Goddess in Flux: Devotional Intimacy and Everyday Life at a Regional Indian Pilgrimage Site

Abstract

This dissertation studies religion, sociality, and gender in contemporary India by exploring devotional intimacies and everyday life in the shadows of the regional pilgrimage temple of Rani Bhatiyani, a Hindu goddess, in rural Rajasthan. Informed by scholarship on lived religion, it examines aspects of rural life that have hitherto been unrecognized as important to religious sphere within Hindu studies. Through ethnographic research, this study brings into attention issues of self-decoration, gossip, and walking practices into attention. And in doing so, it moves away from the heavy focus Hindu studies has placed on religious institutions, narrative and worship practices, and rituals in understanding goddess veneration in particular and Hinduism in general.