Shared Devotion, Shared Food: Equality and the Bhakti-Caste Question in Western India

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Shared Devotion, Shared Food
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Notes on Transliteration and References
Map
Introduction
Plan of this book
Conversations and contributions
Key terms and clarifications
Bhakti
Caste
Dalit
Names of God
Saint
Commensality
Uses of theory
Part 1
	1. Religion and Social Change: Narratives of Outrage and Disappointment
		Religion through the lenses of history and social science
		Conceiving equality
		Religion and equality
		My approach
	2. Sightings of Bhakti and Its Social Impact
		Re-​envisioning bhakti studies from western India
		What did bhakti do?
		Democracy, inclusion, and equality
	3. Bhakti and Equality in Marathi Print, 1854–​1950
		Locating bhakti in Marathi print discourse
			Liberal intellectuals
			Nationalists and literary scholars
			Gāthā editors and Vārkarī leaders
			Subaltern critics, rationalists, and Marxist historians
		Antecedents of equality
Part 2
	4. The Complications of Eating Together
		Studies of commensality
		Food and commensality in South Asia
		Hindu gastrosemantics
			Vedāṅgas and dharmaśāstra
			Epics and Purāṇas
			Food in vernacular bhakti literature
		Conclusion
	5. Memories of Transgressive Commensality
		The sources
		Food as signifier of extreme bhakti
		Compassionate hospitality
		Food in Eknāth’s encounter with Dattātreya
		The śrāddha story
		The double vision story
		Conclusion
	6. Restaging Transgressive Commensality
		Early biographical scholarship, 1860–​1931
		Eknāth in theater and film, 1903–​2005
			Śrī Eknāth (1903)—​V. R. Śirvaḷkar
			Kharā Brāmhaṇ (1933)—​K. S. Thackeray
			Dharmātmā (1935)—​Prabhāt Film Company
			Bhāva Toci Dev (1965)—​G. G. Śirgopīkar
			Sant Eknāth Mahārāj (2004) and Sant Eknāth (2005)
		Conclusion
	7. Bhakti in the Shadow of Ambedkar
		Bhakti as resonant manifold
		Ideology of inclusive difference
		Nondualist social ethics?
		Ambedkar and bhakti
		Historical imagination, hagiography, and food
		Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index