Religion and Rajput Women (eBook)

The Ethic of Protection in Contemporary Narratives

Lindsey Harlan (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2024
276 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
9780520378414 (ISBN)

Infos

What is the relationship between caste and gender in the narratives of Rajput woman? During a year and a half of fieldwork in Rajasthan, a parched land dominated by the great Indian Desert, Lindsey Harlan interviewed more than a hundred women from all levels of Rajput society. She wanted to understand why certain religious practices were so important to Rajput women, and how they justified these to themselves. During the course of her interviews, the women described their religious practices—chief among them the worship of the family kuldevi (the goddess who exemplifies the ideal wife by staving off sickness, poverty, and infertility) and the veneration of satimatas (women who have immolated themselves on their husband's funeral pyre). As the women discussed these rituals, many of them also told Harlan religious myths and stories, drawing parallels between their behavior and that of various Indian heroines. These narratives and the role they play in the women's self-perception are the fascinating and enlightening subject of this book. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1992.

Inhalt

List of Figures
Note on Transliteration and Pronunciation
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Rajasthan and the Rajputs
2. Kuldevi Tradition: Myth, Story, and Context
3. Kuldevi Tradition: Interpretation and Intention
4. Satimata Tradition: The Transformative
Process
5. Satimata Tradition: The Role of Volition
6. The Heroic Paradigm: Padmini
7. The Bhakt Paradigm: Mira Bai
8. Conclusion

Appendix A: Interview Background
Appendix B: Interview
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 21.6.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Moraltheologie / Sozialethik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Hinduismus
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Islam
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• Schlagworte: Anthropology • Caste System • Cultural Studies • Culture • family goddess • Gender Studies • Hinduism • ideal wife • indian desert • indian heroines • Infertility • Interviews • Legends • Myths • Oral History • personal narratives • Poverty • Rajasthan • rajput women • Religion • Religious Practices • religious rituals • Religious Studies • satimatas • self immolation • self perception • sickness • social issues • Social Science • Sociology • womens issues • womens studies
• ISBN-13: 9780520378414 / 9780520378414