Ann Grodzins Gold

The Once and Future Yogi: Sentiments and Signs in the Tale of a Renouncer-King

T HE PERVASIVE PRESENCE in Asia of ascetic practitioners-whether sedate, shorn, and robed monks or fierce, ash-smeared, naked yogis-has long fascinated Western observers and certainly nourished stereotypes of a mysterious, otherworldly, and impenetrable East. In India especially, the ascetics figure has fueled the speculations of scholars, artists, tourists, and religious seekers for centuries (Oman 1905; Narayan 1988). Most depictions of Indian culture, whether indigenous or foreign, evocative or analytic, include portraits or analyses of world-renouncers. 1 And yet with the notable exception of numerous fictional explorations (e.g., Bhattacharya 1978; Markandaya 1963; R. K. Narayan 1980), the renouncer remains a figure whose existence comments on the human predicament but whose human thoughts and feelings remain opaque. Among renouncers, the king who chooses to abandon supreme luxury and absolute temporal power to seek peace of mind, higher truths, or ultimate liberation is particularly compelling. The seers and bards of ancient India were clearly intrigued by the philosophical motivations of such a king, and students of Indian culture and society, like the poets whose works they study, have been inspired by myths and legends of royal renunciation (Biardeau 1982; Shulman 1985; Heesterman 1985). King Gopi Chand, whose tale has a place in popular folk traditions from Punjab to Bengal, left his family and palaces to be initiated into yoga and gain immortality. Ann Grodzins Gold holds a translation grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is a Visiting Fellow in the South Asia Program at Cornell University. This article is dedicated to Milton B. Singer, who first suggested that I think semiotically about Gopi Chands tale (and much longer ago guided me to the study of anthropology and India). Milton, Daniel Gold, Ruth Grodzins, Gloria Raheja, Margaret Trawick, and Susan Wadley gave helpful readings to one or more drafts. Two anonymous referees forJAS made valuable suggestions. Madhu Nath graciously permitted me to record his performance, Nathu Nath meticulously transcribed Madhus words, and Bhoju Gujar with equal care and patience helped me to understand them. Support from the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Social Science Research Council, and the Mellon Fellowship Program of the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University allowed me the opportunity to record, and the time and space to reflect on Gopi Chands tale. I thank all who have contributed to this work; they are not accountable.

Shared knowledges: Family, fusion, friction, fabric

Ann Grodzins Gold, the senior author, has collaborated for over 30 years with Bhoju Ram Gujar, the first co-author, a village-born government civil servant. While Ann and Bhoju have previously published their thoughts on the joint production of ethnographic knowledge, their understandings continue to evolve and change over time. During Ann’s most recent fieldwork spell (2010–11) in the provincial town of Jahazpur, present home to Bhoju and his family, Bhoju’s daughters, Madhu and Chinu, also assisted in conducting interviews. In this article, the four of us reflect on our aims, methods, findings and relationships. We draw from our particular experiences of collaborative fieldwork to discuss forged familial bonds, moments of intellectual fusion, counterpoints of friction, and the resulting woven fabric of our writing.

Rural Women’s Education: Process and Promise

This chapter offers an experiential account of challenges and rewards for a first generation of college-going women in a provincial area of Rajasthan. Our essay’s parts are individually voiced. Gold presents distilled backgrounds and contexts for the collaboration itself. She also provides a brief prose chronology of each co-author’s educational career. There follows a translation of Hindi responses by Madhu, Chinu, and Ghumar to questions posed by Gold. Gold suggests some ways that these very particular educational histories might inform broader understandings of how women’s status, independence, self-esteem, family roles, and more are changing and will continue to change as barriers to women’s education and earning capacities gradually diminish.

Carving Place: Foundational Narratives from a North Indian Market Town

Jahazpur is a small market town or qasba in Bhilwara District in the North Indian state of Rajasthan. It is an old settlement, by reputation both conservative and diverse, its roots deep in history and legend. Members of different religions and all levels of the social hierarchy share Jahazpur town spaces. This chapter explores critical intersections of collective identity with place and meaning through examining several narratives. First, I look at variants of Jahazpur’s well-known origin tale, which is linked to the etymology of the town’s name and engages the ancient Hindu imagery of sacrifice. Then I focus on an account of the founding of a large Satya Narayan temple, which was established near the center of town by the Khatik community in the mid-eighties. Satya Narayan is a name of Vishnu, a vegetarian, pan-Hindu god; Khatiks are associated in popular thought with the meat trade. The Khatiks’ successful struggle to build the temple was a hard-won victory altering not only the condition of their lives but the town’s character. In conclusion, I consider recent writings on the nature of provinciality and on space and place that inform an understanding of Jahazpur’s foundational narratives as linked to its enduring pluralism.

Book Reviews : ROGER JEFFERY, ed., The Social Construction of Indian Forests, New Delhi/ Edinburgh, Manohar Publishers, Centre for South Asian Studies, 1998

no claims to offer a comprehensive response to this interpretative imperative. Natural scientists’ voices are not represented here, but at least geographers, anthropologists, sociologists and literary scholars are in productive conversation. While a number of its individual contributions are excellent, this slim volume’s greater value hangs on the interplay among them, and on the emerging multi-dimensional perspectives on some rather critical matters. Drawing from sources including fiction, historical records and current praxis, this book proposes and executes some genuinely helpful moves toward integrating humanistic and sociological perspectives on India’s ever diminishing forests. Jeffery, a sociologist himself, sets the agenda in his useful introduction: a need to understand ‘different visions of the forest’ (p. 15). What follows are eight rather diverse approaches. Although Jeffery has not clustered them specifically, it is easy to do so, following his order. The first two essays draw almost exclusively on literary sources (Dubiansky on Tamil Sangam poetry; Bhattacharya on Bengali novels). The next three are anthropological, and are based on fieldwork. All three trenchantly debunk the idealisation of folk ecological wisdom especially as it is so often decontextualised from specific peoples and localities. Kalam and Freeman both give particular attention to the phenomenon of sacred groves (Kalam in Coorg, Karnataka; Freeman in highland Malabar, Kerala); Linkenbach provides a more general description of localised conceptions, uses and meanings of forested areas to villagers in Garhwal. The final three contributions to this volume

Of Woman Caste: The Experience of Gender in Rural India

* Preface * Introduction * 1. The Woman Researcher * 2. Folklore and the Malvani Ethos * 3. Aba and Kaki, a Village Couple * 4. Woman of Work, Akka * 5. Earth Woman, Parvati * 6. Woman of Faith, Savitri * 7. The Myth of the Money-Order Economy * Conclusion * Appendix * Glossary * References * Index