Wonder in South Asia : Histories, Aesthetics, Ethics / Tulasi Srinivas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Srinivas, Tulasi, author.

Series:

SUNY series in religious studies.

SUNY Series in Religious Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wonder--Religious aspects.

Wonder.

South Asia--Religion.

South Asia.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (368 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2023]

Summary:

The experience of wonder-encompassing awe, bewilderment, curiosity, excitement, fear, dread, mystery, perplexity, reverence, surprise, and supplication-and the ineffable quality of that which is wondrous have been entwined in religion and human experience. Yet strangely, wonder in non-western societies, including South Asia, has rarely been acknowledged or understood. This groundbreaking volume brings together historians and ethnographers of South Asia, including leading and emerging scholars, to consider the place and meaning of wonder in such varied joyful, tense, and creative sites and moments as Sufi music performances in Gujarat, Tamil graveyard processions, trans women's charitable practices, Kipling's Orientalist tales, village Kuchipudi dance performances, and Rajasthani healing shrines. Offering a synthetic and scholarly reading of wonder that speaks to the political, aesthetic, and ethical worlds of South Asia, these essays redefine the nature and meaning of wonder and its worlds. Taken together, they provide an invaluable research tool for those in the fields of Asian religion, religion in context, and South Asian religions in particular.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Wondering about Wonder: An Introduction

The Maze within Amazement

The Genealogy of Wonder

The Cow in the Elevator and Ethnographies of Wonder

South Asian Wonders

Section 1: Histories

Section 2: Aesthetics

Section 3: Ethics

Note

Works Cited

Section 1. Histories of Wonder

Chapter 1: Wonders Never Cease: An Ethnographic Panorama

1980 Curiosity

Curiosity and Aesthetic Thrill

Curiosity and Its Opposite

1986 Compassion and Connection: The Cobra in the Well

1980-2017 Creativity: Kuchalwara Mataji

1980 Jeep Pilgrimage

2003 Healing Miracles and Environments

2005 A Cure in the Family

2017 A New Temple

2010 Compassion: A Muslim Pir Heals a Hindu Merchant's Wife

Wonder, or the Beating of Birds' Wings

Notes

Chapter 2: Weird Tales: Ganesh, Idolatry, and the Golden Age of American Pulp Fiction

Introduction: Ganesh Crosses the Sea

Rudyard Kipling: Idolatry Stories

H. P. Lovecraft: "The Call of Cthulhu"

Frank Belknap Long: "The Horror from the Hills"

Robert E. Howard: "The Tower of the Elephant"

An Afterword: Wonder

Fiction

Chapter 3: Did the Masters of Disenchantment Ever Wonder? India in the Nineteenth-Century American Evangelical Imaginary

Introduction

Entangling Encounters

Wondrous Virtue

Wonder Resurfacing

Conclusion

Section 2. Aesthetics of Wonder

Chapter 4: Wonder: Spirit Mediumship and Devotional Music at a Mumbai Shrine of the Sidi Ancestor-Saints

Wajd as Wonder: Defining Haziri and Hal

Wonder and the Embodiment of the Saints

Bridging Wonder and Ecstatic Embodiment: Spiritual Development Viewed from within and without Sidi Sufi Ritual Contexts.

Voices of the Saints: African Diasporan Instruments of Sidi Dhammal/Goma

Chapter 5: Wonder as Affect on the Kuchipudi Stage

Ravi Shankar as Ardhanarishvara

Wonder as Affect

Wonder as Rasa

Chapter 6: In the Vicinity of Wonder: Thirunangai Devotees of Angalamman and Narratives of Moral Astonishment

To Astonish and to Be Astonished

Money and the Economy of Astonishment

Proliferating Attachments-Kinship and Care

Ontological Premises, Social Capacities, and the Work of Wonder

Chapter 7: Wonder in the Cremation Ground: The Affective and Transformative Dimensions of an Urban Tamil Festival

The Festival Process: Preparations, Decorations, Vows, and Processions

Ritual Creativity in the Cremation Ground

The Festival's Subtle Landscapes

Wonder in a Landscape of Possibility

References

Chapter 8: Economies of Wonder: The Production of Spectacle at the Kumbh Mela

Creating Wonder: Akhāṛas

Creating Wonder: Gurus

Creating Wonder: Pilgrims

Expansive Economies and Wonder Trash

Section 3. Ethics of Wonder

Chapter 9: Scarcity, Abundance, and Money at Muslim Saint Shrines in North India

Whose Inclusivity? Which Tolerance? What Makes Sufi Shrines So "Good"

How to Make Sense of Money in the Anthropology of Religion

The Real Ones and Big Money

The Dargah as a Doorway between Two Worlds

Scarcity and Abundance: The Transmission of Money at Shrines

Chapter 10: On Wondrous Moments as the Basis for a Swaminarayan Ethics of Sociality

BAPS and the Swaminarayan Ground for Wonder Experiences

Narratives of Wonder

The Packing-Crate Door.

An Influencer's Gift

There Is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch

Wonder as a Fieldsite for Knowledge Production

The Ethics of Sociality by Way of an Anthropology of Wonder

Chapter 11 "Guruji Rocked … Duniya Shocked": Wondertraps and the Camerawork Guruship of Dera Sacha Sauda Guru Dr. Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan

Exaggeration Procedures

Pop Star

Fashion Icon

Reflection: Camerawork Guruship and Bhakti at the Speed of Light

Conclusion The Worlds of Wonder

List of Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438495293

1438495293

OCLC:

1444747961