Jagannath Revisited : Studying Society, Religion and the State in Orissa

Contents: Introduction. Jagannath and Orissan studies : accomplishments and prospects/Hermann Kulke and Burkhard Schnepel. 1. Jagannath and the Adivasis: reconsidering the cult and its traditions/Prasanna K. Nayak. 2. Inviting deities into Lord Jagannatha’s town: the religious practice of the Vadabalija Fishermen of Puri/Elisabeth Schombucher. 3. The renewal of Jagannath/Roland Hardenberg. 4. Constructing a ‘House within the house’: reading the wall-paintings of the Lanjia Sora from recitations/Cornelia Mallebrein. 5. A ritual of revival among the Gadaba of Koraput/Georg Pfeffer. 6. Issues of faith, enactments of contest: the founding of Mahima Dharma in nineteenth-century Orissa/Ishita Banerjee-Dube. 7. Representations of Kalinga: the changing image and geography of a historical region/Martin Brandtner. 8. Historiography and regional identity: the case of the Temple Chronicles of Puri/Hermann Kulke. 9. Kalapahar, the iconoclast: the making and message of a legendary tradition. Reconversions in medieval Orissa and Bengal/G.N. Dash. 10. Orissa revisited : a view from the South/Georg Berkemer. 11. Kings and Rebel Kings: rituals of incorporation and dissent in South Orissa/Burkhard Schnepel. 12. Lord Jagannatha in pictorial representations : a collection of cloth paintings (pata citras) from Orissa/Anna Schmid. 13. Was the Company Raj in Orissa a system of Bureaucratic Government? a comparison between an ideal type and a historical process/Jakob Rosel. 14. Kashipur revisited : social ritual, electoral politics and the State in India/Subrata Kumar Mitra. 15. A congregation of Gods: the Dolamelana festival in Orissa/Heinrich von Stietencron. Index.

"Twenty years after the publication of The Cult of Jagannath (Eschmann, Kulke and Tripathi eds. 1978, Manohar), a conference was held in Heidelberg, Germany, at which some of the past foci of Orissan research were reconsidered. By thus ‘revisiting Jagannath’, it was considered whether, in what respect and to what degree a shift in methods, theories paradigms or intellectual interests has taken place during the past two decades. The articles published in this book represent rewritten versions of papers held at this conference. They include contributions from social anthropology, history, Indology, religious studies, archaeology, and political science, discussing topics as diverse as religious practices among Orissan adivasis, the renewal of the body of Jagannath, the history of Mahima Dharma sect, the ritual politics of a Dhenkanal village, and the rebellious attitude of a jungle king. Compared with the Jagannath volume of 1978, a certain shift in interest can be discerned, away from the centre and the dominant groups to (apparently) peripheral or marginal areas or groups. Thus, for example, the present volume features contributions on little kings rather than the Gajapatis, on west Orissa rather than the central Mahanadi delta, on fishermen rather than Brahmans, and on village cults rather than the Puri temple. And even where Jagannath is re-investigated, it is his worship by subaltern groups rather than the scriptural, orthodox view that is the present focus of study." (jacket)