Cosmology I

1. Describe the generation of the cosmos, and what is done in ADF ritual to ensure that the cosmos remains in order. (300 words min.)

Before we generate the cosmos, earlier on, by the mists from the two powers of fire and water, we set the stage for envisioning, feeling, and acknowledging the cosmic structure (Core Order of Ritual Tutorial). Afterward in ritual, what we call out to, what we consecrate and sanctify, comes out of those mists of creation, as it did during the creation of the world. We then acknowledge and envision ourselves being at the threshold of a triple cosmos. This takes the form of land, sky and sea in my hearth culture, but can take other forms in other hearth cultures, such as terrestrial, atmospheric, celestial in vedic paganism (Dangler, para. 28). We then consecrate the hallows in the sacred center, which are symbols that represent cosmic operation.

The well provides potentials and connects us to the realms of the ancestors across the sea by way of the bile. This tree also connects us to the ordered fires in the celestial realms of the heavens as the axis mundi (Serith, para. 5). And the fire of our nemeton carries our offerings up to the gods. Before we consecrate the hallows and conjure the sacred center, we sometimes propitiate the chaotic and unseelie beings called the outdwellers. This has the effect of helping to maintain the order we are conjuring during our liturgy. And finally, we make offerings and sacrifice, strengthening our relationships with the Kindred further establishing cosmic order on many levels. When we bend, break, down, and burn offerings we fulfill and reenact the dismemberment of the Giant Bith, whose name means Cosmos by the Ard Brehon Fintan Mac Bochra(Godwin),

What’s going on here is that we are creating connections and relating with the cosmos mentally in ways that establish and reaffirm a worldview and way of seeing the world. We establish the ultimate liminality, where the constituent parts of the cosmos are pinched together. In my UPG, drawing from the norse, this is where the supernal drops of Goibniu’s mead are found, his immortality drink. By creating these connections and flows in the universe, we ensure the health of the immune system of the universe (Serith). By keeping and recreating this order we attain a social order in our tribe that protects us from the chaos of the wild extra-tribe affairs.

2. Describe the physical items that exemplify the sacred center in ADF ritual, and how each constituent part reflects the vision of an ordered cosmos. (300 words min.)

In ADF Ritual, the fire well and tree are the most common object which symbolize the sacred center, but only fire is required (Council, para. 5), In Roman paganism a shaft replaces the well and a doorway replaces the three. In hellenism a mountain or the omphalos exemplifies the sacred center. But we are a fire religion and fire is always required as we aren’t to invite the spirits empty handed (Dangler).

The well connects us to several things. Firstly it connects us to the void before our world was born, It connects us with chthonic waters deep in the earth that flow from here to the otherworlds, and with the otherworldly isles across the sea. We give offerings to our ancestors and chthonic gods into the well, ground or offering shaft (Thomas).

The fire connects us to and mirrors the spinning wheels of ordered fire in the heavens. Through it, The fire forms a natural protection and circle and establishes order and the dominion of humans (Dangler, para. 54). It’s a nemeton of it’s own, requiring an established perimeter and a center set aside for the heart of the fire itself. It is through the fire that our offerings are transmuted into columns of smoke which rise toward the celestial gods (Dangler, para. 47).

The tree, Crann Naofa, or Bile is the Cosmos itself. In my worldview, all things are hung on it and apart of it, connected to and wrapped by it’s roots. It stretches deep into the core of the earth and has great pillars and branches in the celestial realms. The pattern of rta, or it’s Irish cognate, Fírinne is built into it, stemming from its once seeds, now roots, in the well. These roots drink chaos from the void to provide the tree with a “vivifying drink to be its sap”  (Serith, para. 12). This is 2nd law of thermodynamics being supplied with entropy with which to make complexity, what other folks refer to when they say Cosmos.

