The Self Possessed

Abhinavagupta, on bhūtavidyā, on definition of possession, on devotion, on mudrās, on possession as enlightenment, on possession as knowledge, on possession as practice, on sahṛdaya, on śaktipāta

acintyabhedābheda

adālat. See also legal models

aesthetic theory. See alaṃkāraśāstra

Agni: and creation/incarnation, and pervasion/immersion in Vedas, and shape-shifting, and transfer of essence, and Ucchuṣma

AH Uttarasthāna (AH-Ut)

Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (AB)

Aitareya Upaniṣad (AiU)

alaṃkāraśāstra, and authenticity, and bhūtavidyā, brahmanical orthodoxy on, and Buddhism, and ethnographies, and folk-classical relationship, and legitimization of emotion, and performative contexts, rasa categories, and sahṛdaya, and social construction of emotion, and vocabularies of possession

amanussaparaggahītā

Amaruka. See Śaṅkara’s possession of Amaruka

Amma, Andavan Pichchi

Amoghapāśasūtra

āṅgmā caṛhnu

animals: in art, in fiction, in Mahābhārata, products used in healing, and shape-shifting,

anthropological approaches, definitions of possession, and Eurocentrism, interpretive strategies, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, on ritual, and social control/resistance, and vocabularies of possession, and Western unitary self. See also ethnographies

Aṇubhāṣya (Vallabhācārya)

Āpastamba Śrautasūtra (ĀpŚS)

art: animals in, and fluid/multiple self

arugu darśana ātuṇḍu

Assamese vocabularies of possession

association of possession with low social status, and control, and cross-dressing, and folk-classical relationship, and “irrationality,” and shamanism, and svasthāveśa, See also possession as primitive; social control/resistance

Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya Saṃhitā (AH), bhūtavidyā in, and contemporary Āyurveda

astrology (jyotiṣa), and bhūtavidyā, brahmanical orthodoxy on, and contemporary Āyurveda, and prasenā, and vocabularies of possession

Aśatthāman. See Śiva’s possession of Aśvatthāman

Atharvaveda (AV): and Āyurveda, bhūtavidyā, in discourse vs. practice in, fluid/multiple self in, gandharva in, pervasion/immersion in, soma ritual in, and Tantra, transfer of essence in

ātmabhāvaparigraham

ātmajñānānanda, Svāmī

audience. See performative contexts

audience response theory

authenticity: Derrida on, ethnographic overview, and fiction, and Nala’s possession by Kali, and performative contexts

authoritarian societies

avatāra: as Viṣṇu’s descents, similarity to āveśa in devotional possession, śarabha. as descent of Bhairava, as a vigraha, on its use in the Āviṣṭaceṣṭāvidhiparivartaḥ

āveśa, Bengali usage, and bhakti, and bhāva, in Brahmasūtras, in Buddhist Sanskrit literature, and Chinese vocabulary, control of, and creation/incarnation, in devotional literature, and emotion, in Mahābhārata, and Malayalam vocabularies of possession, and possession among deities, review, in Tantra, and transfer of essence, and Vajrayāna Buddhism, Vallabhācārya on, in Vedāntasāra, and vocabularies of possession, in Yogasūtras

ā√viś, and alaṃkāraśāstra, in Buddhist Sanskrit literature, and entrance, in Mahābhārata, and night/darkness, and poetic meters, in Rāmāyaṇa, Sāyaṇa on, and soma ritual, and transfer of essence

Āviṣṭaceṣṭāvidhiparivartaḥ (ACVP)

aweishe. See Chinese aweishe ritual

Ayodhyākāṇḍa

Āyurveda, and Atharvaveda, and attabhāva, on bālagrahas, Cakradatta, on disease-producing possession, healing in early texts, and Sāṃkhya, Siddhasāra, skandagrahas in, and svasthāveśa, and Tantra, and textual traditions, and vocabularies of possession, and yoga. See also bhūtavidyā; contemporary Āyurveda

Bādarāyaṇa. See Brahmasūtras

bālagrahas, and bhūtavidyā, and folk-classical relationship, and healing, and Kuṣāṇas, and Skanda, and svasthāveśa, and women’s preponderance in possession

Bālājī temple: and association of possession with low social status, demographics, and devotion, diversity of healing techniques at, and healing as moral practice, and legal models, pitṛsthān, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and puttalī, recent growth of, rural setting of

belief vs. practice. See discourse vs. practice

Bengali maṅgalkābyas

Bengali vocabularies of possession

Bhagavadajjukāprahasanam (Mahendravarman)

Bhagavad-Gītī (BhG)

Bhāgavata Purāṇa (BhP): Abhinavagupta on, and Bhagavad-Gītā, bhāva in, and fiction, Kṛṣṇa as puruṣottama in, and Nala’s possession by Kali, nyāsa in, 379; practices in, shape-shifting in, and svasthāveśa, and Tamil/Simhala vocabularies of possession, transfer of essence in, Vallabhācārya on

Bhairava: and conversion of spirits, and Hāratī, and legal healing models, and nyāsa, and svasthāveśa

Bhaktamāl (Nābhādas)

bhakti: and āveśa, and ā√viś, brahmanical orthodoxy on, and discourse vs. practice, and Marathi vocabularies of possession, and personhood/self, and philosophical texts, and śakti, and social control/resistance. See also devotion

Bhaktirasāṃṛtasindhu (Rūpa Gosvāmī)

bhaktudù/bhaktudràlu

Bhāmatī (Vācaspatimiśra)

Bhat, M. Ramakrishna

Bhattacharyya, Deborah

Bhaṭṭotpala (Utpala)

bhāva: Bengali usage, in Buddhist Sanskrit literature, and contemporary Āyurveda and devotion, and emotion, and fiction, and nyāsa, and vocabularies of possession

Bhāvanākrama (BhK)

