Wonder in South Asia: Histories, Aesthetics, Ethics (SUNY: Religious Studies)

The experience of wonder—encompassing awe, bewilderment, curiosity, excitement, fear, dread, mystery, perplexity, reverence, surprise, and supplication—and the ineffable quality of that which is wondrous have been entwined in religion and human experience. Yet strangely, wonder in non-western societies, including South Asia, has rarely been acknowledged or understood. This groundbreaking volume brings together historians and ethnographers of South Asia, including leading and emerging scholars, to consider the place and meaning of wonder in such varied joyful, tense, and creative sites and moments as Sufi music performances in Gujarat, Tamil graveyard processions, trans women's charitable practices, Kipling's Orientalist tales, village Kuchipudi dance performances, and Rajasthani healing shrines. Offering a synthetic and scholarly reading of wonder that speaks to the political, aesthetic, and ethical worlds of South Asia, these essays redefine the nature and meaning of wonder and its worlds. Taken together, they provide an invaluable research tool for those in the fields of Asian religion, religion in context, and South Asian religions in particular. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Wondering about Wonder: An Introduction The Maze within Amazement The Genealogy of Wonder The Cow in the Elevator and Ethnographies of Wonder South Asian Wonders Section 1: Histories Section 2: Aesthetics Section 3: Ethics Note Works Cited Section 1. Histories of Wonder Chapter 1: Wonders Never Cease: An Ethnographic Panorama 1980 Curiosity Curiosity and Aesthetic Thrill Curiosity and Its Opposite 1986 Compassion and Connection: The Cobra in the Well 1980–2017 Creativity: Kuchalwara Mataji 1980 Jeep Pilgrimage 2003 Healing Miracles and Environments 2005 A Cure in the Family 2017 A New Temple 2010 Compassion: A Muslim Pir Heals a Hindu Merchant’s Wife Wonder, or the Beating of Birds’ Wings Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Chapter 2: Weird Tales: Ganesh, Idolatry, and the Golden Age of American Pulp Fiction Introduction: Ganesh Crosses the Sea Rudyard Kipling: Idolatry Stories H. P. Lovecraft: “The Call of Cthulhu” Frank Belknap Long: “The Horror from the Hills” Robert E. Howard: “The Tower of the Elephant” An Afterword: Wonder Notes Works Cited Fiction Chapter 3: Did the Masters of Disenchantment Ever Wonder? India in the Nineteenth-Century American Evangelical Imaginary Introduction Entangling Encounters Wondrous Virtue Wonder Resurfacing Conclusion Notes Works Cited Section 2. Aesthetics of Wonder Chapter 4: Wonder: Spirit Mediumship and Devotional Music at a Mumbai Shrine of the Sidi Ancestor-Saints Introduction Wajd as Wonder: Defining Haziri and Hal Wonder and the Embodiment of the Saints Bridging Wonder and Ecstatic Embodiment: Spiritual Development Viewed from within and without Sidi Sufi Ritual Contexts Voices of the Saints: African Diasporan Instruments of Sidi Dhammal/Goma Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 5: Wonder as Affect on the Kuchipudi Stage Ravi Shankar as Ardhanarishvara Wonder as Affect Wonder as Rasa Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 6: In the Vicinity of Wonder: Thirunangai Devotees of Angalamman and Narratives of Moral Astonishment Introduction To Astonish and to Be Astonished Money and the Economy of Astonishment Proliferating Attachments—Kinship and Care Ontological Premises, Social Capacities, and the Work of Wonder Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 7: Wonder in the Cremation Ground: The Affective and Transformative Dimensions of an Urban Tamil Festival The Festival Process: Preparations, Decorations, Vows, and Processions Ritual Creativity in the Cremation Ground The Festival’s Subtle Landscapes Wonder in a Landscape of Possibility Notes References Chapter 8: Economies of Wonder: The Production of Spectacle at the Kumbh Mela Creating Wonder: Akhāṛas Creating Wonder: Gurus Creating Wonder: Pilgrims Expansive Economies and Wonder Trash Conclusion Notes Works Cited Section 3. Ethics of Wonder Chapter 9: Scarcity, Abundance, and Money at Muslim Saint Shrines in North India Introduction Whose Inclusivity? Which Tolerance? What Makes Sufi Shrines So “Good” How to Make Sense of Money in the Anthropology of Religion The Real Ones and Big Money The Dargah as a Doorway between Two Worlds Scarcity and Abundance: The Transmission of Money at Shrines Conclusion Notes Works Cited Chapter 10: On Wondrous Moments as the Basis for a Swaminarayan Ethics of Sociality Introduction BAPS and the Swaminarayan Ground for Wonder Experiences Narratives of Wonder The Packing-Crate Door An Influencer’s Gift There Is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch Wonder as a Fieldsite for Knowledge Production The Ethics of Sociality by Way of an Anthropology of Wonder Notes Works Cited Chapter 11 “Guruji Rocked ... Duniya Shocked”: Wondertraps and the Camerawork Guruship of Dera Sacha Sauda Guru Dr. Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan Exaggeration Procedures Pop Star Fashion Icon Reflection: Camerawork Guruship and Bhakti at the Speed of Light Notes Works Cited Conclusion The Worlds of Wonder Works Cited List of Contributors Index