The Life of Hinduism

The book opens with an introduction by John Stratton Hawley and Vasudha Narayanan, beginning in Bangalore on January 1, 2004. The editors use the city’s New Year temple crowds, Hanuman worship, ISKCON temple activity, Tirupati devotional networks, Swaminarayan institutions, Hindu-Muslim tensions, shared ritual spaces, and televised devotional practices to show how Hinduism operates in modern urban and global contexts. They then discuss the term “Hinduism,” noting its historical emergence as an English term and its later acceptance, adaptation, and reinterpretation by Hindus themselves. The introduction identifies five strands that give coherence to Hindu life: doctrine, practice, society, story, and bhakti. The volume then focuses especially on practice, with essays grouped into eight parts: worship, the life cycle, festival, performance, gurus, caste, diaspora, and identity. Topics include puja, divine images, miracle and shrine formation, marriage, renunciation, Divali, Holi, Ramlila, televised Ramayana, possession by Durga, Anandamayi Ma, Radhasoami, Ravidas, Brahmin women, Hinduism in Pittsburgh, diasporic Hindu identity, Hindu nationalism, shared Hindu-Muslim ritual spaces, and contemporary debates in Hindu studies.