Full Description
In this moving ethnographic portrait of Hindu renouncers—sadhus or ascetics—in northern India and Nepal, Sondra L. Hausner considers a paradox that shapes their lives: while ostensibly defined by their solitary spiritual practice, the stripping away of social commitments, and their break with family and community, renouncers in fact regularly interact with "householder" society. They form a distinctive, alternative community with its own internal structure, but one that is not located in any single place. Highly mobile and dispersed across the subcontinent, its members are regularly brought together through pilgrimage circuits on festival cycles. Drawing on many years of fieldwork, Hausner presents intimate portraits of individual sadhus as she examines the shared views of space, time, and the body that create the ground for everyday experience. Written with an extraordinary blend of empathy, compassion, and anthropological insight, this study will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers alike.
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction: Wandering with Renouncers
1. The Body and Sadhu Society
2. The Social Structures of Sadhu Life
3. Hardwar: The Ground of Space
4. Allahabad: The Community in Time
5. Kathmandu: The Body in Place
Conclusion: The Culture of Hindu Renunciation
Appendix: Literatures on Renunciation and Embodiment
Notes
Bibliography
Index
