Applications in Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Field Archaeology, Archaeological GIS, SRTM, Landsat, Ikonos, Geo-spatial analysis with GIS and Remote sensing data, and QuickBird
Julia Shaw & John Sutcliffe (2003) Water Management, Patronage Networks and Religious Change: New evidence from the Sanchi dam complex and counterparts in Gujarat and Sri Lanka, South Asian Studies, 19:1, 73-104,... more
Julia Shaw & John Sutcliffe (2003) Water Management, Patronage Networks and Religious Change: New evidence from the Sanchi dam complex and counterparts in Gujarat and Sri Lanka, South Asian Studies, 19:1, 73-104,
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666030.2003.9628622?src=recsys
OPEN ACCESS download available here -
http://basas.org.uk/our-work/collaborative-projects/landscape-water-religion-india/
ABSTRACT: As described in earlier papers (Shaw & Sutcliffe 2001; 2003) sixteen ancient dams in the Vidisha and Raisen districts of Madhya Pradesh, central India were documented during a multi-phase archaeological survey carried out between 1998 and 2000 (Shaw 2000; In press -a, -b). In addition to recording new field observations in
the Sanchi area, this paper draws on comparative archaeological and hydrological evidence from Gujarat and Sri Lanka, discussed only briefly in our earlier papers (Shaw and Sutcliffe 2001; 2003). In 2002, the opportunity was taken to visit Junagadh in Gujarat,
where the inscription of the Ksatrapa ruler, Rudradaman, refers not only to the earlier construction and subsequent improvement of the dam during the Mauryan period,
but also its successive repair as flood damage occurred (Kielhorn 1905-6). Later repairs are also mentioned in the inscription of Skandagupta (Bhandarkar 1981c; Fleet
1888). Known for over a century from these inscriptions, the physical remains of the dam were only located on the ground relatively recently {Mehta 1968). The main aim of our visit was to verify Mehta's archaeological claims, which appear not to have been fully incorporated into subsequent historical scholarship.
The second aim of this paper is to draw on possible technological and historical links between the dam complexes in Sanchi and Gujarat. Comparisons are also possible with the more or less contemporary developments in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, where information is available on advances in dam construction and control structures from c. 3rd century BC onwards (Parker 1909; Brohier 1934 (reprint
1979)). Although the scale of the larger Sri Lankan reservoirs is considerably greater than the Sanchi examples, and the hydrological backgrounds are different, there are historical and technical similarities between the two developments. These inter-regional
comparisons shed considerable light on the possible history and function of the Sanchi dams, as well as the administrative systems that lay behind their construction and upkeep. They also provide the basis for building an integrated model of religious and social change, our principal hypothesis being that the control of water harvesting and irrigation facilities was not only a means of political legitimisation for local rulers, but also formed a central component of the Buddhist sangha's propagative strategies.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666030.2003.9628622?src=recsys
OPEN ACCESS download available here -
http://basas.org.uk/our-work/collaborative-projects/landscape-water-religion-india/
ABSTRACT: As described in earlier papers (Shaw & Sutcliffe 2001; 2003) sixteen ancient dams in the Vidisha and Raisen districts of Madhya Pradesh, central India were documented during a multi-phase archaeological survey carried out between 1998 and 2000 (Shaw 2000; In press -a, -b). In addition to recording new field observations in
the Sanchi area, this paper draws on comparative archaeological and hydrological evidence from Gujarat and Sri Lanka, discussed only briefly in our earlier papers (Shaw and Sutcliffe 2001; 2003). In 2002, the opportunity was taken to visit Junagadh in Gujarat,
where the inscription of the Ksatrapa ruler, Rudradaman, refers not only to the earlier construction and subsequent improvement of the dam during the Mauryan period,
but also its successive repair as flood damage occurred (Kielhorn 1905-6). Later repairs are also mentioned in the inscription of Skandagupta (Bhandarkar 1981c; Fleet
1888). Known for over a century from these inscriptions, the physical remains of the dam were only located on the ground relatively recently {Mehta 1968). The main aim of our visit was to verify Mehta's archaeological claims, which appear not to have been fully incorporated into subsequent historical scholarship.
The second aim of this paper is to draw on possible technological and historical links between the dam complexes in Sanchi and Gujarat. Comparisons are also possible with the more or less contemporary developments in the dry zone of Sri Lanka, where information is available on advances in dam construction and control structures from c. 3rd century BC onwards (Parker 1909; Brohier 1934 (reprint
1979)). Although the scale of the larger Sri Lankan reservoirs is considerably greater than the Sanchi examples, and the hydrological backgrounds are different, there are historical and technical similarities between the two developments. These inter-regional
comparisons shed considerable light on the possible history and function of the Sanchi dams, as well as the administrative systems that lay behind their construction and upkeep. They also provide the basis for building an integrated model of religious and social change, our principal hypothesis being that the control of water harvesting and irrigation facilities was not only a means of political legitimisation for local rulers, but also formed a central component of the Buddhist sangha's propagative strategies.
Research Interests: Landscape Archaeology, Buddhist Studies, South Asian Studies, Indian ancient history, South Asian Archaeology, and 10 moreAncient Agriculture & Farming (Archaeology), Buddhist art and architecture, Sri Lankan Archaeology, Ancient Water Technology, Ancient Irrigation Systems, Indian Epigraphy, early Buddhism, Indian Buddhism, Indology, Asoka Edicts, Archaeology of Early Gujarat, and Early Indian Buddhism
Julia Shaw and John Sutcliffe, 2003', 'Ancient dams, settlement archaeology and Buddhist propagation in central India: the hydrological background', Hydrological Sciences Journal, 48:2, 277-291,... more
Julia Shaw and John Sutcliffe, 2003', 'Ancient dams, settlement archaeology and Buddhist propagation in central India: the hydrological background', Hydrological Sciences Journal, 48:2, 277-291, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1623/hysj.48.2.277.44695
(OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
A group of ancient dams (c. second—first century BC) was located during an archaeological study of the Sanchi area in central India. Comparison of reservoir volumes with estimated inflows suggests that their design was based on hydrological understanding.Un ensemble de barrages antiques (c. deuxième—premier siècle av. JC) a été localisé lors d'une étude archéologique de la région de Sanchi en Inde centrale. La comparaison entre les capacités des réservoirs et les débits entrant estimés suggère qu'ils ont été dimensionnés à partir d'un savoir hydrologique.
(OPEN ACCESS, no login required)
A group of ancient dams (c. second—first century BC) was located during an archaeological study of the Sanchi area in central India. Comparison of reservoir volumes with estimated inflows suggests that their design was based on hydrological understanding.Un ensemble de barrages antiques (c. deuxième—premier siècle av. JC) a été localisé lors d'une étude archéologique de la région de Sanchi en Inde centrale. La comparaison entre les capacités des réservoirs et les débits entrant estimés suggère qu'ils ont été dimensionnés à partir d'un savoir hydrologique.
