Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds

Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger

Description

In Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds, Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger analyzes the agency of materiality—the ability of materials to have an effect on both humans and deities—beyond human intentions. Using materials from three regions where Flueckiger conducted extensive fieldwork, she begins with Indian understandings of the agency of ornaments that have the desired effects of protecting women and making them more auspicious. Subsequent chapters bring in examples of materiality that are agentive beyond human intentions, from a south Indian goddess tradition where female guising transforms the aggressive masculinity of men who wear saris, braids, and breasts to the presence of cement images of Ravana in Chhattisgarh, which perform alternative theologies and ideologies to those of dominant textual traditions of the Ramayana epic. Deeply ethnographic and accessibly written, Material Acts in Everyday Hindu Worlds expands our understanding of material agency as well as the parameters of religion more broadly.
List of Illustrations
Note on Transliteration
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Agency of Ornaments: Identity, Protection, and Auspiciousness

2. Saris and Turmeric: Performativity of the Material Guise

3. Material Abundance and Material Excess: Creating and Serving Two Goddesses

4. Expanding Shrines, Changing Architecture: From Protector to Protected Goddesses

5. Standing in Cement: Ravana on the Chhattisgarhi Plains

Afterword: Returning to Material Acts

Glossary of Key Terms
References
Index

Sujets

• Folklore
• Hinduism
• Comparative religion
• Folclore

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438480138
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 13 Mo

