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The Indian religious poet Kabir (d. ca. 1518) often referred to his God using Vaishnava names, names that refer to the Hindu god Vishnu. Kabir also uses names for God that are not specific to Vishnu and even uses Muslim names. Vishnu is said to have been incarnated in several earthly avatars. The most important are Krishna and king Ramachandra. A traditional list names ten avatars. Kabir often refers to these earthly avatars, but he minimizes their importance in various ways such as emphasizing the fact that they all died. Most modern scholars have taken Kabir's use of Vaishnava vocabulary to identify him as a Vaishnava, albeit an unorthodox one. Kabir's rejection of the avatars and his focus on a supreme God without form or personality tends to put this identification in doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviews the arguments of previous publications, and adds new ones, for establishing connections between the Vedic pravargya-complex (the rituals, stanzas, and mythology of the pravargya), the vrātya, and the deity Rudra. These connections include Rudra as Mahāvīra (the epithet given to a deity and a vessel in the pravargya), the sattra setting of the pravargya's paradigm-myth, the motif of the unstrung bow, the theme of exclusion, and the divinisation of man as a goal of the ritual. It is argued that the superhuman status attributed to Mahāvīra is comparable with that of characters celebrated in the ?gveda and Atharvaveda, such as the ekavrātya, brahmacārin, and keśin. The affinity between these figures may be derived from a common ideology, with the roots of some of them to be sought in the Indo-European warrior-society and male rites de passage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until its defeat in 2009, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled numerous civil institutions in the north and east of Sri Lanka. However, the Hindu temples within these territories managed to maintain their autonomy. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Sri Lanka, I contend that central to this paradox was contestation over who had the power to govern the life and death of Tamil subjects. Revisiting the anthropology of sovereignty, I propose an alternative idiom of sovereignty: a vulnerable sovereignty emerging with Hindu deities and based on interdependency and coexistence. I stress that vulnerability does not necessarily make the deities powerless but is the point where the sovereign deity reasserts its power. Finally, I contend that, faced with this idiom of sovereignty, the LTTE learned to embody its logic in its relation with the deities. I argue, thus, that sovereigns can also be thought of outside the notion of absolute sovereign power, bare life, and biopower and instead as sites of vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of Hindu Tantra as an esoteric, transgressive, or otherwise fringe practice has been revised to account for a 'tantric mainstream' in Indian religious life. However, this tantric mainstream has been faintly reflected in the ethnographic record, which would be otherwise well--suited to explore how religious categories are formed in broader social contexts. The religious world of the Bhattacharyas, a Śākta Brahmin family from East Bengal that now lives in suburban Kolkata, evinces some of the challenges in identifying 'the tantric' while suggesting alternative framings of ritual practices. Tapan Bhattacharya, a member of the family in his sixties, not only conducted pūjā s to the tantric goddess Dakṣiṇā Kālī in their household shrine; he also sculpted the clay statues of deities (pratimā) that were used in local community rituals. Tapan's nephew, Souvik, drew upon tantric classifications to explain the relations between mainstream household and community pūjā s on one hand, and transgressive rituals on the other. Tantra, as understood by members of this household, encompassed a much wider set of relations than conventional binaries of tantra/not-tantra have allowed for. Taking their cue, I locate mainstream Śākta Tantra within the broader contexts of their religious world and the categories that make sense therein, while ultimately recognising that this family's framings of contemporary religious culture will be matched by other, competing perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the north Indian state of Uttarakhand, the god Nagaraja, associated with the pan--Indian god Krishna, is an extremely popular deity. However, there exist key disjunctures in how Nagaraja is known, experienced and worshiped in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand by jāgar performers—low--caste ritual specialists, storytellers, and musicians—on the one hand, and high--caste temple priests, on the other. Temple priests were generally dismissive of the practices of the jāgar performers, often re--directing my interest in regional narratives of Nagaraja to the Sanskrit--language Bhagavadgita and Bhagavata Purana (the Gita--Bhagavat), which they saw as authoritative and 'original' sources of oral and vernacular traditions. This interpretation, however, was highly contested by jāgar performers who articulated a non--essentialist, ritually efficacious, rhetorical, oral and vernacular 'textual ontology.' Jāgar performers not only critiqued Brahminical notions of textual purity and essentialism but also assumptions within the academic study of Hinduism about the relationship between vernacular religious practices and textual Hinduism, or the so--called Great and Little traditions of Hinduism. By 'textual ontology,' I describe how different relations to textual authority and knowledge in turn reveal distinctive ways of creating, knowing, and interacting with deities and the world. In challenging priestly and western scholarly notions of text, this article offers a radically different view of textual production, transmission, and authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features theologian Thomas Merton and his religious studies, particularly on the "Bhagavad-Gita" as a testament of freedom and transcendence. Topics include Merton's studies of Eastern religions and philosophies like Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism, his books like "The Way of Chuang Tzu," "Gandhi on Non-Violence," and "Mystics and Zen Masters," as well as "Bhagavad-Gita" as the Gospel of India.

