Popular and Folk Hinduism

by

Frank Korom

• LAST REVIEWED: 28 April 2017
• LAST MODIFIED: 27 January 2011
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399318-0041

Introduction

As a number of scholars have noted, Hinduism is difficult to define because people tend to see it as one religion. It is better, however, to see it as a plurality of practices within a larger civilizational complex (see General Overviews). “Hindu” is a Persian variant of Sanskrit Sindhu, the Indus River, so by extension it applies to the people of India as well. For more than one thousand years, Hindu simply meant “Indian,” but after 712 CE it was used to distinguish Indians who were not Muslims, among whom many religions were recognized as being practiced. Europeans, however, used it for all Indians practicing a common faith, not simply to mean “Indian.” Thus, the Europeans (i.e., British) added the “ism” to Hindu to imagine a common religion that never existed as a single “religion” in the minds of the Indian people until relatively recently. In the medieval period, from 1548 CE onward, the Portuguese gentio, corrupted as gentoo in English, was used to refer to “heathens” (meaning Hindus)—that is, non-Christians. In other words, anyone who was not “Abrahamic” (that is, “people of the book”) was seen as a Gentoo of one form or another. Hindus were, therefore, an Indian “sect” of heathens. “Hindu” came to replace Gentoo by the 18th century, but the implication was the same: one heathen religion. Nineteenth-century scholars divided Hinduism and Brahmanism, where Brahmanism was associated with an “intellectual,” classical tradition, while Hinduism was associated with superstitious, “folk” traditions. The object here is to focus on the layers of Hinduism sometimes overlooked by Indologists, namely those that have been labeled “folk” and “popular.” These two terms are elaborated and problematized here, but they generally refer to those aspects of the Hindu tradition that exist in dynamic tension with the so-called Sanskritic traditions based on textual authority.

General Overviews

According to Stietencron 1989, “Hinduism is a civilization formed and enriched by a group of Hindu religions that developed a particularly liberal way of coexistence and interaction between themselves” (p. 16). Von Stietencron feels it is better to speak of Hinduism in the plural, allowing us to take into account polytheistic, monistic, and monotheistic variants of the tradition. Frykenberg 1989 and Thapar 1985 make similar arguments to that in Stietencron 1989. Smith 1987, on the other hand, argues that the authority of Veda is central to defining Hinduism.

• Frykenberg, Robert E. “The Emergence of Modern ‘Hinduism’ as a Concept and as an Institution: A Reappraisal with Special Reference to South India.” In Hinduism Reconsidered. Edited by G. D. Sontheimer and H. Kulke, 29–49. New Delhi, India: Manohar, 1989.

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  Focuses on the concept of “Hinduism” being a product of modernity, drawing specifically on data from southern India.

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• Smith, Brian K. “Exorcising the Transcendent: Strategies for Defining Hinduism and Religion.” History of Religions 27.1 (1987): 32–55.

  DOI: 10.1086/463098Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Attempts to argue that while scholars disagree on what Hinduism is, there is still a need to define the object of study. Hence, Smith focuses on the authority of the Vedas as a starting point for defining Hinduism.

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• Stietencron, Heinrich von. “Hinduism: On the Proper Use of a Deceptive Term.” In Hinduism Reconsidered. Edited by G. D. Sontheimer and H. Kulke, 11–28. New Delhi, India: Manohar, 1989.

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  Emphasizes the plurality of traditions that make up what is often perceived to be a monolithic religion, mainly due to Western biases.

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• Thapar, Romila. “Syndicated Moksha.” Seminar 313 (1985): 14–22.

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  Suggests that the colonial construction of Hinduism was created to allow for manipulation. This “new” Hinduism was Brahmanical in ideology and upper caste in ritual orientation, so as to allow for it to look more Christian in theory and practice.

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General Terminology

Terminology is a vexing problem both for the study of religion in general and for the study of Hinduism specifically. Moreover, the debate over what sorts of terms to use to describe a small community’s traditions has been going on for quite some time. Bell 1989, Davis 1974, and Davis 1982 elaborate on the term “popular.” O’Neil 1986 emphasizes the shift from “popular” to “local,” and Yoder 1974 attempts to provide a comprehensive definition of “folk.” A variety of binaries have been introduced over the years to separate out the layers of the tradition: classical/folk, official/unofficial, great/little, transcendental/pragmatic, domestic/public, local/trans-local. These are just some of the dichotomies that have been proposed over the years. By the time of Ananda Coomaraswamy’s discussion of marga (highway) and desi (byway), he had already proven that such distinctions simply do not hold up in the Indic context (Coomaraswamy 1937). The most reasonable proposition has been put forth in Christian 1981, a study of 16th-century Christian Spain in which the author refers to local religion as a “complex of practices and beliefs woven around the special quality of a place in question; its sacred sites, indigenous conceptions of deity, and idiosyncratic rituals that are firmly grounded in a community’s own sacred history” (p. 3). Eickelman 1982 adds further clarity to studying the local with an eye on global trends. Primiano 1995 introduces the alternative term “vernacular” to discuss the local. In this section, some key essays that have engaged in the terminological debate both in India and elsewhere are highlighted.

• Bell, Catherine. “Religion and Chinese Culture: Toward an Assessment of ‘Popular Religion.’” History of Religions 29.1 (1989): 35–57.

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  By way of reviewing a number of then recent studies of Chinese religion, Bell wonders if there is a major paradigm shift occurring in the study of religion, or if we are simply replacing one set of terms with another, without advancing scholarship and transcending “persistent assumptions” (p. 35). She concedes that while a radical revolution in thought may not be emerging, there is certainly a promising new horizon the field is moving toward.

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• Christian, William, Jr. Local Religion in Sixteenth Century Spain. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.

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  Christian provides a remarkable social history of religious practices and beliefs, in which he connects religion with locality. His model serves as a strong reminder that geography must play a central role in the study of religions.

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• Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. “The Nature of ‘Folklore’ and ‘Popular Art.’” Indian Art and Letters 11.2 (1937): 76–84.

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  Discussing a variety of evidence and expressive forms in India that could be labeled “folk,” “popular,” or “classical,” Coomaraswamy convincingly concludes “the point that we want to bring out is that the folk material, regardless of our actual qualifications in relation to it, is actually of an essentially marga (highway) and not a desi (byway) character, and actually intelligible at levels of reference that are far above and by no means inferior to those of our ordinary contemporary ‘learning’” (p. 82).

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• Davis, Natalie Z. “Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of Popular Religion.” In The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion: Papers from the University of Michigan Conference. Edited by H. A. Oberman and C. Trinkhaus, 307–336. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1974.

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  Davis challenges the distinction between folk and elite Christianity as well as the distinction between magic and religion. She proposes “popular religion” as a concept that moves us away from these dichotomies.

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• Davis, Natalie Z. “From ‘Popular Religion’ to ‘Religious Cultures.’” In Reformation Europe: A Guide to Research. Edited by Steven Ozment, 321–343. St. Louis, MO: Center for Reformation Research, 1982.

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  Commenting on the term “popular” some years after her earlier article, Davis argues that it had lost analytical rigor, and she proposes yet another alternative for the study of local religion that places it in the broader context of local culture. To this end, she proposes the term “religious cultures” to replace “popular religion.” Her notion of religious cultures is very akin to Christian’s view of local religion (Christian 1981).

