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Haḍimbā Becoming Herself: a Himalayan Goddess in Change

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Haḍimbā Becoming Herself: a Himalayan Goddess in Change Haḍimbā Becoming Herself: A Himalayan Goddess in Change Ehud Halperin Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2012 © 2012 Ehud Halperin All rights reserved ABSTRACT Haḍimbā Becoming Herself: A Himalayan Goddess in Change Ehud Halperin The dissertation examines the cult of the goddess Haḍimbā that is located in the Kullu Valley of the West Indian Himalaya (Himachal Pradesh). Massive transformations introduced in the region in recent years by means of better transportation systems, a developing capitalist economy, new technologies, and, most prominently, tourism have drastically affected life in the region and have destabilized traditional social and cultural patterns. These changes are engaged by the residents of the Kullu Valley in various ways that are informed and oriented by their traditional worldview and ritual system. The main chapters of the dissertation present and analyze three separate yet interrelated spaces that constitute a veritable theater of change. In these spaces, in which Haḍimbā figures prominently, the identity of the goddess, the rituals performed in her honor, and the powers she is believed to possess are constantly negotiated and refashioned: practitioners foreground Haḍimbā’s identity as a Mahābhārata demoness instead of equating her solely with the Purāṇic Durgā (ch. 1); they justify, protect, and increasingly offer her bloody buffalo sacrifices despite criticisms leveled against this practice by outsiders (ch. 2); and they uphold their views concerning the ability of their goddess to control local weather patterns, even as the climate is changing and competing paradigms offer new theories in this regard (ch. 3). It is in this sense—in light of these massive renegotiations of Haḍimbā’s character—that she is “becoming herself.” Concurrently, it is not only the goddess’ but her devotees’ identity that is being negotiated and refashioned. Taken as a whole, the choices made by local people in these three spaces reveal their attempt to recast their marginality, the magnitude of which they have only recently begun to realize. They do so by pursuing new frameworks of reference that aim to challenge, if not subvert, the hegemonic narratives that are promoted in the region by outside forces. Thus, by highlighting Haḍimbā’s Mahābhārata associations they offer a new kind of epic frame for national and religious identity; by insisting on the performance of animal sacrifice they invert and celebrate what is elsewhere considered a backward and illegitimate act; and by retaining their belief in the control of their goddess over her territory they defend their own agency and find a legitimate place for themselves and their way of life at the pan-Indian and global table. At the same time, the dissertation shows that local religious beliefs and practices do not remain untouched by these external pan-Indian and global paradigms and that in the interaction between them a new a hybrid worldview is being formed. Table of Contents Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... i List of Figures ........................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ iv Preface: Note on Trasliteration and Translation .................................................. viii INTRODUCTION: The Settings—Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh. ................... 1 A Bus Ride from Delhi ....................................................................................... 1 Himachal Pradesh: History and Religion .......................................................... 12 Recent Transformations .................................................................................... 25 Roadmap to the Journey Ahead ........................................................................ 30 CHAPTER ONE: Haḍimbā of the Mahābhārata .................................................. 37 Introduction: Wife of Bhīm, Mother of Ghaṭotkaca. ........................................ 37 In Search of Zikr ............................................................................................... 45 Pre-colonial Times ............................................................................................ 52 Colonial Times .................................................................................................. 56 Mark Elmore and ‘States of Religion’ .............................................................. 68 Creative Solutions to a Demonic Problem ........................................................ 85 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 96 CHAPTER TWO: For the Sake of Śānti—Buffalo Sacrifice to the Goddess Haḍimbā .............................................................................................................. 105 June 28, 2009 .................................................................................................. 105 Aṭhārah Bali: A (Local) History of a Ritual ................................................... 111 Upholding Order ............................................................................................. 116 Myth and Cosmology .................................................................................. 116 Community and Caste .................................................................................. 125 Interpreting Disorder ....................................................................................... 141 Resisting Disorder ........................................................................................... 146 Ritual as a Ground for Struggle ................................................................... 146 i Non-Violence ............................................................................................... 148 "Whenever She Comes as Kālī, She Demands Blood!" .............................. 165 On-the-Ground Struggles: Photography ...................................................... 173 The Future? ..................................................................................................... 176 CHAPTER THREE: Winter Comes in Summer, Summer Comes in Winter ..... 182 Introduction: Climate Change ......................................................................... 182 Weather-Control Rituals: The Holistic Paradigm ........................................... 188 A Threefold Typology .................................................................................... 209 Reason 1: Etiological Reflections on Moral Decline .................................. 210 Reason 2: Resource-Strained Environment and the Working of Extra-Local Forces in the Locality .............................................................. 215 Reason 3: Global Processes and a New Paradigm ....................................... 222 How the Gods Deal: Two Case Studies .......................................................... 236 Drought at Shuru Village, 1994 ................................................................... 237 Meeting in Haḍimbā’s Temple, 2011 .......................................................... 240 The Cow and the Order that Once Was .......................................................... 250 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 264 CONCLUSION: Recasting Marginality ............................................................. 267 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 273 ii List of Figures Figure 1: Map of Indian States. Census of India 2011. ...................................................... 3 Figure 2: Map of Himachal Pradesh, Administrative Divisions 2011. Census of India 2011..................................................................................................................................... 4 Figure 3: Kullu Valley: A view to the south from above Old Manali village. Photo by Udi Halperin............................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 4: Haḍimbā Devī’s and Manu Ṛṣi’s palanquin carried on devotees’ shoulders. Photo by Udi Halperin. ..................................................................................................... 23 Figure 5: Guesthouses in Old Manali village. Photo by Udi Halperin. ............................ 28 Figure 6: Haḍimbā Temple. Photo by Udi Halperin. ........................................................ 38 Figure 7: Haḍmbā Temple. Original title: “Minali Temple Kulu. Doongree Temple Menalee. 1870.” Water-color drawing by Captain Alfred Frederick Pollock Harcourt, 1870................................................................................................................................... 63 Figure 8: “Sacrifice at Dungree Temple.” Painting by John Calvert. (Calvert 1873: Between pages 40 and 41). ............................................................................................. 113 Figure 9: Haḍimbā Devī’s and Manu Ṛṣi’s palanquin carried on devotees’ shoulders. Photo by Udi Halperin. ................................................................................................... 241 iii Acknowledgements
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