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

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Martin, Matthew, 1991- author.

Series:

• Studies in the history of religions ; Volume 166.
• Studies in the History of Religions ; Volume 166

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Shaktism--Rituals.
• Durgā (Hindu deity)--Cult--Nepal--Bhaktapur.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

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, Tantra, Ritual Performance and Politics in Nepal and Kerala: Embodying the Goddess-clan 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 web-like 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.

Contents:

• Front Matter
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Style, Format, and Interview Transcriptions
• Introduction: Methodology and Context
• Case Studies
• Introducing the Southern Case Study-Teyyāṭṭam, Northern Malabar, Kerala
• Introducing the Northern Case Study-Navadurgā, Bhaktapur, Nepal
• Themes
• Dancer-Medium Communities and Ritual Kinship
• History and Assimilation in Tantric Cosmology
• Sacrifice, Earth Cycles, and Self-Reflexive Affect
• Politics, Ritual Performance, and Caste
• Conclusion
• Back Matter
• Glossary of Key Terms
• Bibliography
• Index.

Notes:

• Revision of author's PhD dissertation.
• Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

• 9789004439023
• 90-04-43902-1

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004439023 DOI