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• Eickelman, Dale F. “The Study of Islam in Local Contexts.” Contributions to Asian Studies 17.1 (1982): 1–16.

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  Although Eickelman is vexed by the problem of how to study plurality within the purported unity of global Islam, the questions he asks about the relationship between local practice and normative tradition apply equally well to the study of Hinduism. He cautions against taking an unnecessarily localized view, because it poses the danger of ignoring or overlooking the larger forces within religious systems that impinge upon local practice.

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• O’Neil, Mary R. “From ‘Popular’ to ‘Local’ Religion: Issues in Early Modern European Religious History.” Religious Studies Review 12.3–4 (1986): 222–226.

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  The author surveys a number of key texts to trace the movement away from the use of “popular” toward the adoption of “local.”

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• Primiano, Leonard N. “Vernacular Religion and the Search for Method in Religious Folklife.” Western Folklore 54.1 (1995): 37–56.

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  Growing weary of debates over dichotomies in the late 1980s, a number of scholars started to refer to “vernacular” forms of practice, borrowing the term from material culture studies. Here, Primiano makes the case using the term to discuss what was previously known as “folk religion.”

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• Yoder, Don. “Toward a Definition of Folk Religion.” Western Folklore 33.1 (1974): 2–15.

  DOI: 10.2307/1498248Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A recognized scholar of folk religion identifies folk religion as existing side-by-side but in tension with mainstream religion in this highly influential and widely cited article.

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Terminology Applied to Hinduism

Just as scholars have argued about the appropriateness of certain terms for the general study of religion, so too have scholars of Indian religions debated the pros and cons of many of the terms they use. This section presents references to important works that touch on the terminological debate with special reference to Hinduism. Blackburn 1985 emphasizes deified heroes as a basis for defining “folk” Hinduism, while Sontheimer 1987, Mandelbaum 1964, and Mandelbaum 1966 focus on the pragmatic and direct nature of folk practice. McDaniel 2003 looks at the developmental patterns of folk deities. Korom 1997a and Korom 1997b point out the role of scholars in creating the image of folk deities and contrast it with indigenous understandings, while Groesbeck 1999 emphasizes the interconnected nature of “folk” and “classical.” Hanchett 1978 provides a useful review of different schools of thought.

• Blackburn, Stuart H. “Death and Deification: Folk Cults in Hinduism.” History of Religions 24.3 (1985): 255–274.

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  The author explores what “folk Hinduism” is, pointing to two distinct factors that characterize the folk layer: localization and middle- to low-caste status. He argues that while death is a concern in Hinduism from the Vedas onward, it is in folk cults that the dead actually become deified to form a “cult.”

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• Groesbeck, Rolf. “‘Classical Music,’ ‘Folk Music,’ and the Brahmanical Temple in Kerala, India.” Asian Music 30.2 (1999): 87–112.

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  The author provides a useful contribution to the breakdown of the great/little and classical/folk divide through an analysis of how temple music draws on both traditions without making any distinction between the two.

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• Hanchett, Suzanne. “Recent Trends in the Study of Folk Hinduism and India’s Folklore.” Journal of Indian Folkloristics 1.1 (1978): 40–54.

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  Hanchett provides a valuable overview of the resurgence of folk culture studies among Western scholars, arguing that three distinct approaches have developed: sociological, conceptual, and structuralist.

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• Korom, Frank J. “‘Editing’ Dharmaraj: Academic Genealogies of a Bengali Folk Deity.” Western Folklore 56.1 (1997a): 51–77.

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  Traces the history of scholarship on one local deity in West Bengal to suggest that identifying a deity as folk or classical is nothing more than an academic construct.

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• Korom, Frank J. “Oral Exegesis: Local Interpretations of a Bengali Folk Deity.” Western Folklore 56.2 (1997b): 51–77.

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  An elaboration on Korom 1997a, explaining how locals who worship the deity Dharmaraj provide an alternate version of him, one that is in contrast to the academic construct discussed in the previous essay.

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• Mandelbaum, David G. “Introduction: Process and Structure in South Asian Religion.” In Religion in South Asia. Edited by Edward B. Harper, 5–20. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964.

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  Mandelbaum famously divides Hinduism into two complexes here. The first is transcendental and is based on long-term welfare, ultimate goals, universal gods, Sanskritic texts, priests as ritual technicians, and high caste. The other is pragmatic and based on personal and local exigencies, individual welfare, proximate means, local deities, vernacular folklore, shamans who become possessed, and usually lower-caste status.

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• Mandelbaum, David G. “Transcendental and Pragmatic Aspects of Religion.” American Anthropologist 68.5 (1966): 1174–1191.

  DOI: 10.1525/aa.1966.68.5.02a00050Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Here, Mandelbaum argues that Indian villagers separate transcendental functions from pragmatic ones, each of which are assigned different deities and ritual specialists. However, the two complexes are taken to be complementary.

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• McDaniel, June. Making Virtuous Daughters and Wives: An Introduction to Women’s Brata Rituals in Bengali Folk Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003.

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  Argues that folk religion is practical and utilitarian in nature. Emphasizing the intersection of story and ritual practice, McDaniel focuses on the way that vows (vratas) and the performances that accompany taking them function to socialize girls into the local tradition and train them to become “virtuous” women. Her discussion of the careers of local deities is also helpful in understanding the rise and decline of gods and goddesses.

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• Sontheimer, Günther-Dietz. “Rudra and Khandoba: Continuity in Folk Religion.” In Religion and Society in Maharashtra. Edited by M. Israel and N. K. Wagle, 1–31. Toronto: Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto, 1987.

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  Defines a folk deity as “a god who is directly accessible to his followers, exists on earth ‘here and now,’ and not preponderantly located in a distant & heaven” (p. 1).

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Cult

The term “cult” often carries pejorative connotations in the West, but it is used here in a value-free way to discuss highly localized phenomena that make up the core of folk and popular practices and to provide for the possibility of linking variegated local practices to others throughout the subcontinent to explicate the highly differentiated yet unified nature of Hindu practice. Dasgupta 1976 and Sarkar 1917 look at a variety of Bengali cults from a historical and textual perspective, while Niyogi 1987 and Sarkar 1985 provide ethnographic perspectives on the same region. Preston 1985 focuses specifically on the Hindu Goddess in Orissa, and Sontheimer 1974 explores pastoral deities of Maharashtra. Lastly, Hiltebeitel 1988 and Hiltebeitel 1991 together provide a highly detailed account of Draupadi.

• Dasgupta, Shashi Bhusan. Obscure Religious Cults. 3d ed. Calcutta, India: Firma KLM, 1976.

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  This was originally the author’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Calcutta. He explores in depth the medieval Bengali cults that developed alongside vernacular epics to elevate local deities to a high local status in the shadow of increasing Islamization, especially the Sahajiya, Dharma, and Baul groups. Originally published in 1946. A complement to Sarkar 1917.

