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India is the land of 330 million deities, where religious establishments serve as landmarks for postal addresses, where people unite and divide on the pretext of religion, where every milestone involves religious ceremonies, where every birth, marriage or death undergoes holy rituals, or as Bengal endorses the nation's spirit as "Baro Mashe Tero Parbon" (13 festivals in 12 months). Though the nation speaks of religious diversities, India in the common psyche upholds Hinduism and its practices. In the Western literary bank, India is marked with sacred heritage that draws people to stimulate their spiritual, pursuing solace and the surreal. The legend of Shravan Kumar echoes the existing and common affair of pilgrimages in India that today proves as commercial, in fact as a lucrative sector. This paper endeavors to explore an Indian travel narrative in a pilgrim site through a close textual analysis of Khagendra Narayan Dutta Baruah's Assamese translation of Shanku Maharaj's Bigalito Karuna Jahnabi Jamuna (1962), originally written in Bengali in 1959. The text, though woven as a travelogue in a pilgrim site ventures to celebrate the humane, along with the divine. It evokes the reiterated statement of the journey as primal to the destination. The voice while capturing the ethos of India with all its nuances simultaneously dismantles and in fact challenges the conventional and romanticized vista of travelling, particularly in precarious sites. In India, treading the holy spaces despite usually accompanying itineraries can unravel into adventure as the lines blur between such accounts and otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bengali travel narratives have a rich repertoire of works that focus on travel as pilgrimage undertaken to the Himalayas, especially to the famous holy shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath and to Kailasa and Manas Sarovar. This paper focuses on the changing nature of Himalayan pilgrimage down the centuries. The first part discusses two lesser known pilgrimages to the Himalayas where two monks of the Ramakrishna Mission order, namely Swami Akhandananda and Swami Apurvananda undertake their journey in 1887 and 1939 respectively. Their travelogues were published many years later by Udbodhan Karyalaya, the official mouthpiece of the Mission. In both the narratives we get details of the travails of travelling in those times with very little financial security and material comfort. The second part of the paper discusses issues raised by Umaprasad Mukhopadhyay in his travelogue Pancha Kedar where he tells us how, with changing times, the manner of travelling to the same holy places have undergone remarkable changes. The discussion then focuses upon another observation by the famous writer Narayan Sanyal who in his book Pather Mahaprasthan laments the demise of the original trekking routes of the pilgrims. In 1986, Saroj Kumar Bandyopadhyay visited Kailasa and Manas Sarovar and his narrative describing his month long package trip vouches for the changes that both the pilgrim and the pilgrimage had undergone to the same places almost half a century later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though Banaras has been the most venerated site for Hindu pilgrimage, it developed after its conquests under the Ghurids as a centre for Muslim mysticism as well. Through out the Delhi Sultanate period, Banaras remained an important city for both Hindus and Muslims. The rulers extended patronage to the institutions of both religions. Though Banaras was divided into four localities, the intermingling of Hindus and Muslims brought about a respite for low caste Hindus. The governors appointed to Banaras by the Sultans were on the most part, cultured and learned, patronizing schools and monasteries of both religions. Since in Banaras, the Sufi orders were dominant, and the orthodox ulama did not interfere much, a syncretic culture developed under the Sultanate, led respectively by Vallabhadarya and Kabir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism development is a concept widely embraced by marketers and planners of tourist destinations. However, it has received little attention in the context of religious pilgrimage sites. This paper reports an exploratory case study and contributes to the body of knowledge on tourism development in two cities (Puri and Varanasi) that have been famous for pilgrimage tourism in India since ancient times. More specifically, the aims of the study are to investigate and compare the tourism impact that local residents perceive in these two historic pilgrimage sites and to ascertain how the tourism impact affects overall community satisfaction and tourism support. The results from the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicate that the perceived economic impacts on tourism development support of Varanasi residents is higher than that of Puri, and the same conclusion applies to the connections between the impacts of sociocultural and overall community satisfaction. However, the differences between the economic and environmental impacts of these studies and the overall community satisfaction as well as the impacts on tourism support are not significant. The implications for research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integration of temporary pilgrim facilities with their mobility plan in mega-religious events is a regulatory concern. Existing infrastructures such as traffic terminals operate beyond their designed capacities. Temporary terminals are planned at town peripheries to restrict traffic