3. Explain the divisions of the cosmos in ADF ritual, and why the cosmos is divided in this way. (300 words min.)

In ADF ritual, a triple cosmos is essential. The number of divisions in the cosmos are more important that what they are or who dwells there  (Dangler, para. 23). The most common seen in IE worldview are Underworld, Middleworld, and Upperworld (Dangler, para. 24). This in ADF is called the vertical axis. While these are worlds, some hearth cultures refer to the divisions of the cosmos as realms. Three of these realms in vedic paganism came from the dismemberment of the Giant, Earth, Midair, and the Celestial realms (Thomas, paras. 9-12). While you find 9 realms in norse lore, you’ll find more commonly in Celtic paganism references to Land, Sky and Sea. In an effort to try to reconcile all of these worlds, ADF seems to use 3 worlds and the 3 realms of land, sky and sea of each of those worlds in a combined 9 realm worldview. In what I personally call the lateral axis, the 4, 8 or 12 winds or airts divide each world. In The Settling of the Manor of Tara, the 5 airs of Abundance, Harmony, Wisdom, Battle, and Kingship divided up the world, and the hill of Tara at Uisneach was the cosmological sacred center of Ireland (Hibernicae). In that tale the great sage Fintan Mac Bochra is asked how the land is to be divided up. He says that prosperity in the east, harmony in the south, wisdom in the west, and battle to the north with Kingship in the center (Hibernicae). In personal divinatory practice I use this lateral axis when I cast ogham staves to see what kennings fall where. We often do seidr type journey workings were we climb the pillar staff to the lower realms. Modern Irish pagans and reconstructionists within ADF are rejecting a single Otherworld and view references to the Otherworld as one of many places.

4. Explain why the fire is an essential element of ADF ritual, and what relation it has to the sacrifice. (150 words min.)

Fire is an essential element to our ritual because it’s essential to our cosmology. The sacrifices was given to the gods through fire (Serith, para. 3). Without the fire, there’d just be potential and no Cosmos. Fire is energy and the engine which transforms potential into Cosmos, Without the mythological fire of norse creation, Muspelheim, the Ice containing potentials wouldn’t have ever melted. Without the fire we couldn’t transmute the sacrifice into a form the gods accept. In the Vedic hearths of our Indo-European family, the fire is itself a god or has an indwelling god, Agni who consumes the sacrifice. Agni, the fire, calls forth the other gods to sit upon the sacrificial grass (Dangler). This god is responsible for the sacrifice and as we develop and reconstruct our Indo-European paganism around these concepts that are closer to our proto-indo-european ancestors. In my personal practice we conjure the hallows and ask Brighid to dwell within the Fire and watch over the well as we open the ways to the Otherworld. Brighid is the hearth goddess of Scotland (Daimler “Brigid” 27), a well goddess, and a goddess of smiths and poets (Pander 23). Therefore, we can safely assume she regularly is responsible for both the magic of the forge and the quench waters of the forge, as well as the fire in the head for poets, and the fire in the heart for leechcrafters. As a transfunctional deity, we ask her to prepare the sacrifices for us.

5. Describe the purpose and function of the Gatekeeper in ADF ritual. Explain also who or what makes a good Gatekeeper, along with why they do, with at least two examples of mythological figures that could fill the role of a Gatekeeper and give an explanation of why they can. (300 words min.)

The function of the gatekeeper, Isaac Bonewits once told me, was a ritual role appropriated from Santeria like El Elegua. He brought it into brought in to ADF ritual, due to the abundance of transfunctional psychopomps in Indo-European paganism. In my own culture I can think of 3 deities readily available for keeping the ways between the worlds. Though my grove asks deities to dwell within the well while we keep the gates, others generally ask a psychopomp to open, guard and maintain the gates. In doing so you could petition Morrigan, Manannan, or even Gamal or Camall, the doorkeepers of the Tuatha De Danann(Gray 53). If you use the latter two, be prepared to answer a lot of questions in order to execute your gate spell. But overall, we trust the gatekeeper to guide us as we navigate the divisions of the Cosmos (Dangler, para. 82).

Toward the end of petitioning deities to hold open doorways for us, how do we determine who is a good gatekeeper? If we first look at who is good at crossing barriers, functions, and thresholds, we can find a place to start with. Then we can eliminate chaotic and unfriendly deities. More importantly, if there is any merit to having a gatekeeper at all, we must consider general Indo-European roles of gods in our search. We can add transfunctional deities who cross divisions of what are seemingly immutable social membranes we can add in too. What we end up with is a group including the Morrigan for several reasons, including her as carrion transmuting the warriors bodies to their otherworldly destiny and her being the best candidate for being the unnamed queen of the Othercrowd, a race of liminal people who live in burial mounds. Let's consider Lugh, whose epithets are the Ildanach(skilled in many arts) and the Samildanach(equally skilled in all arts) (Koch 1200). Although we are adding him for his abilities and not a liminal or transfunctional nature, we could consider including him on the basis of ravens being his symbols in continental gaul alone (Mackillop 310). Also, the fact of him possessing Aonbharr, of the One Mane, Manannan’s horse, who can traverse sea as if it were land, can undoubtedly go between worlds as can Lugh’s curragh, called Wavesweeper, also given to him by Manannan, So far we have Lugh and Anu, who is the Morrigan.

Next we can consider Manannan himself. Afterall, he divided up the divisions of the cosmos, is a transfunctional deity, and a pre-existing deity prior to the invasion of the Tuatha De Danann, and moves between the worlds. Finally we can consider Brigid as well, being a goddess of Fire and Water (Daimler “Brigid” 19), goddes of the hearth and forge, we can consider her indwelling to both the fire and the well. In discussions with other reconstructionists, Brigid is the closest Irish cognate to the Vedic Agni. Her cognates in the mediterranean world are Vesta and Hestia. This is important because these are deities who follow an indo-european role of looking after and tending to the hallows. Not only is Brigid the fire, but she as St Brighid tends the fire on the twentieth day out of the other nineteen, days in which her nuns tend her flame (30). We now have Brigid, Lugh, Morrigan, and the danann doorkeepers from the Cath Mag Tuired.

Let’s eliminate them first due to their being problematic and not popular deities, although Camall and Gamal are a fun consideration. We can also eliminate the Morrigan as she carries the dead across liminal spaces, and therefore seem to be a more specific psychopomp, although for her devotees, this may be a perfect relationship one can have with her. We can eliminate Lugh because he only possesses magical means of otherworldly travel which Manannan is the source of. We are left with Brid and Manannan.

Here you have two very good choices, each representing different approaches keeping the gates. One is a psychopomp while the other is a hallows tender who dwells within the gates themselves.

6. Describe the relationship between earth and sky in ADF ritual. (125 words min.)

I don’t personally honor an Earth Mother and Sky Father in my Hearth Culture. Nor do I see a duality in Earth and Sky myself, but I see others do so and other groves honor these deities. The Irish deities aren’t so cut and dry and often the general Indo-European roles are all mixed up. I attribute this to the heavy influence of the local pre-celtic Irish culture. Michael dangler discusses how rta is what holds the heavens and earth apart (Dangler, para. 14). When I think of the relationship of Earth and Sky, I think of trees. Their bark is carbon from the air, and raw elements from the earth organized by a seed into a structure. This is guided by rta and this worldview has helped me see all ‘things’ as relationships or the result of relating. Take the tree away from Sky and Earth, deprive it of the Fire of the Heavens which is light, or water, then the tree will die. We aren’t anything but constituent parts of our environment, the result of thousands of relationships.

The fire of the heavens and waters in the earth are surely split apart by our middle world, however, my concept of the two powers comes directly from the Well of Segais, which contains water that burns like fire because of its purity, and even Boann is burned by it when it burst forth (Guyonvarch note 57). This is where the source of all consciousness flows resulting in the five streams, or senses. In Ian Corrigan’s portal song, I always thought the lyrics “By Fire and by Water, between the Earth and Sky” were a throwback to the 4 wiccan elements. However as I understand it now, folks view the Earth and Sky as places the Fire and Water can be found. So when we do the two powers coming from these realms, we are connected to Earth and Sky, further connecting to all of these relationships in nature that we’ve discussed.

7. Summarize each of the five contexts of sacrifice in Rev. Thomas' "The Nature of Sacrifice" paper in your own words. Explain the effect of sacrifice on the cosmos and on the participants. (100 words min. for each context, 150 words min. for effect.)

Maintaining the Cosmic Order

Giving offerings so that we might receiving blessings in return maintains a general flow of the bio currents of the Cosmos. When we extend this form of worship to all of our allies, human or beast, ancestor or spirit, and god or un-god, all with which we want to have allyship. In the Iron-Age, when the Indo-European cattle cycle was practiced, you were either raid fodder or allies with your neighbors. For the local cosmic order to be preserved, the currents of gifts, praises, boasts, and heralding between allies leads to a positive and productive tribal and local cosmic order. While we have allyship with the beings who maintain the macro cosmic order, we must do our part to keep up outside of the order. Chaos slips into the cosmos from all parts of it if this order isn’t maintained. In the Rig Veda, Varuna sent his servants, his un-gods, what the greeks might call daemons, to observe the humans in making sure they kept up the cosmic order through sacrifices (Dangler, para. 20).

Without the matter and dismembering of the cosmic twin, or Bith in the case of my IE Irish creation story(Godwin), we wouldn’t be able to replenish the cosmos. Without these sacrifices the cosmos becomes depleted (Thomas, para. 17). The world was created by sacrifice and dismemberment, the act of otherworlding of an entire giant. When I say otherworlding, I’m referring to a theme in many parts of Indo-European myth and lore, that act of transformation into an otherworldly power through the death of something in this world, a theme our most basic offerings follow. Offerings are bent, broken, drowned, or poured as to lose all value in this world gaining it in the next (Thomas, paras. 63). In the case of Yemo, Ymir, Purusha or Bith, there was no otherworld yet, and through the death and dismemberment of the first sacrifice, all the realms of the cosmos were born. In this way, sacrifice is a method of transferring power to and from ourselves, the sacrifice, out into the universe and back (Thomas, para. 27).

Delivering Services Through Gifts

The purpose to the majority of R̥gvedic hymns are to be given in praise to a god who, the evoker hopes, might repay him in requested favors and services for the praise and any offerings given (Bereton 7). As allies with cosmic beings, local gods and spirits, and with the earth and our ancestors, we can call upon them for gifts as they have been known to call upon us for offerings. As mentioned, we give so that we may receive, and reciprocity our custom, du ut des or I give so that you may give (Thomas, para. 31). Part of our ancestor’s religion which we bring forward is votive offerings and making the old bargains with Otherworldly beings (Thomas,, para.. 74). In this we give them offerings, make a request and promise further offerings after the request has been granted.

The patron/client relationship as a context for gift giving between patrons and servicemen under their charge is the one I’ve found the most opposition toward in the pagan community when discussing sacrifice with people. Folks just can’t get past the contemporary idea of a contract. But pacts with old gods are essentially that, agreements with terms we and the god must fulfill.

Providing Protection

Offerings for protection are called apotropaic offerings or sacrifices (Thomas, para. 76). They’re offerings we give so that we can be protected. In my own life, at the Imbolc retreat, the very final ritual is entirely an apotropaic ritual and every offering is designed to get the gods attention on our journey home so that we can have the covering of their defense. In our cosmology however, when we know we’ve walked an unvirtuous path or acted without virtue in a situation, guilt might creep in. And much like the eastern ideas of Karma staining your soul and weighing you down. This pollution on the soul is called Pollutio or Miasma depending on what mediterranean tradition you come from and can be resolved through sacrifice (Thomas, para. 83). If Rta, is the path over all evils and ills as prayers to Indra in the Rig Veda suggest, than guilt may be the result of acting without virtue as an internal sign that you’ve not followed the path of Truth and Cosmic Order (Griffith, Book X, Chapter CXXXIII, Verse 6). As a result of this, someone with this condition may want to make offerings and sacrifices for their own relief or protection at minimum.

Community

Another context for sacrifice is the communal shared meal. In the Greece, the only meat eaten was obtained through sacrificial means (Thomas, para. 95). We are lead to believe that animal sacrifice and ritual killing are barbaric practices from the past, but in actuality, most animal sacrifices were indeed methods of ritual slaughter for food. Because of the difficulty of living in the Iron age, waste and rot would have very different meanings to our ancestors. Their standards of food getting old and inedible must have been lower than ours with our current availability and accessibility of food. So group eating would have been the pre-christian solution to food waste. These were occasions with great feasting and joy and was probably the primary protein source for ancient Indo-Europeans who didn’t have butchers nor refrigerators. The rest of their protein diet would have likely come from salting and curing meat, a widely known Indo-European practice written about in Greece(Mauropoulos 14.137) and Persia (Koehler 486).

Mitigating Order with Chaos

The last context of sacrifice we do is mitigating Order with Cosmos. In 2000, Ceisiwr Serith introduced ADF to the idea the Chaos feeds Cosmos and a balance is maintained in a liminal kind of space (Thomas, para. 98). When we look to science for an analogous worldview, we can come to the conclusion that the Cosmos is being fed entropy, or disorder. The is perfectly in alignment with PIE notions of the waters breaking free and the fire of sacrifice or order kicking off the Cosmos. The interesting thing is that we can comfortably know that our ADF worldview has real basis in real Cosmology. When I look at an ordered system, a social group, a traffic light, or anything that involves rules, I can judge how the chaos is going to enter the system overtime. Rules, at a traffic stop for instance, are for mitigating chaos themselves, but sometimes an ordered system can have too many rules applied to it and it dies as a result. The reason for this is that the natural rta of things will shift and adjust often a part of the Cosmos is too ordered and brittle, it breaks in favor of a new portion of the ordered system in its place. An example of this is the smart phone. In the ordered system of telephony, the older models didn’t keep up with the chaining rta of the internet and the way human interact with devices. Older devices fell out of favor.

If we apply this whole line of thinking to our lives and sacrifices, then we are making sacrifices to bring in entropic chaos from the well, void, or seas and we are feeding the world tree as to increase its health and immune system created by flowing bio currents. This helps keep our world between the two extremes that Muspelheim and Ginnungagap represent and help the tree itself attain its sovereign path along its own rta.

8. What does it mean to be "purified" in ADF ritual? Why is purification important? What must be purified, and who may do the purification? (150 words min.)

Purification in Celtic and Irish folklore involves crossing a stream or bathing oneself about the head, hands and feet (Daimler “Brigid” 31). We don’t do it often, once every Imbolc or when needed. This leads me to believe that this is different than pollution or miasma. The closer those former two are to the concept of sin, the further away our Celtic version of the same Indo-European concept will get. The Celtic polytheist community, at least those of it who blog, generally shun the notion of internal pollution which can be cured by sacrifice, but rather, being virtuous to begin with and making atonement to the person offended is the preferred solution. Such atonement is often in the form of a blood price or a fine prescribed by law. That is one of many ways in which we differ. If I kill your brother, my fine is designed to benefit those injured by my actions. Beyond that, for us there is no concept of staining the soul, other than accumulating a, sometimes irreversible reputation of dishonor.

In other hearth cultures, there is plenty of evidence for the need for purification. The Zoroastrians would even purify their own fires (Dangler, para. 58). Now if fire needs to be purified, before it can purify, then a priest of the gods needs to purify themselves before they can purify others, the fire, the ritual precinct. Anything that sets your life events wonky or out of the normal ordered grove would have been considered due to impurity in the Greco Hellenistic world and would need to be purified (Thomas pars 83-88).

 

9. In many rituals we call for the blessings of the Kindreds. Where do these blessings come from, how are they provided to the folk, and why are we entitled to them? (200 words min.)

It is only proper to receive gifts in return for gifts according to the hymns in the Rgveda and Havamal(Stoll, para. 41-42). So when we ask for blessings we are asking those blessings to come from the power, efficacy, and agency of the gods, spirits and ancestors to whom we give our offerings. We are not entitled to these blessings, because we value the concepts behind du ut des, or we give so that you may give. In this conception of reciprocity, we aren’t entitled to anything, though we hope that if we do things properly and gain the favor of these gods we’ll receive their blessings as return gifts. And so we ask the gods to fill our fiery waters with their return flow, or blessings. We call these the waters of life and they are disseminated to the folk via a drinking horn, an oxhorn quaich from scotland (in the case of my grove), or via asperging. Often a personal omen or benediction can be given with the disbursement of the blessings. Sometimes folks in ADF have an alcoholic blessing only and sometimes we provide both an alcoholic version and one non-alcoholic. When our grove fails to provide the latter, we guide our attendees to absorb the blessings metaphysically by just holding the horn or quaich.

Works Cited

Guyonvarc J, Christian et al. The Making of a Druid: Hidden Teachings from the Colloquy of

Two Sages. Rochester, VT, Inner Traditions Bear and Company, 31 Jan. 2002.

“ADF Ritual Frequently Asked Questions.” Ár NDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, Inc.,

https://www.adf.org/rituals/explanations/ritual-faq.html. Accessed 28 Aug. 2016.