Research Interests:
Julia Shaw & John Sutcliffe, 2005. 'Ancient Dams and Buddhist Landscapes in the Sanchi area: New evidence on Irrigation, Land use and Monasticism in Central India, South Asian Studies, 21:1, 1-24, To link to this article:... more
Julia Shaw & John Sutcliffe, 2005. 'Ancient Dams and Buddhist Landscapes
in the Sanchi area: New evidence on Irrigation, Land use and Monasticism in Central India, South Asian Studies, 21:1, 1-24,
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2005.9628641
This paper discusses 16 irrigation works in the vicinity of the UNESCO World Heritage Buddhist site of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, India. Methodologies for reconstructing reservoir volumes, areas, together with hypotheses regarding associated landuse and relationships with nearby Buddhist complexes were discussed in previous papers (Shaw and Sutcliffe 2001, 2003). This paper presents the results of intensive field investigations at three reservoir complexes in the study area: i) The main reservoir at Sanchi, at the centre of the study area, which also comprises two smaller dams, Karondih and Dargawan in the short valleys to the west; ii) Ferozpur, about 11 km further west; and 'iii) Devrajpur, in the eastern part of the study area. These reservoir sites represent a cross-section, both in terms of chronology and design, of the total regional group. Further, their distribution over two quite distinct ecological zones holds the possibility of illuminating relationships between reservoir design and topography. Contour mapping combined with high resolution satellite imagery helped to clarify uncertainties about the relationship between upstream and downstream levels, provided a check on earlier reservoir volume/area calculations and inferences about land use, while renewed field based survey work shed new light on the position of spillways and sluices. Renewed mapping at nearby Buddhist monastic sites was geared towards developing a typology of local monastery and stupa forms. It also helped to assess further our earlier hypotheses (Shaw and Sutcliffe 2001) regarding the ties between religion and water / land governmentality.
in the Sanchi area: New evidence on Irrigation, Land use and Monasticism in Central India, South Asian Studies, 21:1, 1-24,
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2005.9628641
This paper discusses 16 irrigation works in the vicinity of the UNESCO World Heritage Buddhist site of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, India. Methodologies for reconstructing reservoir volumes, areas, together with hypotheses regarding associated landuse and relationships with nearby Buddhist complexes were discussed in previous papers (Shaw and Sutcliffe 2001, 2003). This paper presents the results of intensive field investigations at three reservoir complexes in the study area: i) The main reservoir at Sanchi, at the centre of the study area, which also comprises two smaller dams, Karondih and Dargawan in the short valleys to the west; ii) Ferozpur, about 11 km further west; and 'iii) Devrajpur, in the eastern part of the study area. These reservoir sites represent a cross-section, both in terms of chronology and design, of the total regional group. Further, their distribution over two quite distinct ecological zones holds the possibility of illuminating relationships between reservoir design and topography. Contour mapping combined with high resolution satellite imagery helped to clarify uncertainties about the relationship between upstream and downstream levels, provided a check on earlier reservoir volume/area calculations and inferences about land use, while renewed field based survey work shed new light on the position of spillways and sluices. Renewed mapping at nearby Buddhist monastic sites was geared towards developing a typology of local monastery and stupa forms. It also helped to assess further our earlier hypotheses (Shaw and Sutcliffe 2001) regarding the ties between religion and water / land governmentality.
Research Interests:
Julia Shaw & John Sutcliffe (2001) Ancient irrigation works in the Sanchi area: an archaeological and hydrological investigation, South Asian Studies, 17:1, 55-75 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666030.2001.9628592... more
Julia Shaw & John Sutcliffe (2001) Ancient irrigation works in the Sanchi area: an archaeological and hydrological investigation, South Asian Studies, 17:1, 55-75
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666030.2001.9628592
Presents for the first time fieldwork results of Sanchi Survey Project with focus on 16 newly documented irrigation works and dams around the UNESCO World Heritage Buddhist site of Sanchi. Drawing on archaeological and hydrological methodologies it outlines methods for reconstructing ancient reservoir areas and volumes and presents hypotheses regarding associated land-use and their relationship to broader aspects of the monastic landscapes in the study area.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02666030.2001.9628592
Presents for the first time fieldwork results of Sanchi Survey Project with focus on 16 newly documented irrigation works and dams around the UNESCO World Heritage Buddhist site of Sanchi. Drawing on archaeological and hydrological methodologies it outlines methods for reconstructing ancient reservoir areas and volumes and presents hypotheses regarding associated land-use and their relationship to broader aspects of the monastic landscapes in the study area.
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. 2017. Archaeologies of Buddhism and its landscape setting in central India: the Sanchi Survey Project, in S. Garg (Ed.), Archaeology of Buddhism: recent discoveries in South Asia. Colombo and New Delhi: SAARC Cultural Centre /... more
Shaw, J. 2017. Archaeologies of Buddhism and its landscape setting in central India: the Sanchi Survey Project, in S. Garg (Ed.), Archaeology of Buddhism: recent discoveries in South Asia. Colombo and New Delhi: SAARC Cultural Centre / Manohar Publishers, pp.61-68
(PDF available on request)
ABSTRACT-
The Sanchi area of Madhya Pradesh, central India, occupies a key place in the archaeology of Buddhism. Sanchi itself is one of India’s best preserved, and most studied Buddhist sites (notably Marshall 1940; Hamid 1940), with a continuous constructional sequence from the third century bc to the twelfth century ad. Four other well-preserved Buddhist sites, Sonari, Satdhara, Morel Khurd, and Andher, all situated within about 10 km of Sanchi, were first documented in Alexander Cunningham’s The Bhilsa Topes (1854) (Figs. 4.1 and 4.2). Apart from basic conservation measures, these outlying sites have received meagre archaeological attention since Cunningham’s time. The exception is Satdhara, which has undergone renewed excavation and conservation in recent years (Agrawal 1997; IAR 1995-6; 1996- 7; 1997-8; 1999-2000). A summary report of a sixth monastic site, Bighan, about 3 km north-west of Vidisha, was published by H.H. Lake (1910b) around sixty years after Cunningham’s explorations and apart from renewed investigation during the current study has not received scholarly attention since Lake’s time.
The earliest monuments at Sanchi (Phase I) were connected with state patronage under the Mauryas, as attested by the A sokan edict there (Table 4.1). However, the most prolific building, here and the four ‘Bhilsa Topes’ sites, took place during the post-Mauryan period (Phase II), datable to between the late second and the first century bc, and linked under a single school of monks called the Hemavatas (Willis 2000). Construction during this phase was funded mainly by collective patronage and recorded in the form of single-lined inscriptions on pillars and paving slabs.
