Linda Penkower - Hindu ritual at the margins: innovations, transformations, reconsiderations

Hindu Ritual at the Margins

Studies in Comparative Religion

Frederick M. Denny, Series Editor

Innovations, Transformations, Reconsiderations

Edited by
LINDA PENKOWER AND TRACY PINTCHMAN

The University of South Carolina Press

2014 University of South Carolina

Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208

www.sc.edu/uscpress

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hindu Ritual at the Margins : Innovations, Transformations, Reconsiderations / Edited by Linda Penkower and Tracy Pintchman.

pages cm. (Studies in Comparative Religion)

Based on presentations at a conference called Ritualizing in, on, and across the Boundaries of the Indian Subcontinent in honor of Fred W. Clothey on the occasion of his retirement and held at the University of Pittsburgh in March 2006.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61117-389-5 (Hardbound : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-61117-390-1 (Ebook)

1. HinduismRitualsCongresses. 2. HinduismSocial aspectsCongresses.

I. Penkower, Linda L., editor of compilation. II. Pintchman, Tracy, editor of compilation.

III. Clothey, Fred W., honouree.

BL1226.2.H47 2014

294.5'38dc23

2014004293

To Fred W. Clothey, a leader in the creation of the field of ritual studies

Introduction
TRACY PINTCHMAN AND LINDA PENKOWER

The Medieval Muruka
The Place of a God among His Tamil Worshipers
LESLIE C. ORR

A Tale of Two Weddings
Gendered Performances of Tulss Marriage to Ka
TRACY PINTCHMAN

The Roles of Ritual in Two Blockbuster Hindi Films
PHILIP LUTGENDORF

The Politics of Ritual among Murukas Malaysian Devotees
ELIZABETH FULLER COLLINS AND K. RAMANATHAN

Women, Ritual, and the Ironies of Power at a North American Goddess Temple
CORINNE DEMPSEY

Hindu Ritual in a Canadian Context
PAUL YOUNGER

The Accidental Ritualist
DAVID L. HABERMAN

Ritual as Dharma
The Narrowing and Widening of a Key Term
ALF HILTEBEITEL

From Diaspora to (Global) Civil Society
Global Gurus and the Processes of De-ritualization and De-ethnization in Singapore
JOANNE PUNZO WAGHORNE

The editors of this pioneering volume on Hindu ritual do not intend to suggest that the contexts and practices studied are considered to be marginal as juxtaposed against something in or about Hinduism that is normative or authoritative. They understand ritual to be of human construct and thus fluid over time and placeneither static nor unified but rather occasioning diversity, difference, and dispute. This volumes illuminating contributions by a variety of leading contemporary scholars of Hinduism and ritual studies continue the innovative and creatively critical spirit of major theoretical studies of ritual over the past couple of decades, including Ronald Grimess Ritual Criticism: Case Studies in Its Practice, Essays on Its Theory, which was published in this series in 1990.

A central goal of this collection, according to its editors, is pushing our understanding of the complexities of religion, and Hinduism in particular, beyond the limits, boundaries, or margins to which the Western scholarly community has until recently historically corralled it. As the editors declare, We are, collectively, more interested in change, transformation, and dissonance than in stability, continuity, or consonance. The authors present diverse studies that consider Hindu ritual in traditional historical settings in South Asia, in the contemporary Hindu global diaspora, and in the contexts of contemporary ritual theory. The sophisticated, diversely fascinating, and accessible studies will reward readerswhether professors, their students, or the global market interested in Hinduism in todays worldwith discourses that expand our knowledge and understanding of popular religion well beyond the traditional but currently declining boundaries of official religion, whether as defined by orthodox Hindu priests or conventional Western scholars.

Frederick M. Denny

Because of the efforts of scholars such as Fred W. Clothey beginning in the 1970s, the field of ritual studies has been recognized as a discrete area of scholarly pursuit within religious studies, and the study of South Asian religions, in particular, has moved out of the rarified realm of textual study to reveal vibrant and complex religious universes within diverse South and Southeast Asian and Indian diasporic communities. Clothey was a founder of the Journal of Ritual Studies, produced and directed six documentary films on ritual, and has written or edited eight books, including Rhythm and Intent: Ritual Studies from South India, The Many Faces of Murukan, and Ritualizing on the Boundaries: Continuity and Innovation in the Tamil Diaspora, which inspired the idea for this volume. We are indebted to Clotheys many contributions to the fields of ritual and South Asian studies and offer the essays that appear here with admiration, affection, and appreciation.

This volume was made possible with the help and support of many people and organizations. The essays that appear in this collection were initially prepared for a conference called Ritualizing in, on, and across the Boundaries of the Indian Subcontinent in honor of Clothey on the occasion of his retirement and held at the University of Pittsburgh in March 2006. The conference was convened by Linda Penkower and sponsored by the University of Pittsburghs Office of the Provost and Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Asian Studies Center (ASC), and Indo-Pacific Council of the University Center of International Studies, and Department of Religious Studies. Additional support was provided by the Department of Anthropology, the Program in Cultural Studies, and the University Honors College. We are deeply grateful for the generous institutional support.

We would especially like to thank Nicole Constable, then acting director of the ASC, and Richard J. Cohen, then its associate director, for their encouragement and support of the initial conference proposal, and Jason Fuller of DePauw University for his assistance with the preorganization of the conference. The success of the conference in large part was because of the unflagging administrative and organizational skills of Judith Macey, then administrator of the Department of Religious Studies, and Dianne F. Dakis and Elizabeth Greene, formerly of the ASC. We thank them for service above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks also go to Doreen Hernndez, formerly of the ASC, for her artistic and technical acumen in designing the conference website, posters, and brochure.

Our deepest appreciation is reserved for the excellent scholars whose contributions appear in this volume and to those contributors (and their friends and family) who shared their original images that grace its pages. We also wish to thank Ron L. Grimes, now professor emeritus of religion and culture at Wilfrid Laurier University and former chair of ritual studies at Radboud University (the Netherlands), who delivered the conference keynote address, Jeffrey Brackett of Ball State University, Raymond Brady Williams of Wabash College, and Katherine K. Young of McGill University. While their work does not appear in this collection, their presentations and insights during the conference both enlivened the proceedings and added to the success of the essays included here. Thanks also go to our discussants, Joseph S. Alter and Alexander Orbach of the University of Pittsburgh and Donald S. Sutton of Carnegie Mellon University, for their astute comments and critiques during the two-day conference, and to Tony Edwards, Paula M. Kane, and Adam Shear of the University of Pittsburgh for chairing the conference sessions. Thanks too to the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, for hosting a tour for our conference participants.