Extrait

MATERIAL ACTS IN EVERYDAY HINDU WORLDS
SUNY series in Hindu Studies

Wendy Doniger, editor
MATERIAL ACTS IN EVERYDAY HINDU WORLDS
Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger
Cover image: Bangle seller breaking a woman’s old bangles and replacing with new ones, Chhattisgarh. Photo by the author.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 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: Flueckiger, Joyce Burkhalter, author.
Title: Material acts in everyday Hindu worlds / Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2020. | Series: SUNY series in Hindu studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019048693 | ISBN 9781438480114 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438480138 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Hinduism and culture—India. | Material culture—Religious aspects—Hinduism.
Classification: LCC BL1215.C76 F48 2020 | DDC 294.5/37—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019048693
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations
Note on Transliteration
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Agency of Ornaments: Identity, Protection, and Auspiciousness
Chapter 2 Saris and Turmeric: Performativity of the Material Guise
Chapter 3 Material Abundance and Material Excess: Creating and Serving Two Goddesses
Chapter 4 Expanding Shrines, Changing Architecture: From Protector to Protected Goddesses
Chapter 5 Standing in Cement: Ravana on the Chhattisgarhi Plains
Afterword: Returning to Material Acts
Glossary of Key Terms
References
Index
Illustrations
Figure I.1 Maladasari, base of footpath up to Tirumala, site of temple of Shri Venkateshvara.
Figure I.2 Pilgrim prostrating next to the Maladasari.
Figure 1.1 Bangle seller breaking a woman’s old bangles and replacing with new ones, Chhattisgarh.
Figure 1.2 Ornamented elder, Hyderabad.
Figure 1.3 Tali , black beads and coral, and amulet metal canister on turmeric thread, Hyderabad.
Figure 1.4 Odiya lakshmi nara , upper right arm, eastern Chhattisgarh.
Figure 1.5 Arm tattoos, Chhattisgarh.
Figure 1.6 Odiya foot tattoos, eastern Chhattisgarh.
Figure 1.7 Odiya Lakshmi-footprint tattoos, eastern Chhattisgarh.
Figure 2.1 Gangamma Jatara stri vesham .
Figure 2.2 Kaikala dora (prince) vesham with Chakali minister vesham .
Figure 2.3 Sunnapukundalu (lime pot) vesham .
Figure 2.4 Matangi vesham .
Figure 2.5 Matangi at rest.
Figure 2.6 Lay stri vesham with mother.
Figure 2.7 Photograph of Srinivasan stri vesham .
Figure 2.8 Gangamma’s turmeric vesham .
Figure 3.1 Women cooking for Varalakshmi Puja, Jupally village, Telangana.
Figure 3.2 Beginning of Varalakshmi Puja (ritual ingredients contained), Jupally village, Telangana.
Figure 3.3 Varalakshmi silver mask, Hyderabad.
Figure 3.4 Transformation of cement pillar to goddess.
Figure 3.5 Wrapping saris on kodistambham .
Figure 3.6 Gangamma’s ugra mukhi on final day of jatara , Tatayyagunta temple.
Figure 4.1 Gramadevata shrine in middle of major Hyderabad thoroughfare.
Figure 4.2 Potu Raju and female Bonalu festival celebrant flanking doorway of Nalla Pochamma shrine.
Figure 4.3 Kumhar matriarch, 2014.
Figure 4.4 The goddess in Nalla Pochamma shrine, 2014.
Figure 4.5 Nalla Pochamma new temple, 2016.
Figure 4.6 Sandhya standing in front of original Maisamma shrine.
Figure 4.7 Bhagya Laxmi shrine at base of Charminar, with flags flying, 2011.
Figure 4.8 Bhagya Laxmi marble image behind silver kavacham , 2014.
Figure 5.1 Ravana, Tumgaon village, 2014.
Figure 5.2 Ravana, Tari village, 2014.
Figure 5.3 Ravana with visible donkey atop his middle head, Ghirola village, 2014.
Figure 5.4 Ravana cement image and burning effigy, Ravan Bhatha, Raipur, 2014.
Figure 5.5 Ravana, Dhamtari, 2015.
Figure 5.6 Shitala greets Ravana, Pirhapal village, 2014.
Figure 5.7 Ravana, Mandodari ( right ), and Kumbhakarna ( left ), Chilhati village, 2014.
Note on Transliteration
I have chosen not to use diacritics in this book so that the prose will be accessible to non-specialists, on the assumption that specialists in South Asia will already know the correct pronunciation of Indian-language terms. A glossary of key terms and diacritics indicating their correct pronunciation appears at the end of the book. Proper, caste, and place names are capitalized and also appear without diacritics. For ease in pronunciation, I have rendered both ś and ṣ as “sh” and c as “ch” in Indian language words; thus shakti rather than śakti , and Chhattisgarh rather than Chattisgarh. I have rendered plurals with the addition of an “s” at the end of Indian-language transliterated words rather than giving their plural forms in each language ( veshams rather than veshallu in Telugu).
The chapters of this book draw on ethnographic research in several languages: Chhattisgarhi, Odiya, Hindi, and Telugu. I have generally followed the transliteration system of Sanskrit for words and names that are common across these languages. So while Hindi and Chhattisgarhi would pronounce Ram, Ramayan, Ravan, and math , I have transliterated these as Rama, Ramayana, Ravana, and matha . Exceptions are made in direct quotations or proper names that do not include the final “a,” such as Ravan Bhatha. An exception to the choice of Sanskrit transliteration is in words such as darshan (rather than Sanskrit darshanam ) that have become common in English publications of South Asian materials.
Acknowledgments
The fieldwork for this book spans many years across three geographic fieldwork sites (Chhattisgarh, Hyderabad, and Tirupati). Thus, my gratitude has compounded many layers that I can never fully excavate.
In Chhattisgarh, I have found a welcoming home with the royal family of the erstwhile princely state of Kanker. The present Rajmata’s quiet strength and grace inspires all of us who have found a place in the family. Surya Pratap Deo (Jolly) and Ashwini Pratap Deo (Jay) provided logistics for many field trip outings, in particular to attend Dussehra village celebrations in fall 2014; I have learned from them many subtleties of Chhattisgarhi culture. Aditya Pratap Deo has been an important intellectual conversation partner and friend about all things Chhattisgarhi.
Akhilesh Nand, whom I’ve known since he was a baby when I lived with his family in a Chhattisgarhi village during my PhD fieldwork, is now a teacher at Salem English School in Raipur. I thank him for taking me on the back of his motorcycle to the Dussehra celebrations in Raipur in 2014 and helping me navigate crowds of thousands. Folklorist and Raipur resident Mahendra Mishra served as a guide to many Ravana images sprinkled across Chhattisgarhi landscapes, which I would have never found on my own.
In Hyderabad, the Thangavelu family has welcomed me to their home—over and over again, almost yearly, since 1989. I have learned so much from each of them over cups and cups of tea during morning newspaper reading and sitting on the verandah late afternoons. In Tirupati, the Kaikala family—in particular, Venkateshvarlu and his mother, Kamalamma—was more patient than anyone should have to be with my unending questions about Gangamma traditions over multiple return trips. Kamalamma periodically reminded me, “I already told you that last year!” but she would always try again.
I am grateful for generous support from several funding agencies at different steps along the way of this project. Emory University’s University Research Committee provided funding for a semester free from teaching that gave invaluable time to read theoretical scholarship on materiality in order to prepare me to write subsequent fellowship applications. In 2014–2015 the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend Award supported new research conducted for this project and time to begin writing this book. The American Institute of Indian Studies supported my fieldwork on Gangamma goddess traditions in Tirupati in 1999–2000. The Center for Faculty Development and Excellence at Emory University provided support to hire an external editor for the manuscript of this book before it was submitted to press. I have never worked before with an editor at this stage and am so thankful for the keen eye and imagination of Katie Van Heest of Tweed Academic Editing. At SUNY Press, series editor Wendy Doniger, James Peltz, and Jenn Bennett-Genthner shepherded the book to publication with grace, when there were significant shifts at the press.
Ann Grodzins Gold and Tulasi Srinivas were readers of the manuscript for SUNY Press, and they pushed me to refine my arguments; however, their friendship and intellectual companionship have been the real gift. Over so many years, Kirin Narayan, Leela Prasad, Susan Wadley, and David Shulman have been invaluable friends in fieldwork and writing. Velcheru Narayana Rao has remained my guide long after he was my dissertation guide/advisor. To