Other important sites in the area include the city mounds of Vidisha, just 8 km to the north of Sanchi, which represent the earliest phase of urbanism in central India (IAR 1963-4: 16-17; 1964-5: 18; 1965-6, 23: 1975-6: 30-1; 1976-7: 33-4);1 whilst fortified state capitals in the Gangetic valley formed the backdrop to the Buddha’s life and teachings between the sixth and fifth centuries bc, similar
developments in central and south India are not attested archaeologically until at least the third century bc (Fig. 4.1). Vidisha is also home to some of the earliest archaeological evidence for the Pāncarātra system of the Bhāgavata cult, a prototypical form of Vai]s]navism, which became prominent from around the second century bc onwards (Lake 1910a; Bhandarkar 1914; 1915; Khare 1967; IAR 1963-4: 17;
1964-5: 19-20; Shaw 2004; 2007: 53-5). The importance of orthodox Brahmanism continued throughout Vidisha’s history, as illustrated by the mid-first millennium ad rock-cut temples at Udayagiri, which were closely connected with the Gupta royal family (Willis 2004; 2009).
Until recently, little was known about how these sites related to each other or to areas beyond their formal boundaries and many questions remained regarding the entwined histories of Buddhism and urbanization in central India. The Sanchi Survey Project (henceforth SSP) – initiated in 1998 with fieldwork seasons continuing until 2005 – was aimed at redressing these problems and filling in some
of the gaps in the knowledge of Sanchi’s archaeological landscape. The resulting dataset provided an empirical basis for assessing models of religious change with regard to the spread of Buddhism to central India from its base in Gangetic valley between the third and first centuries bc: although the historical Buddha’s life and teachings are placed between the sixth and fifth centuries bc in the middle Gangetic valley, it is not until the middle of the third century bc, following the Mauryan emperor Asoka’s (r. 273 bc-236 bc) embracement of Buddhism, that the sa<ngha’s activities become manifest in the archaeological record both within and beyond its original heartland (Coningham 2001) (Fig. 4.1). Quite how Buddhist monastic communities integrated themselves within the social, religious and
economic fabric of the areas into which they spread, and how they generated sufficient patronage networks for monastic Buddhism to grow into the powerful pan-Indian and subsequently pan-Asian institution that it became was central to the SSP’s research agenda. In this paper I will summarize the results of the SSP, with a particular emphasis on the distribution of Buddhist monastic sites and their positioning within the wider archaeological landscape.
(PDF available on request)
ABSTRACT-
The Sanchi area of Madhya Pradesh, central India, occupies a key place in the archaeology of Buddhism. Sanchi itself is one of India’s best preserved, and most studied Buddhist sites (notably Marshall 1940; Hamid 1940), with a continuous constructional sequence from the third century bc to the twelfth century ad. Four other well-preserved Buddhist sites, Sonari, Satdhara, Morel Khurd, and Andher, all situated within about 10 km of Sanchi, were first documented in Alexander Cunningham’s The Bhilsa Topes (1854) (Figs. 4.1 and 4.2). Apart from basic conservation measures, these outlying sites have received meagre archaeological attention since Cunningham’s time. The exception is Satdhara, which has undergone renewed excavation and conservation in recent years (Agrawal 1997; IAR 1995-6; 1996- 7; 1997-8; 1999-2000). A summary report of a sixth monastic site, Bighan, about 3 km north-west of Vidisha, was published by H.H. Lake (1910b) around sixty years after Cunningham’s explorations and apart from renewed investigation during the current study has not received scholarly attention since Lake’s time.
The earliest monuments at Sanchi (Phase I) were connected with state patronage under the Mauryas, as attested by the A sokan edict there (Table 4.1). However, the most prolific building, here and the four ‘Bhilsa Topes’ sites, took place during the post-Mauryan period (Phase II), datable to between the late second and the first century bc, and linked under a single school of monks called the Hemavatas (Willis 2000). Construction during this phase was funded mainly by collective patronage and recorded in the form of single-lined inscriptions on pillars and paving slabs.
Other important sites in the area include the city mounds of Vidisha, just 8 km to the north of Sanchi, which represent the earliest phase of urbanism in central India (IAR 1963-4: 16-17; 1964-5: 18; 1965-6, 23: 1975-6: 30-1; 1976-7: 33-4);1 whilst fortified state capitals in the Gangetic valley formed the backdrop to the Buddha’s life and teachings between the sixth and fifth centuries bc, similar
developments in central and south India are not attested archaeologically until at least the third century bc (Fig. 4.1). Vidisha is also home to some of the earliest archaeological evidence for the Pāncarātra system of the Bhāgavata cult, a prototypical form of Vai]s]navism, which became prominent from around the second century bc onwards (Lake 1910a; Bhandarkar 1914; 1915; Khare 1967; IAR 1963-4: 17;
1964-5: 19-20; Shaw 2004; 2007: 53-5). The importance of orthodox Brahmanism continued throughout Vidisha’s history, as illustrated by the mid-first millennium ad rock-cut temples at Udayagiri, which were closely connected with the Gupta royal family (Willis 2004; 2009).
Until recently, little was known about how these sites related to each other or to areas beyond their formal boundaries and many questions remained regarding the entwined histories of Buddhism and urbanization in central India. The Sanchi Survey Project (henceforth SSP) – initiated in 1998 with fieldwork seasons continuing until 2005 – was aimed at redressing these problems and filling in some
of the gaps in the knowledge of Sanchi’s archaeological landscape. The resulting dataset provided an empirical basis for assessing models of religious change with regard to the spread of Buddhism to central India from its base in Gangetic valley between the third and first centuries bc: although the historical Buddha’s life and teachings are placed between the sixth and fifth centuries bc in the middle Gangetic valley, it is not until the middle of the third century bc, following the Mauryan emperor Asoka’s (r. 273 bc-236 bc) embracement of Buddhism, that the sa<ngha’s activities become manifest in the archaeological record both within and beyond its original heartland (Coningham 2001) (Fig. 4.1). Quite how Buddhist monastic communities integrated themselves within the social, religious and
economic fabric of the areas into which they spread, and how they generated sufficient patronage networks for monastic Buddhism to grow into the powerful pan-Indian and subsequently pan-Asian institution that it became was central to the SSP’s research agenda. In this paper I will summarize the results of the SSP, with a particular emphasis on the distribution of Buddhist monastic sites and their positioning within the wider archaeological landscape.
Recent review: Pratadpaditya Pal, 2016. A Mahabharata of a History of Ancient India. Review of D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal eds. History of Ancient India Vols I-IV, New Delhi, Vivekananda International Foundation / Aryan Books. Indian... more
Recent review:
Pratadpaditya Pal, 2016. A Mahabharata of a History of Ancient
India. Review of D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal eds. History of
Ancient India Vols I-IV, New Delhi, Vivekananda International Foundation / Aryan Books. Indian Historical Review 43(2):316-325. DOI: 10.1177/0376983616663412
Pratadpaditya Pal, 2016. A Mahabharata of a History of Ancient
India. Review of D.K. Chakrabarti and M. Lal eds. History of
Ancient India Vols I-IV, New Delhi, Vivekananda International Foundation / Aryan Books. Indian Historical Review 43(2):316-325. DOI: 10.1177/0376983616663412
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. 2000, Sanchi and its archaeological landscape: Buddhist monasteries, settlements and irrigation works in central India, Antiquity 74: 775-776
N. Sykes and J. Shaw, (eds.), 2018. Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare, Special volume of World Archaeology 50(3), https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rwar20/50/3?nav=tocList
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. (ed.), 2013. Archaeology of Religious Change, Special volume of World Archaeology 45 (1). https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rwar20/45/1
Research Interests:
World Archaeology (Taylor & Francis) Special Volume: The Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare Editors: Naomi Sykes and Julia Shaw The maintenance of human health and the mechanisms by which this is achieved – through medicine, medical... more
World Archaeology (Taylor & Francis) Special Volume: The Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare
Editors: Naomi Sykes and Julia Shaw
The maintenance of human health and the mechanisms by which this is achieved – through medicine, medical intervention and care-giving – are fundamentals of human societies. However, archaeological investigations into these issues have been limited, restricted largely to studies of human palaeopathology or examinations of medical implements.