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• Hiltebeitel, Alf. The Cult of Draupadi. Vol. 1, Mythologies: From Gingee to Kuruksetra. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

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  Hiltebeitel was the first to explore the traditions surrounding Draupadi in Tamil Nadu. This first volume goes into depth on the “double mythology” of the goddess in her “primal temple” at Gingee in the south, then the other body of narratives surrounding her in Kuruksetra in the north. It is an exemplary study of the relationship between vernacular and classical narrative traditions.

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• Hiltebeitel, Alf. The Cult of Draupadi. Vol. 2, On Hindu Ritual and the Goddess. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

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  In the second volume of his epic work, the author focuses on rituals associated with Draupadi in her form as supreme goddess. His impressive survey demonstrates the myriad forms that ritual practice can take as it is shaped by locality.

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• Niyogi, Tushar K. Aspects of Folk Cults in South Bengal. Calcutta, India: Anthropological Survey of India, 1987.

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  This anthropological study examines the intersection of shastric (classical) and laukik (folk) practices in southern Bengal, with an emphasis on Panchanana, Shiva, and Dakshin Rai. With an emphasis on the aesthetic and expressive dimensions of these traditions, Niyogi convincingly argues that the local and trans-local are inseparable.

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• Preston, James J. Cult of the Goddess: Social and Religious Change in a Hindu Temple. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 1985.

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  Based on fieldwork conducted in the early 1970s in Cuttack, Orissa, this brief study focuses on the Chandi Temple in the town, with a particular emphasis on how it has survived as a local pilgrimage center due to its strategic location “at the confluence of several socio-religious streams of contemporary Hinduism” (p. v).

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• Sarkar, B. K. The Folk-Element in Hindu Culture: A Contribution to Socio-Religious Studies in Hindu Folk-Institutions. New Delhi, India: Oriental Books Reprint Organization, 1917.

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  Sarkar was an encyclopedist who saw an underlying unity to Hinduism rooted in folk practices, especially in modes of local organization and practice. This approach is rather outmoded, but the work provides valuable data for future analysis and it complements Dasgupta 1976.

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• Sarkar, R. M. Regional Cults and Rural Traditions: An Interacting Pattern of Divinity and Humanity in Rural Bengal. New Delhi, India: Inter-India, 1985.

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  Looks at the relationship between religion and region, between village and city, between shrines and villages, and between humans and deities, as well as the role of local deities in healing practices. Sarkar uses the terms “village deity” and “folk deity” interchangeably.

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• Sontheimer, Günther-Dietz. Birobā, Mhaskobā und Khaṇḍobā: Ursprung, Geschichte und Umwelt von pastoralen Gottheiten inMahārāsṭṛa. Wiesbaden, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1974.

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  This is Sontheimer’s monumental study of pastoral divinities in Maharashtra, to which he dedicated his entire career. Like so many classically trained fieldworkers, he pays close attention to the relationship between textual and contextual features of the traditions surrounding these deities.

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Epics

Epics, both oral and written in the vernacular, have attracted considerable attention from scholars of India, since their recitation and performance are often associated with cultic rituals for localized deities. Of all the oral genres present in India, the epic has been studied to the greatest extent. Some of the more significant studies are presented here. Blackburn and Claus 1989 provides comparative case studies of oral epics, while Blackburn 1988 and Blackburn 1996 focus on specific epic-performing traditions in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, respectively. Claus 1978 examines the importance of oral epics in understanding local cultic practices in Tulu Nad, as does Honko 1998. Frasca 1990 explores a Mahābhārata performing tradition in South India, while Smith 1990 looks at a North Indian Mahābhārata tradition. Lutgendorf 1991 considers an important Rāmāyaṇa tradition in North India. Finally, Hiltebeitel 1999 provides an in-depth comparative treatment of epics in the Indian tradition.

• Blackburn, Stuart H. Singing of Birth and Death: Texts in Performance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.

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  Blackburn, one of the early scholars to employ a performance approach to the study of Hindu expressive culture, presents here his doctoral work on the Tamil bow song tradition, which recounts the intertwined histories of local gods and goddesses, the singing of which often results in possession when performed correctly and intensely. Blackburn’s emphasis is on the interrelations between narrative and ritual.

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• Blackburn, Stuart H. Inside the Drama-House: Rama Stories and Shadow Puppets in South India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

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  Here, Blackburn looks at the multisensory production of Rama stories in Kerala. He emphasizes that oral exegesis on the narrative is as integral to this performance tradition as is the Rama story itself. Also significant is his discussion of the political uses of the text to emphasize balance and harmony at a time when the Hindu right has radicalized the text.

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• Blackburn, Stuart H., and Peter J. Claus, eds. Oral Epics in India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.

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  This volume was the first to draw extended attention to the importance of oral epics in Hinduism. Nine chapters present data and analysis on roughly twenty-three regional epic traditions in India.

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• Claus, Peter J. “Oral Traditions, Royal Cults and Material for the Consideration of the Caste System in South India.” Journal of Indian Folkloristics 1.1 (1978): 1–25.

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  Claus’s focus is on the epic literature in Tulu, consisting of legends associated with local spirits and deities. He argues that because of their ancient nature, they can contribute greatly to the reconstruction of cults mentioned in inscriptions and literary references. He concludes that the social ideology contained in these oral sources forms the basis of the local caste system.

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• Frasca, Richard A. The Theatre of the Mahabharata: Terrukkuttu Performances in South India. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

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  Frasca, who spent a long period in the company of performers of this genre, demonstrates that these dramatic performances from rural Tamil Nadu are integral to the ritual and festival complexes surrounding the vernacular version of the epic of the Pandavas.

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• Hiltebeitel, Alf. Rethinking India’s Oral and Classical Epics: Draupadī among the Rajputs, Muslims, and Dalits. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

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  In this brilliant study, the author argues that to understand how regional martial epics rethink India’s classical epics, one must explore Rajput culture as well as the Rajput–Muslim interface. Regional versions of the Mahabharata share things in common that none share with the Sanskrit text. He provocatively suggests that regional epics do not “borrow” from the classical versions but rather employ “reemplotment” as a localizing strategy.

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• Honko, Lauri. Textualising the Siri Epic. Helsinki, Finland: Academia Scientarium Fennica, 1998.

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  An in-depth analysis of one specific epic from southern Karnataka, with an emphasis on the repertoire of one singer. The focus is on how an oral epic is produced and textualized in specific contexts.

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• Lutgendorf, Philip. The Life of a Text: Performing the Rāmcaritmānas of Tulsidas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

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  In this pioneering study, Lutgendorf explores the social life of the most beloved vernacular version of the Rāmāyaṇa in North India. By emphasizing the multiple uses the text has, and how its actualization in performance is what counts, he reminds us that the text is not the thing.

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• Smith, John D. “Worlds Apart: Orality, Literacy, and the Rajasthani Folk-Mahābhārata.” Oral Tradition 5.1 (1990): 3–19.

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  Smith argues that orality is a strength rather than a weakness when it comes to the performance of regional epics, since Hindu ritual has emphasized and valued orality in ritualistic performances from the Vedas onward. Available online.

