Living Banaras : Hindu Religion in Cultural Context/edited by Bradley R. Hertel and Cynthia Ann Humes. 1998, xi, 320 p., photos, $36.
Contents: Introduction/Bradley R. Hertel and Cynthia Ann Humes. 1. Crossing the water: pilgrimage, movement, and environmental scenography of the Ramlila of Ramnagar/Richard Schechner. 2. Staring at frames till they turn into Loops: an excursion through some worlds of Tulsidas/Linda Hess. 3. What's taking place: neighborhood Ramlilas in Banaras/Thomas Parkhill. 4. Hanuman and the moral physique of the Banarsi Wrestler/Joseph S. Alter. 5. Religious division and the mythology of the past/Mary Searle-Chatterjee. 6. The monastic structure of Banarsi Dandi Sadhus/Dana W. Sawyer. 7. The Goddess of the Vindhyas in Banaras/Cynthia Ann Humes. 8. Lolark Kund: Sun and Shiva worship in the city of light/Ratnesh K. Pathak and Cynthia Ann Humes. 9. Language choice, religion, and identity in the Banarsi community/Beth Simon. Appendices/Cynthia Ann Humes: 1. The thirty-one-day program of the Ramnagar Ramlila. 2. An encapsulation of the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas. 3. Major characters of the Ramayana. 4. General glossary. Bibliography. Index.
"By focusing on contemporary popular religious traditions, the book represents a substantial contribution to the study of modern religious practices in Banaras, holy city of India. This book offers indepth, ethnographic views of many contemporary popular religious practices that have, for the most part, received little attention by scholars. Topics covered include male and female asceticism, the Ramlila celebrations, devotion to Hanuman, and Goddess worship, and the way that Banarsi Boli, the local dialect of Banaras, supports its users in their identification with the sacred city.
"The book builds upon previous work about the importance of Banaras; it adds to our empirical understanding of society and culture in India; and it provides one of the best examples I have seen of fieldwork based research where different individual scholars, commenting from various perspectives, achieve a holistic, comprehensive result." (jacket)
[Bradley R. Hertel is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Cynthia Ann Humes is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Claremont McKenna College.]