Nine Nights of Power

Description

The autumnal Navarātri festival—also called Durgā Pūjā, Dassehra, or Dasain—is the most important Hindu festival in South Asia and wherever Hindus settle. A nine-night-long celebration in honor of the goddess Durgā, it ends on the tenth day with a celebration called "the victorious tenth" (vijayadaśamī). The rituals that take place in domestic, royal, and public spaces are closely connected with one's station in life and dependent on social status, economic class, caste, and gender issues. Exploring different aspects of the festival as celebrated in diverse regions of South Asia and in the South Asian diaspora, this book addresses the following common questions: What does this festival do? What does it achieve, and how? Why and in what way does it sometimes fail? How do mass communication and social media increase participation in and contribute to the changing nature of the festival? The contributors address these questions from multiple perspectives and discuss issues of agency, authority, ritual efficacy, change, appropriation, and adaptation. Because of the festival's reach beyond its diverse celebrations in South Asia, its influence can be seen in the rituals and dances in many parts of Western Europe and North America.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs—An Introduction
Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, and Astrid Zotter

Navarātri as Agent of Renewal and Transformation

1. Ritual of Revitalization: The Transformative Power of the Durgā Pūjā
Hillary Rodrigues

2. Straddling the Sacred and the Secular: Presence and Absence of the Goddess in Contemporary Garbo, the Navarātri Dance of Gujarat
Neelima Shukla-Bhatt

Propriety versus Creativity in Navarātri

3. Can Didi Truly Become Durgā? The Riddle of the Two Goddesses
Moumita Sen

4. Limits of Creativity: Kolu in Brahmin Vaiṣṇava Households in Kāñcipuram
Ute Hüsken

Gendered Identities in Navarātri

5. Navarātri as a Festival of Hanumān and Male Asceticism
R. Jeremy Saul

6. Going Home for Navarātri: Negotiating Caste, Class, and Gender between Rural and Urban Rajasthan
Jennifer D. Ortegren

7. Female Agency during Tamil Navarātri
Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama

Navarātri as Instrument of Power

8. Who Kills the Buffalo? Authority and Agency in the Ritual Logistics of the Nepalese Dasaĩ Festival
Astrid Zotter

9. Domains of Dasara: Reflections on the Struggle for Significance in Contemporary Mysore
Caleb Simmons

10. The Ups and Downs of Competing Power Rituals: Dasarā and Durgā Pūjā in a Former Princely State of Odisha
Uwe Skoda

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Hinduism
• History of Asia

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438484082
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Nine Nights of Power
SUNY series in Hindu Studies