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Festivals

Folk and popular religion is most apparent in the public rituals and festivals that are pervasive throughout the Indian subcontinent as part of annual cycles of worship and festivity. It is precisely in these large public spaces where popular practice is most visible. Welbon and Yocum 1982 provides a valuable anthology of essays in the comparative spirit. Bhatnagar 1988 reports on a specific festival in Rajasthan, Korom 1999 and Ostor 1980 focus on Bengali festivals, Hanchett 1988 reports on Karnataka, Tewari 1982 emphasizes the power of assimilation during public spectacles, and Marriott 1966 draws attention to the antinomian quality of a specific festive occasion.

• Bhatnagar, Manju. “The Monsoon Festival Teej in Rajasthan.” Asian Folklore Studies 47.1 (1988): 63–72.

  DOI: 10.2307/1178252Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Teej refers to the monsoon festival, during which Parvati is worshipped through dancing, singing, storytelling, putting on new clothes, playing, and cooking festive food. Bhatnagar demonstrates the gendered nature of the occasion by exploring the customs associated with this most important Rajasthani festival.

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• Hanchett, Suzanne Coloured Rice: Symbolic Structure in Hindu Festivals. New Delhi, India: Hindustan, 1988.

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  Through an exploration of folk festivals in two villages in Karnataka, Hanchett shows that the symbolic use of colored rice, flowers, and food “choreographed” around vessels of water provides conceptions of gender, kinship, life, and death.

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• Korom, Frank J. “‘To Be Happy’: Ritual, Play, and Leisure in the Bengali Dharmarāj pūjā.” International Journal of Hindu Studies 3.2 (1999): 113–164.

  DOI: 10.1007/s11407-999-0001-4Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Explores the intimate relationship among ritual, play, and leisure in a local festival held annually in a West Bengali village, showing that religious festivals are often scheduled at times when labor is in less demand, thereby allowing locals to relax and have fun, yet achieve religious merit.

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• Marriott, McKim. “The Feast of Love.” In Krishna: Myths, Rites, and Attitudes. Edited by Milton Singer, 200–212. Honolulu, HI: East-West Center, 1966.

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  This famous article describes and analyzes the anthropologist’s experience playing during the spring festival of Holi in a North Indian village, in which reversals of hierarchy and other anomalies are enacted.

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• Ostor, Akos. The Play of the Gods: Locality, Ideology, Structure, and Time in the Festivals of a Bengali Town. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

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  Through an investigation of the festivals for Durga and Shiva in the Bengali town of Vishnupur, Ostor demonstrates that festivals are not simply about worship; rather, the sequencing and ritual acts manifest a cosmological scheme in which the respective deity is made visible, living, and accessible to humans. This process of “deity creation” is elaborated through the categories listed in the subtitle of the volume.

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• Sontheimer, Gunther-Dietz. “Dasarā at Devaragudda: Ritual and Play in the Cult of Mailār/Khaṇḍobā.” South Asian Digest of Regional Writing 10.1 (1981): 1–28.

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  In this seminal article, the late German anthropologist makes an important connection between the concept of play and ritual in local Hindu practice. The concept is pervasive in many parts of India, but Sontheimer was one of the first to explore it systematically.

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• Tewari, Laxmi G. “The Festival of Jhoñjhī-Tesū.” Asian Folklore Studies 41.2 (1982): 217–230.

  DOI: 10.2307/1178124Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Tewari demonstrates the way multiple traditions and social groups get assimilated by participating in public festivals. The highly regional festival of Jhoñjhī-Tesū celebrates the marriage of a folk hero (Tesū) to a girl named Jhoñjhī, during which all castes participate in the singing of a special repertoire of songs for the occasion.

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• Welbon, Guy R., and Glenn E. Yocum. Religious Festivals in South India and Sri Lanka. New Delhi, India: Manohar, 1982.

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  An important collection of studies focusing on the role of festivity in South India, bringing together textualists and anthropologists to explore the multiple dimensions of temple festivals.

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Orality

Orality is central to religious practice in India, especially in Hinduism. The emphasis on orality is pervasive not only in folk and popular practice but also in classical Hinduism, since the Vedas were meant to be recited. The oral/aural dimension of Hinduism is thus a theme that needs to be studied more closely, as folklorists such as Frank Korom have reminded us (Korom 1996). Brown 1986 and Coburn 1984, arguing from a textual perspective, similarly insist that orality is an important factor in Indian religions. Green 2004 emphasizes the competitive nature of oral narratives. Deva 1989, Flueckiger 1996, and Srivastava 1974 emphasize the intertextual nature of oral genres. Narayan 1989 explores the significance of storytelling in religious instruction, while Korom 2006 looks at the interrelationship between orality and visuality.

• Brown, C. Mackenzie. “Purana as Scripture: From Sound to Image of the Holy Word in Hindu Tradition.” History of Religions 26.1 (1986): 68–86.

  DOI: 10.1086/463061Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Brown argues for the centrality of the word in ancient Vedic religion, saying that there was a suspicion of visuality, so that even an alphabet which would provide visual access to Vedic revelation was regarded as defiling. But he goes on to observe that the suspicion of the eye was reconciled in the Puranas, where sight and sound merge, even if not always harmoniously.

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• Coburn, Thomas B. “‘Scripture’ in India: Towards a Typology of the Word in Hindu Life.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 52.3 (1984): 435–459.

  DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/52.3.435Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An important meditation on the concept of scripture as a written entity and its relationship to orality in the Hindu tradition. Coburn concludes with five typological formulations. He then posits condensing them into two categories: scripture and story, the former being “sacramental,” the latter “didactic” (p. 453).

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• Deva, Indra. Folk Culture and Peasant Society in India. Jaipur, India: Rawat, 1989.

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  Provides data on the folk literature of the Bhojpuri-speaking regions of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, arguing that oral tradition is a valuable source of sociological information and should not be ignored in the study of social change.

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• Flueckiger, Joyce B. Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996.

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  The author looks at the intertextual nature of performance in the Chhattisgarh region of Madhya Pradesh by exploring different performance genres. Her emphasis on the gendered nature of performance and her close attention to the nuances of context make this study noteworthy.

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• Green, Nile. “Oral Competition Narratives of Muslim and Hindu Saints in the Deccan.” Asian Folklore Studies 63.2 (2004): 221–242.

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  Looks at how narratives concerning competition between Hindus and Muslims in Aurangabad reveal competition not between the two religions per se, but between saintly cults inhabiting the same local landscape. Green’s point is that oral narratives play an important role in the localization of religious traditions.

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• Korom, Frank J. “Oral Canon Formation in a Bengali Religious Community.” Suomen Antropologi 21.2 (1996): 12–22.

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  Building on J. Z. Smith’s notion of oral canon formation, Korom argues that local religion is essentially formulated through the ongoing telling and retelling of a community’s “master narrative” that lays out a special relationship between a specific deity and the people who worship that deity.

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• Korom, Frank J. Village of Painters: Narrative Scrolls from West Bengal. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2006.

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  This work examines the bardic and scroll painting tradition of the Patuas of Medinipur District. Traditionally, singers of mythological narratives about the local pantheon of Bengali deities, the Patuas have found themselves in a precarious position due to lack of patronage and social marginalization. The focus here is on the dissemination of knowledge, creative innovation, and the impact of modernity on traditional livelihood.

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• Narayan, Kirin. Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

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  This award-winning book is based on Narayan’s doctoral work with a folk preacher in the state of Maharashtra. Her emphasis is on Swamiji’s creativity in adapting his stories to the exigencies of the moment and how he teaches individuals by making his narratives relevant to a specific person’s needs. Also important is her emphasis on the audience’s interpretations of the preacher’s stories.

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• Srivastava, Sahab Lal. Folk Culture and Oral Tradition: A Comparative Study of Regions in Rajasthan and Eastern U. P. New Delhi, India: Abhinav, 1974.

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  A comparative study of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Srivastava covers a broad gamut of oral forms and ties them to beliefs and practices then discusses their relationship to elite traditions, and ends with a discussion of how social change is influencing oral traditions in his two field regions.

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Performance

A major paradigm shift occurred in the general study of folklore in the 1970s, when sociolinguistics and the ethnography of communication came to play an important role in crafting new techniques of fieldwork and analysis. Studies of Hindu folklore and oral tradition were equally influenced by the “performance approach,” which emphasized the role of context and performer in relationship to the audience, whose responsibility it was to act as a “coauthor” of the emergent text produced in performance. Singer 1972 was groundbreaking in introducing performance studies in India, as was Wadley 1978, but Blackburn and Ramanujan 1986 was important for reinvigorating folklore studies in India. Kapur 1990 puts performance theory into practice in a study of Ramlila, while Kaur 2003 examines performance in relation to politics and Hinduism. Korom 2006 provides a guide to navigate the development of folklore and performance studies in South Asia. Navada and Navada 1993 offers a case study of a specific performing tradition among a low-caste community. Brückner, et al. 1993 and Brückner, et al. 2007 are solid collections of essays that address issues central to this article in general, with a special emphasis on performance.

• Blackburn, Stuart H., and A. K. Ramanujan, eds. Another Harmony: New Essays on the Folklore of India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

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  Consisting of nine chapters and an important introduction, this book was critical in reviving the study of Indic folklore traditions. Many of the articles take a performance approach to the material, while a few explore the relationship between oral and literate.

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• Brückner, Heidrun, Lother Lutze, and Aditya Malik, eds. Flags of Flame: Studies in South Asian Folk Culture. New Delhi, India: Manohar, 1993.

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  A useful exploration of various facets of “folk” Hinduism through an exploration of many of the themes covered in this entry. Provides a fine balance between European and American scholarship.

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• Brückner, Heidrun, Elisabeth Schömbucher, and Phillip B. Zarrilli, eds. The Power of Performance: Actors, Audiences, and Observers of Cultural Performances in India. New Delhi, India: Manohar, 2007.

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  An important collection of papers that place performance at the center of inquiry, with a special focus on audience-performer interaction. Includes both historical and textual studies as well as ethnographic ones, and provides a balanced collaboration between Indologists and anthropologists.

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• Kapur, Anuradha. Actors, Pilgrims, Kings and Gods: The Ramlila of Ramnagar. Calcutta, India: Seagull, 1990.

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  A well-known theater scholar, Kapur presents a wonderful study of the famous Ramlila of Ramnagar, the remarkable month-long reenactment of the epic Rāmāyaṇa. Kapur looks at the totality of the event and the important role the audience plays in this annual reenactment. The work is also unusual in that the author presents the action day-by-day before theoretically discussing aspects of performance at the conclusion.

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• Kaur, Raminder. Performative Politics and the Cultures of Hinduism: Public Uses of Religion in Western India. Delhi, India: Permanent Black, 2003.

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  With a focus on western India, Kaur explores the performative dimensions of Hinduism and how the religion is deployed for political purposes such as mobilization.

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• Korom, Frank J. South Asian Folklore: A Handbook. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006.

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  Provides a broad survey, and a wide variety of examples, exploring the intersection of the textual and the contextual in South Asia, with a heavy emphasis on India.

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• Navada, A. V., and Gayathri Navada. Kaadyanaata: Text and Performance. Udupi, India: Regional Resources Centre for the Folk Performing Arts, 1993.

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  The three-day, four-night worship of the black cobra by the low-caste Mira community in the Kannada-speaking regions of coastal Karnataka is presented. Both the ritual texts that are recited and the rituals performed are included.

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• Singer, Milton. When a Great Tradition Modernizes: An Anthropological Approach to Indian Civilization. New York: Praeger, 1972.

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  In this classic study, Singer looks at processes of modernity as they affect the everyday performances of urban Indians in Madras. He focuses on the interaction between the so-called great and little traditions, with an emphasis on how the great tradition is flexible enough to accommodate change. It is an important contribution to the study of media, the organization of tradition, and cultural performance.

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• Wadley, Susan S. “Texts in Contexts: Oral Traditions and the Study of Religion in Karimpur.” In American Studies in the Anthropology of India. Edited by Sylvia Vatuk, 309–341. New Delhi, India: Manohar, 1978.

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  In this influential article, Wadley argues that using oral traditions to study religion in northern Indian villages is not simply about the collection and analysis of texts, it also requires explicit reference to contextual features of utterance. She thus calls for studies of Indian religion to investigate both content and context.

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Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage is perhaps the most ostentatious practice in popular Hinduism. It can refer to visits to popular shrines, sacred groves, or other features of the landscape deemed auspicious, such as rivers and mountains, and even to see a holy person—and be seen in turn by that individual. Although the study of pilgrimage was pioneered by the anthropologist Victor Turner in a seminal article (Turner 1973), the study of Hindu pilgrimage has advanced considerably since Turner’s initial work.Pechilis 1992 provides a good critique based on Indian sources. Bharati 1963 contributes an early overview of Hindu pilgrimage, and Eck 1985 is an exploration of the journey’s symbolism; both offer good starting points. Bhardwaj 1973, Gold 1988, and Morinis 1985 provide more extended, book-length studies, while Binford 1976 and Sax 1990 offer useful regional case studies.

• Bharati, Agehananda. “Pilgrimage in the Indian Tradition.” History of Religions 3.1 (1963): 135–167.

  DOI: 10.1086/462476Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A classic descriptive account of the significance of pilgrimages in Hinduism, with a focus on textual sources and typologies of places found in them.

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• Bhardwaj, Surinder Mohan. Hindu Places of Pilgrimage: A Study in Cultural Geography. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

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  The most detailed general study available to date. Bhardwaj explores pilgrimage circuits across time and space, and he famously traces an entire circumambulation of the subcontinent according to accounts found in the Sanskrit epics.

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• Binford, Mira. “Mixing in the Color of Ram or Ranuja: A Folk Pilgrimage to the Grave of a Rajput Hero-Saint.” In Hinduism: New Essays in the History of Religions. Edited by B. L. Smith, 120–142. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1976.

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  Emphasizes the importance of the “local” or “folk” nature of some regional pilgrimages, with an emphasis on the cult of the dead—in this case, a deified hero from Rajasthan. A nice example of how the “great” and “little” traditions intersect.

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• Eck, Diana. “India’s Tirthas: Crossings in Sacred Geography.” History of Religions 20.4 (1985): 323–344.

  DOI: 10.1086/462878Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An important article that traces the symbolic significance of the terminology used for pilgrimage, and how the metaphors and symbolism surrounding the linguistic concept of pilgrimage lay out the soteriological goal of the sacred journey.

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• Gold, Ann G. Fruitful Journeys: The Ways of Rajasthani Pilgrims. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

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  A seminal study of the role that pilgrimage plays in popular practice among Rajasthani villagers. Contra the great theorist of pilgrimage, Victor Turner, Gold emphasizes process over goal.

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• Morinis, Alan. Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: A Case Study of West Bengal. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, 1985.

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  Morinis was one of the first to provide an extended discussion of the significance of pilgrimage in popular Hinduism by focusing on a specific region, in this case Bengal. This paved the way for later groundbreaking studies such as Gold 1988.

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• Pechilis, Karen. “To Pilgrimage It.” Journal of Ritual Studies 6.2 (1992): 59–92.

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  Provides a useful discussion and critique of Turner by focusing on the development of his thought and discussing the idea of pilgrimage as a process of negotiation between the “familiar” and “unfamiliar,” and between “journey” and “non-journey.” Utilizes medieval South Indian data to make the argument.

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• Sax, William S. “Village Daughter, Village Goddess: Residence, Gender, and Politics in a Himalayan Pilgrimage.” American Ethnologist 17.3 (1990): 491–512.

  DOI: 10.1525/ae.1990.17.3.02a00050Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Explores the close relationship between person and place in Garhwal. Sax asks what happens when a new bride leaves her natal village to take up residence in her new husband’s home. Using pilgrimage as an example, he successfully argues that both male and female perspectives are upheld through the process of performing annual pilgrimages to one specific site considered sacred to local Hindus.

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• Turner, Victor. “The Center out There: Pilgrim’s Goal.” History of Religions 12.2 (1973): 191–230.

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  In this important article, Turner develops the idea that the goal of pilgrimage rests in the destination. He also develops his concepts of “liminality,” a “betwixt and between” state of being, and “communitas,” the process through which hierarchy is overcome during the pilgrimage process.

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Popular Hinduism

As mentioned in the section on terminology, the term “popular” has been used quite extensively in the study of Indic traditions, but it has not always been used with clarity. Ayrookuzhiel 1983, for example, uses the term interchangeably with “living” religion, and Babb 1975 seems to equate it with “village” religion. Popular religion is also associated with new forms of technology, as Singer 1959 points out. Greene 1999 explores the use of audio cassettes, Lutgendorf 1990 looks at video, and Booth 2000 and Das 1981 explore film. Kumar 1988 focuses on the “everyday” dimension of popular practice, and Slawek 1988 looks at the intersection of “great” and “little” traditions in devotional singing practices.

• Ayrookuzhiel, A. M. Abraham. The Sacred in Popular Hinduism. Madras, India: Christian Literature Society, 1983.

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  This sociological study of the village of Chirakkal in North Malabar focuses on what the author calls “living religion,” or how religion pervades everyday aspects of life. He uses the concept of the sacred to discuss symbols, stories, and beliefs within a unified frame of reference.

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• Babb, Lawrence A. The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975.

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  A seminal ethnography conducted in rural Chhattisgarh focuses on the context of performing religion while also exploring the relationship between popular practice and normative rules.

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• Booth, Gregory D. “Religion, Gossip, Narrative Conventions and the Construction of Meaning in Hindi Film Songs.” Popular Music 19.2 (2000): 125–145.

  DOI: 10.1017/S0261143000000088Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Booth examines the social, historical, and aesthetic contexts out of which Hindi film songs are choreographed and orchestrated to suggest that film music follows narrative and dramatic conventions that were established in earlier dramaturgical forms, often religiously mediated.

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• Das, Veena. “The Mythological Film and Its Framework of Meaning: An Analysis of Jai Santoshi Ma.” India International Centre Quarterly 8.1 (1981): 43–55.

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  Das explores the “cultural grammar” within which the Santoshi Ma story was created. She also speculates about the social groups that find the goddess and her narrative appealing. The role that the popular film played in her rise to prominence is also addressed.

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• Greene, Paul D. “Sound Engineering in a Tamil Village: Playing Audio Cassettes as Devotional Performance.” Ethnomusicology 43.3 (1999): 459–489.

  DOI: 10.2307/852557Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Greene shows how cassettes become vehicles of religious performance in rural Tami Nadu. He argues that playing them becomes a form or religious performance, such as the singing of devotional songs, through the interplay of immediate context, performance, and cassette. The essay is valuable for understanding how the “popular” gets incorporated into the “folk.”

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• Kumar, Nita. The Artisans of Banaras: Popular Culture and Identity, 1880–1986. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.

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  Presents an interesting discussion of the role that leisure activities and free time have played among artisan castes. Kumar finds that the realms of sacred and profane overlap considerably in such areas as the wrestling ring, for example, or even in such mundane matters as doing one’s laundry in the Ganges.

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• Lutgendorf, Philip. “Ramayana: The Video.” Drama Review 34.2 (1990): 127–176.

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  Lutgendorf argues that we need to move away from a textual bias in terms of studying Indian scriptures, since most vernacular texts exist in multiple media. To illustrate, he focuses on the television/video version of the Ramayana.

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• Singer, Milton, ed. Traditional India: Structure and Change. Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 1959.

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  Originally published as a special issue of the Journal of American Folklore, this seminal collection of essays is organized into three conceptual units of special interest to the editor: the social organization of tradition, cultural performances and cultural media, and problems and processes of cultural change.

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• Slawek, Stephen M. “Popular Kīrtan in Benares: Some ‘Great’ Aspects of a Little Tradition.” Ethnomusicology 32.2 (1988): 77–92.

  DOI: 10.2307/852037Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Devotional singing in Uttar Pradesh is participatory, derivative in style, and eclectic in nature, according to the author. Singing is the most prominent vehicle for expressing religious sentiment in popular Hinduism, crossing both musical and social boundaries.

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Possession

Possession, known by various terms in South Asian classical and vernacular languages, is a ubiquitous practice in Hinduism that was previously thought to be a quintessential feature of folk or popular Hinduism. More recent research, however, suggests that the classical texts are full of discussions about possession as well, which has forced a reconsideration of the very nature of normative Hinduism, as Smith 2006 suggests. Claus 1973 and Cohen and Cohen and Barrett 2008 provide important theoretical discussions about kinds of possession and their contexts. Gold 1988 offers a specific case study to ask what role persuasion and competence play in the trance drama. Bhattacharyya 1986 and Dwyer 2003 provide extensive case studies from opposite ends of the subcontinent, and Kapadia 1996 and Sax 2009 discuss the relationship among caste, class, and possession, with a focus on morals and ethics within economic contexts in southern and northern India, respectively. Assayag and Tarabout 1999 provides a valuable collection dealing with far-reaching issues relevant to all of the citations included.

• Assayag, Jackie, and Gilles Tarabout, eds. La possession en Asie du Sud: parole, corps, territoire. Paris: Editions de l’Ecole des Hautes etudes en science sociales, 1999.

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  An important collection of papers that explore the phenomenon of possession from a number of different angles. The volume, which translates as “Possession in South Asia: Speech, Body, Territory,” brings together the insights of social scientists working in India, Europe, and North America.

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• Bhattacharyya, Deborah P. Pāgalāmi: Ethnopsychiatric Knowledge in Bengal. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986.