Bonewits, Isaac. “Step by Step Through a Druid Worship Ceremony.” Ár NDraíocht Féin: A

Druid Fellowship, Inc., https://www.adf.org/rituals/explanations/stepbystep.html.

Accessed 28 Aug. 2016.

Bonewitts, Isaac. “Changes in The Druid Liturgy.” Ár NDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, Inc.,

https://www.adf.org/rituals/explanations/liturgch.html. Accessed 28 Aug. 2016.

Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Edited by John T. Koch, Santa Barbara, CA,

ABC-CLIO, 16 Dec. 2005.

“Core Order of Ritual Tutorial.” A tutorial for the ADF Core Order of Ritual for High Days. Ár

NDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, Inc., https://www.adf.org/members/training/dedicant-path/articles/coortutorial/index.html. Accessed

26 Aug. 2016.

Corrigan, Ian. “Core Cult in Druidic Rites.” Ár NDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, Inc.,

https://www.adf.org/articles/cosmology/core-cult.html. Accessed 28 Aug. 2016.

Council, ADF Clergy. The Core Order of ADF Ritual for High Days. 2006,

https://www.adf.org/rituals/explanations/core-order.html. Accessed 26 Aug. 2016.

Daimler, Morgan. Brigid: Meeting the Celtic Goddess of Poetry, Forge, and Healing Well. Moon

Books, 2016.

Irish Paganism. ebook ed., Moon Books.

Where the Hawthorn Grows. ebook ed., Moon Books.

Dangler, Michael. “Nine Tenets of Druidic Ritual.” Ár NDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship,

Inc., https://www.adf.org/articles/cosmology/nine-tenets.html. Accessed 26 Aug. 2016.

Godwin, Chris. “A Re-Paganized Invasion of Cessair.” Celtic Paganism, 28 Mar. 2016,

https://www.facebook.com/notes/celtic-paganism/repaganized-invasion-of-cessair/10154058811280789. Accessed 26 Aug. 2016.

Gray, Elizabeth A. The Second Battle of Mag Tuired. United States, Kessinger Publishing Co, 17

June 2004.

Gregory, Lady. Gods and Fighting Men: Part I: Part I Book II: The Coming of Lugh. 1904,

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/gafm/gafm05.htm. Accessed 28 Aug. 2016.

Griffith, Ralph T H. The Rig Veda: Complete. United States, Forgotten Books, 2008.

Hibernicae, Thesaurus Linguae. The Settling of the Manor of Tara - Translation [text]. 2007,

https://www.ucd.ie/tlh/trans/rib.eriu.4.001.t.text.html. Accessed 26 Aug. 2016.

Koehler, et al. Diodore de Sicile, Bibliotheque Historique XIX. Paris.

MacKillop, James. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. New York, Oxford Universtiy Press, 22

July 2004.

Mauropoulos, Theodōros G, and Philologikē Homada Kaktou. Athēnaios Deipnosophistai.

Athēna, Kaktos, 1997.

Newberg, Brandon. “Ancient Symbols, Modern Rights.” PDF.

Pander. Full Text of “Sanas Chormaic. Cormac’s glossary.”

https://archive.org/stream/sanaschormaicco00stokgoog/sanaschormaicco00stokgoog_djvu.txt.

Accessed 28 Aug. 2016.

Serith, Ceisiwr. “Sacrifice, the Indo-Europeans, and ADF.” Ár NDraíocht Féin: A Druid

Fellowship, Inc., https://www.adf.org/articles/cosmology/sacrifice-ie-adf.html. Accessed

26 Aug. 2016.

Stoll, Gro Eriksson. Hávamál. 2nd ed., United States, Vaka-Helgafell, 1 Jan. 1996.

The Fate of the Children of Turenn. http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/turenn.html. Accessed 28

Aug. 2016.

Thomas, Thomas. “The Nature of Sacrifice.” Ár NDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship, Inc.,

https://www.adf.org/articles/cosmology/nature-of-sacrifice.html. Accessed 26 Aug. 2016.

Bereton, Joel P., and Stephanie W. Jameson. The Rigveda: Earliest Religious Poetry of India.

The University of Texas, South Asia Institute, 2014.