Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents vii
3. Maps and Illustrations ix
4. Acknowledgments xiii
5. Sites Associated with Ritual Vows xvii
6. Introduction 1
7. “The Vow”: A Short Story 15
8. Getting What You Want
9. Negotiating Relationships with the Goddess 25
10. Shared Vows, Shared Space, and Shared Deities: Vow Rituals among Tamil Catholics in South India 43
11. Religious Vows at the Shrine of Shahul Hamid 65
12. In the Company of Pirs: Making Vows, Receiving Favors at Bangladeshi Sufi Shrines 87
13. Bara: Buddhist Vows at Kataragama 107
14. Performing Vows in Diasporic Contexts: Tamil Hindus, Temples, and Goddesses in Germany 129
15. Getting What You Need
16. Singing a Vow: Devoting Oneself to Shiva through Song 147
17. Monastic Vows and the Ramananda Sampraday 165
18. Negotiating Karma, Merit, and Liberation: Vow-taking in the Jain Tradition 187
19. Vows in the Sikh Tradition 201
20. Getting Nothing At All
21. When Vows Fail to Deliver What They Promise: The Case of Shyamavati 219
22. Two Critiques of Women’s Vows 235
23. Conclusion: Some Promising Possibilities
24. Toward a Typology of South Asian Lay Vows 249
25. Glossary 257
26. Contributors 269
27. Appendix 273
28. Index 275