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  An innovative study based on fieldwork in urban West Bengal that explores the emic, or indigenous, categories of mental illness, which includes possession to a considerable extent.

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• Claus, Peter J. “Possession, Protection, and Punishment as Attributes of Deities in a South Indian Village.” Man in India 53.3 (1973): 231–242.

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  Explores the oscillation occurring between possession as an auspicious phenomenon that aids the individual and community on the one hand and possession that threatens the well-being of individuals and groups on the other.

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• Cohen, Emma, and Justin L. Barrett. “Conceptualizing Spirit Possession: Ethnographic and Experimental Evidence.” Ethos 36.2 (2008): 246–267.

  DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1352.2008.00013.xSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A study designed to investigate psychologically the cross-culturally recurrent forms of possession belief. The authors challenge the notion that possession is incompatible with common cultural assumptions and biases guiding Western notions of “self” and “personhood.” Their findings deal with “cognitive capacities” that have a “panhuman cognitive function.”

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• Dwyer, Graham. The Divine and the Demonic: Supernatural Affliction and Its Treatment in North India. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

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  Focuses on supernatural affliction in Rajasthan, where the author conducted extensive fieldwork on illness and misfortune attributed to a variety of mystical agents, both natural and supernatural. Dwyer offers good arguments to comprehend “supernatural malaise” and how to treat it.

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• Gold, Ann G. “Spirit Possession Perceived and Performed in Rural Rajasthan.” Contributions to Indian Sociology 22.1 (1988): 35–63.

  DOI: 10.1177/006996688022001002Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Emphasizes the role that performance plays in conjuring and creating the context in which possession occurs, which raises interesting questions concerning the role of perception in such ritual activities.

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• Kapadia, Karin. “Dancing the Goddess: Possession and Class in Tamil South India.” Modern Asian Studies 30.2 (1996): 423–445.

  DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X00016528Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Looks at the all-pervasive role that possession rituals play in a Tamil village, noting that the politicization of such rituals is always implicit, if not explicit, which suggests the struggles over power relationships are essential to class relationships in rural Tamil culture.

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• Sax, William S. God of Justice: Ritual Healing and Social Justice in the Central Himalayas. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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  The innovative focus is on possession rituals as a way of reaffirming familial cohesion, which needs to be restored periodically when family units fall into disharmony. The emphasis on supernatural agency suggests that it is not only human beings who are responsible for actions, but spirits as well.

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• Smith, Frederick M. The Self Possessed: Deity and Spirit Possession in South Asian Literature and Civilization. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

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  Smith’s magnum opus is the most comprehensive treatise written on the phenomenon to date. He meticulously and exhaustively follows both the textual and ethnographic trails to track the meandering course of both divine and demonic possession in India down through the ages. He ultimately calls for a newly conceived conception of the self’s relationship to the objective world.

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Vernacular Literature

For many years, Indologists privileged Sanskrit texts over regional texts written in the vernacular languages spoken in various parts of the subcontinent. But it is in these vernacular texts that one gets the best sense of folk and popular religion on the local or “vernacular” level. Bhattacharyya 1943, Khalek 1982, and Smith 1982 look at the important role that Bengali epics played in the emergence of new cults in Bengal, while Capwell 1988 emphasizes the syncretic nature of one Bengali religious community. Ferro-Luzzi 1987 compares various motifs that emerge from vernacular temple legends, Harman 1985 provides a Tamil case study, and Shulman 1980 looks at a wide variety of sources in the genre of “place stories,” also in Tamil.

• Bhattacharyya, Asutosh. An Introduction to the Study of the Medieval Bengali Epics. Calcutta, India: Calcutta Book House, 1943.

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  An important study of the Bengali genre of Mangalkavya, which are epiclike verse narratives composed in praise of a pantheon that emerged in West Bengal in response to Islamization.

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• Capwell, Charles. “The Popular Expression of Religious Syncretism: The Bauls of Bengal as Apostles of Brotherhood.” Popular Music 7.2 (1988): 123–132.

  DOI: 10.1017/S0261143000002701Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Focusing on the lyrics of Bengali Baul songs, Capwell shows how this esoteric sect bridges the gaps between Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism and attempts to harmonize these traditions, especially Hinduism and Islam.

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• Ferro-Luzzi, Gabriella Eichinger. The Self-Milking Cow and the Bleeding Lingam: Criss-Cross of Motifs in Indian Temple Legends. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harassowitz, 1987.

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  Ferro-Luzzi looks at two motifs that have widespread occurrence in India: namely a cow releasing its own milk without being milked when meandering on a holy site and the stone that bleeds when struck forcefully with a metal implement.

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• Harman, William. “Kinship Metaphors in the Hindu Pantheon: Śiva as Brother-in-Law and Son-in-Law.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 53.3 (1985): 411–430.

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  Looks at the role that kinship metaphors play to connect Saivites and Vaishnavites in a Tamil devotional text. Harman argues that devotion to a son-in-law (that is, Shiva) makes perfect sense only to Tamils who practice cross-cousin marriage.

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• Khalek, Muhammad Abdul. “The Elements of Folk Literature in Mediaeval Bengali Poetry: Folktales.” The Journal of the Folklore Research Institute, Bangladesh 7 (1982): 85–97.

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  Explores intertextuality in the context of medieval Bengali literature, focusing on how genres such as folktales become embedded in longer, more complex narratives, a common phenomenon in Indian story literature.

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• Richman, Paula, ed. Many Rāmāyaṇas: The Divesrity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

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  This important collection demonstrates the rich variety that the epic can take in its vernacular contexts. Covers a wide range of vernacular versions in the Sanskritic north and the Dravidian south.

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• Shulman, David Dean. Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.

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  In this masterful study, Shulman focuses on the phenomenon of localization in the Tamil genre of sacred place stories to explore the relationships among myth, place, pilgrimage, power, and purity.

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• Smith, William L. “The Celestial Village. The Divine Order in Bengali Myth.” Temenos 18.1 (1982): 69–81.

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  Makes the case that vernacular forms of literature that resemble Puranas do not always fit the Sankritic model. Smith notes that “surface similarities are & deceptive; in their conception of divine order, their portrayal of the relationship between god and man, as well as their caste and sexual bias, the mangals not only differ & but are in many respects their antithesis” (p. 69).

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Village Religion

The village was, for many decades, the sole locus of anthropological research, since it was thought that village forms of practice were less influenced by external factors. Village religion was often understood as synonymous with folk religion, even though the term “folk” was not always used in conjunction with studies of village religion. However, village studies do yield important ethnographic information for understanding the dynamics of local religion. Aiyappan 1976 explores folk theology in rural Kerala, while Masilimani-Meyer 2004, Mosse 1994, and Valk and Lourdusamy 2007 provide case studies from Tamil Nadu. Islam 2001 explores a specific rural goddess tradition in eastern India, while Karan 1984 and Morinis 1982 provide case studies from Bihar and Bengal, respectively. Elgood 2004 offers a useful comparative overview of rural religion.

• Aiyappan, A. “Deified Men and Humanized Gods: Some Folk Bases of Hindu Theology.” In The Realm of the Extra-Human: Agents and Audiences. Edited by Agahananda Bharati, 139–148. The Hague: Mouton, 1976.

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  The author explores deified humans and humanized gods in rural Kerala and reveals a pre-Aryan layer of belief and practice, primarily among the Kurichiya community. He emphasizes how devotion to ancestral deities integrates and maintains matrilineages and clans.

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• Akand, Mustafa Kamal. “Folk Culture and Urban Adaptation: A Case Study of the Paharia in Rajshahi.” Asian Folklore Studies 64.1 (2005): 39–52.

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  Deals with a small ethnic community in Bangladesh that originated in the Santal Parganas of eastern India. By exploring rituals and ceremonies, Akand analyzes how the Paharia have adapted to city life.

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• Elgood, Heather. “Exploring the Roots of Village Hinduism in South Asia.” World Archaeology 36.3 (2004): 326–342.

  DOI: 10.1080/0043824042000282777Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Looks at the roots of contemporary village religion and the interface of Puranic and Vedic religious practices, with specific reference to goddess worship. Elgood concludes that rural religion is eclectic in nature, combining elements from a variety of sources, such as local superstitions, non-Vedic cultic practices, and orthodox Hinduism, which she argues has already absorbed many local practices.

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• Islam, Makbul. “Rethinking Tusu: Diffusion and Transformation.” Folklore Research Journal 7.1 (2001): 35–69.

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  Focusing on the goddess Tusu, who is worshipped in a core area bordering on Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa, Islam looks at the ritualistic and structural dimensions of what he calls “Tusu culture” to demonstrate the integral function she has in bringing together rural communities in these three states, despite different ethnolinguistic backgrounds.

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• Karan, Pradyumna P. “Landscape, Religion and Folk Art in Mithila: An Indian Cultural Region.” Journal of Cultural Geography 5.1 (1984): 85–102.

  DOI: 10.1080/08873638409478563Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Focusing on the distinct form of local art produced in the Mithila region that has achieved international fame, Karan shows how the verbal, the visual, and the religious are products of specific geographies.

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• Masilimani-Meyer, Eveline. Guardians of Tamil Nadu: Folk Deities, Folk Religion, Hindu Themes. Halle, Germany: Verlag der Frankeschen Stiftungen zu Halle, 2004.

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  Provides a valuable survey of the rural religious landscape in Tamil Nadu, bringing alive the deified quality of the landscape. The author focuses on the fierce gods who inhabit the uncivilized and uncultivated “wild” regions of the state, but she is careful not to separate these deities from the more Sanskritized Hindu ones who are benevolent and associated with tamer regions, such as domestic spaces.

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• Morinis, E. A. “‘Baba Taraknath’: A Case of Continuity and Development in the Folk Tradition of West Bengal, India.” Asian Folklore Studies 41.1 (1982): 67–81.

  DOI: 10.2307/1178309Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Using popular itinerant theater as his example, Morinis shows how medieval mythic narratives adapt to contemporary circumstances through a process of modernization.

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• Mosse, David. “Catholic Saints and the Hindu Village Pantheon in Rural Tamil Nadu, India.” Man, n.s., 29.2 (1994): 301–332.

  DOI: 10.2307/2804476Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Mosse looks at how Christian saints and Hindu deities coexist and are defined by sets of relationships that acknowledge co-presence but also reinforce unequal yet complementary power structures. He also shows how local Tamil Catholicism has incorporated Hindu notions of renunciation, death, sacrifice, and divine power.

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• Valk, Ülo, and S. Lourdusamy. “Village Deities of Tamil Nadu in Myths and Legends: The Narrated Experience.” Asian Folklore Studies 66.1–2 (2007): 179–199.

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  Explores religious narratives about the village deities of northern Tamil Nadu, categorized into the genres of myth, legend, and memorate (personal experience narratives of supernatural experiences). The major point is that religious folklore genres form a “border zone” where the human and mythical realms converge.

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Vrats

Vrats, translated as “vows” or “promises,” are important in the everyday performance of lived Hinduism, especially among women. The tradition brings together the verbal and visual, since it combines storytelling with the use of geometric floor drawings in a ritualistic context punctuated by the calendar. Surprisingly, the tradition is highly understudied, but recent attempts have moved its importance within the orbit of contemporary academic studies. McGee 1987 is the standard source, but Pearson 1996 is the most definitive study of the practice among high-caste women. Lubin 2001 complements McGee in his philological explorations, and Caughran 1998 (and Caughran 1999), Gopalan 1978, and Sen 1995 provide valuable case studies from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Bengal, respectively.

• Caughran, Neema. “Fasts, Feasts, and the Slovenly Woman: Strategies of Resistance among North Indian Potter Women.” Asian Folklore Studies 57.2 (1998): 257–274.

  DOI: 10.2307/1178754Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A discussion of Jiutiya, a female vow-taking ceremony in eastern Uttar Pradesh that tells of disorderly women who are rewarded because of their gluttonous and defiling behavior. Explores the role that such occasions can play in allowing women to rebel against patriarchy.

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• Caughran, Neema. “Shiva and Parvati: Public and Private Reflections of Stories in North India.” Journal of American Folklore 112.446 (1999): 514–526.

  DOI: 10.2307/541487Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An important study of a vow within the context of low-caste potters in Banaras, in which the sartorial relationship between Shiva and Parvati provides a context for real human issues, such as gender power relationships, adultery, child rearing, and extended family support. The emphasis on using public space to air grievances makes this a valuable addition to the literature.

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• Gopalan, Gopalan V. “Vrat: Ceremonial Vows of Women in Gujarat, India.” Asian Folklore Studies 37.1 (1978): 101–129.

  DOI: 10.2307/1177586Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The author looks at Gujarati manuals for the performance of vows by women. He argues that vow-taking is the central practice of vernacular religion, and notes in passing that it continues to be performed in the diaspora, even as modernization is eroding the tradition in western India.

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• Lubin, Timothy. “Vrata Divine and Human in the Early Veda.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 121.4 (2001): 565–579.

  DOI: 10.2307/606499Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A close study of the term in the Rig Veda, distinguishing three usages that may (or may not) have bearing on the popular way the term and the practice of vow-taking are used in the early 21st century.

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• McGee, Mary. “Feasting and Fasting: The Vrata Tradition and Its Significance for Hindu Women.” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1987.

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  An important study of the textual sources for vow-taking among the upper castes. Unfortunately, the work is somewhat inaccessible, since it was never published and exists only in the library of the university where it was produced. The study is worth consulting, however, if it can be found.

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• Pearson, Anne Mackenzie. “Because It Gives Me Peace of Mind”: Ritual Fasts in the Religious Lives of Hindu Women. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.

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  Pearson reminds us that the so-called folk is not confined to the lower castes, since all levels of society have their own distinctive traditions. Focusing on personal experience narratives about the function of vows, Pearson corrects the misconception that women’s vows are never done for the self.

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• Sen, Suchismita. “The Tale of Itu: Structure of a Ritual Tale in Context.” Asian Folklore Studies 54.1 (1995): 69–117.

  DOI: 10.2307/1178220Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Uses structural and contextual perspectives to study the tale of Itu, an orally transmitted story used in Bengali vow rituals. Sen provocatively suggests that although this narrative finds parallels in Western folk and oral literature, the Bengali version is distinct because the villain is not punished.

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