Bus-Stop Sami: Transient Temples in Urban South India
Wayside shrines are a ubiquitous feature of urban India. A site for community building and income-generation for their mostly poor and working class patrons, they are increasingly a source of anxiety for middle class residents who fear their capacity to morph quickly into full-fledged temples. Throu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud
2018-05-01
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| Series: | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4554 |
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| author | Eliza F. Kent |
| author_facet | Eliza F. Kent |
| author_sort | Eliza F. Kent |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Wayside shrines are a ubiquitous feature of urban India. A site for community building and income-generation for their mostly poor and working class patrons, they are increasingly a source of anxiety for middle class residents who fear their capacity to morph quickly into full-fledged temples. Through a comparison of two roadside shrines, one that was successful at attracting a group of followers and one that was not, the paper analyzes the rhetorical and ritual means that the human representatives of a deity employ to transform ordinary, homogenous public space into sacred space, where a deity may take Her seat and be honored. Such a transformation of the way that space is experienced and understood can have a catalytic effect on the people who move through it, creating new publics who exist in tension with an increasingly influential vision of public space as hygienic, orderly and free from religion. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8ee486bc6db447b4bbd5c335b3c94843 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1960-6060 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-05-01 |
| publisher | Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud |
| record_format | Article |
| series | South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-8ee486bc6db447b4bbd5c335b3c948432025-08-20T02:37:52ZengCentre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du SudSouth Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal1960-60602018-05-011810.4000/samaj.4554Bus-Stop Sami: Transient Temples in Urban South IndiaEliza F. KentWayside shrines are a ubiquitous feature of urban India. A site for community building and income-generation for their mostly poor and working class patrons, they are increasingly a source of anxiety for middle class residents who fear their capacity to morph quickly into full-fledged temples. Through a comparison of two roadside shrines, one that was successful at attracting a group of followers and one that was not, the paper analyzes the rhetorical and ritual means that the human representatives of a deity employ to transform ordinary, homogenous public space into sacred space, where a deity may take Her seat and be honored. Such a transformation of the way that space is experienced and understood can have a catalytic effect on the people who move through it, creating new publics who exist in tension with an increasingly influential vision of public space as hygienic, orderly and free from religion.https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4554public spacewayside shrinesurban religionroadside shrinesnāgasamman goddesses |
| spellingShingle | Eliza F. Kent Bus-Stop Sami: Transient Temples in Urban South India South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal public space wayside shrines urban religion roadside shrines nāgas amman goddesses |
| title | Bus-Stop Sami: Transient Temples in Urban South India |
| title_full | Bus-Stop Sami: Transient Temples in Urban South India |
| title_fullStr | Bus-Stop Sami: Transient Temples in Urban South India |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bus-Stop Sami: Transient Temples in Urban South India |
| title_short | Bus-Stop Sami: Transient Temples in Urban South India |
| title_sort | bus stop sami transient temples in urban south india |
| topic | public space wayside shrines urban religion roadside shrines nāgas amman goddesses |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/4554 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT elizafkent busstopsamitransienttemplesinurbansouthindia |