Overview

"Drawing on ethnographic research spanning ten years, Antoinette Elizabeth DeNapoli offers a new perspective on the practice of asceticism in India today. Her work brings to light the little known and often marginalized lives of female Hindu ascetics (sadhus) in the North Indian state of Rajasthan. Examining the everyday religious worlds and practices of the mostly unlettered female sadhus, who come from a number of castes, Real Sadhus Sing to God illustrates that these women experience asceticism in relational and celebratory ways. They construct their lives as paths of singing to God, which, the author suggests, serves as the female way of being an ascetic. Examining the relationship between asceticism (sannyas) and devotion (bhakti) in contemporary contexts, the book brings together two disparate fields of study-yoga/asceticism and bhakti-using the singing of bhajans (devotional songs) as an orienting metaphor. This is the first book-length study to explore the ways in which female sadhus perform and thus create gendered views of asceticism through their singing, storytelling, and sacred text practices, which DeNapoli characterizes as their ""rhetoric of renunciation."""

Full Product Details

Author:   Antoinette Elizabeth DeNapoli (Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor, University of Wyoming)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.90cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 16.50cm
Weight:   0.794kg
ISBN:  

9780199940011

ISBN 10:   0199940010
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   29 May 2014
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

"Acknowledgements A Note on Transliteration and Translation Introduction: Orienting Metaphors: Singing Bhajans as Devotional Asceticism Chapter 1: Performing Asceticism and Redefining Definitional Boundaries Chapter 2: ""By the Sweetness of the Tongue"": Performing Female Agency in Personal Narrative Chapter 3: ""Forget Happiness! Give me Suffering Instead."": Negotiating Gender and Asceticism in Religious Narrative Chapter 4: ""On the Battlefield of Bhakti"": Gender and Caste in Vernacular Asceticism Chapter 5: ""I myself am Shabari!"": A Tribal Sadhu's Journey of Singing Bhajans Chapter 6: ""Even the Black Cuckoo Sings Beautifully"": Challenge and Reconfiguration in the Practices of a Khatik Sadhu Chapter 7: ""Write the Text in Your Heart"": Non-literacy, Authority, and Female Sadhus' Performances of Asceticism through Sacred Texts Chapter 8: ""Real Sadhus Sing to God"": Performing Sant Asceticism in Vernacular Singing Conclusion: ""Meeting and Parting in the Melâ of Life"": Vernacular Asceticism in Rajasthan Notes Bibliography Index"

Reviews

DeNapoli's engaging and spirited ethnography offers original insights into complex intersections of gender with social hierarchies, world-renunciation, and the poetics of devotional experience. Vivid and memorable portraits of strong female characters reveal how deep religious convictions may equally provide unflinching critiques of everyday constraints on women's embodied lives. Delightfully readable and teachable! --Ann Grodzins Gold, Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Professor of Anthropology, Syracuse University

Author Information

Antoinette Elizabeth DeNapoli is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Wyoming.

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