Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs

Description

The autumnal Navarātri festival―also called Durgā Pūjā, Dassehra, or Dasain―is the most important Hindu festival in South Asia and wherever Hindus settle. A nine-night-long celebration in honor of the goddess Durgā, it ends on the tenth day with a celebration called “the victorious tenth” (vijayadaśamī). The rituals that take place in domestic, royal, and public spaces are closely connected with one’s station in life and dependent on social status, economic class, caste, and gender issues. Exploring different aspects of the festival as celebrated in diverse regions of South Asia and in the South Asian diaspora, this book addresses the following common questions: What does this festival do? What does it achieve, and how? Why and in what way does it sometimes fail? How do mass communication and social media increase participation in and contribute to the changing nature of the festival? The contributors address these questions from multiple perspectives and discuss issues of agency, authority, ritual efficacy, change, appropriation, and adaptation. Because of the festival’s reach beyond its diverse celebrations in South Asia, its influence can be seen in the rituals and dances in many parts of Western Europe and North America. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls, and Darbārs—An Introduction • Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan, and Astrid Zotter Navarātri as Agent of Renewal and Transformation 1. Ritual of Revitalization: The Transformative Power of the Durgā Pūjā • Hillary Rodrigues 2. Straddling the Sacred and the Secular: Presence and Absence of the Goddess in Contemporary Garbo, the Navarātri Dance of Gujarat • Neelima Shukla-Bhatt Propriety versus Creativity in Navarātri 3. Can Didi Truly Become Durgā? The Riddle of the Two Goddesses • Moumita Sen 4. Limits of Creativity: Kolu in Brahmin Vaiṣṇava Households in Kāñcipuram • Ute Hüsken Gendered Identities in Navarātri 5. Navarātri as a Festival of Hanumān and Male Asceticism • R. Jeremy Saul 6. Going Home for Navarātri: Negotiating Caste, Class, and Gender between Rural and Urban Rajasthan • Jennifer D. Ortegren 7. Female Agency during Tamil Navarātri • Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama Navarātri as Instrument of Power 8. Who Kills the Buffalo? Authority and Agency in the Ritual Logistics of the Nepalese Dasaĩ Festival • Astrid Zotter 9. Domains of Dasara: Reflections on the Struggle for Significance in Contemporary Mysore • Caleb Simmons 10. The Ups and Downs of Competing Power Rituals: Dasarā and Durgā Pūjā in a Former Princely State of Odisha • Uwe Skoda Contributors Index