Religious Authority in South Asia: Generating the Guru

293 Pages·2022·6.707 MB·English

by  István Keul, Srilata Raman

Religious Authority in South Asia

This book focuses on genealogies of religious authority in South Asia, examining
the figure of the guru in narrative texts, polemical tracts, hagiographies, histories,
in contemporary devotional communities, New Age spiritual movements and
global guru organizations.
Experts in the field present reflections on historically specific contexts in which
a guru comes into being, becomes part of a community, is venerated, challenged
or repudiated, generates a new canon, remains unique with no clear succession or
establishes a succession in which charisma is routinized. The guru emerges and is
sustained and routinized from the nexus of guruship, narratives, performances and
community. The contributors to the book examine this nexus at specific historical
moments with all their elements of change and contingency.
The book will be of interest to scholars in the field of South Asian studies, the
study of religions and cultural studies.
István Keul is Professor in the Study of Religions at the University of Bergen,
Norway. His areas of research include various aspects of the history and sociology of
South Asian religions. He is the author of a monograph on the Hindu deity Hanumān
and has edited volumes on tantra, Yoginīs, Banaras and consecration rituals, and
recently Spaces of Religion in Urban South Asia (2021, Routledge).
Srilata Raman is Professor of Hinduism in the Department for the Study of Reli­
gion, University of Toronto, Canada. Her monographs include Self-Surrender
(Prapatti) to God in S´ r īvais.n.avism (2007, Routledge) and The Transformation of
Tamil Religion: Ramalinga Swamigal and Modern Dravidian Sainthood (2022,
Routledge). In addition, she has co-authored two edited volumes and published
numerous articles on Tamil religion with a special focus on S´r īvais.n.avism and the
Tamil S´a ivasiddhānta.
Routledge South Asian Religion Series
Spaces of Religion in Urban South Asia
Edited by István Keul
Religion and the City in India
Edited by Supriya Chaudhuri
Religiosity in Contemporary Sri Lanka
Multi-religious Innovation, Paradoxical Interaction, and Shared Religious Spaces
Edited by Mark P. Whitaker, Darini Rajasingham-Senanyake and
Sanmugeswaran Pathmanesan
Non-Shia Practices of Muhạ rram in South Asia and the Diaspora
Beyond Mourning
Edited by Pushkar Sohoni and Torsten Tschacher
The Transformation of Tamil Religion
Ramalinga Swamigal (1823–1874) and Modern Dravidian Sainthood
By Srilata Raman
Popular Hinduism, Stories and Mobile Performances
The Voice of Morari Bapu in Multiple Media
By Mrinal Pande
Devas, Demons and Buddhist Cosmology in Sri Lanka
Apotheosis and the Spiritual Progression of Hūniyam
By Achala Gunasekara-Rockwell
Religious Authority in South Asia
Generating the Guru
Edited by István Keul and Srilata Raman
For more information about this series, please visit:
https://www.routledge.com/asianstudies/series/RSARS
Religious Authority
in South Asia
Generating the Guru
Edited by
István Keul and Srilata Raman
Firstpublished2022
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To Vasudha Dalmia: teacher, mentor, friend

Contents

List of illustrations ix
List of contributors x
1 Gurus and Their Contexts in South Asia: An Introduction 1
ISTVÁN KEUL AND SRILATA RAMAN
2 How the Guru Lost His Power: Public Anxieties of Tantric
Knowledge in the Sanskrit Vetāla Tales 8
ADHEESH SATHAYE
3 The Guru Function in the Emergence of Marathi Literature in
Thirteenth-Century India 38
CHRISTIAN LEE NOVETZKE
4 Guru Dādu- in the Perception of His Direct Disciples 51
MONIKA HORSTMANN
5 Canonization of Bhakti Gurus: A Missing Link between Jai Singh II
and Haris´candra 72
HEIDI PAUWELS
6 The Emergence of the Social in the Service of the Guru 84
ANNE MURPHY
7 Between Sagacity and Scandal: Celibacy, Sexuality and a Guru in
Nineteenth-Century Punjab 107
ANSHU MALHOTRA
8 The Occluded Guru or the Guru as Gardener: C. Jinarajadasa’s
Theosophical Universe 126
SMRITI SRINIVAS
9 Inversions of Kim: The Victorian Childhood of J. Krishnamurti 141
SRILATA RAMAN
viii Contents
10 The Vaidika’s Limits: Candras´ekharendra Sarasvatī Svāmī (1894–
1994) and Tamil Brahmin Guruship 148
ERIC STEINSCHNEIDER
11 The Fiction of Ecumenical Universalism: Where Gurus Do Not
Matter 168
MARTIN FUCHS
12 Between the Letter and the Spirit: Gandhi’s Orbit 182
KUMKUM SANGARI
13 Guru Sex: Charisma, Proxemic Desire, and the Haptic Logics of the
Guru-Disciple Relationship 209
AMANDA LUCIA
14 Manufacturing Charisma in the Metropolis 239
ISTVÁN KEUL
15 Narrating the Spiritualized Life 254
NIKHIL GOVIND
16 The Gurus of a Post-Colonial Education: An Autobiographical Note 268
VASUDHA DALMIA
Selected Publications by Vasudha Dalmia 274
Index 276
Illustrations

Figures
2.1 Oldest dated manuscript of S´ ivadāsa’s Vetāla-pañcaviṃs´ati: KOBA
5502 (folio 1v), dated May 23, 1384. Image courtesy of the Acharya
Shri Kailas Sagar Suri Gyanmandir, Koba, Gujarat. 15
8.1 Photograph of C. Jinarajadasa hanging in Theosophical Society
headquarters, Madras/Chennai, 2012 (Photograph credit: Smriti
Srinivas) 129
8.2 Sikh temple, Theosophical Society gardens, Adyar, Madras/Chennai,
2012 (Photograph credit: Smriti Srinivas) 131
8.3 Bodhi tree, Theosophical Society gardens, Adyar, Madras/Chennai,
2012 (Photograph credit: Smriti Srinivas) 133
8.4 Founders Avenue planted with mahogany trees in soil brought from
countries where Theosophical Sections existed, Theosophical Society
gardens, Adyar, Madras/Chennai, 2012 (Photograph credit: Smriti
Srinivas) 134
8.5 Jinarajadasa’s plaque on Founders Avenue, Theosophical Society
gardens, Adyar, Madras/Chennai, 2012 (Photograph credit: Smriti
Srinivas) 134
Tables
2.1 The Principal Sanskrit Versions of the Vetāla-pañcaviṃs´ati 13
2.2 Distribution of narrative elements in the Vetāla tale of the failed
tantric guru and disciple 16