The Evaluation of Consciousness: A Study of Mediaeval Seers and Sages in Indigenous Society in Odisha

The consciousness models articulated by medieval seers in Odisha’s tribal societies offer a powerful challenge to dominant Western paradigms of mind and awareness. In mainstream psychology and neuroscience, consciousness is typically understood as an internal, individual phenomenon rooted in brain processes. By contrast, the Indigenous frameworks uncovered in this study present consciousness as expanded through ritual, ecology, and spirit. It is not confined to the interior of a single organism but is distributed across relationships with land, community, ancestors, and the sacred. This relational and ecological view of awareness suggests that human experience cannot be fully understood without considering the broader web of connections in which individuals are embedded. These findings affirm that the Indigenous knowledge systems of Odisha are sophisticated and valid, both as historical traditions and as contemporary resources for understanding consciousness. They are not primitive or incomplete versions of Western science but parallel, coherent systems that encode complex insights about the nature of mind, self, and the cosmos. Recognizing their validity requires a shift from a single-model approach to a pluralistic perspective, where multiple epistemologies are seen as complementary rather than competing. Such an approach opens space for integrating Indigenous wisdom into academic discourse, therapeutic practice, educational curricula, and policy frameworks.

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