The Experience of Hinduism

Essays on Religion in Maharashtra

Eleanor Zelliot editor Rita Maxine Berntsen editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:State University of New York Press

Published:28th Feb '88

Should be back in stock very soon

The Experience of Hinduism cover

This book presents multi-faceted images of religious experience in the Marathi-speaking region of India. In addition to Irawati Karve's classic, "On the Road," about her pilgrimage to Pandharpur, there are three essays by Karve that appear in English for the first time. Here is possession by gods and ghosts, an actual sermon by an inspired saint in the traditional bhajan style, and an autobiographical account of the religious nationalism of the militant R.S.S. These are engaging, true-to-life accounts of the lives of individual Hindus.

Essays and imaginative literature, a poem, and a short story interplay the ideas, concepts, personalities, practices, rituals, and deities of Hinduism in a surprisingly coherent manner.

"These essays and stories have what novelists would call a 'fine sense of place.' The book is a series of vivid and convincing portraits. I know Maharashtra well, and reading the book made me homesick." — James W. Laine, Macalester College

ISBN: 9780887066641

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 540g

414 pages