Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Village Religion

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Hinduism and Tribal Religions

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Indian Religions ((EIR))

  • 42 Accesses

Research on village-religion is a rich postcolonial domain of intellectual engagement that utilizes anthropological, subaltern, and feminist theories. These theoretical philosophies deconstruct philological productions of Indian religiosity that are based on classical Brahmanical and Sanskrit textual traditions [17]. Indeed, colonial discussions on classical upper-caste traditions of religious learning had inspired Macaulay to pass his celebrated minute on “educational reforms,” promoting English and Christianized learning in colonial India (1835). Colonial-missionary educational reforms did not consider village religion or vernacular piety threatening, since they did not consider rural practices to constitute “religion.” Therefore, while Sanskrit learning was considered religious and threatening to British supremacy, village rituals were considered superstitious.

Postcolonial anthropology and the subsequent debates on subaltern studies and its categories attempted to explore how...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Ambedkar B (1936) Annihilation of caste. Navayana, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  2. Apfel-Marglin F (2008) Rhythms of life: enacting the world with the goddesses of Orissa. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bhattacharji S (1970) The Indian theogony: a comparative study of Indian mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bhattacharyya N (1988) Ancient Indian history and civilization: trends and perspectives. Manohar, Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  5. Biardeau M (2004) Stories about posts: vedic variations around the Hindu goddess. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  6. Chakravarti U (2006) Gendering caste: through a feminist lens. Stree, Calcutta

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chatterjee P (2012) After subaltern studies. Econ Polit Wkly 47(35):44–49

    Google Scholar 

  8. Chawla J (1994) Child-bearing and culture: women centered revisioning of the traditional midwife; the dai as a ritual practitioner. Indian Social Institute, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  9. Chibber V (2013) Postcolonial theory and the specter of capital. Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  10. Coburn T (1984) Devi-mahatmya: the crystallization of the goddess tradition. Motilal Banarasidass, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  11. Dandekar D (2016) Boundaries and motherhood: ritual and reproduction in rural Maharashtra. Zubaan, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  12. Dhavalikar M (2002) Environment and culture: a historical perspective. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune

    Google Scholar 

  13. Dhere R (2011) The rise of a folk god: Vitthal of Pandharpur (trans: Feldhaus A). Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  14. Dirks N (2001) Castes of mind: colonialism and the making of modern India. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  15. Douglas M (1966) Purity and danger. Routledge, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  16. Douglas M (1996) Natural symbols. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  17. Duff A (1839) India and India missions: including sketches of the gigantic system of Hinduism, both in theory and practice. John Johnstone, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  18. Erndl K (1993) Victory to the mother: the Hindu goddess of Northwest India in myth, ritual and symbol. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  19. Feldhaus A (1995) Water and womanhood: religious meanings of rivers in Maharashtra. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  20. Feldhaus A (2003) Connected places: region, pilgrimage and geographical imagination of India. Palgrave and Macmillan, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  21. Feldhaus A (2014) Say to the sun, “don’t rise” and to the moon “don’t set”: two oral narratives from the countryside of Maharashtra. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  22. Freud S (1998 reprint of 1918 publication) Totem and taboo. Dover Thrift Editions, New York

    Google Scholar 

  23. Guha R (1999) Savaging the civilized: Verrier Elwin, his tribals and India. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  24. Haq K (2015) The triumph of the snake goddess. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  25. Hiltebeitel A (1988) The cult of Draupadi: mythologies from Gingee to Kurukshtra. Motilal Banarasidass, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  26. Kakar S (1982) Shamans, mystics and doctors: a psychological inquiry into India and its healing traditions. Oxford University Press, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  27. Kinsley D (1986) Hindu goddesses: visions of the divine feminine in the Hindu religious tradition. Motilal Banarasidass, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  28. Kulke H, Schnepel B (eds) (2001) Jagannath revisited: studying society, religion and the state in Orissa. Manohar Books, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  29. Marriott M (ed) (1955) Village India: studies in the little community. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  30. Masilamani-Meyer E (2004) Guardians of Tamil Nadu: folk deities, folk religion, Hindu themes. Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen zu Halle, Halle

    Google Scholar 

  31. Mines D (2005) Fierce gods: inequality, ritual, and the politics of dignity in a south Indian village. Indiana University Press, Bloomington

    Google Scholar 

  32. Nicholas RW (2003) Fruits of worship: practical religion in Bengal. Chronicle Books, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  33. Quack J (2012) Disenchanting India: organized rationalism and criticism of religion in India. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  34. Raheja GG, Gold AG (1994) Listen to the heron’s words: reimagining gender and kinship in North India. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  35. Ramberg L (2014) Given to the goddess: south Indian devadasis and the sexuality of religion. Duke University Press, Durham

    Book  Google Scholar 

  36. Redfield R (1960) The little community and peasant society and culture. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  37. Roy A (2015) Sixty-four yoginis: cult, icons and goddesses. Primus Books, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  38. Sax W (1991) Mountain goddess: gender and politics in a Himalayan pilgrimage. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  39. Sax W (2002) Dancing the self: personhood and performance in the Pandav Lila of Garhwal. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  40. Schuler B (2009) Of birth and death: Icakkiyamman, a Tamil goddess in ritual and story. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden

    Google Scholar 

  41. Sharma R (2003) Early medieval Indian society: a study in feudalization. Orient Blackswan, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  42. Sontheimer G (1976) Biroba, Mhaskoba and Khandoba: origin, history and ecology of pastoral deities in Maharashtra. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden

    Google Scholar 

  43. Sontheimer G (1989) Pastoral deities in Western India. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  44. Srinivas M (1987) The dominant caste and other essays. Oxford University Press, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  45. Stephenson B (2015) Ritual: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  46. White D (2003) Kiss of the yogini: “tantric sex” in its south Asian contexts. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the History of Emotions, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

    Deepra Dandekar

Authors
  1. Deepra Dandekar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deepra Dandekar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Anthropology, The University of North Texas Dept of Anthropology, Denton, Texas, USA

    Pankaj Jain

  2. The Graduate Theological Union , Berkeley, California, USA

    Rita Sherma

  3. Jamia Millia Islamia, Centre for the Study of Comparative Reli Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    Madhu Khanna

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Dandekar, D. (2018). Village Religion. In: Jain, P., Sherma, R., Khanna, M. (eds) Hinduism and Tribal Religions. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_596-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_596-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1036-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1036-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation