Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India

Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India
Author: Surinder M. Bhardwaj
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1983-07-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520049512

"Dr. Bhardwaj's in-depth study of the various aspects of the institution of pilgrimage shows that instead of being a simple practice it has been a gigantic phenomenon affecting all aspects of Indian life. . . integrating diverse forces, various cults, and numerous traditions over the ages."--Asian Student "This is the best general survey of a major religion's total pilgrimage system and the best intensive investigation of one of its subsystems. . . . Dr. Bhardwaj's book is an important step towards the recognition of a social phenomenon which has for millennia played a crucial role in the integration of religions, nationalities, and international communities. And, not least importantly, it is highly readable."--Journal of the American Academy of Religion "Detailed, accurate, and generally informative; he has succeeded in tracing, for the first time, the relationship of the rank-order or 'level' of a sacred place. . . to its degree of sanctity, type of deity, and caste and motivation of the pilgrim. . . .The implications of Mr. Bhardwaj's study are profound and necessary to the understanding of Indian religion. . . it is fascinating."--Times Literary Supplement "Here is a fine example of what the geographic study of India needs: disciplined work that shows full awareness of Indian cultural meanings. . . .it sets a worth standard."--Professional Geographer

Hindu Pilgrimage

Hindu Pilgrimage
Author: SUNITA PANT BANSAL
Publisher: V&S Publishers
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2012-11-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9350572516

The book discusses in detail Chaar Dhaam, Himalayan Chaar Dhaam, Sapt Puri, Dwadash Jyotirlingam, Panch Sarovar, Sapt Sarita, Divya Desam, Shakti Peetha, Yatras and also some of the famous temples in India. Enhanced with vivid and exclusive pictures, the book brings the places alive and inspires one to make a pilgrimage to these holy shrines. #v&spublishers

Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition

Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition
Author: Knut A. Jacobsen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2013-03-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1136240314

Salvific space is one of the central ideas in the Hindu traditions of pilgrimage, and concerns the ability of space, especially sites associated with bodies of water such as rivers and lakes, to grant salvific rewards. Focusing on religious, historical and sociological questions about the phenomenon, this book investigates the narratives, rituals, history and structures of salvific space, and looks at how it became a central feature of Hinduism. Arguing that salvific power of place became a major dimension of Hinduism through a development in several stages, the book analyses the historical process of how salvific space and pilgrimage in the Hindu tradition developed. It discusses how the traditions of salvific space exemplify the decentred polycentrism that defines Hinduism. The book uses original data from field research, as well as drawing on main textual sources such as Mahābhārata, the Purāṇas, the medieval digests on pilgrimage places (tīrthas), and a number of Sthalapurāṇas and Māhātmyas praising the salvific power of the place. By looking at some of the contradictions in and challenges to the tradition of Hindu salvific space in history and in contemporary India, the book is a useful study on Hinduism and South Asian Studies.

Hindu Pilgrimage

Hindu Pilgrimage
Author: Prabhavati C. Reddy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2014-03-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1317806301

In recent years, changes in religious studies in general and the study of Hinduism in particular have drawn more scholarly attention to other forms of the Hindu faith that are concretely embodied in temples, icons, artworks, rituals, and pilgrimage practices. This book analyses the phenomenon of pilgrimage as a religious practice and experience and examines Shrî Shailam, a renowned south Indian pilgrimage site of Shiva and Goddess Durga. In doing so, it investigates two dimensions: the worldview of a place that is of utmost sanctity for Hindu pilgrims and its historical evolution from medieval to modern times. Reddy blends religion, anthropology, art history and politics into one interdisciplinary exploration of how Shrî Shailam became the epicentre for Shaivism. Through this approach, the book examines Shrî Shailam’s influence on pan-Indian religious practices; the amalgamation of Brahmanical and regional traditions; and the intersection of the ideological and the civic worlds with respect to the management of pilgrimage centre in modern times. This book is the first thorough study of Shrî Shailam and brings together phenomenological and historical study to provide a comprehensive understanding of both the religious dimension and the historical development of the social organization of the pilgrimage place. As such, it will be of interest to students of Hinduism, Pilgrimage and South Asian Studies.

Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition

Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition
Author: Knut A. Jacobsen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2013
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0415590388

Salvific space is one of the central ideas in the Hindu traditions of pilgrimage, and concerns the ability of space, especially sites associated with bodies of water such as rivers and lakes, to grant salvific rewards. Focusing on religious, historical and sociological questions about the phenomenon, this book investigates the narratives, rituals, history and structures of salvific space, and looks at how it became a central feature of Hinduism. Arguing that salvific power of place became a major dimension of Hinduism through a development in several stages, the book analyses the historical process of how salvific space and pilgrimage in the Hindu tradition developed. It discusses how the traditions of salvific space exemplify the decentred polycentrism that defines Hinduism. The book uses original data from field research, as well as drawing on main textual sources such as Mahābhārata, the Purāṇas, the medieval digests on pilgrimage places (tīrthas), and a number of Sthalapurāṇas and Māhātmyas praising the salvific power of the place. By looking at some of the contradictions in and challenges to the tradition of Hindu salvific space in history and in contemporary India, the book is a useful study on Hinduism and South Asian Studies.

Hinglaj Devi

Hinglaj Devi
Author: Jürgen Schaflechner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2018
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190850523

In this book, Jürgen Schaflechner examines the political and cultural influences at work at the most influential Hindu pilgrimage site in Pakistan, Hinglaj Devi. The unique character of this pilgrimage site and its modern importance not only for Hindus, but also for Muslims and Sindhi nationalists, brings to the fore the lives of Hindu minorities in the Islamic Republic.

Narmadāparikramā - Circumambulation of the Narmadā River

Narmadāparikramā - Circumambulation of the Narmadā River
Author: Jürgen Neuß
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2012-08-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004230289

In Narmadāparikramā. Circumambulation of the Narmadā River Jürgen Neuss offers for the first time a comprehensive study of the Narmadāparikramā, a singular Hindu pilgrimage, which comprises the complete circumambulation of the Central Indian river Narmadā. Following a brief general introduction, the first part of the book comprises a text-historical analysis of the Sanskrit texts which are traditionally regarded as the basis for this rite. The second part represents a synoptic translation of two modern pilgrims’ handbooks in Hindi, which link the mythological place names of the Sanskrit texts with actual geographical locations. Part three consists of synopses of available Sanskrit source texts, and the concluding part summarizes the many-fold findings and results of the study in thematically arranged maps.

Religious Journeys in India

Religious Journeys in India
Author: Andrea Marion Pinkney
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2018-08-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 143846603X

Explores how religious travel in India is transforming religious identities and self-constructions. In an increasingly global world where convenient modes of travel have opened the door to international and intraregional tourism and brought together people from different religious and ethnic communities, religious journeying in India has become the site of evolving and often paradoxical forms of self-construction. Through ethnographic reflections, the contributors to this volume explore religious and nonreligious motivations for religious travel in India and show how pilgrimages, missionary travel, the exportation of cultural art forms, and leisure travel among coreligionists are transforming not only religious but also regional, national, transnational, and personal identities. The volume engages with central themes in South Asian studies such as gender, exile, and spirituality; a variety of religions, including Sikhism, Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity; and understudied regions and emerging places of pilgrimage such as Manipur and Maharashtra. “It’s rare to find such diverse accounts of religious travel collected in a single volume, where scholars’ engagements with individual places of pilgrimage in India and with the journeys surrounding them are truly in conversation with one another. For readers, it makes for a deeply enlightening journey. It also raises an interesting question: Is the reality of India powerful enough that it absorbs divergent expressions of religious tourism, making of them a common fabric? Here, so unusually, readers have the materials to decide.” — John Stratton Hawley, author of A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement