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9 - The Evocative Partnerships of a Monastic NāthTemple in Contemporary Rajasthan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2022

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Summary

Abstracts

Scholars have noted the ability of Hindu gurus tomobilize their disciples in political,humanitarian, and developmental projects. Drawingon ethnographic fieldwork in Gogameri, a ruralpilgrimage site in India that has long drawnreligiously diverse worshippers, this chapterexamines how Yogī Rupnāth, the influential abbotof a monastic pilgrimage temple, sought to asserta new sense of Hindu inheritance and affiliation,in part through charitable development. Itproposes that what ability the abbot had totrigger religious transformation derived from hiscollaborations with Hindu nationalist and stategovernment actors, and from the web of devotionaland socio-emotional ties among temple workers andvolunteers. Yet this ability was neverthelessconstrained by enduring historical andaffective-experiential dynamics among thepilgrimage public.

Keywords: pilgrimage, Rajasthan,sevā, Hindu nationalism, temple trust

The ritual landscape in Gogameri, a rural pilgrimagesite in Rajasthan, India, has changed dramaticallysince the turn of the twenty-first century. Many ofthe recent construction projects are clusteredaround one of the two ritual sites that have longdrawn religiously diverse pilgrims there: themausoleum (meṛī;literally, “mound”) of Gogājī, an oral-epic hero andsaintly deity whom many people now characterize asbearing relationships to both Hinduism and Islam.Religio-charitable trusts build and operate pilgrimhostels on land endowed to Gogājī's tomb, which ismanaged by the Rajasthan state government'sDepartment of Devasthan (royal temple endowments).One religio-charitable association that providesinfrastructure throughout the village is theGorakhtila Dhuna Trust, which also serves as thetemple board of Gogameri's other celebrated ritualsite: Gorakhtila, the “private” (nijī) monastic temple ofGorakhnāth, who is here remembered as Gogājī'sdivine guru. The Dhuna Trust is directed byGorakhtila's Abbot (Mahant), Balyogī Rupnāth, who was on abuilding spree when I knew him between 2008 and2013. By 2013, the trust had constructed schoolbuildings, a bus stop, toilet and bathing complexes,and a cow haven. All of these were built on publicland as part of a government-coordinated, buttrust-led effort to develop Gogameri into aworld-renowned destination for devout tourists. Totrustees, these infrastructural projects constitutedofferings of sevā(religio-charitable “service”) toGogājī, Gorakhnāth, and their devotees.

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Chapter
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The Power of the Nath Yogis
Yogic Charisma, Political Influence and SocialAuthority
, pp. 249 - 280
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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