Revenge, Hatred, Love, and Regret

The Use of Narrative Empathy in a Regional Purana

Bibliographic Data

ID12908353
AuthorsNoor Van Brussel (Ghent University Hospital, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume10
Issue2
Pages193-213
Publication date2017-08-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions of South Asia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-2689 • E-ISSN: 1751-2697
PublisherEquinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/rosa.34409
OpenAlexW2743777780
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited22

This article analyses the character of the demon found in the Sanskrit Bhadrakalimahatmya. This regional Puranic text, pertaining to the narrative tradition of the Darikavadham from Kerala, adopts a specific stance with regard to its main antagonist, the asura king Darika. While the Bhadrakalimahatmya eagerly engages with various Mahapuranas such as the Linga and the Markandeya, the demon that it depicts contrasts with the rather rigid image set out by his counterparts in those texts. Instead, the demon's character is carefully drawn and led through an array of emotional states in a way that tempts the audience to empathize. In this article, I explore this strategic empathy. Perusing the narratives of the Bhadrakalimahatmya, I identify passages that are activated by strategies of affect and show how they construct the character of the demon. In the second part of the article, I attempt to unravel the motives for this alternative view of the demon, relying on frameworks stemming from contemporary studies of narrative empathy and classical Indian theories of aesthetics

Aesthetics · Art · Character (mathematics · Demon · Empathy · Epistemology · Hatred · Implicature · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Pragmatics · Regret · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Emotions and Moral Behavior · History · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

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