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 "householder" society. They form a                  distinctive, alternative community with its own internal structure, but one that is                  not located in any single place. Highly mobile and dispersed across the                  subcontinent, its members are regularly 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 for everyday experience. Written with an                  extraordinary blend of empathy, compassion, and anthropological insight, this study                  will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers alike.

Wandering With Sadhus: Ascetics of the Hindu Himalayas (Contemporary Indian Studies) PDF

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