Bhoot (Hindi film)

bhutācā asvār āṇūn

bhūta pattuṇḍu

bhūtapaviṭṭho

bhūtavidyā, abhiṣaṅgaja, Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya Saṃhitā on, and astrology, in Āviṣṭaceṣṭāvidhiparivartaḥ, Āyurvedic text overview, balagrahas, Bower manuscript on, Caraka Saṃhitā on, and contemporary Āyurveda, and deities, Divehi, and elements, and emotion, and folk-classical relationship, and gandharva, graha overview, Ĩśānaśivagurudevapaddhati on, Madanamahārṇava on, McClintock on, overview, and personality, piśacas, and pregnancy, psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories on, in Purāṇas, and Sāṃkhya, secularization narrative, and sexuality, and Siddhasāra, and skandagrahas, and speech, and Sri Lankan vocabularies of possession, Suśruta Saṃhitā on, and transfer of essence, Varanasi ethnography on, and Vedas. See also disease-producing possession; healing

bhūt bhādā cumaṅkali

bhūte āṅgī vāḍhu lāglī

bhūt kī bīmārī

bhūts. See also bhūtavidyā

Blatty, William Peter

Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā (Kṣemendra)

body, Brahmasūtras on, cakras, composite, and creation/incarnation, and devotion, and discourse vs. practice, divinization of, and fiction, and fluid/multiple self, as inert, and liminality, in Liṅga Purāṇa, lists of body parts, multiple embodiment, nāḍis, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and social control/resistance, and yoga

bráhman, and creation/incarnation, and dualism/nondualism, and fluid/multiple self, and transfer of essence. See also ātman/brahman

Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa

brahmanism: and Buddhism, and contemporary Āyurveda, and control, and devotion, and discourse vs. practice, and gandharva, and gradual vs. sudden possession, and nyāsa, and possession as practiced behavior, scholarly orthodoxy, and shape-shifting, and soma ritual, and svasthāveśa, and text sources, and Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci, and Western discourses. See also folk-classical relationship

Brahmasūtrabhāṣya (Śaṇkara)

Brahmasūtras (BS)

Bṛhadāranyaka Upaniṣad (BĀU): bhūtavidyā in, creation/incarnation in, and discourse vs. practice, gandharva in, localization of divinity in, nyāsa in, and svasthāveśa, transfer of essence in, and Vajrayāna Buddhism

Bṛhatkalpabhāṣya

Bṛhatsaṃhitā (BṛS) (Varāhamihira)

Buddha, possession by

Buddhism, and alaṃkāraśāstra, and brahmanism, and Cambodian possession, and contemporary Āyurveda, control in, and conversion of spirits, and devotion, discourse vs. practice in, and folk-classical relationship, and Himalayan vocabularies of possession, and mediumistic possession, nonexistent self in, and prasenā, and sexuality, and shamanism, and Shinto, and Sri Lankan vocabularies of possession, and svasthāveśa, Tibetan Sanskrit literature, in Vikramāditya story, 325; and Yogasūtras (YS). See also Vajrayāna Buddhism

Bynum, Caroline Walker

Caitanya. See Śrī Caitanya

Caitanyacaritāmṛta (Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja), 351

Caitanyacaritāmṛta (Murārigupta)

Cakrasaṃvarapiṇḍārtha

Cakrasaṃvara-Tantra

Campany, Robert Ford

Caraka Saṃhitā bhūtavidyā in, healing in, and Sāṃkhya

central vs. peripheral possession

Chāndogya Upaniṣad (ChU): bhūtavidyā in, creation/incarnation in, nyāsa, oppositional consciousness in, Śaṇkara on, 298; transfer of essence in

channeling. See New Age trance channeling

The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age (Brown)

Charcot, Jean Martin

childhood possession. See svasthāveśa

childsnatchers. See bālagrahas; skandagrahas

China: ãveśa, children in ritual, cultural migration to, and disease-producing possession, fluid/multiple self in, healing, and Himalayan vocabularies of possession, mediumistic possession, and nyāsa, shamanism, svasthāveśa origin question, See also Chinese aweishe ritual

Chinese aweishe ritual, and Daoism, and mediumistic possession, and prasenā, use of children in

Christianity: ambiguity of possession in, and Assamese vocabularies of possession, and contemporary renewal of oracular possession, and ecstasy, and exorcism, initiatory possession in, and New Age trance channeling, on possession as evil, and pratiṣṭhā, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and Sri Lankan vocabularies of possession, and study of possession, and transfer of essence, unitary self in, and vocabularies of possession. See also Western discourses

Collins, Elizabeth Fuller

colonialism: and contemporary renewal of oracular possession, and possession as evil, and social control/resistance, and study of possession, and vocabularies of possession

composite self. See fluid/multiple self consciousness: Hegel on, and Himalayan vocabularies of possession, and Malayalam vocabularies of possession, oppositional, problematic nature of term, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and Vedānta, contemporary Āyurveda, and astrology, bhasmas in, and bhãva, and bhūtavidyā, and brūhmanism, and Buddhism, diagnosis in, mantras in, Tibet, and women’s preponderance in possession

control: and association of possession with low social status, and brahmanism, in Buddhism, and emotion, and limits of social control/resistance, and nyāsa, and possession as evil, and ritual, and shape-shifting, and spontaneity, and svasthāveśa, and transfer of essence, and vocabularies of possession. See also social control/resistance

