Indian Iogues nas fronteiras do conhecível: performance and dissidência between Hindu siddhas

Abstract

A bill moved by the Indian congress at the dawn of the rising Nationstate, intended to purge the ambiguous elements among renouncers, inspires an initial debate on discourses and procedures regarding the registration and control of the institution of renunciation in India. The article argues that “untamed” asceticism suffered political and conceptual blackboxing throughout diverse historical situations, though it continues to offer a legitimate lived rhetoric of empowerment and emancipation. Based on Shiva and Dattātreya as mythical models and on ethnographic examples among nāgā sādhus who perform austerities, the text explores the concept of siddha, a yogi who has acquired creative powers. The articles suggests that the heterodox ascetic’s trajectory be seen as empowering, in accordance to its siddha and tantric cognitive matrix, and that the virtuoso’s performance “in the word” be understood as a dissident language in its own right.