entry. Intra-city traffic control further leads to longer walking distances for pilgrims. This study aims to develop a feasible alternative terminal location plan, considering travel time in the context of Ratha Yatra; a mega-event celebrated in the historical town of Puri, India. After a primary survey of pilgrims and study of the city road network, an accessibility analysis was performed to develop an alternate proposal. The proposed routes require a considerably lesser travel time. A similar analysis may be adopted in comparable cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anthropologica is the property of CASCA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores the strategies of pandas (Hindu pilgrimage priests) in Vrindavan, relating changes in their trade (pandagiri) to tourism. These changes are the result of the pandas’ creative adjustments to shifting travel patterns that affect their market niche. Utilizing audio-recordings of the pandas’ guided tours, the article first portrays how pandas acquire ritual income from pilgrims by ‘inspiring’ donations of which they get a percentage. While commercial interests and economic conditions have always been crucial in shaping and perpetuating pilgrimage institutions and practices, global tourism has become an increasingly significant factor. Pandas all over India modify their services while the traditional exchange model (jajmani system) wanes. Changing travel patterns have made the guided tour a crucial component in the operation of Hindu pilgrimage. Vrindavan pandas have therefore turned into guides conducting religious sightseeing tours (darshan yatra). These tours are core to the new strategy for acquiring ritual income. To secure clients, pandas build connections with travel agencies and drivers and, in some cases, establish their own travel agencies that combine priestly and tourism services. The pandas’ own understandings of their methods and contemporary travel trends further reflect the dynamic interplay between pilgrimage and tourism in India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates guided tours and guide narratives in the context of Hindu pilgrimage in Rishikesh and Haridwar, two pilgrimage towns in Northern India. Combining participant observation with analysis of audio-recorded guide narratives, it finds that the overall structure of the guided tours, combined with a variety of narratives and rhetorical devises, promotes the benefits and uses of religious objects. Cooperating with retailers of religious goods, guides are retailing religion as they combine and coordinate commercial and religious interests in their tours. Conceptualising pilgrimage and tourism as two separate domains, it is argued that tourist guides and their guided tours have become an integral part of Hindu pilgrimage and its operation in contemporary India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the socio-discursive processes that have enabled the emergence and maintenance of pilgrimage practice by examining the rising popularity of the Ḥaḍramawt valley of southern Yemen as a pilgrimage destination for Indonesian Muslims. Pilgrimage to Ḥaḍramawt mainly revolves around visiting the tombs of Bā 'Alawī (a group of Ḥaḍramīs who claim direct descent from the Prophet Muḥammad) Sufi saints and scholars scattered around the valley. Moving away from ritual analysis, I examine the roles of various actors involved in the production and consumption of pilgrimage. I analyze pilgrimage as a poetic project that frames travel as a transformative process. As a project, pilgrimage can be described as poetic because it hinges on the construction of multiple chronotopes that are juxtaposed, compared, contrasted, and assembled into meaningful alignments. The actors discussed are involved in producing chronotopes of Ḥaḍramawt as a spiritually idealized place, which are made to resonate with mass-mediated chronotopes of idealized Islam circulating among Indonesian Muslims, and contrasted with chronotopes of the modern world. Framed by such a poetic mediation, pilgrims comprehend their actual travel to Ḥaḍramawt as a cross-chronotopic movement that they believe transforms their own selves. The article observes the various mechanisms of attraction and seduction at work in pilgrimage practice, while demonstrating the structural similarities between pilgrimage and other forms of tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I approach regimes of time as a medial question, examining the interplay of different temporalities in ritual and media practices among Hindus in Mauritius and Twelver Shi'ite Muslims in Mumbai. These interactions consist of fluctuations between modernist linear modes of time and suspensions of the distinctions of past, present, and future as the performative outcome of certain ritual practices. Drawing on a broad notion of media and mediality, I trace the links between shifting states in the functioning of media and the oscillation between the different notions of temporality examined. Analyzing their interconnectedness in ancestral politics and religious mobilizations, I show how media practices provide ways to navigate the heterochronies that characterize such politics and activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hindu pilgrimage sites in India always experience tremendous influxes of pilgrims and they are eventually subjected to considerable environmental impact. This article demonstrates how this sacred wetland has been established, and how since then it has been a religious -- urban place which receives thousands of pilgrims daily. The present review is the case study of