Western Himalayan Temple Records

State, Pilgrimage, Ritual and Legality in Chambā
Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-90-04-17693-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 31, 400 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 748 g

Reihe: Brill's Indological Library

While numerous studies exist on major South-Asian temples, surprisingly little is known about ‘minor shrines’ and ‘lesser states’. Here fifty-five new documents, in a western-Himalayan script and language, and belonging to a small Siddha shrine, redress this remarkable gap in our knowledge. The documents cover a wide spectrum—from revenue grants to those dealing with ritual, pilgrimage, legality and temple-economy—thus building a picture of the relationship between state and shrine, and particularly so for the minor centres: their popularity and relationship with major temples; mundane matters; notices, petitions, and law-suits. It becomes clear how ‘lesser states’, despite their limited resources, patronized numerous small shrines, along with major temples; and the role played by the Nath-Siddha-ascetics in creating consent-to-rule, acculturation, and constructing hybridity between the Hindu and Tibetan-Buddhist traditions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sharma, Mahesh

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Hinduismus Hinduismus: Kult, Riten, Zeremonien

Über Autor(innen)

Mahesh Sharma, Fellow IIAS-Simla (1993-95) and Fulbright Senior Fellow (2007), teaches History at Panjab University, Chandigarh. He has published extensively on western-Himalayan religious and cultural history including The Realm of Faith: Subversion, Appropriation and Dominance in the Western Himalaya (2001).