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Religious Reading and Everyday Lives in Devotional Hinduism

Emilia Bachrach author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:8th Feb '23

Should be back in stock very soon

Religious Reading and Everyday Lives in Devotional Hinduism cover

Religious texts are not stable objects, passed down unchanged through generations. The way in which religious communities receive their scriptures changes over time and in different social contexts. This book considers religious reading through a study of the Pushtimarg, a Hindu community whose devotional practices and community identity have developed in close relationship with Vārtā Sāhitya (Chronicle Literature), a genre of Hindi prose hagiography written during the 17th century. Through hagiographies that narrate the relationships between the deity Krishna and the Pushtimarg's early leaders and their disciples, these hagiographies provide community history, theology, vicarious epiphany, and models of devotion. While steeped in the social world of early-modern north India, these texts have continued to be immensely popular among generations of modern devotees, whose techniques of reading and exegesis allow them to maintain the narratives as primary guides for devotional living in Gujarat-the western state of India where the Pushtimarg thrives today. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with close readings of Hindi and Gujarati texts, the book examines how members of the community engage with the hagiographies through recitation and dialogue in temples and homes, through commentary and translation in print publications and on the Internet, and even through debates in courts of law. The book argues that these acts of "reading" inform and are informed by both intimate negotiations of the family and the self, and also by politically potent disputes over matters such as temple governance. By studying the texts themselves, as well as the social contexts of their reading, Religious Reading and Everyday Lives in Devotional Hinduism provides a distinct example of how changing class, regional, and gender identities continue to shape interpretations of a scriptural canon, and how, in turn, these interpretations influence ongoing projects of self and community fashioning.

Bachrach sensitively guides the reader into the contemporary life of the Pushtimarg's vārtā traditions with the vibrance of the satsaṅg gatherings she portrays. While never losing her analytical distance, she insinuates herself into the performances of these texts so the reader cannot fail to gauge the emotional tenor of what these stories mean to their devotees. The boundary between text and auditor in the satsaṅg dissolves in the act of reading and commenting, an embodied improvisation that transforms the vārtās into a living canon. * Tony K. Stewart, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities, Emeritus, Vanderbilt University *
A charmingly disarming question—Can one offer pizza to God/Krishna?—opens this rich 'ethnography of reading' that focuses on contemporary middle-class women devotees of the Pushtimarg sect. Though this tradition is perhaps better known to outsiders for its opulent ritual art, Bachrach details how intense interaction with a large corpus of 17th century hagiography—transmitted and debated through oral performance, print media, and (now) websites and social media platforms—continues to inform and inflect its often cosmopolitan adherents' daily lives, family relationships, and experiences of both devotion and agency. * Philip Lutgendorf, Professor Emeritus of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies, University of Iowa *
Picture a group of Gujarati women on a Thursday afternoon reading a 17th-century hagiography of a Hindu Pushtimarg follower that leads to their discussion of whether or not they can offer pizza to Krishna, and you will grasp what Emilia Bachrach notably characterizes as a 'performative canon' of engaged responses that distinctively shape a relevant continuity with tradition. Devotional reading is a primary religious mode, in which devotees' lively discussions make the past palpable, the present morally actionable, and the future expansive for the Pushtimarg community. Bachrach's illuminating analysis is essential to understanding lived religion in India and comparatively. * Karen Pechilis, Professor of History of Religions, Drew University *
Religious Reading and Everyday Lives in Devotional Hinduism will appeal to students, scholars, and readers in ethnography, South Asian religion, psychology of religion, and Hindu studies. * Vineet Gairola, Religion *
Religious Reading and Everyday Lives in Devotional Hinduism should find extensive readership among scholars interested in Hindu devotional and narrative literature, the development of modern Hinduism, and practices of religious reading. Bachrach's clear and engaging prose makes the book accessible to both specialists and non-specialists alike, and I look forward to incorporating the book into my own teaching repertoire. * Gregory M. Clines, Reading Religion *

ISBN: 9780197648599

Dimensions: 162mm x 242mm x 24mm

Weight: 517g

264 pages