James G. Lochtefeld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195386141
- eISBN:
- 9780199866380
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386141.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Pandas are local brahmins who serve as hereditary pilgrim guides. Each panda family has the rights to pilgrims from a particular Indian region, and pandas protect these rights ...
More
Pandas are local brahmins who serve as hereditary pilgrim guides. Each panda family has the rights to pilgrims from a particular Indian region, and pandas protect these rights through written records (bahi) of previous pilgrim visits. Pandas formerly provided for a client’s every need, including food, lodging, travel arrangements, lending money, or religious rituals, for which pandas received fees and gifts. Better infrastructure and wider social changes have eroded panda status from “family members” to ritual contractors, but the pandas’ control over the final death rite, asthivisarjana, provides a secure if marginal economic niche. Pandas have responded to social pressures by forming local associations—both to promote their collective interests and to safeguard Hardwar’s sanctity. The most significant association is the Ganga Sabha (“Ganges Assembly”), which arose during the 1914–17 protest against damming the Ganges.Less
Pandas are local brahmins who serve as hereditary pilgrim guides. Each panda family has the rights to pilgrims from a particular Indian region, and pandas protect these rights through written records (bahi) of previous pilgrim visits. Pandas formerly provided for a client’s every need, including food, lodging, travel arrangements, lending money, or religious rituals, for which pandas received fees and gifts. Better infrastructure and wider social changes have eroded panda status from “family members” to ritual contractors, but the pandas’ control over the final death rite, asthivisarjana, provides a secure if marginal economic niche. Pandas have responded to social pressures by forming local associations—both to promote their collective interests and to safeguard Hardwar’s sanctity. The most significant association is the Ganga Sabha (“Ganges Assembly”), which arose during the 1914–17 protest against damming the Ganges.
James G. Lochtefeld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195386141
- eISBN:
- 9780199866380
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386141.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Pilgrims are Hardwar’s religious consumers, whose money sustains the city economically and whose reverence and piety help to sustain it religiously. Pilgrims come to Hardwar for many different ...
More
Pilgrims are Hardwar’s religious consumers, whose money sustains the city economically and whose reverence and piety help to sustain it religiously. Pilgrims come to Hardwar for many different reasons, such as the desire to bathe in the Ganges and gain religious merit (punya); the desire to perform life-cycle rites (samskaras) for birth (mundan), marriage (suhag-pithari), or death (asthivisarjana); the desire to come in contact with resident powers (both human and divine); or the desire to find peace in Hardwar’s beautiful natural environment. The chapter’s latter part does case studies on two particular pilgrimages: the Kanvar Mela, in which pilgrims take Ganges water from Hardwar to their homes as an offering to Shiva, and a twelve-day package tour to the four most important Himalayan pilgrimage sites (char dham): Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath.Less
Pilgrims are Hardwar’s religious consumers, whose money sustains the city economically and whose reverence and piety help to sustain it religiously. Pilgrims come to Hardwar for many different reasons, such as the desire to bathe in the Ganges and gain religious merit (punya); the desire to perform life-cycle rites (samskaras) for birth (mundan), marriage (suhag-pithari), or death (asthivisarjana); the desire to come in contact with resident powers (both human and divine); or the desire to find peace in Hardwar’s beautiful natural environment. The chapter’s latter part does case studies on two particular pilgrimages: the Kanvar Mela, in which pilgrims take Ganges water from Hardwar to their homes as an offering to Shiva, and a twelve-day package tour to the four most important Himalayan pilgrimage sites (char dham): Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath.