Conversations with God: Book I (Walsch)

conversion of spirits

court model. See legal models

creation/incarnation, and dualism/nondualism, and fluid/multiple self, ignorance of, and pervasion/immersion, and primordial embodiment, and transfer of essence, and Vedic theism

daivavyapāsraya-cikitsā

Damayantī. See also Nala’s possession by Kali

Daniel, E. Valentine

darśapūrṇamāsau

Daśakumāracarita (Daṇḍin)

debaddhani festival

decentered self. See fluid/multiple self

deception. See authenticity

democratization (prajātantra)

demographics: conclusions, and healing, New Age trance channeling. See also folk-classical relationship

demonologies. See bhūtavidyā

devotion, Abhinavagupta on, and ā√viś, Bhagavad-Gītī, and bhāva, and body, and Buddhism, and discourse vs. practice, and fiction, and fluid/multiple self, and folk-classical relationship, and Hanumān, and passion, and personhood/self, and philosophical texts, and religious drama, and śakti, and sexuality, and shamanism, and social control/resistance, Śrī Caitanya, and svasthāveśa, and Tantra, and transfer of essence, and union/separation dialectic, Vallabhācārya, and vocabularies of possession, See also bhakti; Vallabhācārya

Dhvanyāloka (Ānandavardhana)

Dhvanyālokalocana (Abhinavagupta)

Dhyānabindu Upaniṣad

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

dialogic interaction

Diemberger, Hildegard

Dīpikā (Aḍhamalla)

discourse vs. practice: and bhakti, and body, and brahmanism, in Buddhism, conclusions, and philosophical texts, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and social control/resistance, and study of possession. See also experience

disease-producing possession, diagnosis of, and fluid/multiple self, in Mahābhārata, and moral transgressions, vs. New Age trance channeling, and pervasion/immersion in Vedas, and shamanism, text sources for, and vocabularies of possession. See also bhūtavidyā; healing

Dissociative Identity Disorder

dissociative trance disorder

divinization of body, and devotion, and nyāsa, and śaktipāta

Draupadī cult (Tamilnadu)

dualism/nondualism. See also union/separation dialectic

During Caspers, E.C.L.

Ecstatic Religion (Lewis)

effigies. See puttalī

eligibility for possession

embodiment. See body

emotion: and body, in Buddhism, and control, legitimization of, in Mahābhārata, and Malayalam vocabularies of possession, in philosophical texts, and possession as evil, and possession content, as primitive, social construction of, and social control/resistance, somaticization of, and transfer of essence, and vocabularies of possession, and yoga. See also alaṃkāraśāstra

empowerment. See social control/resistance

enlightenment: and body, and discourse vs. practice, and fluid/multiple self, and New Age trance channeling, and rasa, in Tantra, in Tibetan Buddhism

Enlightenment (Europe)

entrance: in Mahābhārata, and sexuality, in Vedas. See also ā√viś; pervasion/immersion in Vedas

epics, brahmanical orthodoxy on, and fiction, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, recitation of. See also Mahābhārata; Rāmāyaṇa

ethnographies, and alaṃkāraśāstra, and devotional literature, and dualism/nondualism, and fluid/multiple self, possession overview, and shamanism, Varanasi. See also anthropological approaches

exorcism: and Christianity, contemporary U.S. rise in. See also healing

Exorcism of Emily Rose, The

experience. See also discourse vs. practice

faked possession. See authenticity

ferocity. See raudra

fiction, Bhagavadajjukāprahasanam, Bloomfield on, contemporary, defined, The Turn of the Screw, Vetālapañcaviṃśati, and yoga. See also alaṃkāraśāstra

film, and devotion, The Exorcist, and fiction, music from

Fitzgerald, James L.

fluid/multiple self, and agency, and art, and body, and bráhman, contemporary concepts, and creation/incarnation, and devotion, and disease-producing possession, and enlightenment, in film, and gradual vs. sudden possession, and healing, and Himalayan vocabularies of possession, and New Age trance channeling, and nyāsa, and personhood, and shape-shifting, and social control/resistance, and study of possession, and Vedas, vs. Western unitary self, and women’s preponderance in possession

folk-classical relationship, and alaṃkāraśāstra, and association of possession with low social status, and bhūtavidyā, and Buddhism, conclusions, and deities, and devotion, and Draupadī cult, Kerala, and Mahābhārata, and Ṛgveda, and soma ritual, and svasthāveśa, and Tantra, and traditionalization, and Vedas, and vocabularies of possession

Freud, Sigmund. See Freudian theory

Freudian theory: and bhūtavidyā, and dissociation theory, on hysteria, on obsessive-compulsive disorder, and psychodrama, on Unheimlich. See also psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories

Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine

gandharva, and abandonment of self, and bhūtavidyā, and brahmanism, in Buddhist Sanskrit literature, contemporary reports of possession by, and insanity, and keśin, and oracular possession, and ritual, and transfer of essence, and Vikramāditya story

gender, and abandonment of self, and Buddhism, and central vs. peripheral possession, cross-dressing, and fluid/multiple selfu, and gandharva, role-reversal, and social control/resistance, and svasthāveśa, and Tamil/Simhala vocabularies of possession, and Tantra. See also association of possession with low social status; women; women’s preponderance in possession

Goodman, Felicitas D.

Gopīcandana Upaniṣad

graha: Āyurvedic texts on, overview, psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories on, and raudra. See also bālagrahas; bhūtavidyā; skandagrahas

grahaṇa. See also graha; √gṛh

grhī, as skandāpasmāras in Mahābhārata, in Madanamahārṇava, in Iśānaśivagurudevapaddhati

√gṛh. See also grahaṇa; grahas

Gujarat vocabularies of possession

Gyu-zhi (Candranandana)

Hanegraaf, Wouter J.

