Abstract
The following article deals with the Mahā Kumbh Melā1 in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh, northern India) and the practices of Hindu world renouncers2 during this festival. In 2013, the year under study, approximately 120 million renouncers and lay pilgrims attended the festival. After a brief overview of the academic discussion on Hindu renunciation, the article proceeds to outline the mythology, history, and meaning of the Kumbh Melā. Subsequently, it presents the festival from the renouncers’ point of view. This section of the article summarizes the functions of the festival, describes two particular forms of meals (bhaṇḍārās and annakṣetras), and outlines the daily routine of the participants. Finally, the article discusses the inner-worldly asceticism of lay pilgrims, the main participants, as well as the ritual bathing during the festival, a crucial part of the Kumbh Melā for all participants.
Acknowledgments
I am profoundly grateful to my interlocutors, who are named in this article. Particularly, I would like to thank Nāmītā Girī and Nārad-jī. I sincerely hope I have portrayed your thoughts, opinions, and actions in a true and accurate manner. I am thankful to Gaṅgā Dās for introducing me to several conversational partners, including Nārad-jī, and for always pampering me with too many Indian sweets, tea, and a warm, friendly smile. Sondra Hausner made invaluable comments and suggestions on a part of this article presented during the Religion as Resource workshop held at Tübingen University in July 2014. The five peer reviewers, Oliver Freiberger, Christoph Kleine, Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler, Christel Gärtner, and Ilinca Tanaseanu-Döbler, assisted me in improving this article with their thoughtful feedback. Jack Llewellyn provided his unpublished manuscript on the Kumbh Melā in Haridvar. Last but not least I am forever grateful to Ajay “Piṅku-jī” Pāṇḍey, without whose patience, sympathy, and mild sternness in expanding and improving my command of Hindi only a minute part of my research would have been possible.
Bibliography
Babb, Lawrence A. 1975. The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India. New York: Columbia University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Babb, Lawrence A. 1981. “Glancing: Visual Interaction in Hinduism.” Journal of Anthropological Research 37 (4):387–401.10.1086/jar.37.4.3629835Suche in Google Scholar
Basu, Helene. 2000. “Local Concepts of Women Ascetics: Living Goddesses of the Chāraṇ.” Journal of Social Sciences 4 (4):313–321.10.1080/09718923.2000.11892279Suche in Google Scholar
Bhardwaj, Surinder M. and Gisbert Rinschede. 1988. “Pilgrimage – A World-Wide Phenomenon.” In Pilgrimage in World Religions, ed. Surinder M. Bhardwaj and Gisbert Rinschede, 11–19. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Bonazzoli, Giorgio. 2001. “Prayāga and its Kumbha Mela.” In Kumbha Mela: Pilgrimage to the Greatest Cosmic Fair, ed. D. P. Dubey, 85–123. Allahabad: Society of Pilgrimage Studies.Suche in Google Scholar
Brown, C. Mackenzie. 1982. “The Theology of Rādhā in the Purāṇas.” In The Divine Consort: Rādhā and the Goddesses of India, ed. John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff, 57–71. Berkeley: Religious Studies Series.Suche in Google Scholar
Bryant, M. Darrol. 2001. “River of Grace: The Kumbha Mela as a Sacred Place.” In Kumbha Mela: Pilgrimage to the Greatest Cosmic Fair, ed. D. P. Dubey, 50–61. Allahabad: Society of Pilgrimage Studies.Suche in Google Scholar
Burghart, Richard. 1983 a. “Renunciation in the Religious Traditions of South Asia.” Man 18 (4):635–653.10.2307/2801900Suche in Google Scholar
Burghart, Richard. 1983 b. “Wandering Ascetics of the Rāmānandī Sect.” History of Religions 22 (4):361–380.10.1086/462930Suche in Google Scholar
Caplan, Patricia. 1973. “Ascetics in Western Nepal.” Eastern Anthropologist 26 (2):173–182.Suche in Google Scholar
Clark, Matthew. 2006. The Daśanāmī-Saṃnyāsīs: The Integration of Ascetic Lineages Into an Order. Leiden/Boston: Brill. 10.1163/9789047410027Suche in Google Scholar
Crawley, A. E. 1895. “Taboos of Commensality.” Folklore 6 (2):130–144.10.1080/0015587X.1895.9720292Suche in Google Scholar
Daniel, E. Valentine. 1984. Fluid Signs: Being a Person the Tamil Way. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520342149Suche in Google Scholar
DeNapoli, Antoinette Elizabeth. 2014. Real Sadhus Sing to God: Gender, Asceticism, and Vernacular Religion in Rajasthan. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199940011.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Denton, Lynn Teskey. 2004. Female Ascetics in Hinduism. Albany: State University of New York Press.10.1353/book4843Suche in Google Scholar
