Dealing with Deities: The Ritual Vow in South Asia

Contents

Contents Maps and Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xiii Sites Associated with Vow Rituals xvii 1. Introduction: The Deal with Deities—Ways Vows Work in South Asia Selva J. Raj and William P. Harman 1 2. “The Vow”: A Short Story Shankarrao Kharat 15 I. GETTING WHAT YOU WANT 3. Negotiating Relationships with the Goddess William P. Harman 25 4. Shared Vows, Shared Space, and Shared Deities: Vow Rituals among Tamil Catholics in South India Selva J. Raj 43 5. Religious Vows at the Shrine of Shahul Hamid Vasudha Narayanan 65 6. In the Company of Pirs: Making Vows, Receiving Favors at Bangladeshi Sufi Shrines Sufia Uddin 87 7. Bara: Buddhist Vows at Kataragama Sunil Goonasekera 107 vii viii Contents 8. Performing Vows in Diasporic Contexts: Tamil Hindus, Temples, and Goddesses in Germany Martin Baumann 129 II. GETTING WHAT YOU NEED 9. Singing a Vow: Devoting Oneself to Shiva through Song Karen Pechilis 147 10. Monastic Vows and the Ramananda Sampraday Ramdas Lamb 165 11. Negotiating Karma, Merit, and Liberation: Vow-taking in the Jain Tradition M. Whitney Kelting 187 12. Vows in the Sikh Tradition Louis E. Fenech and Pashaura Singh 201 III. GETTING NOTHING AT ALL 13. When Vows Fail to Deliver What They Promise: The Case of Shyamavati Tracy Pintchman 219 14. Two Critiques of Women’s Vows Jack E. Llewellyn 235 IV. CONCLUSION: SOME PROMISING POSSIBILITIES 15. Toward a Typology of South Asian Lay Vows Selva J. Raj and William P. Harman 249 Glossary 257 Contributors 269 Appendix: Essays Arranged According to Tradition 273 Index 275 ...