Tantra, ritual performance, and politics in Nepal and Kerala : embodying the goddess-clan / by Matthew Martin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martin, Matthew, 1991- author.

Series:

Studies in the history of religions ; 166.

Numen book series. Studies in the history of religions, 0169-8834 ; volume 166

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Durgā (Hindu deity).

Shaktism--Rituals.

Shaktism.

Durgā (Hindu deity)--Cult--Nepal--Bhaktapur.

Durgā.

Theyyam (Dance)--India--Kerala.

Theyyam (Dance).

Durgā-pūjā (Hindu festival)--Nepal--Bhaktapur.

Durgā-pūjā (Hindu festival).

Religious dance--India--Kerala.

Religious dance.

Religious dance--Nepal--Bhaktapur.

Mediums--Religious aspects--Shaktism.

Mediums.

Religion and politics--India--Kerala.

Religion and politics.

Religion and politics--Nepal--Bhaktapur.

Cults.

Mediums--Religious aspects.

India--Kerala.

Nepal--Bhaktapur.

Physical Description:

viii, 296 pages : color illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2020]

Summary:

"In previous studies of South Asian Tantric ritual, scholars tend to focus on one region or context. For the first time, Ritual Performance, Folk Mediumship, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala offers a comparative approach to Tantric mediumship as observed in two locales: Navadurgā rituals in Bhaktapur, Nepal, and Teyyāṭṭam in North Kerala. In this book, Matthew Martin advances a new theory of ritual, which spotlights the way dancer-mediums embody medieval goddess-clans and ancestor deities, through offerings of food and sacrifice, that synchronize their denizens with the land in spiralling ritual networks. Uniquely interdisciplinary in style, this study synthesizes cultural history, ethnography, and theory to explore the continuities - historical, societal, and political - that characterize these ritual traditions across the subcontinent"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Methodology and context

Introducing the southern case study : Teyyāṭṭam, Northern Malabar, Kerala

Introducing the northern case study : Navadurgā, Bhaktapur, Nepal

Dancer-medium communities and ritual kinship

History and assimilation in Tantric cosmology

Sacrifice, earth cycles, and self-reflexive affect

Politics, ritual performance, and caste.

Notes:

Revision of author's PhD dissertation.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Martin, Matthew, 1991- Tantra, ritual performance, and politics in Nepal and Kerala

ISBN:

9789004438996

9004438998

OCLC:

1176247460