The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple

by Dempsey, Corinne G.

• ISBN13: 9780195187298
• ISBN10: 0195187296
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Corinne Dempsey profiles an unusual South Indian temple community in Rush, New York, outside Rochester. The temple, established by a charismatic non-Brahman Sri Lankan Tamil, stands out for its combination of orthodox ritual meticulousness and socioreligious iconoclasm. The vitality with which devotees participate in ritual themselves and their ready access to the deities contrasts sharply with ritual activities at most North American Hindu Temples, where (following the usual Indian custom) ritual is performed only by priests and access to the highly sanctified divine images is closely guarded. Drawing on several years of contact with the guru and his followers, Dempsey uses the Rush temple's surprising success to analyze the distinctive dynamics of diaspora Hinduism, including issues of gender and caste, ethnic community, and spiritual enthusiasm.

Table of Contents

Note on Transliteration	xiii
Introduction: A Temple Trip	3	(12)
PART I Encounters with Divinity: Ritual Power and Miracles
Temple Entryways	15	(18)
Perspectives on Ritual Power: The Cost, Science, and Grace of Divinity	33	(24)
Visions and Versions of the Miraculous	57	(26)
PART II The Work of a Guru: Bridge Building and Boundary Breaking
Maverick Guru with a Cause	83	(22)
The Changing Faces of Temple Worship: The Young, the Women, and the Rest	105	(24)
A Fine Balance: The Give and Take of Religious Discipline	129	(20)
PART III Temple Inhabitants: Making Home in a World of Impermanence
Grounding the Sacred: Traveling Deities and Sanctified Terrain	149	(20)
Expanding Turf for Racial and Religious Others	169	(22)
Making Home at the Sri Rajarajeswari Pitham	191	(18)
Conclusion: A Good Place to Start	209	(6)
Glossary	215	(6)
Notes	221	(24)
Bibliography	245	(10)
Index	255