Hanumān, and devotion, and nyāsa, and shape-shifting, and svasthāveśa

Harṣacarita (Bāṇabhaṭṭa)

Hartzell, James Francis

healing, animal products used in, and army of spirits, and association of possession with low social status, and bālagrahas, brāy, Cakradatta on, China, and conversion of spirits, and demographics, diversity of techniques, 114, early Āyurvedic texts on, and effigies, and ethnographic overview, and fluid/multiple self, and former trauma, fumigation therapy, healer terms, and Himalayan vocabularies of possession, and interrogation of spirits, legal models, and liminality, and loose hair, as moral practice, and New Age trance channeling, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, shock therapy, and sorcery, and Sri Lankan vocabularies of possession, and surrogate possession, and urban/rural distinction, (Viṣa-) Nārāyaṇīya on, and Western medical paradigm. See also Āyurveda; bhūtavidyā; Chinese aweishe ritual; contemporary Āyurveda; Tantra

Heinroth, Johann Christian August

high-low culture distinction. See folk-classical relationship

Himalayan Dialogue (Mumford)

Himalayan vocabularies of possession

Hindi vocabularies of possession

Hinduism, reification of

Holy Land Experience

identity. See fluid/multiple self; self

illness. See disease-producing possession

incarnation. See also body

Indra: and bhūtavidyā, and shape-shifting, and transfer of essence, and Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci

Ingalls, Daniel H. H.

initiation: and ā√viś, in Christianity, and control, and divinization of body, and eligibility for possession, and enlightenment, and fluid/multiple self, and mudrās, and personhood, and possession as knowledge, and possession as practice, and rasa, and social control/resistance, and text sources, in Vajrayāna Buddhism, and Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci, and vocabularies of possession, and women’s preponderance in possession

insanity: and eligibility for possession, and skandagrahas, unmāda. See also bhūtavidyā; healing

intermedial state. See liminality

interrogation of spirits

Irula vocabularies of possession

Ĩśānaśivagurudevapaddhati (ĨŚP), bālagrahas in, bhūtavidyā in, and contemporary Āyurveda, svasthāveśa in

Islam: and adālat, and contemporary Āyurveda, and vocabularies of possession

Ĩśvarapratyabhijñākārikā (Utpaladeva)

Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa (JB)

Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa (JUB), 198, 199

Jainism, xxiv; and alaṃkāraśāstra, brahmanical orthodoxy on, on emotion, and fiction, on Nala’s possession by Kali, on personhood/self, and prasenā, and svasthāveśa, and Vikramāditya story, and yoga, Yogaśāstra (Hemacandra)

Jakobsen, Merete Demant

Jātakamālā (Āryaśūra)

Jayadrathayāmala (JY)

Jayākhya Saṃhitā

Jejuri mass possession

Jinadāsagaṇi Mahattara

jñānasattva/samayasattva

jyotiṣa. See astrology

Kaivalya Upaniṣad

Kālacakratantra (KT)/Laghuālaeakratantra

Kali. See also Nala’s possession by Kali

Kālikā Purāṇa (KāP)

Kāli’s Child (Kripal)

Kalkin Śrīpuṇḍarīka

Kalmāṣapāda, King. See Vasiṣṭha and King Kalmāṣapāda

Kalpataruparimala (Appayya Dīkṣita)

kampakāla (orgasm)

kapisainyaprakāra

karma. See also kamma

Karmavipāka-saṅgraha

Kāśyapa Kalpasthānam (KSKa)

Kāśyapa-Saṃhitā (KS)

Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā (KS)

Kathāsaritsāgara (KSS), anugraha in, 485; dualism/nondualism in, and fiction, sexuality in, svasthāveśa in

Kaṭha Upaniṣad (KU)

Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad (KṣU)

Kelly, George Armstrong

Kerala. See also contemporary Āyurveda; Malayalam vocabularies of possession

Keśavakāśmīrabhaṭṭa

Khaṇḍobā festival (Jejuri)

Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim

Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja

Kṛṣṇa līlā

Kulārṇavatantra (KAT)

kuṇḍalinī śakti

lama, on Lamaist ideology, as spirit

language. See vocabularies of possession

law. See dharmaśāstra

legal models, bhūts, and healing, and New Age trance channeling

Lewis-Fernández, Roberto

lexicography. See vocabularies of possession

lha (Tib. deity or spirit)

lha-babs (Tib. oracular possession)

lhaba/lha pa (Tib. oracle)

liberation. See enlightenment

liminality: and bhakti, and body, and contemporary Āyurveda, and entrance, and gradual vs. sudden possession, and healing, and Nala’s possession by Kali, and nyāsa, and ritual, and sexuality, and shape-shifting, and social control/resistance. See also fluid/multiple self

linguistics. See vocabularies of possession

literary record. See text sources

localization of divinity

love. See sexuality

Luminous Web of Precious Visions

lunar asterisms (nakṣatra)

Macdonald, Alexander W.

Madanamahārṇava (MM) (Viśveśvara Bhaṭṭa)

Mādhava-Vidyāraṇya

Mahābhārata (MBh) and alaṃkāraśāstra, āveśa in, bhūtavidyā in, dates of, diachronic aspects of possession in, disease-producing possession in, dualism/nondualism in, entrance in, escape in, and fiction, as fiction, and folk-classical relationship, gandharva in, guilt in, importance of, influence of, interpenetration in, interpersonal possession in, Kṛṣṇa as puruṣottama in, and Liṅga Purāna, millenarianism in, oppositional consciousness in, vs. Rāmāyaṇa, rasa in, and Sāṃkhya, shape-shifting in, Śiva’s possession of Aśvatthāman, skandagrahas in, transfer of essence in, and Vajrayāna Buddhism, Vasiṣṭha and King Kalmāṣapāda, Vidura’s possession of Yudhiṣṭhira, violence in, vocabularies of possession in, and women’s preponderance in possession, and Yogavāsiṣṭha. See also Nala’s possession by Kali; Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci

Mahāsutasoma Jātaka

Mahendravarman. See also Bhagavadajjukāprahasanam

Maitrāyaṇi Saṃhitā (MS)

Maitrāyaṇi Upaniṣad

Malayalam vocabularies of possession

Mālinīvijayottara

maṇḍalas: in contemporary Āyurveda, and divinization of body, and possession as knowledge, in svasthāveśa, in Tantra, 399; in Vajrayāna Buddhism

Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa

Mantramahodadhi (MM) (Mahīdhara)

mantras: and bālagrabas in contemporary Āyurveda, and divinization of body, in nyāsa, and soma ritual, in svasthāveśa, in Vajrayāna Buddhism, (Viṣa-) Nārāyaṇīya on

Marathi vocabularies of possession

marginalized people. See association of possession with low social status

Masson, J. Moussaieff

māthāra golamāla

Mattavilāsa (Mahendravarman)

mayṭu battuṇḍu

Mayūracandrikā Bhasma

mediumistic possession: and Buddhism, and New Age trance channeling, and shamanism, and Vajrayāna Buddhism. See also New Age trance channeling; oracular possession

mental illness. See bhūtavidyā; disease-producing possession

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice

mirrors: and Himalayan vocabularies of possession, and prasenā, and svasthāveśa, and Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci

mkha’ ‘gro Ye shes mtsho rgyal

MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder)

mṛtyuñjaya homa

mudrās: and divinization of body, and nyāsa, in Vajrayāna Buddhism

Muller-Ortega, Paul Eduardo

Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD)

multiple self. See fluid/multiple self

Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad

Muslims. See Islam

nā/fas: Āyurvedic texts on, in Bower manuscript, in Gyu-zhi, in Ĩśanaśivagurudevapaddhati, and Nala’s possession by Kali, and piśācas, and Sāṃkhya, in Upaniṣads, in Vajrayāna Buddhism

nakṣatra (lunar asterisms)

Nala’s possession by Kali, and abandonment of self, and alaṃkāraśāstra, and authenticity, and escape, and guilt, Jain version of, and raudra, and self, and violence

Nambudiri, Nilakanthan

Nambudiri, Vaidyamadham Narayanan

Nambudiripad, Kumaraswami

Nārāyaṇapūrvatāpanīya Upaniṣad

Nārāyaṇa Tīrtha

narrative elements. See also epics; fiction

Nātyaśāstra (Bharata)

negative possession: and female competence, in Mahābhārata, and Marathi vocabularies of possession, and pervasion/immersion in Vedas, and Tamil/Simhala vocabularies of possession. See also bhūtavidyā; healing; sorcery

New Age trance channeling, and charismatic/Pentecostal Christianity, content of, demographics of, and folk-classical relationship, and healing, legal issues, legitimization of, and nostalgia, and social control/resistance

Nīlamata Purāṇa (NP)

Nirodhalakṣaṇa (Vallabhācārya)

nirvikalpasamādhi

Niśisaṃcāratantra

Niśītha Cūrṇi

Niṣpannayogāvalī

nyāsa, Bhāgavata Purāṇa example, and Daoism, and deity, etymology of, examples of, and fluid/multiple self, Kulārṇavatantra example, and mudrās, popularity of, and possession as knowledge, and pratiṣṭhā, Rudrādhyāya example, and sexuality, and shamanism, and shape-shifting, and Tibetan Buddhism, and vocabularies of possession, and yoga

Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism

Obeyesekere, Gananath

obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

oppression. See social control/resistance

oracular possession: and Buddhism, contemporary renewal of, and gandharva, New Age trance channeling as, and pain, and performative contexts, psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and shamanism, and social control/resistance, in Tantra/Āyurveda, and Tulu/Irula vocabularies of possession, in Vajrayāna Buddhism, and vāta, See also mediumistic possession; svasthāveśa

orientalism, See also Western discourses

Padakusalamāṇava Jātaka

Paheli (The Riddle) (Hindi film)

Pāiasaddamahaṇṇavo (PSM)

Pañcapadyāni (Vallabhācārya)

Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa

parakāyapraveśavidyā

Paramārthagāthā

parasparānupraveśa

Parātriṃsikālaghuvṛtti (PTLV)

Parātriśikālaghuvṛtti (Abhinavagupta)

Pārśvanātha Caritra

participation mystique

performative contexts, and alaṃkāraśāstra, and authenticity, and oracular possession, and Rāmāyaṇa, and rasa, and svasthāveśa

permeable self. See fluid/multiple self

personality: and ātman, and attabhāva/puggala, in Āyurvedic texts, and bhūtavidyā, and fluid/multiple self, fragmentation of, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and shape-shifting, and Śiva’s possession of Aśvatthāman, and social control/resistance, and svasthāveśa, 422. See also self

personhood: in Buddhism, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, vs. self, and shamanism, and vocabularies of possession

pervasion/immersion in Vedas, Agni, and creation/incarnation, disease images, and entrance, and interpenetration, and keśin, and negative possession, 194; and night/darkness, and poetic meters, pra√viś, and ritual, and soma ritual, and speech, and surā

Brahmasūtras, Buddhism, Buddhist Sanskrit literature, and discourse vs. practice, and ethics, Yogavāsiṣṭha, See also Śaṅkara’s possession of Amaruka; Yogasūtras

Piśācamocan temple

pitṛ: Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya Saṃhitā on, Āyurvedic texts on, and bālagrahas, Caraka Saṃhitā on, in contemporary Āyurveda, and diagnosis, and insanity, in Ĩśanaśivagurudevapaddhati, and legal healing models, Madanamahārṇava on, and piśācas, Sāṃkhya on, Suśruta Saṃhitā on, text sources for

poetic theory. See alaṃkāraśāstra

polyvalent self. See fluid/multiple self

possession: anthropological definitions as coming into being, ethnographic overview, gradual vs. sudden, multidimensionality of, problematic nature of term, release from, vs. transfer of essence, type review

possession as evil, Christianity on, as misconception

possession as ontological reality

possession as practiced behavior: and brahmanism, and escape, and Malayalam vocabularies of possession, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories

possession as primitive, See also association of possession with low social status

Prabandha-cintāmaṇi

practice vs. discourse. See discourse vs. practice

prajātantra (democratization)

