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E.-M. Glasbrenner, The Gommateśvara Mahāmastakābhişeka Ritual
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purity of the soul, gold for the shine of correct knowledge.27 Whereas the laypeople express their joy in dance and song, the ascetics remain quiet and experience the elaborate worship of their ideal Bāhubali in peaceful meditation.
In this way Indian ritual, as exemplified here with the great Jaina Mahāmastakābhiseka pājā, is a hitherto untouched field of research under the systematic and methodological reflected perspective of aisthetics of religion. In the short span of this article it is of course not possible to give a thorough analysis according to the aisthetics of religion; rather, through the example of this especially impressive Jaina ritual it should be shown here, which possibilities of analysis in the field of South Asian religions are possible by means of this approach through aisthetics. I want to invite scholars of religion to discuss the possibilities of this aisthetic approach to the immensely old and rich field of Indian religious culture, that until now is heavily under-researched and under-represented in academic discourse.
27 I was told this during my field research at the Mahāmastakābhiseka of Dharmasthala 2007 by the Digambara Muni Nijānanda Mahārāj (2007).
