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This abstract will seek to study miraculous deeds in the context of the space of Ākāshigangā, the story associated with it which has been narrated in the caritas (hagiographies) and by the community over the years, and the making of Śaṅkaradeva.

Paper long abstract

How do we navigate through layers of mysticism, hagiographies and stories narrated amidst a community, and arrive at a historical understanding of a natural water body? How do we traverse through the labyrinth of these acts of miracles and read these stories as a historical source? This abstract will seek to study these questions in the context of the space of Ākāshigangā, the story associated with it which has been narrated in the caritas (hagiographies) and by the community over the years, and making of Śaṅkaradeva.

The Batadravā or the Bordowā thān is located in the Nagaon district of Assam, and holds special significance for the Neo-Vaiṣṇava community. The Ākashigangā lake is found adjacent to the holy place. The story mentioned in the caritas was also narrated to me by the satrādhikār (head of the satra). The space is thus an intersection of stories and knowledge which has been narrated over a period of time. This paper would foreground this narrative, and contextualise it in the broader contours of hagiographies, sacred spaces and knowledge production. It will be divided into two broad sections. The first section will explore Śaṅkaradeva and the act of bringing down Ākāshigangā as narrated in the hagiographies and by the community. The subsequent section will seek to answer the questions which had been posed in the beginning of this abstract, as well as how these miraculous stories can be used as a conduit to enhance our understanding of the spaces around us in the present times.

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This paper attempts to interpret how the narratives associated with the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries reverberate the folklore, culture and ethos of people living in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam in Northeast India.

Paper long abstract

The Brahmaputra, flowing through three countries carries with it a flow of narratives ranging from creation myths to folklore connecting everyday history. Besides crafting Assam’s landscape, the river has been sustaining a multiplicity of ethnic entities since prehistoric times.

Rivers in India bear female names, but the Brahmaputra – ‘son of Brahma, the Hindu god’-- is male, claim the myths and legends. The old Sanskrit name for the river is Lauhitya—blood red—but it is fondly called Barluit or Luit in Assamese. The name Brahmaputra is also said to be a Sanskritized form of ‘Bullam-buthur’, which in the Bodo language means ‘making a gurgling sound’. Testifying its diversity in association with various ethnic cultures, it bears different names in different parts of its course. The million meanders of Brahmaputra conceal many myths and numerous tribal lores. The enigmatic river has also remained the fitting metaphor for the authors and artistes to narrate stories of love, joy, yearning, anguish, and suffering.

Such are the influences of the Brahmaputra on the life, beliefs and cultures of the people who live on its banks that each and every group of people, tribal or non-tribal, has myths and legends associated with the river. Each group has rich treasure of folk-songs and folk-literature associating, adoring, appeasing, and even worshipping the river.

This paper attempts to interpret how the myths associated with the river and its tributaries reverberate the folklore, culture and ethos of people living in the Brahmaputra valley.

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Sikhs’ travels to Rameshwaram, one of India’s most significant pilgrimage sites, reveals intersections of narrative and place that position them at the center rather than periphery of Sikh tradition.

Paper long abstract

Sikhs, followers of the monotheistic Indian religion whose founder, Guru Nanak, was born in the 15th century, are dispersed throughout the globe. In each place where they reside, Sikhs create complex diasporic relationships with other Sikhs, with non-Sikhs, with nature, their homeland of Punjab, and with the land on which they have migrated to. Chennai, the capital city of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, hosts a vibrant Sikh community that is part of the internal Indian diaspora. Most studies of the Sikh diaspora focus on communities in Western or Western settler colonial societies. By contrast, this paper examines a pilgrimage by Chennai-based Sikhs living as a minority community within India 1,500 miles south of their cultural and religious homeland.

This paper discusses how the Indian state of Tamil Nadu came to be considered sacred landscape for Sikhs. It examines the terrain of Chennai-based Sikhs’ sacred geographies, as illustrated through the narratives and discourses they employ. Guru Nanak’s udasis or travels include his journey to Rameshwaram, one of India’s most significant pilgrimage sites. Narratives of Nanak in Rameshwaram as well as annual pilgrimages foster Chennai-based Sikhs sense of belonging on Tamil soil and within a broader Tamil Hindu sacred landscape. Religious travel to Rameshwaram enables Chennai-based Punjabi Sikhs to include themselves in Sikh geography and form themselves within a Sikh community narrative. Chennai Sikhs’ pilgrimage to Rameshwaram reveals intersections of narrative and place, that position them at the center rather than periphery of the Sikh tradition.

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Kurichyan geomyths from Wayanad, Kerala, India present nature as technology. Through acts of seeding, diverting, and knotting, landscapes become corridors, shrines, and commons- stories that encode ecological techniques and cultural memory.

Paper long abstract

This paper draws on four Kurichya geomyths I recorded and translated in Wayanad, Kerala, India- 'Origin Myth of Malakkari', 'Origin of Kurukkalal Bhagavathy', 'The Story of Sea-less Wayanad', and 'Another Story of Sea-less Wayanad'- to explore how landscapes and waterscapes are narrated as acts of making. Unlike many traditions where nature appears as a scenic backdrop or divine fiat, these tales treat nature as technology: a set of procedures that configure land, shrines, and commons.

