Dealing with Deities: The Ritual Vow in South Asia

Contributors

269 Contributors MARTIN BAUMANN is Professor of History of Religions at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland) and research fellow at the University of Hannover (Germany ). His teaching and research focus includes diaspora studies, Buddhism in the West, and Hindu traditions in Europe and the Caribbean. He has published on these topics in both German and English. His most recent book is Migration, Religion, Integration (2000). LOU FENECH is Associate Professor of South Asian History at the University of Northern Iowa. His areas of expertise are Sikh history, religion, and culture. His more recent publications include Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the “Game of Love” and “Contested Nationalisms; Negotiated Terrains: The Way Sikhs Remember Udham Singh ‘Shahid’ (1899–1941),” in Modern Asian Studies. SUNIL GOONASEKERA is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He has conducted field research in Rajasthan, India, on Jain monasticism. His publications include a monograph, entitled “George Keyt: Interpretations,” on the life and works of the Sri Lankan artist George Keyt. Goonasekera’s areas of research specialization include anthropology of religion, law, art, and music. WILLIAM P. HARMAN is Head of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A former president of the Midwest American Academy of Religion and former chair of the Department of Religion at DePauw University, he has written The Sacred Marriage of a Hindu Goddess (Indiana and Motilal) and over thirty articles or book chapters in English or French on Hinduism, ritual, and the study of religion. 270 Contributors M. WHITNEY KELTING is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Northeastern University. Her recent book, Singing to the Jinas, focuses on devotional singing among Gujarati Jain women in Maharashtra. Her latest project examines narratives associated with Jain women’s fasting and ritual practice. RAMDAS LAMB is Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Hawai’i, Manoa. He was a sadhu in the Ramananda Sampraday in north India for nine years. His research interests include South Asian asceticism, devotionalism, and low-caste religion, and his most recent publication is Wrapt in the Name: The Ramnamis, Ramnam, and Untouchable Religion in Central India (2002). JACK E. LLEWELLYN is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Southwest Missouri State University. He has written two books about the Arya Samaj, a modern Hindu revivalist movement. Recently he has been working on pilgrimage, especially the Kumbha Mela, the world’s largest pilgrimage festival. VASUDHA NARAYANAN is Professor of Religion at the University of Florida. She is a former president of the American Academy of Religion and the past president of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. She has written and edited five books including The Vernacular Veda: Revelation, Recitation and Ritual (1994) and numerous articles. KAREN PECHILIS teaches Asian and Comparative Religions and is Associate Professor of Religious Studies as well as NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director of the Humanities at Drew University. She is the author of The Embodiment of Bhakti (2000), editor of The Graceful Guru (2004), and has written several articles on Hindu devotionalism. TRACY PINTCHMAN is Professor of Religious Studies and Hindu Studies at Loyola University, Chicago. Her publications include The Rise of the Goddess in the Hindu Tradition (1994), Guests at God’s Wedding: Celebrating Kartik Among the Women of Benares (2005), and she edited Seeking Mahadevi: Constructing the Identities of the Hindu Great Goddess (2001), in addition to publishing several articles. SELVA J. RAJ is Stanley S. Kresge Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Albion College. He is a former president of the Midwest American Academy of Religion and the past-president of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. He is a co-editor with Corinne Dempsey of Popular Christianity in India: Riting between the Lines (2002) and author of several articles on Hindu-Christian ritual exchange. Contributors 271 PASHAURA SINGH is Assistant Professor of Sikh Studies and Punjabi Language in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His speciality includes Sikh Studies and Religion in Modern India, with emphasis on textual studies and hermeneutics. He is the author of The Guru Granth Sahib: Canon, Meaning, and Authority (Oxford University Press, 2000). SUFIA UDDIN is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Vermont. She has conducted field research in Bangladesh and Calcutta, India. Her research focuses on construction and transformation of Bengali–Muslim identity and...