Connected Places

Region, Pilgrimage, and Geographical Imagination in India

A. Feldhaus

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781403981349
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology of Religion
• Index: Social Sciences

This book examines the words and actions of people who live in regions in the state of Maharashtra in Western India to illustrate the idea that regions are not only created by humans, but given meaning through religious practices. By exploring the people living in the area of Maharashtra, Feldhaus draws some very interesting conclusions about how people differentiate one region from others, and how we use stories, rituals, and ceremonies to recreate their importance. Feldhaus discovers that religious meanings attached to regions do not necessarily have a political teleology. According to Feldhaus, 'There is also a chance, even now, that religious imagery can enrich the lives of individuals and small communities without engendering bloodshed and hatred'.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Maps
• List of Figures
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Transliteration and Pronunciation
• Introduction
• 1 Rivers and Regional Consciousness
• 2 The Pilgrimage to Śingnāpūr
• 3 Traveling Goddesses
• 4 The Arithmetic of Place: Numbered Sets of Places
• 5 The Algebra of Place: Replication of North Indian Religious Geography in Maharashtra
• 6 Pilgrimage and Remembrance: Biography and Geography in the Mahānubhāv Tradition
• 7 Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Abbreviations
• Index