Lack of archaeological engagement with the history of medicine is partly because modern, particularly pharmaceutical, concepts of medicine and care are often viewed as discrete practices that take place within particular settings. Yet anthropological and historical research makes clear that in many cultures, throughout time and space, medicine and care-giving weave through all aspects of daily life and daily practice. They are often linked directly with religious beliefs and practices, notions of religiously ordained duty or status, and entwined with culturally specific attitudes towards material objects, food, body and constitution.
This volume seeks to fill the knowledge gap and invites contributions that examine issues such as forms of protection against illness, healing and related medico-ritual frameworks. What are the material cultures of medicine and care-giving beyond surgical tools? To what degree did archaeologically attested shifts in food culture reflect and reinforce changing perceptions of health and well-being in both human and non-human spheres? How does archaeology contribute to the identification of specific sets of materia medica, be they animal, plant or soil/mineral based and how did their production and use relate to broader, and better understood archaeologies of land-use, food production and diet. What role did beads and pendants play in the protection and healing in prehistoric communities and can residue analysis on ceramics and other objects from medieval hospitals and sites of healing shed light on the composition of medical preparations? Studies might explore evidence for medical interventions, in the form of comprehensive analyses (as opposed to discrete examples) of veterinary and human medicine. Papers might equally explore the history, form and function of care-giving centres and institutions, ranging from shrines and sanctuaries, to monastic centres and formal hospitals.
Through the collected papers, this volume will demonstrate how detailed insights into cultural ideology and worldview can be obtained from studies of medicine and care.
Submission Deadline
Submit your paper online via the journal's ScholarOne™ website: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rwar by 1st October 2017.
Editorial information
Edited by: Naomi Sykes (Naomi.Sykes@nottingham.ac.uk)
Edited by: Julia Shaw (julia.shaw@ucl.ac.uk)
Published on 3 March 2017. Last updated on 3 March 2017.
Editors: Naomi Sykes and Julia Shaw
The maintenance of human health and the mechanisms by which this is achieved – through medicine, medical intervention and care-giving – are fundamentals of human societies. However, archaeological investigations into these issues have been limited, restricted largely to studies of human palaeopathology or examinations of medical implements.
Lack of archaeological engagement with the history of medicine is partly because modern, particularly pharmaceutical, concepts of medicine and care are often viewed as discrete practices that take place within particular settings. Yet anthropological and historical research makes clear that in many cultures, throughout time and space, medicine and care-giving weave through all aspects of daily life and daily practice. They are often linked directly with religious beliefs and practices, notions of religiously ordained duty or status, and entwined with culturally specific attitudes towards material objects, food, body and constitution.
This volume seeks to fill the knowledge gap and invites contributions that examine issues such as forms of protection against illness, healing and related medico-ritual frameworks. What are the material cultures of medicine and care-giving beyond surgical tools? To what degree did archaeologically attested shifts in food culture reflect and reinforce changing perceptions of health and well-being in both human and non-human spheres? How does archaeology contribute to the identification of specific sets of materia medica, be they animal, plant or soil/mineral based and how did their production and use relate to broader, and better understood archaeologies of land-use, food production and diet. What role did beads and pendants play in the protection and healing in prehistoric communities and can residue analysis on ceramics and other objects from medieval hospitals and sites of healing shed light on the composition of medical preparations? Studies might explore evidence for medical interventions, in the form of comprehensive analyses (as opposed to discrete examples) of veterinary and human medicine. Papers might equally explore the history, form and function of care-giving centres and institutions, ranging from shrines and sanctuaries, to monastic centres and formal hospitals.
Through the collected papers, this volume will demonstrate how detailed insights into cultural ideology and worldview can be obtained from studies of medicine and care.
Submission Deadline
Submit your paper online via the journal's ScholarOne™ website: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rwar by 1st October 2017.
Editorial information
Edited by: Naomi Sykes (Naomi.Sykes@nottingham.ac.uk)
Edited by: Julia Shaw (julia.shaw@ucl.ac.uk)
Published on 3 March 2017. Last updated on 3 March 2017.
Research Interests:
N. Sykes & J. Shaw (eds.). 2022. The Archaeology of Medicine & Healthcare. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Archaeology-of-Medicine-and-Healthcare/Sykes-Shaw/p/book/9780367759247 ISBN 9780367759247 Published June 9, 2022... more
N. Sykes & J. Shaw (eds.). 2022. The Archaeology of Medicine & Healthcare. London: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Archaeology-of-Medicine-and-Healthcare/Sykes-Shaw/p/book/9780367759247
ISBN 9780367759247
Published June 9, 2022 by Routledge
196 Pages
The maintenance of human health and the mechanisms by which this is achieved – through medicine, medical intervention and care-giving – are fundamentals of human societies. However, archaeological investigations of medicine and care have tended to examine the obvious and explicit manifestations of medical treatment as discrete practices that take place within specific settings, rather than as broader indicators of medical worldviews and health beliefs. This volume highlights the importance of medical worldviews as a means of understanding healthcare and medical practice in the past.
The volume brings together ten chapters, with themes ranging from a bioarchaeology of Neanderthal healthcare, to Roman air quality, decontamination strategies at Australian quarantine centres, to local resistance to colonial medical structures in South America. Within their chapters the contributors argue for greater integration between archaeology and both the medical and environmental humanities, while the Introduction presents suggestions for future engagement with emerging discourse in community and public health, environmental and planetary health, genetic and epigenetic medicine, 'exposome' studies and ecological public health, microbiome studies and historical disability studies.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of World Archaeology.
ISBN 9780367759247
Published June 9, 2022 by Routledge
196 Pages
The maintenance of human health and the mechanisms by which this is achieved – through medicine, medical intervention and care-giving – are fundamentals of human societies. However, archaeological investigations of medicine and care have tended to examine the obvious and explicit manifestations of medical treatment as discrete practices that take place within specific settings, rather than as broader indicators of medical worldviews and health beliefs. This volume highlights the importance of medical worldviews as a means of understanding healthcare and medical practice in the past.
The volume brings together ten chapters, with themes ranging from a bioarchaeology of Neanderthal healthcare, to Roman air quality, decontamination strategies at Australian quarantine centres, to local resistance to colonial medical structures in South America. Within their chapters the contributors argue for greater integration between archaeology and both the medical and environmental humanities, while the Introduction presents suggestions for future engagement with emerging discourse in community and public health, environmental and planetary health, genetic and epigenetic medicine, 'exposome' studies and ecological public health, microbiome studies and historical disability studies.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of World Archaeology.
