The History of Janakpurdham: A Study of Asceticism and the Hindu Policy

Contents: Preface. Introduction. Part One. The Social Organisation of the Ramanandi Sect: 1. The founding of the Ramanandi Sect. 2. Service at the court of Lord Ram. 3. The separation of the Ramanandi ascetics from the Hindu householders. 4. The Monastic organisation of the Ramanandi Sect. Part Two. Janakpurdham 1700-1846: Hindu ascetics in the Hindu Kingdom. 5. The discovery of the site of ancient Janakpur. 6. The Royal gifts of land to Hindu ascetics. 7. The Abbots who became intermediary revenue collectors on crown land. 8. The Civil administration of Mahottari district at the turn of the nineteenth century. Part Three. Janakpurdham 1846-1901: The Local Kingdom. 9. The Abbot as the Lord of the land. 10. The appearance of Hermitages built upon crown land in Janakpurdham. 11. The circle of fifty-two hermitages. 12. The formation of the circle of fifty-two hermitages. Part Four. Janakpurdham 1901-1951: The market economy in the Local Kingdom. 13. The appearance of rent-receiving Hermitages built upon crown land in Janakpurdham. 14. The transformation of the Abott of a fortress from a local king to a servant of the King. 15. The Zamindar Hermitages of Janakpurdham. 16. The caste Hermitages of Janakpurdham. Part Five. Janakpurdham 1951-1975: Hindu ascetics in the Sacred Town. 17. The Management of the fortresses by the temple trust corporation of Nepal. 18. The Hindu ascetic as a citizen of Nepal. Appendices.

The History of Janakpurdham is a major contribution to the understanding of three important social persona in Hindu societies of South Asia: the ascetic, the Brahman and the king. Deviating from earlier discussions that focused on the binary opposition between the Brahman and the king, Burghart introduces a model of a trinity that included the ascetic. Besides being a rich ethnography of the Ramanandi order of ascetics, the book also provides a very detailed ethnohistory of Janakpurdham in the Nepal Tarai and its religious significance in what was then the Hindu kingdom of Nepal. Based on a rich and largely unpublished corpus of historical documents, it reconstructs the complex dealings and inter-relationships between the royal centre and the Ramanandi ascetics at the periphery. At the same time, the book is also a study of the coming of modernity to Nepal and the rich and detailed analysis of the political and historical context in which the Ramanandis operated helps question the prevalent image of Hindu ascetics as figures epitomising disembodied spirituality.