Dubey, D. P. 2001 a. “Kumbha Mela: Origin and Historicity of India’s Greatest Pilgrimage Fair.” In Kumbha Mela: Pilgrimage to the Greatest Cosmic Fair, ed. D. P. Dubey, 1–49. Allahabad: Society of Pilgrimage Studies.Suche in Google Scholar
Dubey, D. P. 2001 b. Prayāga: The Site of Kumbha Melā (In Temporal and Traditional Space). New Delhi: Aryan Books International.Suche in Google Scholar
Dumont, Louis. [1966] 2010. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile. [1912] 2001. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, trans. Carol Cosman. New York: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Eck, Diana L. 1985. Darśan: Seeing the Divine Light in India. Chambersburg: Anima Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Eck, Diana L. [1983] 1993. Banaras: City of Light. New Delhi: Penguin Books India.Suche in Google Scholar
Freiberger, Oliver. 2015 a. “Asceticism.” In Vocabulary for the Studey of Religion, ed. Robert A. Segal and Kocku von Stuckrad, Vol. 1, 126–129. Leiden/Boston: Brill.Suche in Google Scholar
Freiberger, Oliver. 2015 b. “Askese als Begriff: Substanzielle, funktionale, und diskursive Perspektiven.” Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 32 (1):11-33.Suche in Google Scholar
Fuller, Christopher John. 1992. The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. [1973] 2000. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz. New York: Basic Books.Suche in Google Scholar
Ghurye, G. S. [1953] 1964. Indian Sadhus. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Suche in Google Scholar
Gold, Ann Grodzins. 1988. Fruitful Journeys: The Ways of Rajasthani Pilgrims. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Gold, Ann Grodzins. 2006. “Afterword: Breaking Away ...” In Women’s Renunciation in South Asia: Nuns, Yoginis, Saints, and Singers, ed. Meena Khandelwal, Sondra L. Hausner, and Ann Grodzins Gold, 247–267. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1007/978-1-137-10485-4_10Suche in Google Scholar
Gross, Robert Lewis. 1992. The Sādhus of India: A Study of Hindu Asceticism. Jaipur: Rawat Publications.Suche in Google Scholar
Gupta, S. L. 2001. “Kumbha Mela: An Interpretation.” In Kumbha Mela: Pilgrimage to the Greatest Cosmic Fair, ed. D. P. Dubey, 63–70. Allahabad: Society of Pilgrimage Studies.Suche in Google Scholar
Guzy, Lidia. 2000. ““On the Road with the Babas”: Some Insights into Local Features of Mahima Dharma.” Journal of Social Sciences 4 (4):323–330.10.1080/09718923.2000.11892280Suche in Google Scholar
Hausner, Sondra L. 2007. Wandering with Sadhus: Ascetics in the Hindu Himalayas. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.10.2979/4206.0Suche in Google Scholar
Hawley, John Stratton. 1982. “A Vernacular Portrait: Rādhā in the Sūr Sāgar.” In The Divine Consort: Rādhā and the Goddesses of India, ed. John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff, 42–56. Berkeley: Religious Studies Series.Suche in Google Scholar
Khandelwal, Meena. 2004. Women In Ochre Robes: Gendering Hindu Renunciation. Albany: State University of New York Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Khare, R. S. 1976. The Hindu Hearth and Home. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.Suche in Google Scholar
Kinsley, David R. [1986] 1997. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Krása, Miloslav. 2001. “Kumbha Mela: The Greatest Pilgrimage in the World.” In Kumbha Mela: Pilgrimage to the Greatest Cosmic Fair, ed. D. P. Dubey, 71–84. Allahabad: Society of Pilgrimage Studies.Suche in Google Scholar
Lamb, Sarah. 2000. White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender, and Body in North India. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520935266Suche in Google Scholar
Leslie, Julia. 1991. Religion, Gender and Dharma: The Case of the Widow-Ascetic. Leeds: British Association for the Study of Religions.Suche in Google Scholar
Llewellyn, Jack E. 1998. The Legacy of Women’s Uplift in India: Contemporary Women Leaders in the Arya Samaj. New Delhi: Sage Publication.Suche in Google Scholar
Llewellyn, Jack E. n.d. Festival of Discord: The 1998 Kumbh Mela in Hardwar.Suche in Google Scholar
Lochtefeld, James G. 2010. God’s Gateway: Identity and Meaning in a Hindu Pilgrimage Place. New York: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Luithle, Andrea. 2000. “Jaina-Asketinnen der Śvetambara-Tradition.” In Tradition im Wandel: Weibliche Religiosität im Hinduismus, Jainismus und Buddhismus, ed. Katharina Poggendorf-Kakar, Lidia Guzy, and Hartmut Zinser, 45–59. Tübingen: Medien Verlag Köhler.Suche in Google Scholar