Research Interests:
Monograph: Shaw, J. 2007. Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religion and Social Change, c. 3rd century BC to 5th century AD. London: British Academy (hardback) Available to purchase here:... more
Monograph:
Shaw, J. 2007. Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religion and Social Change, c. 3rd century BC to 5th century AD. London: British Academy (hardback)
Available to purchase here: https://www.routledge.com/Buddhist-Landscapes-in-Central-India-Sanchi-Hill-and-Archaeologies-of-Religious/Shaw/p/book/9780367605452
Paperback edition (2020) London: Routledge. Available to purchase here: https://www.routledge.com/Buddhist-Landscapes-in-Central-India-Sanchi-Hill-and-Archaeologies-of-Religious/Shaw/p/book/9780367605452
Ebook version (2016):
Available on Taylor & Francis Ebooks
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315432656
E-rental version (2020):
An e-rental version is available on Internet Archive with limited access to (1) verified blind and print-disabled patrons and (2) general patrons via controlled digital lending - https://archive.org/details/buddhistlandscap0000shaw
Book reviews:
Hawkes 2012 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00048146
Becker 2012 - doi:10.1353/asi.2014.0006
Shaw, J. 2007. Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religion and Social Change, c. 3rd century BC to 5th century AD. London: British Academy (hardback)
Available to purchase here: https://www.routledge.com/Buddhist-Landscapes-in-Central-India-Sanchi-Hill-and-Archaeologies-of-Religious/Shaw/p/book/9780367605452
Paperback edition (2020) London: Routledge. Available to purchase here: https://www.routledge.com/Buddhist-Landscapes-in-Central-India-Sanchi-Hill-and-Archaeologies-of-Religious/Shaw/p/book/9780367605452
Ebook version (2016):
Available on Taylor & Francis Ebooks
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315432656
E-rental version (2020):
An e-rental version is available on Internet Archive with limited access to (1) verified blind and print-disabled patrons and (2) general patrons via controlled digital lending - https://archive.org/details/buddhistlandscap0000shaw
Book reviews:
Hawkes 2012 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00048146
Becker 2012 - doi:10.1353/asi.2014.0006
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. 2019. State, empire and religious governmentality in Mauryan / post-Mauryan India’, Classical Archaeology Seminar. London, Senate House, University of London (20 February 2019)
Research Interests:
Chemical Exposures Workshop Schedule, 9-11 June, held as a joint partnership between UCL Anthropocene and UCL Health, Mind and Society... more
Chemical Exposures Workshop Schedule, 9-11 June, held as a joint partnership between UCL Anthropocene and UCL Health, Mind and Society
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropocene/projects-and-seminars/research-groups/chemical-exposures-workshop-call-papers
Organisers:
Professor Sahra Gibbon, UCL
Professor Andrew Barry, UCL
Emilie Glazer, UCL
Keynote speaker:
Professor Michelle Murphy, University of Toronto
Description:
The chemical composition of environments and bodies have been transformed in the recent past, reflecting changes in agricultural production and the expansion of the extractive, petrochemical and nuclear industries. However, while there is now widespread public recognition of the pervasiveness of exposure to toxic chemicals, in the air, soil, and water, the study of chemical exposure remains relatively marginal to the social sciences. This workshop brings together diverse research communities to build on a developing interdisciplinary field of research and reflect upon the impact and implications of the chemical transformation of the planet for health, well-being, justice, and livelihoods. The workshop builds on the ongoing work of the Chemical Exposures group of UCL Anthropocene, which is drawn from across the Departments of Anthropology, Geography, Science and Technology Studies, and Public Health at UCL.
Key questions we aim to explore in this workshop include:
What conceptual frameworks from across the social science (and beyond) are relevant to addressing the geographical, temporal scale and impact of chemical exposures?
How can we better address questions of embodiment, racialisation, materiality, care and kinship, and ongoing forms of colonialism in this context?
How can we understand and intervene on the long-standing inequalities and questions of social and environmental justice that mark the terrain of chemical exposures?
How can we develop collaborative projects between social and natural scientists, artists, and local communities to monitor and address instances of chemical exposure?
What conceptual and methodological challenges does the study of chemical exposures pose more broadly?
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropocene/projects-and-seminars/research-groups/chemical-exposures-workshop-call-papers
Organisers:
Professor Sahra Gibbon, UCL
Professor Andrew Barry, UCL
Emilie Glazer, UCL
Keynote speaker:
Professor Michelle Murphy, University of Toronto
Description:
The chemical composition of environments and bodies have been transformed in the recent past, reflecting changes in agricultural production and the expansion of the extractive, petrochemical and nuclear industries. However, while there is now widespread public recognition of the pervasiveness of exposure to toxic chemicals, in the air, soil, and water, the study of chemical exposure remains relatively marginal to the social sciences. This workshop brings together diverse research communities to build on a developing interdisciplinary field of research and reflect upon the impact and implications of the chemical transformation of the planet for health, well-being, justice, and livelihoods. The workshop builds on the ongoing work of the Chemical Exposures group of UCL Anthropocene, which is drawn from across the Departments of Anthropology, Geography, Science and Technology Studies, and Public Health at UCL.
Key questions we aim to explore in this workshop include:
What conceptual frameworks from across the social science (and beyond) are relevant to addressing the geographical, temporal scale and impact of chemical exposures?
How can we better address questions of embodiment, racialisation, materiality, care and kinship, and ongoing forms of colonialism in this context?
How can we understand and intervene on the long-standing inequalities and questions of social and environmental justice that mark the terrain of chemical exposures?
How can we develop collaborative projects between social and natural scientists, artists, and local communities to monitor and address instances of chemical exposure?
What conceptual and methodological challenges does the study of chemical exposures pose more broadly?
Research Interests:
Shaw, J. 2022. Urban Pesticides, Chemical Exposures and Ecological Public Health: diachronic perspectives on landscaping practices and geographies of health and toxicity, Paper given at UCL Chemical Exposures Workshop 9-11 June 2022.... more
Shaw, J. 2022. Urban Pesticides, Chemical Exposures and Ecological Public Health: diachronic perspectives on landscaping practices and geographies of health and toxicity, Paper given at UCL Chemical Exposures Workshop 9-11 June 2022. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropocene/projects-and-seminars/research-groups/chemical-exposures-workshop-call-papers
=This paper focuses on recent community protests over urban pesticide-use, and the relevance of changing public perceptions of urban 'nature', 'pests' and pest-control for ecological public health and environmental humanities-based discourse on past:present:future landscaping cultures, and diachronic geographies of biodiversity, health and toxicity. While global climate change protests have focused on governmental action on carbon emissions as a requirement for meeting UN 2030 SDGs, such community-led campaigns, together with scientific and activist discourse on urban pesticides, air quality and human health on the one hand, and urban 'nature', biodiversity and human wellbeing, on the other, highlight the need for greater emphasis within the social sciences on the significance of localised environmental attitudes and policies on pesticide use, landscaping practices, and the potential for change. This paper focuses primarily on Cambridge, where community action has led to the City Council implementing a two-ward herbicide-free trial this Spring, with a city-wide rollout by the end of 2022. Case studies from other parts of the UK, Europe and Asia and key themes that form the focus of a new UCL project that combines methods from Archaeology, Geography and the broader environmental humanities/sciences and critical toxicology spectrum, will also be discussed, including: cultural attitudes towards urban 'nature', 'weeds', 'pests', and pesticides, and patterns of pesticide-use; public understanding of chemical exposures and related toxicities; universities, monasteries and landscapes of wellbeing and toxicity; and intersections and tensions between socio-cultural, medical and environmental-science constructions of 'purity' and pollution and their relevance for tackling ecological public health challenges.