one of the anthropogenic freshwater wetland ecosystem of viz. Gomti Pond of Dakor Town, Kheda District of Central Gujarat, India. The pond is one of the esteemed and religious Hindu pilgrimage places, associated with exodus of Lord Krishna and his devotee Bodana. Geographically, the place is a regional province, fringed by mainly three districts viz. Anand, Kheda (Charotar) and Ahmedabad, reflected by identical culture, heritage, traditions, rites, and rituals. The present article has been prepared referring to various printed and on-line published literatures, visiting the place several times, and gathering information from the locals by semi-structured questionnaires. Besides, the screening of the entire area was done and a complete scenario was observed. This article delineates how the most sacred town 'Dakor' got recognized as a renowned pilgrimage spot, attracting the people from all over the State and the Country for its splendid historical significance, vivid geographical features, natural habitats, prevalent biotic community, variegated human population, and its holistic scenario. Keeping in mind the future challenges and projected perceptions about Gomti Pond, Dakor, many questions are still to be unanswered about how it is losing its natural habitats and biotic components. The information provided in the form of an article undoubtedly offers an insight for better understanding the environmental aspects to be addressed effectively for its better protection, conservation and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of prasāda as a “gracious gift” in contemporary South Asian religious practice is hard to overstate. As the central liturgical prop at Hindu pilgrimage centers and local temples alike, prasāda is an everyday part of Hindu religious practice. Yet long before the codification of modern Hindu ritual, prasāda was also a foundational concept in Sanskrit literature. Scholarly works have considered prasāda as an element of Hindu ritual from anthropological perspectives and in specialized textual contexts but they have not been integrated together. In this article, I use a multidisciplinary approach to put prasāda at the center of analysis. First, I present some general principles of contemporary prasāda practice illustrated by examples from four Hindu pilgrimage sites, followed by a brief analysis of prasāda's usage in well-known Sanskrit scriptures (selections from the Purāṇas). Taken together, prasāda is revealed to be a foundational concept for making sense of Hindu religious life in South Asian terms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The small temple of Triloknath, also called Re phag, is spectacularly located at the edge of a cliff high above the Chandrabhaga River in Lahul and a popular pilgrimage center for both Hindus and Buddhists. The temple complex tries to fulfill the demands of both religious groups and contains a wide courtyard, decorated with Śiva-symbols as well as Buddhist prayer flags, a liṅgam shrine and a chapel with a huge prayer-wheel. The temple itself possesses a modern anteroom that leads to the old, original part of the monument, namely the sanctum with a square ground plan, of the Nāgara type with a rather massive śikhara and a richly decorated doorway. A careful art historical and architectural analysis of the building reveals that Buddhist elements, such as Buddha-figures in the brackets of the columns and vajra-motifs, as well as the main image, a special form of an Avalokiteśvara, indicate the Buddhist origin of the temple, probably before the tenth century. However, the simple Nāgara structure with the spire, and later additions to the monument, also attract Hindu pilgrims and make the Triloknath temple one of the most famous pilgrimage centres in the Himalayan area. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Krabi Provincial Administrative Organization, in co-operation with the Krabi provincial government (southern Thailand), has since 2006 organized a conjoint street procession of the Chinese shrines in the province, in the course of their Vegetarian Festival, to a prayer at the Krabi City Pillar. Two heretofore unrelated rituals, one a popular Chinese custom, the other a cult of Thai civic religion, with roots in Indian Brahmanism, were thus amalgamated. The conspicuous conjoint procession, bringing together the discrete processions of numerous shrines dispersed throughout the province, transformed the character of the shrines' processions, and superimposed an encompassing Thai cosmography upon the localized cosmic images engendered by the festival rituals in the individual shrines. The spectacular event, featuring pierced or otherwise self-mutilating spirit mediums of the various shrines, made Krabi a potential competitor with the established centers of the festival, Phuket and Trang, for the patronage of domestic and Chinese diasporic devotees; but the ‘gruesome’ and repetitive character of the mediums' performances seems to impair the chances of the conjoint procession of becoming a major attraction for Western tourists. This article relates the context, process and consequences of this appropriation of a popular Chinese custom for a Thai civic cult and discusses it in terms of a comparative framework for the study of change in tourism-related festivals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Many Hindu pilgrimage sites in India experience heavy influxes of pilgrims and are subject to considerable environmental impact. Existing literature on the study of the environment in pilgrimage sites, however, appears to follow two divergent directions: one emphasizes degradation