Wendy Doniger, editor
Nine Nights of Power
Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs
Edited by
Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, and Astrid Zotter
Cover image taken by Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama.
Publication of this book was made possible in part by the generous support of the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) at the University of Oslo and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hüsken, Ute, editor. | Narayanan, Vasudha, editor. | Zotter, Astrid, editor.
Title: Nine nights of power : Durgā, dolls, and darbārs / Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, Astrid Zotter.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Series: SUNY series in Hindu Studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438484075 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438484082 (ebook)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
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Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs—An Introduction
Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, and Astrid Zotter
Navarātri as Agent of Renewal and Transformation
1. Ritual of Revitalization: The Transformative Power of the Durgā Pūjā
Hillary Rodrigues
2. Straddling the Sacred and the Secular: Presence and Absence of the Goddess in Contemporary Garbo , the Navarātri Dance of Gujarat
Neelima Shukla-Bhatt
Propriety versus Creativity in Navarātri
3. Can Didi Truly Become Durgā? The Riddle of the Two Goddesses
Moumita Sen
4. Limits of Creativity: Kolu in Brahmin Vai ṣ ṇ ava Households in Kāñcipuram
Ute Hüsken
Gendered Identities in Navarātri
5. Navarātri as a Festival of Hanumān and Male Asceticism
R. Jeremy Saul
6. Going Home for Navarātri: Negotiating Caste, Class, and Gender between Rural and Urban Rajasthan
Jennifer D. Ortegren
7. Female Agency during Tamil Navarātri
Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama
Navarātri as Instrument of Power
8. Who Kills the Buffalo? Authority and Agency in the Ritual Logistics of the Nepalese Dasaĩ Festival
Astrid Zotter
9. Domains of Dasara: Reflections on the Struggle for Significance in Contemporary Mysore
Caleb Simmons
10. The Ups and Downs of Competing Power Rituals: Dasarā and Durgā Pūjā in a Former Princely State of Odisha
Uwe Skoda
Contributors
Index
Illustrations Figures 1.1 A traditional Bengali-styled image cluster stands completed in a workshop (Bengali Tola quarter, Banāras, 1991) . 1.2 The Durgā Sporting Club members take pleasure in their successful staging of the unbaked clay images ( mūrti ) (Durgā Ku ṇ ḍ quarter, Banāras, 1991) . 1.3 Members of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha perform myths from the Devīmāhātmya (Ga ṅ gā riverbank, Banāras, 1990) . 1.4 The wife of Mithai Lal seeks to enhance her own healing empowerment by establishing the Devī in her home shrine in a wide-bodied jar (Banāras, 1990) . 1.5 On the premises of a goddess temple, ritualists recite the Devīmāhātmya (Durgā Ku ṇ ḍ temple, Banāras, 2003) . 1.6 Pandit Nitai Bhattacharya performs prā ṇ āyāma (regulation of the breath) as part of the bhūta śuddhi rite (Lahiri home, Banāras, 1991) . 1.7 On Mahānavamī, the priest ( pūjārī ) presides over a fire ritual ( homa ) with members of the Durgā Sporting Club (Durgā Ku ṇ ḍ quarter, Banāras, 1991) . 2.1 A page of the Ahmedabad section of the newspaper Divya Bhaskar from September 28, 2017, showing devotional content and a garbā picture . 2.2 Festival image of garbo . 2.3 Traditional garbo dancing by women with images on their heads (Surat city, 2013) . 2.4 The cover of the Rā ṣ ṭ rīya Navarātra Rās booklet, published in 1930 . 2.5 Tickets and a billboard for professionally organized garbā (Navarātri 2017) . 2.6 Young women dancing in garbā at a professionally managed venue (Ahmedabad) . 2.7 United Way garbā (Vadodara, Navarātri 2017) . 3.1 Photograph of a poster of a Bhārat Mātā Pūjā, which has taken place in Kolkata during the Durgā Pūjā since at least the 1990s . 3.2 Photograph of a portrait of Mamata Banerjee . 3.3 The Durgā mūrti at Bhabanipur Dursotsav Samity (Kolkata, 2016) . 3.4 A typical asura with dark, curly hair and an enraged or anguished expression (Kolkata, 2013) . 3.5 Mamata Banerjee with ten arms behind her, each holding a visual representation of one of her projects in Bengal (Chakdah, October 2016) . 3.6 A close-up of the image showing the representation of Kanyasree, a project initiated by the TMC to subsidize and encourage the education of girls in Bengal . 3.7 A close-up of the scene showing protesting peasants as miniature figures holding posters of Mamata Banerjee at the feet of the large mūrti . 3.8 Two goddesses and their devotees . 4.1 A map of Kāñcipuram showing Śivakāñci and Vi ṣ ṇ ukāñci . 4.2 Kolu dominates the space in the priestly families’ living rooms, where guests are received (October 11, 2005) . 4.3 Children during Navarātri in the courtyard of the Varadarāja temple, dressed up as deities and mythological figures (October 14, 2007) . 4.4 Kolu of a priestly family in Kāñcipuram displays mythological scenes along with a figure of Mickey Mouse (September 24, 2006) . 4.5 The replica of a temple tank displays the Gajendramok ṣ a myth along with the floating festival of Vi ṣ ṇ u and Lak ṣ mī (October 3, 2011) . 4.6 Sundararajan’s replica of the central scene in the text Hastigirimāhātmya (September 25, 2006) . 4.7 The adorned festival images of Varadarāja and Tāyār along with Varadarāja’s further consorts Śrīdevī and Bhūdevī during Navarātri (October 12, 2005) . 4.8 Sundararajan’s replica of the festival images of Varadarāja and Tāyār along with Varadarāja’s further consorts Śrīdevī, Bhūdevī, Ā ṇ ṭ ā ḷ , and Malayāla Nācciyār (April 1, 2010) . 4.9 Varadarāja on Yā ḷ i vāhana during the festival Brāhmotsava (June 8, 2009) . 4.10 Sundararajan’s replica of Varadarāja on a Yā ḷ i vāhana (October 15, 2015) . 4.11 Armature serving as the base for Sundararajan’s replicas of Varadarāja’s vāhanas (August 1, 2016) . 5.1 Bālājī (Hanumān), from a poster in the vicinity of the Sālāsar Bālājī temple . 5.2 A cloth merchant worshipping two Hanumān Svarūps in Pānīpat during Navarātri . 5.3 Pilgrims prostrating in the street on the way to Bālājī’s temple in Sālāsar during Navarātri . 5.4 Two pilgrims praying to a makeshift shrine for Bālājī in their rest-house room in Sālāsar during Navarātri . 5.5 Hanumān Svarūp performers reciting the Rāmcaritmānas in a joint Hindu-Sikh temple in Pānīpat in the days preceding Navarātri . 5.6 Hanumān Svarūps shortly after arriving for the ritual immolation of Rāva ṇ a in Pānīpat during Navarātri . 6.1 Mūrti near the temple . 6.2 Second mūrti . 6.3 View of the dance area in front of the second mūrti from above . 6.4 Young girls dancing ḍ a ṇ ḍ iyā in Rajasthani outfits . 7.1 Ms. Madhumita’s kolu (Kāñcipuram, 2015) . 7.2 Ms. Madhumita as the goddess speaks prophecy for a female visitor (Kāñcipuram, 2015) . 7.3 Ms. Madhumita, sitting in front of the kolu , being possessed by the goddess (Kāñcipuram, 2015) . 7.4 The tāmpulam (Kāñcipuram, 2015) . 7.5 Ms. Madhumita performing a kanyā pūjā (Kāñcipuram, 2015) . 7.6 Woman carrying the goddess as a pot in the tāy cīr procession (Kāñcipuram, 2015) . 7.7 Women performing a lamp pūjā (Kāñcipuram, 2014) . 7.8 The priest ( pūcāri ) pierces a female devotee (Kāñcipuram, 2011) . 7.9 A group of women in the milk-pot procession (Kāñcipuram, 2014) . 8.1 An animal made of cucumber is sacrificed on the occasion of Mahānavamī in a private worship room set up for Dasaĩ ( dasaĩghara ) in a Kathmandu suburb (October 2007) . 8.2 A Brahmin priest squats near the sacrificial post ( maulo ) to consecrate a pumpkin and the sacrificial swords (March 25, 2018) . 8.3 Under the guidance of the Brahmin priest