An Introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism

by Raymond Brady Williams

• ISBN13: 9780521652797
• ISBN10: 0521652790
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

An Introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism is a comprehensive study of a modern form of Hinduism that is growing in the place of its birth in the Indian state of Gujarat and among Indian immigrants in east Africa, Great Britain, and the United States. It is the most prominent form of transnational Hinduism because it creates networks that define and preserve ethnic and religious identity in the modern context of rapid mobility and communication. Founded by Sahajanand Swami or Swaminarayan (1781-1830), a religious reformer in a time of great social and political change in Gujarat, Swaminarayan Hinduism expounds a path of devotion to Swaminarayan as the final, perfect manifestation of God. Raymond Brady Williams provides a detailed introduction to the history, theology, discipline, and ritual of this important form of Hinduism. Based on and extending, with considerable updating and revision, his A New Face of Hinduism: The Swaminarayan Religion (Cambridge, 1984), the book places Swaminarayan in the context of transnational Hinduism and analyses its current status in India and abroad.

Table of Contents

List of plates	vi
List of figures	vii
List of tables	viii
Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(4)
The beginnings of Swaminarayan Hinduism	5	(28)
Growth, administration, and schism	33	(36)
The structure of Swaminarayan theology	69	(31)
The sacred world	100	(48)
Dharma: the disciplined life	148	(26)
The sacred thread: transmission of tradition	174	(23)
Transitional growth of Swaminarayan Hinduism	197	(35)
Afterword	232	(5)
Glossary	237	(5)
List of references	242	(8)
Index	250