Three episodes illustrate this procedural view. In travel myths, stones dropped along the deity Muthappan’s route sprout into palms and bamboo, planting corridors that guide movement and provide resources. In shrine-installation tales, volatile forces are pacified through substances- toddy, bamboo, tooth, rock- so that ritual space and settlement can emerge. In “sea-drinking” stories, heroes and kings bind rock chambers to contain salt water, leaving enduring place-names that mark environmental labour. Methodologically, Propp’s functions are used descriptively to tag actions, Ochs and Capps’ framework tracks sequencing and pacing, and performance attention highlights emic names, materials, and place-names. These tools show how plants, liquids, and minerals operate as co-agents in the plot, shaping both narrative form and ecological knowledge. The argument advanced is that Kurichya geomyths define the “natures of narrative” as timing and technique: plots hinge on ecological operations- seeding, diverting, knotting- through which landscapes become corridors, shrines, and territories.

Keywords: Kurichyan; South India; geomythology; landscape narratives; eco-narratology; nature-culture

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The paper tries to focus on identifying the space of a river, the river Brahmaputra, as the ‘other’ for selfhood formation that has been expressed through oral narratives. Methodically, the discussion of spatial selfhood will be studied from phenomenological perspectives.

Paper long abstract

Selfhood is constituted linguistically through lived experiences gathered from the surrounding. Cognition of the experiences drives the growth of recognition of oneself in a given environment. It is also to be taken for consideration that the plurality of conscious phenomena has never been fixed in nature. Perceiving the environment is the most normal ecological process to build an absolute synchrony of humanity and nature in a cognizant way. This concept of achieving selfhood ignites studies into the orality of a community. Selfhood can be achieved only and necessarily in a social milieu and the surrounding culture enters essentially into a process of achieving as well as into the resulting character achieved. (Heard: 1923). The individual experiences turn into an articulation for dissemination of thought orally in multiples ways of narratives. The might and magnanimity of the river Brahmaputra that flows through the North Eastern part of India to reach the sea have constantly inspired the people on its bank to identify the vast body of water with the self of people. The connotation of the river entails discourse spotlighting narratives of space. The paper tries to focus on identifying the space of the river as the influential ‘other’ that has been expressed through oral narratives. Methodically, the discussion of spatial selfhood will be studied from phenomenological perspectives.

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In Sikkim, natural disasters are seen as signs that "our deities are angry," caused by human neglect and improper handling of sacred ritual waste. To maintain harmonious relations with these deities, locals perform rituals and offerings to appease them and ensure peaceful coexistence.

Paper long abstract

In Sikkim, environmental disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, and cloudbursts are understood through vernacular Buddhist cosmologies as consequences of disrupted relationships with local deities. Villagers often interpret these events as "our deities are angry" and as divine punishment linked to human negligence and improper handling of sacred ritual waste. This paper explores the ambivalent status of ritual remnants as both sacred and polluting, whose mismanagement provokes ecological imbalance and divine wrath. Through narratives of fear and retribution, Sikkimese communities adopt ritual care and ethical practices emphasizing reciprocity and spiritual responsibility, providing an alternative to technoscientific disaster models. The study highlights how these beliefs sustain more-than-human relations and reflect a distinctive environmental justice grounded in sacred materiality and care.

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Focusing on cave springs, this paper considers modern water rituals related to the Virgin Mary and ancient nymphs. During the Virgin’s festivals Athenians come to her chapel to fetch healing water. Through a comparison I argue for a continual association of water sources with the sacred in Greece.

Paper long abstract

Focusing on springs within caves, this paper considers contemporary Greek water rituals on which the author has conducted field work since the early 1990’s and their relation to ancient pre-Christian traditions and sites. Formerly springs represented water nymphs, and today springs are dedicated to the Panagia (“the All-Holy One” from Pan: all and Agia: holy) who is the Virgin Mary in her identity as Zōodochos Pēgē (that is, the Life-giving Spring). The water is thought to be particularly healing and purifying during festivals dedicated to the Panagia, such as the contemporary celebration of the “Life-giving Spring” on the first Friday after Easter Sunday. During this celebration Athenians come to the Panagia’s chapel inside an ancient circular spring house that was hewn in the rock on the southern slope of the Akropolis to fetch “life-giving water.” The sacred spring is situated inside a cave over which a church was constructed. Comparing the modern practices with ancient evidence, this paper argues for a continual association of water sources with the sacred in Greek narratives and rituals.

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As part of the Sacred Sites project I interviewed people about the nature sites that they have been using as part of their animistic and spiritual practice. I'm looking at the interview data along with the acoustic measures that were done at the sites later on.

Paper long abstract

Sounds or soundscapes are often connected with the feeling of sacredness and spirituality. In animistic and spiritual practise, we sometimes use sound in nature to communicate with the unseen reality and create meanings in response to the sounds we hear.

In Sacred Sounds project I interviewed eight people of whom majority practices shamanism or uses nature as part of their spiritual practise. I was asking them about the places they felt were important to them and why this was. Many of these places mentioned in the interviews were old, well-known sites that have been used by sages and healers in the past. The historical connection was important to them, but they were constructing multi-layered meanings into the sites. After the interviews we went with the Sacred Sounds research team to measure for example if there was an echo or some other sonic phenomena present in these sites. Through these measures the sites got additional aspects that might explain some of the experiences that people had when visiting these places.

In this paper I will discuss a few of the sites that were mentioned in the interviews along with the acoustic characters that were found in the tests conducted. I propose that some of the supernatural or unusual experiences could be explained to some degree with unusual acoustics.