Luithle-Hardenberg, Andrea. 2011. Die Reise zum Ursprung: Die Pilgerschaft der Shvetambara-Jaina zum Berg Shatrunjaya in Gujarat, Indien. München: Manya Verlag.Suche in Google Scholar
Maclean, Kama. 2008. Pilgrimage and Power: The Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, 1765–1954. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338942.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Michaels, Axel. 1998. Der Hinduismus: Geschichte und Gegenwart. München: C. H. Beck.Suche in Google Scholar
Miller, Barbara Stoler. 1982. “The Divine Duality of Rādhā and Krishna.” In The Divine Consort: Rādhā and the Goddesses of India, ed. John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff, 13–26. Berkeley: Religious Studies Series.Suche in Google Scholar
Miller, David M. and Dorothy C. Wertz. [1976] 1996. Hindu Monastic Life: The Monks and Monasteries of Bhubaneswar. New Delhi: Manohar.Suche in Google Scholar
Mines, Mattison. 1994. Public Faces, Private Voices: Community and Individuality in South India. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.10.1525/california/9780520084780.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Narayan, Kirin. 1989. Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.10.9783/9780812205831Suche in Google Scholar
O’Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. 1982. “The Shifting Balance of Power in the Marriage of Śiva and Pārvatī.” In The Divine Consort: Rādhā and the Goddesses of India, ed. John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff, 129–143. Berkeley: Religious Studies Series.Suche in Google Scholar
Olivelle, Patrick. 1995. “Deconstruction of the Body in Indian Asceticism.” In Asceticism, ed. Vincent L. Wimbush and Richard Valantasis, 188–210. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.7135/UPO9781843318026.008Suche in Google Scholar
Olivelle, Patrick. 2003. “The Renouncer Tradition.” In The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, ed. Gavin Flood, 271–287. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.10.1002/9780470998694.ch13Suche in Google Scholar
Olivelle, Patrick. 2006. “The Ascetic and the Domestic in Brahmanical Religiosity.” In Asceticism and Its Critics: Historical Accounts and Comparative Perspectives, ed. Oliver Freiberger, 25–42. New York: Oxford University Press.10.7135/UPO9781843318026.003Suche in Google Scholar
Padoux, André. 2003. “Mantra.” In The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, ed. Gavin Flood, 478–492. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.10.1002/9780470998694.ch23Suche in Google Scholar
Parry, Jonathan P. 1985. “The Aghori Ascetics of Benares.” In Indian Religion, ed. Richard Burghart and Audrey Cantlie, 51–78. London: Curzon Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Parry, Jonathan P. [1994] 2011. Death in Banaras. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Phillimore, Peter. 2001. “Private Lives and Public Identities: An Example of Female Celibacy in Northwest India.” In Celibacy, Culture, and Society: The Anthropology of Sexual Abstinence, ed. Elisa J. Sobo and Sandra Bell, 29–46. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Pinch, William R. 2006. Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Rai, Subas. 1993. Kumbha Mela: History and Religion; Astronomy and Cosmobiology. Varanasi: Ganga Kaveri Publishing House.Suche in Google Scholar
Reader, Ian. 2014. Pilgrimage in the Marketplace. New York/London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315885704Suche in Google Scholar
Shāntā, N. 1997. The Unknown Pilgrims: The Voice of the Sādhvīs: The history, spirituality and life of the Jaina women ascetics, trans. Mary Rogers. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications.Suche in Google Scholar
Sinclair-Brull, Wendy. 1997. Female Ascetics: Hierarchy and Purity in an Indian Religious Movement. Richmond: Curzon Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Sinha, Surajit and Baidyanath Saraswati. 1978. Ascetics of Kashi: An Anthropological Exploration. Varanasi: Bose Memorial Foundation.Suche in Google Scholar
Stevenson, Margaret. [1920] 1971. The Rites of the Twice-Born. New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation.Suche in Google Scholar
Tambiah, S. J. 1982. “The renouncer: His individuality and his community.” In Way of Life: King, Householder, Renouncer: Essays in honour of Louis Dumont, ed. T. N. Madan, 299–320. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.10.1177/006996678101500116Suche in Google Scholar
Thapar, Romila. 1982. “The householder and the renouncer in the Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions.” In Way of Life: King, Householder, Renouncer: Essays in honour of Louis Dumont, ed. T. N. Madan, 273–298. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.10.1177/006996678101500115Suche in Google Scholar