of the physical environment while the other highlights the sacred character of the place and how that is compromised by contemporary visitor flows. The aim of this paper is to move beyond this divergence and to demonstrate how contemporary environmental problems are outcomes related to a historical process of environmental change that accompanies the making of a sacred place. This paper is based on a case study of Vrindavan, a Hindu pilgrimage site associated with Krishna worship in northern India. More than 6million visitors visit Vrindavan annually. Using a historical geography approach and socio-spatial dialectic conceptual framework, the paper explains how this pilgrimage landscape was established in the 15th century, and how since then it has evolved into a religious-urban place comprising more than 5500 temples. Its development is categorized into three periods: pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial. In each period, the socio-spatial fabric showed significant transformations that resulted from the interaction of three critical factors: the influence of local and global socio-economic processes on the cultural economy of pilgrimage, the relationship of this economy to spatial change, and institutional controls that regulated the other two factors. It is argued that the environment of pilgrimage is simultaneously social, economic, cultural and religious and shaped by the need to maintain the place as sacred. This insight is useful for a better understanding of contemporary environmental problems so that they may be addressed effectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article discusses experiences of hardship during Hindu pilgrimages in the Nepalese and Tibetan Himalayas. Pilgrims have to reach their goal by undertaking a journey. The pilgrimage exposes pilgrims to a variety of experiences. The journey's religious experiences are of significance for the ritual arrangements of the pilgrimage. Cognitive theories and the selectionist approach of 'cultural epidemiology' are adopted to offer explanations for the formation of religious beliefs and values associated with travelling experience, hardship and danger during pilgrimage. Specifically, it is argued that the experience of salient emotional events such as hardship are likely to draw upon evolved social exchange intuitions that impose a selective pressure in the cultural formation and recurrence of beliefs regarding religious merits in pilgrimage. It is further argued that social exchange intuitions are a likely source of beliefs in boons and merits, since pilgrimage is already conceptualised as an interaction with 'supernatural agents.' These accounts modify and elaborate former suggestions regarding hardship and sacrificial notions in pilgrimage studies. Thus the presented arguments may be relevant to understanding some of the features of pilgrimage that also seem to recur cross-culturally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the merger of Hindu pilgrimages and the pace of religious tourism in India. Th e interacting and counteracting two sides of human life, sacred and profane, consequently turn into contestation, seduction and diff erence; however they meet at different levels in the formation of what the author terms 'mosaicness'. Drawing on decades of experience in the heritage and pilgrimage fi elds, the author begins by showing the ways in which pilgrimage has been utilized by political groups to assert their own power, and argues that the growth and importance of pilgrimage-tourism may be related to an increased desire among Hindus to assert their identity against an ever more visible Muslim population. Despite such divisions, the author then argues that the creation of mosaicness at important shrines nevertheless may foster communitas, as revealed by the failure of terrorist attacks on Hindu temples in Varanasi to incite inter-religious violence. Last, he uses the case study of Sarnath to argue that the greater value accorded to tourism as an avenue for development reflects a perception that the marketing of pilgrimage sites and religious buildings offers a means of preserving and enhancing the value and visibility of the endangered remains of the past, but often it is marked by a low understanding of a site's historical value and its contemporary relevance. While site managers have implemented revenue-raising plans to preserve the archaeological remains of Sarnath, they neglect to consider the contemporary importance of the site to practicing Buddhists. A better understanding of the multiple meanings of sacred destinations, and the conscious implementation of mechanisms to foster mosaicness, is urged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to explore the scope of pilgrimage as a normative concept as well as a religious practice for the Srivaisnava community from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. The Srivaisnavas are a distinct Vaisnava community in South India confined primarily to Tamilnadu and southern parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The community considers Visnu and his consort Laksmi as their supreme godhead and Ramanuja as their spiritual leader. The Srivaisnavas regard the Sanskrit Vedas and the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, which is a corpus of 4,000 hymns composed by the Alvars, the early Vaisnava saints, as their main scriptures. The present day Srivaisnavas are divided into sects. They are the Vatakalai and the Tenkalai. The Vatakalais represent the Sanskritic tradition. Kancipuram in Tamilnadu is their institutional centre and Vedanta Desika (AD 1268–1369) their spiritual preceptor. They give preference to the Sanskrit Vedas over the Dravida Vedas, the Tamil hymns of the Alvars. Therefore, they are considered brahmanical and conservative in their outlook. The Tenkalais on the other hand, represent the Tamil tradition. Srirangam in Tamilnadu is their centre and Manavala Mamuni (AD 1370–1442) their religious leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pilgrim journeys are popular religious phenomena that are based on ritual interaction with culturally postulated counterintuitive supernatural agents. This article uses results taken from an anthropological Ph. D. thesis on cognitive aspects of Hindu pilgrimage in Nepal and Tibet. Cognitive theories have been neglected in pilgrimage studies but they offer new perspectives on belief structures and ritual action and call into question some of the current assumptions in this research field. Pilgrim journeys often involve flows of substance of anthropomorphic character. Transferring substance in pilgrimage means leaving material at the pilgrimage site and then receiving other materials to take home. Pilgrim journeys imply ritual interaction, intuitions and ideas regarding the management of sin, impurity and evil. They also imply reception of blessings along with divine agency. This paper investigates how assumptions about agency, psychological essentialism and contagion connected to supernatural agents provides an important selective pressure in formation of beliefs related to pilgrimage. This paper shows that the transfer of substances is an operation on ritual instruments. It creates a supernatural immediacy effect in pilgrims, in the sense suggested by Lawson and McCauley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an exploration into the mass Hindu pilgrimage the Kumbh Mela of India, with discussion regarding several elements on the theme of spectacle, publicity, and being seen. Details are given describing the basic foundations of the event within Hindu religious practice, noting the distinctions between the Hindu holy men, or sadhus, and the other pilgrims. Discussion is raised noting the centrality of watching the sadhus within the event but also the problems inherent in Western tourist media intruding by their documentation efforts and the dangers of erroneous misrepresentation which can result.

Central Himalayan Badrinath is an important hub of Hindu pilgrimage since medieval time, and also one of the traditional summer camps of the trans-human Bhotiya tribe inhabiting the region. During the last few decades, some significant climatic changes have occurred in this region. Ecological threat to this high sensitive alpine region has turned to be alarming for two reasons, First, the steady growth of Hindu pilgrimage as well as local settlers ever since 1960's following the opening up of motar-able road, and second, more generally, the global climatic change (e.g. global warming) certainly have affected the ecology of high altitude Himalayan Badrinath. In response to the changing ecology of Badrinath, the local people found to have culturally retorted well by way of devising conservation strategies and sustainable uses of their ever depleting resources. This study, while giving first hand local information from a high altitude Himalayan settlement of Badrinath, once again reiterates the importance of local knowledge and local participation in developing efficient conservation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politix is the property of De Boeck Universite and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates the traditional, but still commonplace, various Hindu religious practices designated by the generic term tīrtha-yātra (pilgrimage). Specifically it seeks to interrogate the widely-accepted supposition that tīrtha-yātrā was popular because it was a less complex form of worship and thus easier for ordinary people to master, and also because it was less costly that other kinds of temple rituals, such as sacrifices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay focuses on how Hindu-inflected popular culture--in this case an amazing amalgam of political rhetoric, religio-historical mythography, a modern Hindi novel, Bollywood aesthetics, and Disney-esque staging--frames a new entry in the 'Ramakatha'. Ram Darshan, a tourist/pilgrimage site recently completed in Chitrakut, Uttar Pradesh, India, re-presents the story of Rama. Ram Darshan is not touted as a 'mandir' (temple) but rather as a place for the sightseer to not only have a 'glimpse of Lord Shri Ram' but also gain 'deep insight into his exemplary life and character'. This essay thus considers how and why the backers of this entertaining and educative venue chose to elaborate Rama's role as the defender of helpless women against the demonic Other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the construction of sacred time and space in Hindu nationalism. It specifically discussed the Hindu shrines of the god Rama in Ayodhya and of the god Shiva/Somanatha in Somnath, West India and their contested histories. Religious shrines are often contested spaces. They may constitute arenas for conflict between different constituencies, between religious specialists and laity, between different groups of specialists. Major pilgrimage shrines, especially, are not at all scenes of the ultramundane tranquillity and peace which religious literature promises pilgrims. Sacred sites are not only contested as markers of space but also as markers of time. They are the physical evidence of the perennial existence of the religious community and, by nationalist extension, of the nation.