=This paper focuses on recent community protests over urban pesticide-use, and the relevance of changing public perceptions of urban 'nature', 'pests' and pest-control for ecological public health and environmental humanities-based discourse on past:present:future landscaping cultures, and diachronic geographies of biodiversity, health and toxicity. While global climate change protests have focused on governmental action on carbon emissions as a requirement for meeting UN 2030 SDGs, such community-led campaigns, together with scientific and activist discourse on urban pesticides, air quality and human health on the one hand, and urban 'nature', biodiversity and human wellbeing, on the other, highlight the need for greater emphasis within the social sciences on the significance of localised environmental attitudes and policies on pesticide use, landscaping practices, and the potential for change. This paper focuses primarily on Cambridge, where community action has led to the City Council implementing a two-ward herbicide-free trial this Spring, with a city-wide rollout by the end of 2022. Case studies from other parts of the UK, Europe and Asia and key themes that form the focus of a new UCL project that combines methods from Archaeology, Geography and the broader environmental humanities/sciences and critical toxicology spectrum, will also be discussed, including: cultural attitudes towards urban 'nature', 'weeds', 'pests', and pesticides, and patterns of pesticide-use; public understanding of chemical exposures and related toxicities; universities, monasteries and landscapes of wellbeing and toxicity; and intersections and tensions between socio-cultural, medical and environmental-science constructions of 'purity' and pollution and their relevance for tackling ecological public health challenges.
Research Interests:
Julia Shaw, 2021. The Late History of Buddhist Monasticism and the Unfolding of a Multi-Religious Landscape in Central India: patterns from the Sanchi Survey Project, Paper given at Conference on Monasteries in Asia: The Vihara Project.... more
Julia Shaw, 2021. The Late History of Buddhist Monasticism and the Unfolding of a Multi-Religious Landscape in Central India: patterns from the Sanchi Survey Project, Paper given at Conference on Monasteries in Asia: The Vihara Project. Kyoto University. 13-14 November 2021.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/8800082/different-perspectives-monasteries-india
See summary in Vihara Project Newsletter, vol 7, March 2022 (p. 10)
https://mie-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&item_id=15064&item_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=21
ABSTRACT
In this paper I outline the history and chronology of Buddhist monasteries and monasticism in Central India, based on archaeological landscape data from the Sanchi Survey Project. I will begin by discussing the distribution and morphology of monastic provisions that range from simply modified ‘natural’ rock-shelters to towering platformed monasteries, and the significance that the early appearance of courtyard-style planning has for scholarly understanding of the development of institutionalised monasticism. I will go on to present key arguments regarding associated models of governmentality (including links with water and land administration) based on the relative configuration of habitational settlements, and land and water resources in the surrounding area. The third part of the paper will focus on the later history of Buddhist monasticism and consider how the Sanchi Survey Project data relate to extant models of Buddhist decline in central and eastern India. A key argument here is that the Buddhist monastery needs to be viewed within the context of changing agrarian and economic conditions on the one hand, and changing dynamics within the broader multi-religious landscape including the proliferation of Hindu temple construction from the Gupta period onwards, on the other.
I conclude by offering several suggestions for how changing perspectives on the dissolution of medieval Christian monasteries in Europe might benefit discourse on the late history of Indian Buddhism, including critiques of the traditional model of an increasingly degenerate institution whose demise was inevitable, as opposed to one whose crucial economic function and embeddedness in the local socio-economic fabric of life lent itself open to appropriation from competing forces.
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/8800082/different-perspectives-monasteries-india
See summary in Vihara Project Newsletter, vol 7, March 2022 (p. 10)
https://mie-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&item_id=15064&item_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=21
ABSTRACT
In this paper I outline the history and chronology of Buddhist monasteries and monasticism in Central India, based on archaeological landscape data from the Sanchi Survey Project. I will begin by discussing the distribution and morphology of monastic provisions that range from simply modified ‘natural’ rock-shelters to towering platformed monasteries, and the significance that the early appearance of courtyard-style planning has for scholarly understanding of the development of institutionalised monasticism. I will go on to present key arguments regarding associated models of governmentality (including links with water and land administration) based on the relative configuration of habitational settlements, and land and water resources in the surrounding area. The third part of the paper will focus on the later history of Buddhist monasticism and consider how the Sanchi Survey Project data relate to extant models of Buddhist decline in central and eastern India. A key argument here is that the Buddhist monastery needs to be viewed within the context of changing agrarian and economic conditions on the one hand, and changing dynamics within the broader multi-religious landscape including the proliferation of Hindu temple construction from the Gupta period onwards, on the other.
I conclude by offering several suggestions for how changing perspectives on the dissolution of medieval Christian monasteries in Europe might benefit discourse on the late history of Indian Buddhism, including critiques of the traditional model of an increasingly degenerate institution whose demise was inevitable, as opposed to one whose crucial economic function and embeddedness in the local socio-economic fabric of life lent itself open to appropriation from competing forces.
Research Interests:
Paper given at Human, Non‐Human: Bodies, Things, and Matter across Asia and Europe. International Conference URPP, Asia and Europe, University of Zurich. 6‐8 October 2016. This paper explores long-term relationships of human:non-human... more
Paper given at Human, Non‐Human: Bodies, Things, and Matter across Asia and Europe. International Conference URPP, Asia and Europe, University of Zurich. 6‐8 October 2016.
This paper explores long-term relationships of human:non-human entanglement in relation to early Buddhist engagement with ‘nature’, and agriculture in ancient India. It will present archaeological evidence for the long-term history of Buddhist engagement with the socio-ecological landscape in relation to wider debates within Religious Studies regarding the relevance of early Buddhist teachings to the modern environmental movement. I will argue in particular that the transition from peripatetic mendicancy to institutionalised monasticism in the late centuries BC was bound up with changing attitudes towards urbanism, ‘wildness’, ‘nature’, and the harnessing of its resources, and in doing so bring discussions of Indian religion and nature into broader debates on the Anthropocene, and Archaeology as Environmental Humanities on the one hand, and environmental health and environmental activism on the other.