Tripathi, Bansi Dhar. 1978. Sadhus of India: The Sociological View. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Suche in Google Scholar
Vallely, Anne. 2006. “These Hands Are Not For Henna.” In Women’s Renunciation in South Asia: Nuns, Yoginis, Saints, and Singers, ed. Meena Khandelwal, Sondra L. Hausner, and Ann Grodzins Gold, 223–245. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1007/978-1-137-10485-4_9Suche in Google Scholar
van der Veer, Peter. 1988. Gods on Earth: The Management of Religious Experience and Identity in a North Indian Pilgrimage Centre. London: Athlone.Suche in Google Scholar
van der Veer, Peter. 1989. “The Power of Detachment: Disciplines of Body and Mind in the Ramanandi Order.” American Ethnologist 16 (3):458–470.10.1525/ae.1989.16.3.02a00030Suche in Google Scholar
Wadley, Susan Snow. 1995. “No Longer a Wife: Widows in Rural North India.” In From the Margins of Hindu Marriage: Essays on Gender, Religion, and Culture, ed. Lindsey Harlan and Paul B. Courtright, 92–118. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780195081176.003.0004Suche in Google Scholar
Weber, Max. [1920] 2006. Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. München: C. H. Beck.Suche in Google Scholar
Wulff, Donna Marie. 1982. “A Sanskrit Portrait: Rādhā in the Plays of Rūpa Gosvāmī.” In The Divine Consort: Rādhā and the Goddesses of India, ed. John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff, 27–41. Berkeley: Religious Studies Series.Suche in Google Scholar
Wulff, Donna Marie. 1996. “Rādhā: Consort and Conquerer of Krishna.” In Devī: Goddesses of India, ed. John Stratton Hawley and Donna Marie Wulff, 109–134. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520916296-009Suche in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Titelseiten
- Artikel
- Theory and Empiricism of Religious Evolution (THERE): Foundation of a Research Program. Part 1
- The Mahā Kumbh Melā in Allahabad 2013
- Individualisierung von Religion?
- The Medium is the Messenger?
- „Atmosphäre“: Zum Potenzial eines Konzepts für die Religionswissenschaft
- Rezensionen
- Lucia Traut und Annette Wilke, Hg.: Religion – Imagination – Ästhetik. Vorstellungs- und Sinneswelten in Religion und Kultur (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), 555 S. mit 43 Abb. und 11 Farbtafeln, ISBN 978-3-525-54031-2, € 130,00.
- Bettina E. Schmidt: Einführung in die Religionsethnologie. Ideen und Konzepte (Berlin: Reimer, 2., durchgesehene Auflage 2015), 232 S., ISBN 978-496-01539-0, € 24,95.
- Lukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò: Goliath’s Legacy. Philistines and Hebrews in Biblical Times, Philippika 83 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2016), xiii + 321 S., ISBN 978-3-447-10346-6, € 68,00.
- Johannes Graul: Nonkonforme Religionen im Visier der Polizei. Eine Untersuchung am Beispiel der Mazdaznan-Religion im deutschen Kaiserreich, Religion in der Gesellschaft 37 (Würzburg: Ergon, 2013), 377 S., ISBN 978-3-89913-988-4, 48,00 €.
- Erratum
- Erratum zu: Das religionswissenschaftliche Dreieck. Elemente eines integrativen Religionskonzepts
- English Summaries
- English Summaries
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Titelseiten
- Artikel
- Theory and Empiricism of Religious Evolution (THERE): Foundation of a Research Program. Part 1
- The Mahā Kumbh Melā in Allahabad 2013
- Individualisierung von Religion?
- The Medium is the Messenger?
- „Atmosphäre“: Zum Potenzial eines Konzepts für die Religionswissenschaft
- Rezensionen
- Lucia Traut und Annette Wilke, Hg.: Religion – Imagination – Ästhetik. Vorstellungs- und Sinneswelten in Religion und Kultur (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), 555 S. mit 43 Abb. und 11 Farbtafeln, ISBN 978-3-525-54031-2, € 130,00.
- Bettina E. Schmidt: Einführung in die Religionsethnologie. Ideen und Konzepte (Berlin: Reimer, 2., durchgesehene Auflage 2015), 232 S., ISBN 978-496-01539-0, € 24,95.
- Lukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò: Goliath’s Legacy. Philistines and Hebrews in Biblical Times, Philippika 83 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2016), xiii + 321 S., ISBN 978-3-447-10346-6, € 68,00.
- Johannes Graul: Nonkonforme Religionen im Visier der Polizei. Eine Untersuchung am Beispiel der Mazdaznan-Religion im deutschen Kaiserreich, Religion in der Gesellschaft 37 (Würzburg: Ergon, 2013), 377 S., ISBN 978-3-89913-988-4, 48,00 €.
- Erratum
- Erratum zu: Das religionswissenschaftliche Dreieck. Elemente eines integrativen Religionskonzepts
- English Summaries
- English Summaries