Prakāśa (Vallabhācārya)

prāṇa-pratiṣṭhā, See also pratiṣṭhā

prasenā, and astrology, and Buddhism, and Chinese aweishe ritual, etymology of, and folk-classical relationship, and karṇagraha, and mirrors, in svasthāveāa ritual, text sources for, Utpala on

Praśnamārga (PrMā)

Praśna Upaniṣad (PU)

Pratisenāvatāratantra

Pratyabhijñahṛdayam (Kṣemarāja)

Pravacanasārodhāra

praveśa, See also pra√viś

pra√viś: and creation/incarnation, and fiction, in Mahābhārata, andpra√pad, and transfer of essence, in Vedas, See also praveśa

preta: in Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya Saṃhitā, Aṣṭāṇgahṛdaya Saṃhitā on, 496; Āyurvedic texts on, in Bower manuscript, and ethnographic overview, and nyāsa, and transfer of essence, Varanasi ethnography on, and vocabularies of possession

primitivism. See possession as primitive primordial embodiment

psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and anthropological approaches, and asceticism, on bhūtavidyā, and body, and Christianity, cultural sensitivity in, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders on, and discourse vs. practice, dissociation theory, and epics, and externalizing primitive, hysteria, on obsessive-compulsive disorder, and oracular possession, and physiological evidence, and possession as practiced behavior, and social construction of emotion, vs. social control/resistance

Purāṇas, bālagrahas in, bhūtavidyā in, and fiction, fluid/multiple self in, interpersonal possession in, See also Bhāgavata Purāna; Brahmāṇda Purāṇa; Kālikā Purāṇa

Pūrvamīmāṃsā

Pūrvamāmāṃsāsūtras

rakṣas/rākṣasa: in Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya Saṃhitā, Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya Saṃhitā on, Āyurvedic texts on, Bower manuscript on, in Buddhist Sanskrit literature, contemporary reports of possession by, and fluid/multiple self, and insanity, Ĩśanaśivagurudevapaddhati on, Liṅga Purāṇa on, Madanamahārṇava on, Mahābhārata on, and moral certainty, and piśācas, Rāmāyaṇa on

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Raman, Bangalore Venkata

Rāmāyaṇa, ā√viś in, gandharva in, moral certainty in, and performative contexts, sexuality in, shape-shifting in, and svasthāveśa

rasa: and bhakti, and brahmanism, categories, and devotion, and ethnographies, and fiction, and gandharva, and transfer of essence, See also emotion

Rasaratnasamuccaya

rationalization, in fiction

raudra: and āveśa, Āyurvedic texts on, as rasa category, and sacrifice, in Vajrayāna Buddhism, and violence

realization. See enlightenment

religious drama, and devotion, and Rāmāyaṇa

Ṛgveda (ṚV), Agni in, anugraha in, and art, ā√viś in, and bhāva, bhūtavidyā in, on body, and devotion, disease images in, entrance in, and folk-classical relationship, gandharva in, interpenetration in, keśin in, oppositional consciousness in, poetic meters in, shape-shifting in, soma ritual in, speech in, See also pervasion/immersion in Vedas

Rgyud sde spyiḥi rnam par ‘zag pa rgyas par brjod

riding/mounting vocabularies of possession

Ripinsky-Naxon, Michael

ritual: anthropological approaches on, in contemporary Āyurveda, and control, and divinization of body, and ethnographic overview, and folk-classical relationship, and gandharva, and gradual vs. sudden possession, and initiation, and Marathi vocabularies of possession, and New Age trance channeling, and pervasion/immersion in Vedas, and possession as practiced behavior, and shape-shifting, and social control/resistance, and Tantra, and text sources, and Tibetan Buddhism, and traditionalization, and transfer of essence, and vocabularies of possession, See also nyāsa; svasthāveśa

The Ritual Process (Turner)

Ruci. See Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci

Rudrādhyāya, Rūpa Gosvāmī

sacrifice: and ethnographic overview, and raudra, and Tamil vocabularies of possession, and transfer of essence, See also violence

SacrificedWife/Sacrificer’sWife (Jamison)

Śaivaparibhāṣā (Śivāgrayogin)

samādhi: and devotion vs. samāveśa, in Tantra, and yoga

samāveśa, as enlightenment, as knowledge, as practice, review, vs. samādhi, sectarian differences in

samayasattva/jñānasattva

Sāṃkhya, and Āyurveda, and bhūtavidyā, and body, and transfer of essence

Sāṃkhyakārikā (SK)

Sāṃkhykārikābhāṣya (Gauḍapāda)

Saṃkṣepa-Bhāgavatāmṛta (Rūpa Gosvāmī)

Saṃnyāsanirṇaya (Vallabhācārya)

saṃpratti/saṃpradēna

Śaṅkara, See also Śaṅkara’s possession of Amaruka

Śaṅkarābhyudaya

Śaṅkaradigvijaya (ŚDV) (Mādhava-Vidyāraṇya)

Śaṅkara’s possession of Amaruka, and abandonment of self, and alaṃkāraśāstra, content of, and discourse vs. practice, and dualism/nondualism, and escape, and gandharva, and sexual abuse, and Śivājī, text sources for, and Vikramāditya story, and yoga

Sanskritization. See brahmanism; folk-classical relationship

Sarvabuddhasamāyogaḍākinījālasaṃvara

Sarvadharmasaṃgrahavaipulya Sūtra

Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha

śāstra: and Āyurveda, and Brahma-sūtras, and eligibility, and emotion, and fiction, and folk-classical relationship, and Mahābhārata, and philosophical texts, and Tantra, and transfer of essence, See also brahmanism; specific śāstras

