Is the richness and diversity of rituals and celebrations in South Asia unique? Are Indians or Hindus more involved in rituals than people of other faiths and other places? If so, what makes them special? Can we speak of a homo ritualis when it comes to India or Hinduism? Drawing on extensive textual studies and fieldwork in Nepal and India, Axel Michaels demonstrates how the characteristic structure of Hindu rituals employs the Brahmanic-Sanskritic sacrifice as a model, and how this structure is one of the distinguishing features of Hinduism more generally. Many religions tend over time to develop less ritualized or more open forms of belief, but Brahmanical Hinduism has internalized ritual behavior to the extent that it has become its most important and distinctive feature, permeating social and personal life alike. The religion can thus be seen as a particular case in the history of religions in which ritual form dominates belief and develops a sweeping autonomy of ritual behavior.Homo Ritualis analyzes ritual through these cultural-specific and religious contexts, taking into account how indigenous terms and theories affect and contribute to current ritual theory. It describes and investigates various forms of Hindu rituals and festivals, such as life-cycle rituals, the Vedic sacrifice, vows processions, and the worship of deities (puja). It also examines various conceptual components of (Hindu) rituals such as framing, formality, modality, and theories of meaning.

Product Description: Sonic Liturgy: Ritual and Music in Hindu Tradition builds on the foundation of Guy L. Beck's earlier work, which described the theoretical role of sound in Hindu thought. Sonic Liturgy continues the discussion of sound into the realm of Hindu ritual and musical traditions of worship...read more

An extensive examination of the underpinnings of the Shaivite Tradition • Reveals the influence of Shaivism on the Western world • Discusses Shaivism’s understanding of sacred sexuality • Presents the connections between Vedic poetry and metaphysics In Shiva and the Primordial Tradition, Alain Daniélou explores the relationship between Shaivism and the Western world. Shaivite philosophy does not oppose theology, cosmology, and science because it recognizes that their common aim is to seek to understand and explain the nature of the world. In the Western world, the idea of bridging the divide between science and religion is just beginning to touch the edges of mainstream thought.This rare collection of the late author’s writings contains several never-before-published articles and offers an in-depth look at the many facets of the Samkhya, the cosmologic doctrines of the Shaivite tradition. Daniélou provides important revelations on subjects such as the science of dreams, the role of poetry and sexuality in the sacred, the personality of the great Shankara, and the Shaivite influence on the Scythians and the Parthians (and by extension, the Hellenic world in general). Providing a convincing argument in favor of the polytheistic approach, he explains that monotheism is merely the deification of individualism--the separation of humanity from nature--and that by acknowledging the sacred in everything, we can recognize the imprint of the primordial tradition.

Chiefly on Hindu rituals.

Product Description: This elegantly written book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. In Bringing the Gods to Mind, Laurie Patton takes a new look at mantra as "performed poetry" and in five case studies draws a portrait of early Indian sacrifice that moves beyond the well-worn categories of "magic" and "magico-religious" thought in Vedic sacrifice...read more

Product Description: Most studies of Indian armor have concentrated on Mughal arms from northern India, and there has been no serious study of Hindu arms since the nineteenth century. Robert Elgood seeks to fill this scholarly gap with Hindu Arms and Ritual, a new and richly illustrated study that examines pieces from the Tanjore Palace Armory in south India...read more

Product Description: In this book the author discusses the places of science in rituals and mantras. Using structural analysis he shows that rituals in general, whether religious, political, social or otherwise have common structural patterns. These patterns are shared by poetry, music,dance and gymnastics, but not by language...read more

Exploring the folk religion of India and the role of girls and women within it, author June McDaniel focuses on the brata (vrata) ritual in which moral lessons are taught and goddesses are revealed. Bratas are performed to gain such goals as a healthy family, a good husband, and a happy life. They are also performed so that the performers (bratinis) develop such virtues as devotion, humility, and compassion.This book presents data from fieldwork, along with brata stories, songs, poems, and ritual activities. It discusses Bengali folk religion, offers an example of ritual worship in folk Hinduism, and surveys a variety of bratas. The author analyzes the similarities and differences among these rituals in low-caste village life and in high-caste Hindu tradition, and notes that the development of these rituals involves a form of continuing divine revelation with women as the primary transmitters. Bratas act to maintain traditional Hindu values, but also emphasize the power of women, whose virtues can save their husbands from hell worlds and their families from disasters.

Documents the Hindu belief in the spiritual component of all human activity and looks at Hindu beliefs and practices, daily worship experiences, and ways of meeting God (view table of contents)

First published in India in 1977, this discourse on prayer and meditation by the great spiritual leader explores the meaning of devotion and describes the specific pratices he used. Reprint. Original. (view table of contents)

Product Description: Associated with wrath, gambling and, at the symbolic level, with darkness and misery, sura has been strongly condemned in Vedic literature. Yet, paradoxically, it has not just found its way into a Vedic sacrifice itself: called sautramani, but has even been sanctified in the rajasuya and punarabhisheka rituals as well...read more

This volume explores the organizational principles of the ancient Indian sacrificial system, and the role Vedic religion plays in later orthodox Hinduism. Smith argues that Vedic conceptions of the cosmos, the nature of the human being, visions of the afterlife, and representations of ritual theory and practice can all be understood in similar terms. Guiding all of them is the principle of hierarchical resemblance which forges interconnections and analogies between seemingly disparate things and beings. Such a classification system of superior prototypes and inferior but resembling counterparts links together the divine and the human, the social elite and the common householder, and male and female into a hierarchical whole. Illuminating such general issues as the definition of religion, the nature and purpose of ritual, the dynamics of sacrifice and substitution, and the process of change and continuity in traditions, this book serves as a guide to a complex ancient religion and its legacy.

Product Description: Book by Bodewitz, H. W.

Product Description: Book by Oddie, Geoffrey A.

Study of the Hindu rituals with special reference to Viòsònudharmottarapuråaòna.

Product Description: Rules Without Meaning is an original study of ritual and mantras which shows that rites lead a life of their own, unaffected by religion or society. In its analysis of Vedic ritual, it uses methods inspired by logic, linguistics, anthropology and Asian studies...read more