A key question is how both Buddhist ascetic groups (and Brahmanical counterparts) responded to new environmental challenges in the mid’ to late centuries BC in the face of rising urbanism and changing social and political structures, drawing on Indic notions of ‘nature’ and culture; well-being and suffering (dukkha), violence and non-violence (ahiṃsa), and purity and pollution, and how such notions, especially with regards food, diet and the human body, correspond to the language of modern environmentalism. Here I steer a middle path between two polarised views, one having promoted Buddhism as ‘eco-dharma’, the main justification being its alignment with the doctrine of non-violence (ahiṃsa ) and concern with the suffering (dukkha) and well-being of non-humans; the second drawing on theological arguments aimed at discounting the environmentally-engaged model of Buddhism (Schmithausen 1997). My argument is that the critics of eco-dharma subscribe largely to the canonical model of passive monks removed from worldly concerns, despite archaeological evidence for monastic landlordism from the late centuries BC. Some critics have drawn on this evidence, only as a means to further negate Buddhism’s eco credentials. Such scholars tend to misconstrue modern environmentalism as a rejection of agriculture, rather than a quest for human : ‘nature’ equilibrium and entanglement, and by focussing on the non-human dimension of suffering, overlook the meeting point between modern and ancient versions of environmental ethics.The second, closely related question is the degree to which religious institutions acted as agents of knowledge with respect to influencing archaeologically attested changes in land-use and food culture in early-historic India, as illustrated by the changing dynamics between irrigated rice, and non-irrigated wheat and millet crops, and the widespread adoption of vegetarianism, especially as urbanism and related phenomena spread westwards from the Gangetic valley. To date, Indian archaeobotany has focussed on Neolithic origins of domestication, with less emphasis on later periods, or how religio-cultural developments related to changes in food production and consumption.
Case-studies include the author’s Sanchi Survey Project in central India, aimed at assessing the socio-economic and environmental background of Buddhist propagation in the late centuries BC (Shaw 2007), and comparative material at a broader South and Southeast Asian level. I will focus on early Buddhist monasticism and its relationship with land and water management, and new forms of food production as responses to social and environmental stress on the one hand, and as agents of new cultural attitudes towards food and the body on the other. I argue that the saṅgha’s alignment with water and land-management (a position which becomes reformulated in later years within competing Brahmanical contexts), as well as medicine and banking, was not only an instrument of lay patronage, but that it was also closely related to Buddhism’s deeper preoccupation with human suffering (dukkha) and the means of its alleviation: one of the key messages that arose from the Buddha’s Enlightenment was that we suffer if we do not live correctly. This paper focuses on one particular aspect of this erroneous living and consequent suffering, viz, human modes of engagement with the physical world, through an analysis of the gradual and long-term process of monumentalisation and entanglement with the socio-ecological environmental that underpinned the development of sedentary monasticism in the Sanchi area.
This paper explores long-term relationships of human:non-human entanglement in relation to early Buddhist engagement with ‘nature’, and agriculture in ancient India. It will present archaeological evidence for the long-term history of Buddhist engagement with the socio-ecological landscape in relation to wider debates within Religious Studies regarding the relevance of early Buddhist teachings to the modern environmental movement. I will argue in particular that the transition from peripatetic mendicancy to institutionalised monasticism in the late centuries BC was bound up with changing attitudes towards urbanism, ‘wildness’, ‘nature’, and the harnessing of its resources, and in doing so bring discussions of Indian religion and nature into broader debates on the Anthropocene, and Archaeology as Environmental Humanities on the one hand, and environmental health and environmental activism on the other.
A key question is how both Buddhist ascetic groups (and Brahmanical counterparts) responded to new environmental challenges in the mid’ to late centuries BC in the face of rising urbanism and changing social and political structures, drawing on Indic notions of ‘nature’ and culture; well-being and suffering (dukkha), violence and non-violence (ahiṃsa), and purity and pollution, and how such notions, especially with regards food, diet and the human body, correspond to the language of modern environmentalism. Here I steer a middle path between two polarised views, one having promoted Buddhism as ‘eco-dharma’, the main justification being its alignment with the doctrine of non-violence (ahiṃsa ) and concern with the suffering (dukkha) and well-being of non-humans; the second drawing on theological arguments aimed at discounting the environmentally-engaged model of Buddhism (Schmithausen 1997). My argument is that the critics of eco-dharma subscribe largely to the canonical model of passive monks removed from worldly concerns, despite archaeological evidence for monastic landlordism from the late centuries BC. Some critics have drawn on this evidence, only as a means to further negate Buddhism’s eco credentials. Such scholars tend to misconstrue modern environmentalism as a rejection of agriculture, rather than a quest for human : ‘nature’ equilibrium and entanglement, and by focussing on the non-human dimension of suffering, overlook the meeting point between modern and ancient versions of environmental ethics.The second, closely related question is the degree to which religious institutions acted as agents of knowledge with respect to influencing archaeologically attested changes in land-use and food culture in early-historic India, as illustrated by the changing dynamics between irrigated rice, and non-irrigated wheat and millet crops, and the widespread adoption of vegetarianism, especially as urbanism and related phenomena spread westwards from the Gangetic valley. To date, Indian archaeobotany has focussed on Neolithic origins of domestication, with less emphasis on later periods, or how religio-cultural developments related to changes in food production and consumption.
Case-studies include the author’s Sanchi Survey Project in central India, aimed at assessing the socio-economic and environmental background of Buddhist propagation in the late centuries BC (Shaw 2007), and comparative material at a broader South and Southeast Asian level. I will focus on early Buddhist monasticism and its relationship with land and water management, and new forms of food production as responses to social and environmental stress on the one hand, and as agents of new cultural attitudes towards food and the body on the other. I argue that the saṅgha’s alignment with water and land-management (a position which becomes reformulated in later years within competing Brahmanical contexts), as well as medicine and banking, was not only an instrument of lay patronage, but that it was also closely related to Buddhism’s deeper preoccupation with human suffering (dukkha) and the means of its alleviation: one of the key messages that arose from the Buddha’s Enlightenment was that we suffer if we do not live correctly. This paper focuses on one particular aspect of this erroneous living and consequent suffering, viz, human modes of engagement with the physical world, through an analysis of the gradual and long-term process of monumentalisation and entanglement with the socio-ecological environmental that underpinned the development of sedentary monasticism in the Sanchi area.
Research Interests:
Paper presented at Royal Anthropological Institute / British Museum conference: 'Anthropology, Weather & Climate Change', special panel: Past Weather, Past Climate: Archaeology as Environmental Humanity. 27-29 May 2016. This paper... more
Paper presented at Royal Anthropological Institute / British Museum conference: 'Anthropology, Weather & Climate Change', special panel: Past Weather, Past Climate: Archaeology as Environmental Humanity. 27-29 May 2016.
