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Engaging South Asian Religions

Engaging South Asian Religions PDF Author: Mathew N. Schmalz
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438433255
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Book Description
Focusing on boundaries, appropriations, and resistances involved in Western engagements with South Asian religions, this edited volume considers both the pre- and postcolonial period in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It pays particular attention to contemporary controversies surrounding the study of South Asian religions, including several scholars' reflection on the contentious reaction to their own work. Other chapters consider such issues as British colonial epistemologies, the relevance of Hegel for the study of South Asia, the canonization of Francis Xavier, feminist interpretations of the mother of the Buddha, and theological dispute among Muslims in Bangladesh and Pakistan. By using the themes of boundaries, appropriations and resistances, this work offers insight into the dynamics and diversity of Western approaches to South Asian religions, and the indigenous responses to them, that avoids simple active/passive binaries.

Engaging South Asian Religions

Engaging South Asian Religions PDF Author: Mathew N. Schmalz
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438433255
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Book Description
Focusing on boundaries, appropriations, and resistances involved in Western engagements with South Asian religions, this edited volume considers both the pre- and postcolonial period in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It pays particular attention to contemporary controversies surrounding the study of South Asian religions, including several scholars' reflection on the contentious reaction to their own work. Other chapters consider such issues as British colonial epistemologies, the relevance of Hegel for the study of South Asia, the canonization of Francis Xavier, feminist interpretations of the mother of the Buddha, and theological dispute among Muslims in Bangladesh and Pakistan. By using the themes of boundaries, appropriations and resistances, this work offers insight into the dynamics and diversity of Western approaches to South Asian religions, and the indigenous responses to them, that avoids simple active/passive binaries.

Objects of Worship in South Asian Religions

Objects of Worship in South Asian Religions PDF Author: Knut A. Jacobsen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317675959
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
Objects of worship are an aspect of the material dimension of lived religion in South Asia. The omnipresence of these objects and their use is a theme which cuts across the religious traditions in the pluralistic religious culture of the region. Divine power becomes manifest in the objects and for the devotees they may represent power regardless of religious identity. This book looks at how objects of worship dominate the religious landscape of South Asia, and in what ways they are of significance not just from religious perspectives but also for the social life of the region. The contributions to the book show how these objects are shaped by traditions of religious aesthetics and have become conceptual devices woven into webs of religious and social meaning. They demonstrate how the objects have a social relationship with those who use them, sometimes even treated as being alive. The book discusses how devotees relate to such objects in a number of ways, and even if the objects belong to various traditions they may attract people from different communities and can also be contested in various ways. By analysing the specific qualities that make objects eligible for a status and identity as living objects of worship, the book contributes to an understanding of the central significance of these objects in the religious and social life of South Asia. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Religious Studies and South Asian Religion, Culture and Society.

South Asian Religions

South Asian Religions PDF Author: Karen Pechilis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415448514
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
This valuable resource explores the important role which the minority traditions play in the religious life of the subcontinent.

South Asian Religions on Display

South Asian Religions on Display PDF Author: Knut A. Jacobsen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113407459X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Book Description
Religious procession is a significant dimension of religion in South Asia. Processions are central not only in Hinduism, but also Islam, Christianity, Jainism and Sikhism, which have large procession rituals. The last years have seen an increase in processions and ritualizations of space both in South Asia and in the South Asian Diaspora. Processions are religious display events and the increase in processions are functions of religious pluralism and competition about public space as well as economic prosperity and a revival of religious identities. Processions often bring together religion and politics since they are about public space, domination and contestation. Written by leading specialists on religious processions and ritualization of public space in South Asia and in the Diaspora, this volume presents current research on the interpretations of the role of processions, the recent increase in processions and changes in the procession traditions. South Asian Religions on Display will appeal to students and scholars of Asian studies, anthropology, religion and political science.

South Asians in the Diaspora

South Asians in the Diaspora PDF Author: Knut A. Jacobsen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047401409
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 556

Book Description
This book explores the role of religion in a great number of the South Asian diaspora communities around the world and is unique in its emphasis on religious diversity, both across and within the religious traditions.

Sacred Matters

Sacred Matters PDF Author: Tracy Pintchman
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438459440
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
Explores how objects shape the worlds of religious participants across a range of South Asian traditions. Sacred Matters explores the lives of material objects in South Asian religions. Spanning a range of traditions including Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism, and Christianity, the book demonstrates how sacred items influence and enliven the worlds of religious participants across South Asia and into the diaspora. Contributors examine a variety of objects to describe the ways sacred materials derive and confer meaning and efficacy, emerging from and giving shape to religious and nonreligious realms alike. Material forms of deity and divine power are considered along with commonplace ritual items, including images, clay pots, and camphor. The work also attends to materiality’s complex role within the “materially suspicious” contexts of Islam, Theravada Buddhism, and Roman Catholicism. This engaging collection presents new frameworks for contemplating the ways in which historical, social, and sacred processes intertwine and collectively shape human and divine activity. Tracy Pintchman is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the International Studies Program at Loyola University Chicago. Her books include The Rise of the Goddess in the Hindu Tradition and Guests at God’s Wedding: Celebrating Kartik among the Women of Benares, both published by SUNY Press. Corinne G. Dempsey is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Nazareth College. She is the author of Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth: Adventures in Comparative Religion and The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple.

Dialogue in Early South Asian Religions

Dialogue in Early South Asian Religions PDF Author: Brian Black
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317151429
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
Dialogue between characters is an important feature of South Asian religious literature: entire narratives are often presented as a dialogue between two or more individuals, or the narrative or discourse is presented as a series of embedded conversations from different times and places. Including some of the most established scholars of South Asian religious texts, this book examines the use of dialogue in early South Asian texts with an interdisciplinary approach that crosses traditional boundaries between religious traditions. The contributors shed new light on the cultural ideas and practices within religious traditions, as well as presenting an understanding of a range of dynamics - from hostile and competitive to engaged and collaborative. This book is the first to explore the literary dimensions of dialogue in South Asian religious sources, helping to reframe the study of other literary traditions around the world.

Refiguring the Body

Refiguring the Body PDF Author: Barbara A. Holdrege
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438463162
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Book Description
Examines how embodiment is conceived and experienced in South Asian religions. Refiguring the Body provides a sustained interrogation of categories and models of the body grounded in the distinctive idioms of South Asian religions, particularly Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The contributors engage prevailing theories of the body in the Western academy that derive from philosophy, social theory, and feminist and gender studies. At the same time, they recognize the limitations of applying Western theoretical models as the default epistemological framework for understanding notions of embodiment that derive from non-Western cultures. Divided into three sections, this collection of essays explores material bodies, embodied selves, and perfected forms of embodiment; divine bodies and devotional bodies; and gendered logics defining male and female bodies. The contributors seek to establish theory parity in scholarly investigations and to re-figure body theories by taking seriously the contributions of South Asian discourses to theorizing the body. Barbara A. Holdrege is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the South Asian Studies Committee at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her books include Bhakti and Embodiment: Fashioning Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies in Kṛṣṇạ Bhakti and Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture, also published by SUNY Press. Karen Pechilis is NEH Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Comparative Religion Department at Drew University. Her books include Interpreting Devotion: The Poetry and Legacy of a Female Bhakti Saint of India and The Embodiment of Bhakti.

Spaces of Religion in Urban South Asia

Spaces of Religion in Urban South Asia PDF Author: István Keul
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000331490
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
This book explores religion in various spatial constellations in South Asian cities, including religious centres such as Varanasi, Madurai and Nanded, and cities not readily associated with religion, such as Mumbai and Delhi. Contributors from different disciplines discuss a large variety of urban spaces: physical and imagined, institutional and residential, built and landscaped, virtual and mediatised, historical and contemporary. In doing so, the book addresses a wide range of issues concerning the role of religion in the dynamic interplay of factors which characterise complex urban social spaces. Chapters incorporate varying degrees and forms of the religious/spiritual, ranging from invisible and incorporeal to material and explicit, embedded in and expressed as spatial politics, works of fiction, mission, pilgrimage, festivals and everyday life. Topics examined include conflictual situations involving places of worship in Delhi, inclusive religious practices in Kanpur, American Protestant mission in Madurai, the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday in Lahore, gardens as imaginative spaces, the politics of religion in Varanasi and many others. Illustrating and analysing ways and forms in which religion persists in South Asian urban contexts, this book will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of cultural studies, the study of religions, urban studies and South Asian studies.

Re-imagining South Asian Religions

Re-imagining South Asian Religions PDF Author: Pashaura Singh
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004242368
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Book Description
Re-imagining South Asian Religions is a collection of essays offering new ways of understanding aspects of Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Theosophical, and Indian Christian experiences.