The article deals with a set of practices, ritual procedures, and "attentions" involved with the construction, adorning, and consecration of religious images in an Hindu temple of the goddess Kali in Guyana (former British Guiana), more specifically with those directed to the murtis, that is, sculptured images of Hindu deities. Through the description of the acts involved with the construction of murtis, the article seeks to understand how knowledges, innovations, aesthetic perceptions are (re)created. It's suggested that murtis produce effects that are embodied in bodies and in the lives of devotees, beyond temple and altars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title 'Perspectives on Pilgrimage to folk deities' has been chosen to underline the pattern of the alternative religious spaces and their transformation over the centuries which is not yet explored much. The evolution and shaping of folk cults, associated religious processes, and their incorporation into high ritual Hinduism forms a very dynamic part of the cultural and the religious history of India. My paper explores the pilgrimage to Ramdevra in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, India, where the main shrine of the folk deity Ramdev is located. He is a popular folk deity of the erstwhile untouchable communities and is currently considered a Pan Hindu God in Rajasthan. The historical evolution of the religious pattern of the deity in question has been outside the margins of the institutionalised religion, Hinduism, for a very long time, and only from the nineteenth century on has there been some infusion of the high ritual-religious pattern in its non-Brahmanical origins. The paper traces the dynamism of intermixing of the Brahmanical and the non-Brahmanical traditions at the main shrine at Ramdevra at the time of a large congregation during August-September, commonly referred to as Mela (fair). I make two main arguments in the paper: one, there is a growing influence and assimilation of Brahmanical rituals in the traditions of the Ramdev cult as well as an increased marginalisation of integral non-orthodox traditions associated with it at the pilgrimage site in the wake of the resurgence of Hindutva politics. I also argue that this sacred space contributes to a process of formation of solidarity in a subtle manner amongst the members of the Dalit community, the traditional followers of Ramdev. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As he notes at the outset, the work is a blend of archival and ethnographic research to understand and evaluate the past and present of a form of popular performance called Gambhira that straddles the two border regions mentioned previously. The strictly academic descriptions of the two kinds of Gambhira are interspersed with personal anecdotes that highlight the lived realities of the performers and consumers of this popular performance. While we may wonder about the extent to which the Gambhira performances were truly successful in resisting communalism or even the influence of state-sponsored violence and hate, Aniket De successfully emphasises that Gambhira created shared spaces of care and mutual trust, forging in that sense an emotional community of sorts. [Extracted from the article]

Lord Rudra is the deity mentioned in all four Vēdic texts at multiple places and in multiple forms. Also, Rudra is highly admired in Vēdas, Purānas, and mythology. There is a detailed section in praise of Rudra in the Krsna Yajurvēda (KYV) and Śukla Yajurvēda (SYV) Samhitās and it is termed as the 'Śrī Rudram'. The Mantras/liturgies in the Śrī Rudram describe agriculture crops, plants, trees and botanical and agriculture terminology. In Śrī Rudram, one wild grass, seven cereal crops, four legume crops, one oilseed crop, two creepers and 11 trees are revealed. These plants/trees and their derivatives are the key for the ritualistic activities and their significance is described. Yajña is the subject matter of entire Vēda. The general requirements to perform Yajñas and Yāgas are detailed. The crops mentioned in the Śrī Rudram are being cultivated even today for food and fodder. The present article elucidates the botanical facets of the Śrī Rudram with Mantras and their implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article utilises interviews I completed with Hindu Bengali women in Kolkata, India, concerning their practices of domestic shrine care and worship. I illustrate how the loving relationship women build between themselves and their domestic deities—a relationship women describe as the marker of bhakti—is fomented through their daily caretaking of deities such as Gopāl, the toddler form of Kṛṣṇa found in many Kolkatan home shrines. While male Brahmin priests oversee pūjā in Kolkata's Hindu temples, it is often the mothers, daughters, and daughters-in-laws that are responsible for the care and daily worship of the domestic shrine, where such work is deemed 'a woman's duty' and is assimilated within the domestic responsibilities that Bengali women traditionally undertake. Household shrine care and worship varies but generally consists of acts that one might show to a beloved family member such as feeding and offering water; cleansing, dressing and adorning; gift-giving; decorating a comfortable living space; and waking and putting to sleep. Bengali women explained to me their authority over the domestic shrine by citing their maternal capacity to love to suggested that they were more apt and skilled than men to care for the physically vulnerable deities at home. When noting this, they often mentioned the needs of the child-god Gopāl and their feelings of maternal love and devotion that his presence evokes within them through his depiction as a chubby toddler, crawling