1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452893003321

Titolo

The guru in South Asia : new interdisciplinary perspectives / / edited by Jacob Copeman and Aya Ikegame

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Abingdon, Oxon ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2012

ISBN

1-280-87433-3

9786613715647

1-136-29807-X

1-136-29806-1

0-203-11625-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (270 p.)

Collana

Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian studies series

Altri autori (Persone)

CopemanJacob

IkegameAya

Disciplina

206/.10954

Soggetti

Gurus - South Asia

Religion and sociology - South Asia

Religion and politics - South Asia

Religion - Economic aspects - South Asia

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; The Guru in South Asia: New interdisciplinary perspectives; Copyright; Contents; Contributors; Acknowledgements; 1 The multifarious guru: An introduction; 2 The governing guru: Hindu mathas in liberalising India; 3 The slave guru: Masters, commanders, and disciples in early modern South Asia; 4 The political guru: The guru as eĢminence grise; 5 The gay guru: Fallibility, unworldliness, and the scene of instruction; 6 The female guru: Guru, gender, and the path of personal experience; 7 The dreamed guru: The entangled lives of the amil and the anthropologist

8 The mimetic guru: Tracing the real in Sikh-Dera Sacha Sauda relations9 The mediated guru: Simplicity, instantaneity and change in middle-class religious seeking; 10 The cosmopolitan guru: Spiritual tourism and ashrams in Rishikesh; 11 The literary guru: The dual emphasis on bhakti and vidhi in western Indian guru-devotion; 12



Continuities as gurus change; Index

Sommario/riassunto

This book provides a set of fresh and compelling interdisciplinary approaches to the enduring phenomenon of the guru in South Asia. Moving across different gurus and kinds of gurus, and between past and present, the chapters call attention to the extraordinary scope and richness of the social lives and roles of South Asian gurus. Prevailing scholarship has rightly considered the guru to be a source of religious and philosophical knowledge and mystical bodily practices. This book goes further and considers the social engagements and entanglements of these spiritual leaders, not just on their