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Description of  Bonding with the Lord: Jagannath, Popular Culture and Community Formation

Language: English Pages: 318 About the Book Few other Hindu gods guide a regional consciousness, pervade walks of everyday life and define a collective psyche the way Lord Jagannath does in Odisha and its contiguous areas. Jagannath is metonymic of Odisha and the Odia way of life, arguably much more than any other god for a particular geography or its peoples. While not derecognizing the historical and the spiritual aspects of jagannath, Bonding with the Lord attempts to look at the deployment of Jagannath in contemporary cultural practices involving the sensorial in the widest sense. The project of a cultural Jagannath not only materializes him in people's everyday practices but also democratizes scholarship on him. The expansion of the scope of research on Jagannath to cultural expressions in a more encompassing way rather than confining to 'elitist' religious literary sources makes him an everyday presence and significantly enhances his sphere of influence. Jagannath's 'tribal' origin, his association with Buddhism and Jainism and his avatar status make him an all-encompassing, multilayered symbol and a treasure trove for multiple interpretations. Foreword I congratulate Jyotirmaya Tripathy and Uwe Skoda on their fascinating anthology Bonding with the Lord: [agannath, Popular Culture and Community Formation and for inviting me to contribute a foreword to it. This takes me back to my own sustained engagement with Odisha and Jagannath studies that defined me as a scholar. As a member of the two Orissa Research Projects (ORPs) of the German Research Council from 1970 to 1975 and from 1999 to 2005, it is alluring for me to reconsider th Read more