Professor Heidrun Brückner, Head of the Chair of Indology at Würzburg University, has been invited by IKOS to lecture on three topics related to cultures of South India
1. Folk Culture and Modernity: The Case of Goddess Renuka Ellamma and her Special Devotees
The presentation introduces the South Indian goddess Renuka-Ellamma and her temple at Saundatti in North Karnataka. The lecture will be illustrated by slides and film clips. Special groups of devotees are dedicated to the goddess and initiated at her temple. Over the last few decades, some of the folk-religious practices in the area have been questioned and criticized as not fitting either the self-image of India as a modern nation or the rapidly spreading middle-class values. The lecture discusses the impact of "modernization" on "folk" or popular religious culture, taking the so-called "Devadasis" and their a...