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (ŚB): creation/incarnation in, fluid/multiple self in, healing in, and nyāsa, oppositional consciousness in, pervasion/immersion in, sexuality in, transfer of essence in

satyasaṃkalpatvāt

Schleiermacher, Arthur

Schmidt, Hanns-Peter

Schmithausen, Lambert

Schoembucher, Elizabeth

scholarly orthodoxies: brahmanical neglect of possession in, problematization of religion term in, reification of culture in, See also study of possession

science, See also psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories; Western discourses

self: abandonment of, and bhāva, fragility of, and Nala’s possession by Kali, as nonexistent, vs. personhood, See also fluid/multiple self; personality; unitary self

semantics. See vocabularies of possession

sexuality: and aṇaṅku, and bhūtavidyā, and devotion, and divinization of body, and entrance, and ethnographic overview, in fiction, and gandharva, and nyāsa, and riding/mounting vocabulary, and Śaṅkara’s possession of Amaruka, and svasthāveśa, and transfer of essence, and Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci, and Western discourses, and women’s preponderance in possession

shamanism and Assamese vocabularies of possession, and Buddhism, and central vs. peripheral possession, China, confusion about, in early Indus civilization, and ecstasy, ethnographic interest in, and folk-classical relationship, and gandharva, and grabaṇa, and Hanumān, and keśin, and mediumistic possession, New Age, and nyāsa, and oracular possession, and personhood, and shape-shifting, and soul-journeying, and svasthāveśa, and text sources, Tibet, and Tulu/Irula vocabularies of possession, and vocabularies of possession,

shape-shifting, and animals, and brahmanism, and Brahmasūtras, and fluid/multiple self, and Indra, in Mahābhārata, and masks, purpose of, and ritual, and shamanism

Shastri, Ajaya Mitra

Shirokogoroff, Sergei

“sick medicine-man” thesis

Siddhasāra (Ravigupta)

Simhala vocabularies of possession

síṅsiṅ-khòlkhol

Śiva: and bāladrahas, and bhūtavidyā, Buddhist transformation of, conversion of, and emotion, and fluid/multiple self, and folk-classical relationship, and possession as knowledge, possession of brahman’s corpse, and svasthāveśa

Śivadṛṣṭi (Somānanda)

Śivārkamaṇidīpikā (Appayya Dīkṣita)

Śiva’s possession of Aśvatthāman

Skanda, See also skandagrahas

śmaśāna sādhana

Sṅags rim chen mo

social control/resistance, and anthropological approaches, and bhūtavidyā, and body, and colonialism, and emotion, and ethnographic overview, and fluid/multiple self, limits of, and New Age trance channeling, and oracular possession, and ritual, and shamanism, and Tamil/Simhala vocabularies of possession, and text sources, Tibet, and Vikramāditya story, and women’s preponderance in possession

social status. See association of possession with low social status; demographics

Soma: and creation/incarnation, and entrance, and gandharva, and interpenetration, and marriage, and soma ritual

soma ritual, and ā√viś, and brahmanism, and gandharva, and pervasion/immersion in Vedas

sorcery: and bhūtavidyā, and healing, and Himalayan vocabularies of possession

speech: and gandharva, and pervasion/immersion

Śrīkṛṣnasandarbha (Jīva Gosvāmī)

Sri Lankan vocabularies of possession

Śrīśaṅkaravijaya (ŚV) (Anantānandagiri)

Śrīnīvāsācārya

study of possession, and discourse vs. practice, and emotion, Eurocentrism in, and fluid/multiple self, fundamental questions in, and literacy, modern attractiveness of, theories, and vocabularies of possession, See also anthropological approaches; scholarly orthodoxies; text sources

Subala Upaniṣads

Subhāṣitaratnakoṣa

Subodhinī (Vallabhācārya)

surrogate possession

Suśruta Saṃhitā, bhūtavidyā in, healing in, and Sāṃkhya, and svasthāveśa

Sutherland, Gail Hinich

Sūtrakṛtāṅga Sūtra

svasthāveśa, and Alexander the Great, and Chinese aweishe ritual, Chinese origin question, current practice of, and Dalai Lamas, and devotion, and dream, epigraphical evidence for, and folk-classical relationship, and Hanumān, in Ĩśānaśivagurudevapaddhati, in Mantramahodadhi, ritual of, South India, in Tantrarāja, text sources for, use of children in, See also prasenā

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (ŚvetU)

Svopajñavivaraṇa (Hemacandra)

tailabindu-parīkṣa

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka

Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa (TB)

Taittirīya Saṃhitā (TS): animals in, anugraha in, gandharva in, nyāsa in, pervasion/immersion in, poetic meters in, shape-shifting in, transfer of essence in

Taittirīya Upaniṣad (TU)

Tamil vocabularies of possession, and devotion

Tantra, and art, and ā√viś, and Āyurveda, on body, brahmanical orthodoxy on, divinization of body in, on emotion, and fluid/multiple self, possession as enlightenment in, possession as knowledge in, possession as practice in, and rasa, and ritual, śāstra, sectarian differences within, and Vikramāditya story, See also nyāsa; svasthāveśa; Vajrayāna Buddhism

Tantrāloka (Abhinavagupta)

Tantrārthāvatāra-vyākhyāna

Tantric Buddhism. See Vajrayāna Buddhism

Tantric Healing in the Kathmandu Valley (Dietrich)

Tattvārthadīpanibandha (Vallabhācārya)

Telugu vocabularies of possession

terms. See vocabularies of possession

text sources, and brahmanism, conclusions, for disease-producing possession, for prasenā, for Śaṅkara’s possession of Amaruka, and shamanism, and social control/resistance, for svasthāveśa, for vocabularies of possession, See also specific sources

teyvam āṭukākkal

Thaipusam festival (Malaysia/Singapore)

Ṭhānaṃgasutta

theory vs. practice. See discourse vs. practice

Thirumulpad, Raghavan

Tibet: bhūtavidyā, Buddhist Sanskrit literature, Chinese occupation of, contemporary Āyurveda, Dalai Lamas, Gesar of Ling, incarnation as possession in, shamanism, social control/ resistance, state oracle, svasthāveśa, vocabularies of possession, women’s preponderance in possession, See also Himalayan vocabularies of possession; Vajrayāna Buddhism

