Women in ochre robes : gendering Hindu renunciation / Meena Khandelwal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Khandelwal, Meena.

Series:

SUNY series in Hindu studies

Suny series in Hindu studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sannyasi--India--Haridwār.

Sannyasi.

Asceticism--Hinduism.

Asceticism.

India--Haridwār.

Physical Description:

xi, 239 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2004]

Summary:

Meena Khandelwal offers an engaging and intimate portrait of extraordinary Hindu women in India who wear "ochre robes," signifying their renunciation of marriage and family for lives of celibacy, asceticism, and spiritual discipline. While the largely male Hindu ascetic tradition of sannyasa renders its initiates ritually "dead" to their previous identities, the women portrayed here are very much alive. They struggle with, and joke about, the tensions and ironies of living in the world while trying not to be of it. Khandelwal juxtaposes the common refrain that "in renunciation there is no male and female" with arguments that underscore the importance of gender. In exploring these apparent contradictions, she brings together worldly and otherworldly values within renunciation and argues that these create tensions that are at once emotional, social, and philosophical.

Contents:

Introduction: Sannyasinis as Persons 1

Chapter 1 Gendering Hindu Renunciation 23

Chapter 2 Walking a Tightrope: Renunciation as Love 47

Chapter 3 Real Saints Don't Need Sleep: Renunciation as Service 79

Chapter 4 (Ir?)reconcilable Tensions: Individual Existence as Spiritual Journey 117

Chapter 5 The Genuine and The Fake: What's Attitude Got to Do with It? 141

Chapter 6 Sannyasinis as Women 175.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-234) and index.

ISBN:

0791459217

0791459225

OCLC:

51511282