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In this moving ethnographic portrait of Hindu
renouncers - sadhus or ascetics - in northern India
and Nepal, Sondra L. Hausner considers a paradox
that shapes their lives: while ostensibly defined by
their solitary spiritual practice, the stripping away of
social commitments, and their break with family and
community, renouncers in fact regularly interact with
each other and with "householder" society. They
form a distinctive, alternative community with its own
internal structure, one that is not located in any
single space. Highly mobile and dispersed across
the subcontinent, its members are regulalrly brought
together through pilgrimage circuits on festival
cycles. Drawing on many years of fieldwork,
Hausner presents intimate portraits of individual
sadhus as she examines the shared views of space,
time, and the body that create the ground of
everyday experience. Written with an extraordinary
blend of empathy, compassion, and anthropological
insight, this study will appeal to scholars, students
and general readers alike.isbn-9788175968929
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Pages : 266
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