UMANI IN GIOCO, GIOCHI DIVINI. SCENARI LUDICI NELLA RITUALITÀ ŚRAUTA DELL’INDIA BRAHMANICA

Abstract

The volume explores the connections between play and ritual in Vedic religiosity through philological analysis of texts and a multidisciplinary interpretative perspective. The śrauta offering rituals represent a complex mechanism of rules and practices strictly regulated by the Brahmins, which also included the performance of various games: chariot races and competitions, dice games, mimicry games, wrestling, challenges, and swinging on swings. Therefore, the ritual scene represented an extraordinary 'playing field' where the performative dimension took on a primary role. The formalization of ritual games reveals an execution based on binding prescriptions describing repetitive sequences and codified modes of participation, with the participants' bodies emerging as central protagonists within the playful settings. They underwent a transformative experience that aimed to weave a structure of meaning whose efficacy, however, was reflected beyond the ritual scene in the maintenance of dharma — the socio-cosmic order, according to Brahmanical ideology. Thus, the victory achieved within the sacrificial area through the players' moves and actions allowed for the establishment, reproduction, and reinforcement of sociopolitical interactions founded on supremacy and hierarchies among individuals, between genders, between classes, between human and non-human animals, and between humans and extra-human beings.