Introduction. Wayside Shrines in India: An Everyday Defiant Religiosity

Larios, Borayin; Voix, Raphaël

doi:10.4000/samaj.4546

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Like this, I am able to take darhsan and find some peace. (Larios & Voix, 2018, p. 8; cf. McLain, 2018, p. 228)…”

Section: Minor Religion and The Making Of Shrines And Templementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Shrines attract major investments when rich businesspeople or politicians attribute their success to divine support and their aura seems remarkably unaffected by gossip about illicit activities such as money laundering, political maneuvering, land grabbing, and attempts to marginalize another religious community (Kent, 2018; Larios, 2018). Successful shrines may be formalized and managed by neighborhood associations or a temple trust, especially if they attract a regular flow of income (Kalpagam, 2006; Larios & Voix, 2018), but they can also vanish if they are left unattended, overrun by formal development projects, or destroyed during a storm (Kent, 2018; Srinivas, 2016).…”

Section: Minor Religion and The Making Of Shrines And Templementioning

confidence: 99%

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Making Informal Sacred Geographies: Spiritual Presence, Sensual Engagement, and Wayside Shrines in Urban India

Rao

2022

Space and Culture

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Inspired by recent debates in material religion, and using the example of the central Indian city of Bhopal, this article characterizes an informal Hindu religious geography that flourishes in the interstices of India’s planned urbanity. The small wayside shrines that dot Indian cities usually arise spontaneously, created by believers who discern divine manifestations and begin to worship these. Traces of ritual activities animate others to follow suit and express their devotion, thus reinforcing the sites’ sacredness. The daily repetition of myriad minor ritual gestures maintains a dynamic religious geography, which in a recursive mode ties together devotees in an anonymous ritual community, whose members share a visual language and are inclined to take seriously the desire of deities to live among humans. With a focus on minor religion, and by concentrating on the social life of a cosmos of informal shrines, the text highlights a less-studied dimension of urban religion. It draws attention to the cumulative effect of lived practices and human–material entanglements, and complements discussions that frequently engage with omnipresent politics of formalization as well as competition of communities for attention and recognition in multireligious spaces.

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“…Like this, I am able to take darhsan and find some peace. (Larios & Voix, 2018, p. 8; cf. McLain, 2018, p. 228)…”

Section: Minor Religion and The Making Of Shrines And Templementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Minor Religion and The Making Of Shrines And Templementioning

confidence: 99%

Making Informal Sacred Geographies: Spiritual Presence, Sensual Engagement, and Wayside Shrines in Urban India

Rao

2022

Space and Culture

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“…Here the term mandir is used for both structures, thus the local terminology can be somewhat misleading. While both structures "house" the deity, the Corāñcā Gaṇpati is clearly a formal temple, whereas the Mārutī Mandir has all the characteristics of a "wayside shrine": its main deity is "immediately adjacent to a public path, visible from it and accessible to any passerby" (Larios and Voix 2018). For an extensive discussion on the terminology of "wayside shrine"…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In fact, as Olivelle (2010:195) has remarked, the first mention of "temples" (devāyatana) in Sanskrit literature also referred to rather smaller structures located along roads. For a theoretical discussion on the semantic problems of the terminology, please refer to the introduction to this volume (Larios and Voix 2018).…”

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From the Heavens to the Streets: Pune’s Wayside Shrines

Larios¹

2018

samaj

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In 2014 The (in)famous Bollywood hit PK created an uproar among Hindu nationalists and right-wing groups who called for a boycott of the film, which ultimately lead to the physical vandalization of cinema halls, the tearing of posters, and the use of traditional media as well as social media to abuse the director, filmmakers, and the actors for the film's portrayal of their religion (Qadri and Mufti 2016). 1 The plot of the movie is that Peekay, who is an alien that lands in India, is unable to return to his planet after his "remote control" is stolen. As he tries to find his way back home, he learns from humans that only "God" will be able to help him find the device. As he searches for "God", he is confronted by the paradoxical elements of India's different religious dogmas and practices. Jaggu is the female lead of the movie. She is a television news reporter and a non-traditional and progressive Hindu girl who falls in love with a Muslim man from Pakistan while traveling in Europe and the couple decides to marry. Jaggu's father, however, is a very devout follower of a Hindu godman (Tapasvi) who opposes his daughter's union with a Muslim man. After the flop of their attempt to marry, because of religious differences, Jaggu meets Peekay back in India as he is distributing leaflets about a missing "God". She is fascinated by Peekay's quest and convinces the TV channel head to make a show with Peekay exposing the truth about different religions. About midway through the movie (1.41.19 min.-1.43.31 min.) 2 there is a scene that depicts the installation of a wayside shrine by Peekay, the hero of the film, outside of the Department of Mathematical Sciences of Delhi University. In this part of the movie, Peekay brings the devout father of Jaggu along with a TV crew to the entrance of the university in order for Peekay to prove to Jaggu's father that religion is nothing but a money-making "business driven by fear" (Hindi: ḍar kā biznes). He explains to Jaggu's father that because exams are currently being conducted at the college students are terrified. Peekay then approaches one of the trees at the gates of the university and takes a large rock and places it in the flower bed in front of it. He calls the stone the "factory's machine" and the coins and bills he puts in front of the stone are the "investment." He then takes out a pān 3 packet and smears the stone with it leaving a red mark on the stone, as is characteristic of many

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Right to Pray

Dhar

2021

ROSA

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Focusing on cultural restrictions on women’s access to the garbhagriha in specific Hindu temples in India, this paper attempts to contextualize the wider debates around gender in faith-based practices and the confrontation between the ‘right to pray’ movement and its opponents. It reviews the complexities of practising public religion in a democratic nation. In the ambit of the contemporary feminist movement, activism has been initiated for reclaiming space for women in the realm of religion and faith. This was most clearly demonstrated in the women-led right to pray movement. The movement has been continuously evolving in local spaces and remains diversified across public places of worship. Debates around the exclusion of women have required the judiciary to reinterpret the relation between public temples and the equality proclaimed by the Constitution. By looking at the Sabarimala and Shani Shingnapur temple protests, this paper reflects on the conflict between activism and faith traditions. It charts the legal outcomes, local responses, political tensions, and the associated gender subjectivity. It attempts to revisit the role of women as recipients rather than agents of religion in public spaces, while extending the arguments to other aspects of ritual.

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Introduction. Wayside Shrines in India: An Everyday Defiant Religiosity

Cited by 5 publications

References 63 publications

Making Informal Sacred Geographies: Spiritual Presence, Sensual Engagement, and Wayside Shrines in Urban India

Making Informal Sacred Geographies: Spiritual Presence, Sensual Engagement, and Wayside Shrines in Urban India

From the Heavens to the Streets: Pune’s Wayside Shrines

Right to Pray

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