Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint

Shirdi Sai Baba's Presence
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-13570-0
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 406 g

Reihe: Routledge Series on the Indian Ocean and Trans-Asia

Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint focuses on the presence and contemporaneity of Shirdi Sai Baba (d.1918), who has a vast following in postcolonial South Asia and an ever-growing global diaspora. Essays consider the saint’s influence on everyday life and how visual, narrative, textual, sensorial, performative, political, social, and spatial practices interpenetrate to produce multiple terrains of devotion.

Contributions by twelve scholars of several academic disciplines explore eruptions and circulations of sacred materials, spatialities of devotional practices, visual and digital imaginaries, transcultural narrativizations, and material affects and effects of Sai Baba. The presentation transcends routine scholarly discussions about sainthood, cultures of worship, religious objects, Hinduism and Islam. Shirdi Sai Baba’s presence conveys inspiration and healing energies and he accepted the entreaties of people of all castes and creeds, offering an alternative to communal ideologies of his time – and the present. Considerations of Shirdi Sai Baba’s milieux of devotional praxis situate and localize debates about the meaning of nation and religion, past and present, urbanization, and class identity in transitions from colonial to postcolonial/global South Asia.

The book expands the boundaries of the study of Shirdi Sai Baba and makes important contributions to South Asia Studies, Anthropology, Religious Studies, Global Studies, Urban Studies, Indian Ocean Studies, Inter-Asian Studies, Visual and Media Studies, and Cultural Geography.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Srinivas, Smriti

Jeychandran, Neelima

Roberts, Allen

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Baba’s Always-Present Presence; Chapter 1: Engaging Universalism: Sai Baba’s Predecessors and Contemporaries; Chapter 2: Hagiographic Connections between Shirdi Sai Baba and Sathya Sai Baba: Venkusha, Venkavadhuta, and the Integrative Icon of Dattatreya; Interleaf A: Shirdi Sai Baba’s Lamp-Lighting Miracle in Text and Film; Chapter 3: From Sai Baba of Shirdi to Shirdi of Sai Baba: The Making of a Contemporary Pilgrim-Center; Chapter 4: Routes and Repositories: Shirdi Sai Baba’s Urban Presence; Interleaf B: "This Is My Shirdi:" Wayside Shrines and Sai Baba’s Popular Omnipresence; Chapter 5: Kolis of Mumbai and Shirdi Sai Baba; Chapter 6: "Saint Above (Beyond) Religion:" Re-imaging Shirdi Sai in Chennai and Singapore; Interleaf C: Sai Baba, Ghana, and Oceanic Spiritual Crossovers; Chapter 7: Baba’s Guiding Hand: Artists and Acheiropoiesis; Interleaf D: India Spirits, Hounkpode Baba, and Powers of the Sea in the Republic of Bénin; Chapter 8: A Sheltering Gaze: Darshan with Baba, Baraka from Bamba

Über Autor(innen)

Smriti Srinivas is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis, USA.

Neelima Jeychandran is a Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor of African Studies and Asian Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, USA.

Allen F. Roberts is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of World Arts and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.