Description
Book SynopsisPresents a portrait of Hindu renouncers or sadhus or ascetics in northern India and Nepal. This title considers a paradox that shapes their lives: while ostensibly defined by their solitary spiritual practice, the stripping away of social commitments, and their break with family and community.
Trade Review"Will be of interest to students and scholars who are interested in any of a number of subjects: meditation, yoga, sacrifice, Vedanta, gender, bhakti, pilgrimage, body, space, desire, and liberation. Beautifully written, it is also a wonderful contribution to the fields of anthropology and religion." -Lindsey Harlan, Connecticut College "Wandering with Sadhus is a nuanced, humane, and evocative study of Hindu renouncers in South Asia. It is also a theoretically powerful contribution to anthropological scholarship on bodies in culture, the intricacies of social organization in South Asia, and the lived practice of a complex religious system." -Ernestine McHugh, author of Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming to Know Another Culture "Wandering with Sadhus will be of interest to students and scholars who are interested in any of a number of subjects: meditation, yoga, sacrifice, Vedanta, gender, bhakti, pilgrimage, body, space, desire, and liberation. It will have broad appeal, and yet it treats its subject matter in depth. Beautifully written, it is also a wonderful contribution to the fields of anthropology and religion." -Lindsey Harlan, Connecticut College
Table of ContentsContents
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction: Wandering with Renouncers
1. The Body and Sadhu Society
2. The Social Structures of Sadhu Life
3. Hardwar: The Ground of Space
4. Allahabad: The Community in Time
5. Kathmandu: The Body in Place
Conclusion: The Culture of Hindu Renunciation
Appendix: Literatures on Renunciation and Embodiment
Notes
Bibliography
Index
