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9780190611910

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This book is a marvelous contribution to scholarship on the neglected Bhagavatapurana and its traditions. Lucidly written, the author shows us how the text is recited over a seven day period and the importance of such recitation for the contemporary Hindu audience in India and abroad. This is an excellent book for all interested in the the history of Hinduism and the ways in which the old traditions are still maintained; an engaging and well written book. -Gavin Flood, author of <em>The Truth Within, a History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism</em> <em>Seven Days of Nectar</em> offers a rich, multi-perspectival entrance into the thriving performance tradition of week-long Bhagavatapurana recitation. Bringing to bear a rare combination of competence in the text and participant-observer (-listener!) attention to current practices, Taylor captures in close-up detail and with helpful analysis how and why these events of devotional exposition and hearing draw huge crowds eager for pious pleasure and spiritual transformation. -Kenneth Valpey, co-editor of <em>The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition</em> A Hindu sacred text is not what appears on a cold printed page. It is read out loud, performed and discoursed upon, and intensely experienced by the listeners. This book brilliantly shows how the seven-day Bhagavatapurana performances create such an experience of the Bh?gavatapur a to modern day Hindus and brings them together as a community in the process. Reading this book, students of religion get a transformative understanding of Hindu religious texts. A truly superb book. -Velcheru Narayana Rao, Koppaka Visweswara Rao and Sita Chair in Telugu Literature, History and Culture, Emory University

Taylor attentively brings to the ethnographic field a keen awareness of the larger Hindu and Sanskirt episteme within which these events emerge To conclude, the book richly offers academics a close look at the Bhagavata-saptaha tradition in three distinct contexts: the rural town of Naluna, India; the more cosmopolitan Vrindavana, India; and the author's hometown of Canberra, Australia... Scholars, mainly of anthropology, religious studies, South Asia, and folklore, interested in the interplay of power, text, and oral performance would be greatly benefited by this well-documented ethnography on the contemporary practice of oral performances of the Bhagavatapurana. --Reading Religion This book is a marvelous contribution to scholarship on the neglected Bhagavatapurana and its traditions. Lucidly written, the author shows us how the text is recited over a seven day period and the importance of such recitation for the contemporary Hindu audience in India and abroad. This is an excellent book for all interested in the the history of Hinduism and the ways in which the old traditions are still maintained; an engaging and well written book. --Gavin Flood, author of The Truth Within, a History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism Seven Days of Nectar offers a rich, multi-perspectival entrance into the thriving performance tradition of week-long Bhagavatapurana recitation. Bringing to bear a rare combination of competence in the text and participant-observer (-listener!) attention to current practices, Taylor captures in close-up detail and with helpful analysis how and why these events of devotional exposition and hearing draw huge crowds eager for pious pleasure and spiritual transformation. --Kenneth Valpey, co-editor of The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition A Hindu sacred text is not what appears on a cold printed page. It is read out loud, performed and discoursed upon, and intensely experienced by the listeners. This book brilliantly shows how the seven-day Bhagavatapurana performances create such an experience of the Bhagavatapurana to modern day Hindus and brings them together as a community in the process. Reading this book, students of religion get a transformative understanding of Hindu religious texts. A truly superb book. --Velcheru Narayana Rao, Koppaka Visweswara Rao and Sita Chair in Telugu Literature, History and Culture, Emory University This book is a marvelous contribution to scholarship on the neglected Bhagavatapurana and its traditions. Lucidly written, the author shows us how the text is recited over a seven day period and the importance of such recitation for the contemporary Hindu audience in India and abroad. This is an excellent book for all interested in the the history of Hinduism and the ways in which the old traditions are still maintained; an engaging and well written book. -Gavin Flood, author of The Truth Within, a History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism Seven Days of Nectar offers a rich, multi-perspectival entrance into the thriving performance tradition of week-long Bhagavatapurana recitation. Bringing to bear a rare combination of competence in the text and participant-observer (-listener!) attention to current practices, Taylor captures in close-up detail and with helpful analysis how and why these events of devotional exposition and hearing draw huge crowds eager for pious pleasure and spiritual transformation. -Kenneth Valpey, co-editor of The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition A Hindu sacred text is not what appears on a cold printed page. It is read out loud, performed and discoursed upon, and intensely experienced by the listeners. This book brilliantly shows how the seven-day Bhagavatapurana performances create such an experience of the Bh?gavatapur a to modern day Hindus and brings them together as a community in the process. Reading this book, students of religion get a transformative understanding of Hindu religious texts. A truly superb book. -Velcheru Narayana Rao, Koppaka Visweswara Rao and Sita Chair in Telugu Literature, History and Culture, Emory University This book is a marvelous contribution to scholarship on the neglected Bhagavatapurana and its traditions. Lucidly written, the author shows us how the text is recited over a seven day period and the importance of such recitation for the contemporary Hindu audience in India and abroad. This is an excellent book for all interested in the the history of Hinduism and the ways in which the old traditions are still maintained; an engaging and well written book. -Gavin Flood, author of The Truth Within, a History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism Seven Days of Nectar offers a rich, multi-perspectival entrance into the thriving performance tradition of week-long Bhagavatapurana recitation. Bringing to bear a rare combination of competence in the text and participant-observer (-listener!) attention to current practices, Taylor captures in close-up detail and with helpful analysis how and why these events of devotional exposition and hearing draw huge crowds eager for pious pleasure and spiritual transformation. -Kenneth Valpey, co-editor of The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition A Hindu sacred text is not what appears on a cold printed page. It is read out loud, performed and discoursed upon, and intensely experienced by the listeners. This book brilliantly shows how the seven-day Bhagavatapurana performances create such an experience of the Bh?gavatapur a to modern day Hindus and brings them together as a community in the process. Reading this book, students of religion get a transformative understanding of Hindu religious texts. A truly superb book. -Velcheru Narayana Rao, Koppaka Visweswara Rao and Sita Chair in Telugu Literature, History and Culture, Emory University

This book is a marvelous contribution to scholarship on the neglected Bhagavatapurana and its traditions. Lucidly written, the author shows us how the text is recited over a seven day period and the importance of such recitation for the contemporary Hindu audience in India and abroad. This is an excellent book for all interested in the the history of Hinduism and the ways in which the old traditions are still maintained; an engaging and well written book. -Gavin Flood, author of The Truth Within, a History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism Seven Days of Nectar offers a rich, multi-perspectival entrance into the thriving performance tradition of week-long Bhagavatapurana recitation. Bringing to bear a rare combination of competence in the text and participant-observer (-listener!) attention to current practices, Taylor captures in close-up detail and with helpful analysis how and why these events of devotional exposition and hearing draw huge crowds eager for pious pleasure and spiritual transformation. -Kenneth Valpey, co-editor of The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition A Hindu sacred text is not what appears on a cold printed page. It is read out loud, performed and discoursed upon, and intensely experienced by the listeners. This book brilliantly shows how the seven-day Bhagavatapurana performances create such an experience of the Bh?gavatapur a to modern day Hindus and brings them together as a community in the process. Reading this book, students of religion get a transformative understanding of Hindu religious texts. A truly superb book. -Velcheru Narayana Rao, Koppaka Visweswara Rao and Sita Chair in Telugu Literature, History and Culture, Emory University

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McComas Taylor is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at The Australian National University.

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