Tieken, Herman J. H.

trance channeling. See New Age trance channeling

tranquility. See śānta

transfer of essence, in Atharvaveda, and bhūtavidyā, and body part lists, in Brāhmaṇa texts, in Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, in Chāndogya Upaniṣad, and Christianity, and control, and creation/incarnation, and emotion, and fluid/multiple self, and gandharva, and Manu’s cups myth, vs. possession, and possession as ontological reality, and pregnancy, and rasa, and ritual, and sacrifice, and scape-goating, and suicide, and Vedas, and Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci

Trautmann, Thomas R.

treatment. See healing

Tulu vocabularies of possession

The Turn of the Screw (James)

uncanny. See Unheimlich

union/separation dialectic, See also dualism/nondualism

unitary self, in Christianity, and fundamental questions, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, See also fluid/multiple self; Western discourses

unmāda, Atharvaveda on, and bhūtavidyā overview, Bower manuscript on, Cakradatta on, Caraka Saṃhitā on, contemporary Āyurveda on, diagnosis of, and māthār golmāl, Praśnamārga (PrMā) on, psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories on, Vīrasiṃhāvaloka on, See also bhūtavidyā; disease-producing possession

Upaniṣads, anugraha in, on ātman/brahman, bhūtavidyā in, on body, and brahmanism, and Brahmasūtras, creation/incarnation in, and discourse vs. practice, dualism/nondualism in, gandharva in, localization of divinity in, and nyāsa, pervasion/immersion in, and philosophical texts, shape-shifting in, and Tibetan Buddhism, transfer of essence in

urban/rural distinction

Urdu vocabularies of possession

Utpala (Bhaṭṭotpala)

vaidyas, See also healing

Vaikhānasa Āgama

Vaiṣṇava schools

Vajrayāna Buddhism, and brahmanism, contemporary practice, emotion in, and folk-classical relationship, initiation in, Kālacakratantra, máṇḍalas in, samayasattva/jñānasattva, and shamanism, and vocabularies of possession

Vallabhācārya, on aesthetics of possession, on āveśa, and bhāva, and dualism/nondualism, on saṃsārāveśa, and yoga

Vāmakeśvara Tantra

Varanasi ethnography

Vasiṣṭha and King Kalmāṣapāda

Vedānta, Yogavāsiṣṭha, See also Śaṇkara’s possession of Amaruka

Vedāntakaustubha (Śrīnīvāsācārya)

Vedāntakaustubhaprabhā (Keśavakāśmīrabhaṭṭa)

Vedas: anugraha in, and bhūtavidyā, brahmanical orthodoxy on, eligibility for possession in, and fluid/multiple self, and folk-classical relationship, gandharva in, √gṛh in, importance of, localization of divinity in, manifestation of, oppositional consciousness in, shape-shifting in, vipra, See also creation/incarnation; pervasion/immersion in Vedas; Ṛgveda; transfer of essence

veḷiccappeṭuka

Vetālapañcaviṃśati, See also Vikramāditya story

Vidagdhamādhava (Rūpa Gosvāmī)

Vidura’s possession of Yudhiṣṭhira

Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sūtra

Vimalaprabhā (Kalkin Śrīpuṇḍarīka)

violence: and bhūtavidyā, conclusions, and emotion, and ethnographic overview, and healing, Indo-European examples, in Mahābhārata, as memorable

Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci, and alaṃkāraśāstra, and sexuality, and shape-shifting, and transfer of essence, and Vajrayāna Buddhism, and Vikramāditya story, violence in, and yoga

Vīrasiṃhāvaloka

(Viṣa-) Nārāyaṇiya

viśiṣṭādvaita

Viṣṇu: and folk-classical relationship, possession of kings, and transfer of essence

Visuvalingam, Elizabeth-Chalier

Visuvalingam, Sunthar

Viśveśvara Bhaṭṭa

Vivaraṇa (Śaṇkara)

Viveka (Jayaratha)

Vivṛtivimarśinī (Abhinavagupta)

vocabularies of possession, and alaṃkāraśāstra, and anthropological approaches, Assam, Bengali, Chinese, and control, and emotion, English term, experience, extent of, and folk-classical relationship, Gujarat, Himalayan, Hindi, and literacy, in Mahābhārata, Malayalam, Marathi, and nyāsa, overview, and personhood vs. self, review, riding/mounting, Sri Lanka, Tamil/Simhala, Telugu, text sources for, Tulu/Irula, Urdu, and Vedas

Walsch, Neale Donald

Western discourses, and bhūtavidyā, and brahmanism, and contemporary Āyurveda, on emotion, on experience, and healing, influence of, on personhood, and psychiatric/psychoanalytic theories, and sexuality, and shamanism, and study of possession, and Tantra, and vocabularies of possession, See also Christianity; orientalism

Wijesekera, O. H. de A.

Winquist, Charles E.

women: and gandharvas, and transfer of essence, See also gender; women’s preponderance in possession

women’s preponderance in possession, and abandonment of self, and aṇaṅku, and association of possession with low social status, and bhūtavidyā, and biography, and Buddhism, and contemporary Āyurveda, and control, and education, and ethnographic overview, and female competence, and fluid/multiple self, jhākri, and localization of divinity, and New Age trance channeling, and śakti, and sexuality, and social control/resistance, and Tamil/Simhala vocabularies of possession

Yaśodharacarita (Vāḍirāja)

yoga, and Āyurveda, and body, enlightenment in, and fiction, and nyāsa, practice, and Śaṅkara’s possession of Amaruka, and Tibetan Buddhism, and Vipula Bhārgava’s possession of Ruci, and vocabularies of possession, Yogavāsiṣṭha