This paper examines the ecological basis of early Indian Buddhism from several angles: a) the role of 'nature' and ancient Indian nature and agrarian cults in the development of a Buddhist ritual geography; b) the monastery's role in the management of natural and agrarian resources as a means of alleviating suffering, as well as an instrument of lay patronage which was central to an emerging Buddhist economic system; c) the impact that scholarship on the 'ecological' focus of early Indian religious traditions and devolved religious and community based sustainable agriculture has on understandings of contemporary environmental challenges, e.g., the impact on human health and wellbeing of industrial and agricultural pollutants, climate-change and large-scale irrigation programmes. Here I steer a middle path between two polarised views, one having promoted Buddhism and certain Brahmanical traditions as epitomes of 'eco' oriented religions, the main justification here being the development of the doctrine of non violence (ahimsa); the second having presented the involvement of Buddhist monasteries, and later, Brahmanical temples, in agriculture and water-management as grounds for challenging this picture. My argument is that a concern with sustainable agriculture and water-management does not negate the ecological motif of early Indian religions, and that a critical reappraisal of Indological models of 'nature' v. 'culture', 'purity' v. pollution, and food and the human body, is required in order to appreciate the deep history of environmental ethics in the region. Archaeological evidence discussed will include the results of the author's archaeological survey work in central India.
This paper examines the ecological basis of early Indian Buddhism from several angles: a) the role of 'nature' and ancient Indian nature and agrarian cults in the development of a Buddhist ritual geography; b) the monastery's role in the management of natural and agrarian resources as a means of alleviating suffering, as well as an instrument of lay patronage which was central to an emerging Buddhist economic system; c) the impact that scholarship on the 'ecological' focus of early Indian religious traditions and devolved religious and community based sustainable agriculture has on understandings of contemporary environmental challenges, e.g., the impact on human health and wellbeing of industrial and agricultural pollutants, climate-change and large-scale irrigation programmes. Here I steer a middle path between two polarised views, one having promoted Buddhism and certain Brahmanical traditions as epitomes of 'eco' oriented religions, the main justification here being the development of the doctrine of non violence (ahimsa); the second having presented the involvement of Buddhist monasteries, and later, Brahmanical temples, in agriculture and water-management as grounds for challenging this picture. My argument is that a concern with sustainable agriculture and water-management does not negate the ecological motif of early Indian religions, and that a critical reappraisal of Indological models of 'nature' v. 'culture', 'purity' v. pollution, and food and the human body, is required in order to appreciate the deep history of environmental ethics in the region. Archaeological evidence discussed will include the results of the author's archaeological survey work in central India.
Research Interests:
Paper presented at Comparative Water Technologies and Management: Pathways to Social Complexity and Environmental Change, UCL, 15-16 April 2016. This paper examines the early history of irrigation and water management in South Asia,... more
Paper presented at Comparative Water Technologies and Management: Pathways to Social Complexity and Environmental Change, UCL, 15-16 April 2016.
This paper examines the early history of irrigation and water management in South Asia, focussing in particular on questions of patronage, ownership and management. Scholarship over the last two decades has highlighted the role of religious institutions such as monasteries and temple councils in the management of natural resources which has been important for challenging traditional Wittfogelian models with irrigation at the heart of the centralised state machine. This paper will discuss this evidence further, drawing on the author’s own survey work in central India, and comparative material at a broader South and Southeast Asian level. The key focus will be on early Buddhist monasticism whose close relationship with agricultural improvement and water management an important instrument of lay patronage, but it was also closely related to Buddhism’s deeper preoccupation with human suffering (dukkha) and the means of its alleviation: one of the key messages that arose from the Buddha’s Enlightenment was that we suffer if we do not live correctly. This paper focuses on one particular practical means of tackling such erroneous living and consequent suffering, viz, the sangha’s involvement with water, land management and the introduction of new crops (particularly rice), a role which was in later years usurped by competing religious frameworks within the Orthodox Brahmanical context.
This leads on to the broader question of how these religious traditions responded to new environmental challenges in the mid first millennium BC to early centuries AD in the face of rising urbanism and major changes in social and political structure, drawing on early Indian motifs of ecology and environmental ethics. In this respect I will discuss the relevance of scholarship on the 'ecological' focus of early Indian religious traditions and devolved religious and community based sustainable agriculture for understandings of contemporary environmental challenges, e.g., the impact on human health and wellbeing of industrial and agricultural pollutants, climate-change and large-scale irrigation programmes. Here I steer a middle path between two polarised views, one having promoted Buddhism and certain Brahmanical traditions as epitomes of 'eco' oriented religions, the main justification here being the development of the doctrine of non violence (ahimsa); the second having presented the involvement of Buddhist monasteries and Brahmanical temples in agriculture and water-management as grounds for challenging this picture. My argument is that a concern with sustainable agriculture and water-management does not negate the ecological motif of early Indian religions, and that a critical reappraisal of Indological models of 'nature' v. 'culture', 'purity' v. pollution, and food and the human body, is required in order to appreciate the deep history of environmental ethics in the region.
[Published version to be included in: M. Altaweel and Y. Zhuang, 2017 (Eds.), Water Technologies and Societies in the Past and Present. London: UCL Press]
This paper examines the early history of irrigation and water management in South Asia, focussing in particular on questions of patronage, ownership and management. Scholarship over the last two decades has highlighted the role of religious institutions such as monasteries and temple councils in the management of natural resources which has been important for challenging traditional Wittfogelian models with irrigation at the heart of the centralised state machine. This paper will discuss this evidence further, drawing on the author’s own survey work in central India, and comparative material at a broader South and Southeast Asian level. The key focus will be on early Buddhist monasticism whose close relationship with agricultural improvement and water management an important instrument of lay patronage, but it was also closely related to Buddhism’s deeper preoccupation with human suffering (dukkha) and the means of its alleviation: one of the key messages that arose from the Buddha’s Enlightenment was that we suffer if we do not live correctly. This paper focuses on one particular practical means of tackling such erroneous living and consequent suffering, viz, the sangha’s involvement with water, land management and the introduction of new crops (particularly rice), a role which was in later years usurped by competing religious frameworks within the Orthodox Brahmanical context.
This leads on to the broader question of how these religious traditions responded to new environmental challenges in the mid first millennium BC to early centuries AD in the face of rising urbanism and major changes in social and political structure, drawing on early Indian motifs of ecology and environmental ethics. In this respect I will discuss the relevance of scholarship on the 'ecological' focus of early Indian religious traditions and devolved religious and community based sustainable agriculture for understandings of contemporary environmental challenges, e.g., the impact on human health and wellbeing of industrial and agricultural pollutants, climate-change and large-scale irrigation programmes. Here I steer a middle path between two polarised views, one having promoted Buddhism and certain Brahmanical traditions as epitomes of 'eco' oriented religions, the main justification here being the development of the doctrine of non violence (ahimsa); the second having presented the involvement of Buddhist monasteries and Brahmanical temples in agriculture and water-management as grounds for challenging this picture. My argument is that a concern with sustainable agriculture and water-management does not negate the ecological motif of early Indian religions, and that a critical reappraisal of Indological models of 'nature' v. 'culture', 'purity' v. pollution, and food and the human body, is required in order to appreciate the deep history of environmental ethics in the region.
[Published version to be included in: M. Altaweel and Y. Zhuang, 2017 (Eds.), Water Technologies and Societies in the Past and Present. London: UCL Press]