The Domain of Constant Excess: Plural Worship at the Munnesvaram Temples in Sri LankaThe Sri Lankan ethnic conflict that has occurred largely between Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus is marked by a degree of religious tolerance that sees both communities worshiping together. This study describes one important site of such worship, the ancient Hindu temple complex of Munnesvaram. Standing adjacent to one of Sri Lanka's historical western ports, the fortunes of the Munnesvaram temples have waxed and waned through the years of turbulence, violence and social change that have been the country's lot since the advent of European colonialism in the Indian Ocean. Bastin recounts the story of these temples and analyses how the Hindu temple is reproduced as a center of worship amidst conflict and competition. |
From inside the book
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... sense of potency. The regular rites of the day, week and month, as well as the special rites for the goddesses, form a prelude to my discussion of the annual festival held around August/September. I commence my discussion in Chapter 8 ...
... sense in which Louis Dumont (1980) uses it as referring to a total and neatly arranged social whole; a sense for which Dumont has been roundly criticised (Inden 1990). What I hope to demonstrate through my focus on a major temple ...
... sense, haskam is an enabling condition of balaya but also a characteristic of a site at which balaya has been particularly active. This is not to deny the importance of analysing power as command. In Power and Religiosity in a Post ...
... sense, simply a Siva temple. Yet 'Munisvara' is also the name of a lower status village guardian deity in south India, known in northern Sri Lanka as Muniappan or simply 'Muni'. Muniappan is also known as Virabhadra, Siva's angry form ...
... sense, 'Kiri Amma' is an epithet like the Tamil 'amman' ('mother superior'), and 'pattini' ('virgin', but also 'chaste wife'). The terms describe a category with concrete forms in a very similar way to the south Indian 'Aiyanar' who ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
Chapter 3 Myths and Marginality | 43 |
Chapter 4 Ritual Practices and Religious Identity | 59 |
Chapter 5 The Saivite Temple as a Monumental Architecture | 89 |
Puja and Arccanai | 117 |
Chapter 7 The Presence of Sakti | 133 |
Chapter 8 Guardians Games and the Formation of Power | 145 |
Chapter 9 The World Inside Out | 163 |
Chapter 10 The Domain of Excess | 183 |
Divine Kings and Regal Gods Temples in Society and History | 195 |
References | 213 |
Index | 227 |
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The Domain of Constant Excess: Plural Worship at the Munnesvaram Temples in ... Rohan Bastin No preview available - 2002 |