on his hands and knees with one hand that is extended outwards; much like a child asking to hold the hand of his parent. This article examines how both the familial necessity of caretaking demanded by the home deity and the imagining of the deity as physically vulnerable promote the development of this bhakti relationship between the female devotee and deity within the contemporary Bengali home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the manner in which Lord Shiva and Sri Ram are represented visually on the book covers of Amish Tripathi's commercially successful Indian mythology-inspired novels. Through its focus on the 'Shiva Trilogy' book covers and the first novel in the 'Ram Chandra' series, I argue that despite the presence of the deity on each cover, the opportunity for darśan to be performed is prevented from taking place. The article makes a connection between this non-performance of darśan and the genre of mythology-inspired fiction, arguing that the latter is itself a textual portrayal of the former in that both the visual (of the book cover design) and the narrative content (of the mythology-inspired fiction) connect to and yet break from cultural and aesthetic traditions. The article considers in conclusion how such new modes of portraying deities talk to (and of) visuality and Indianness within the post-millennial Indian moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecocritical tools offer an opportunity to analyze not only literary texts but also other art forms like visual arts, paintings, and sculptures. More than any art form, it is sculpture that has been used most as a propaganda tool. Kings and leaders have erected sculptures of themselves or their ancestors in great numbers. Even greater numbers of sculptures have been carved with a view to propagating religion. Historians today are discovering the hidden messages in sculptures when they examine them with newer tools of analysis. This paper uses ecocritical tools to analyze a sculpture and propounds an oikic interpretation of the sculpture of Mahishasuramardini at Mamallapuram in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goril theatre is essentially a ritualistic theatrical exercise. It's enacted in ritual context with the help of tableau pageants, demonstrations and theatrical performances based on the life events of Golu Devata (God). The present paper is an attempt to discuss, scrutinize and analyze the theatrical enactments pertaining to Goril theatre in the light of Brechtian theories and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the modern transformations of the temple of the goddess, Kāmākhyā, and her most important festival, Ambuvācī Melā, in Assam. Since at least the eighth century, Kāmākhyā has been revered as one of the most important 'seats of power' or centres of the goddess that dot the landscape of South Asia. However, during the last century, this temple and its festivals have undergone a series of profound transformations—first, in the context of Hindu nationalism and attempts to imagine a unified sacred landscape of 'Mother India', and second, in the context of spiritual tourism and efforts to develop the Northeast region as a new economic powerhouse for the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines two fantasies promoted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and how they apparently function to legitimize his authoritarian regime. We argue that his "Digital India" program, notwithstanding its failures as public policy, has served as a fantasy about national transformation through technology. Secondly, Modi's promotion of the "Mother India" fantasy--personifi- cation of the country as a Hindu goddess--fosters a false sense of national unity at the expense of ethnic and religious minorities and diverts attention from the real social and economic problems facing India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article maintains that the resemantization of Hayagrīva from a minor pan-Indian deity to a major local deity can be traced to Veṇkaṭanātha (traditional dates 1269-1370), who chose Hayagrīva because of his connection with learning and the Vedas. As a consequence of this intentional resemantization, in Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta following Veṇkaṭanātha, Hayagrīva has acquired distinct and standardized traits that are clearly recognizable in all reuses of his image and trope. To conclude, the article shows how Hayagrīva took on a particularly sectarian flavor as an identifying mark of the sub-school of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, which considers Veṇkaṭanātha its founder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper traces the history of religious practices devoted to a particular set of the twelve manifestations of Viṣṇu. These practices are mostly monthly observances (vrata), which were widely known and implemented as evident from their description in various textual sources such as the Baudhāyana Sūtras, Varāhamihira's Bṛhatsaṃhita, the Ṛgvidhāna, the Viṣṇudharma, and appendix passages of the Mahābhārata. They were highly influential even beyond the sectarian borders of Vaiṣṇavism, since they served as a model for the composition of a full calendrical scheme in the Nisvāsamukha, which belongs to the earliest extant Śaiva tantra, the Nisvāsatattvasaṃhitā. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on suggestions consider the innovation of studio or association. topics discussed include framework represented in the form of boxes given by the expert on strategy and innovation, Vijay Govindarajan, which is inspired by the gods of Hindu faith; information on the framework such as managing the present, forget the past and making the future; and Implications of the strategies.