Extra Chapter Levels of Religion

Levels of Religion Ron Geaves

Chapter Outline Sikhism Hinduism The pragmatic or Kismetic realm Remedies and rituals The Dharmik realm Transcendental realm Qaumic Panthic Charisma and institutionalization Conclusion Discussion points Bibliography

n his classical text, Sufi sm, fi rst published in 1950, A. J. Arberry writes that Sufi sm Ihad gone into decline by the end of the Middle Ages as a result of degeneration from its mystical origins to a corrupted form of religion consisting of tomb worship and a number of popular practices prevalent among rural people (Arberry, 1956). He states:

It was inevitable, as soon as legends of miracles became attached to the names of the great mystics, that the credulous masses should applaud imposture more than true devotion; the cult of saints, against which orthodox Islam ineffectually protested, promoted ignorance and superstition, and confounded charlatanry with lofty speculation (1956, p. 119)

Although it is possible to challenge Arberry’s main thesis by demonstrating that a number of Sufi mystics and their subsequent institutional orders have continued to appear in various parts of the Muslim world until the present time, of more importance to the theme of this chapter is the distinction that Arberry appears to be making between levels of religion: with a ‘high’ mysticism, on one hand and ‘low’ popular beliefs and practices, on the other (1956, p. 121). Arberry criticizes later Sufi sm for its lack of rationality, claims of miraculous powers, use of charms and amulets and associates it negatively with ‘cabbalism and witchcraft’. He appears to suggest that this division is most apparent in rural areas where ‘every village or group of villages acquired its local saint, to be revered and supported during his lifetime, worshipped and capitalised after his death’ (1956, p. 121). As a result of this focus on mystics and their poetry by Oriental scholars versed in ancient languages, the study of Sufi sm has seemingly suggested that Sufi sm itself was a long extinct tradition that fl ourished in Persia, Turkey and North Africa during a particular period of Islamic history and was represented by exceptional men and women who achieved high mystical awareness and expressed in ecstatic poetical forms (Geaves, 2000, p. 3). Living Sufi traditions, such as those prevalent in the Indian subcontinent, and practised by millions of adherents were therefore perceived as a form of religion that was left over after the decline of the classical tradition. Such an approach to Sufi sm not only distorts the living reality and complexity of contemporary Muslim belief and practice but it provides us with the problem of a value judgement being made between so-called high and low forms of religion.

SUFISM

lthough most commonly defi ned as Islamic mysticism, most Muslim Sufi s do not consider Athemselves to be mystical in any sense. To complicate matters, a large number of the Western adherents defi ne themselves as Sufi s but do not consider themselves to be Muslims. Most Muslims regard Sufi sm as simply the inner dimension of Islam that must accompany the exoteric domain of obedience to the shari’a (Islamic law). On the other hand, Western adherents often avoid the outer manifestations of Islam completely, preferring to adopt a form of ‘universal Sufi sm’ that is closer to the perennial wisdom propounded by universalists such as Aldous Huxley. Even in the fi rst half of the twentieth century, Western individuals were attracted to Sufi sm through the efforts of high-profi le fi gures such as Idries Shah (1924–96) or Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) who came to Europe and North America to teach. These movements were highly eclectic themselves and lent themselves to the introduction of a different kind of Sufi sm that placed itself within an unfolding world mystical revelation that drew upon Gnostic, neo-Platonic, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu infl uences in addition to Islam. Within the world of Islam, Sufi sm is usually defi ned as formal allegiance to one of the many tariqas (a school or path of guidance) but there are nevertheless millions of traditional Muslims whose beliefs and practices have been shaped by the countless saints and pious followers of the

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury LEVELS OF RELIGION tariqas. The totality of this body of Muslims, including the tariqas which remain at their heart, prefers to be known as the Ahl as-Sunnat wa Jamaat. This title refers to the community of Sunni Muslims and indicates that the followers of the tariqas and their sympathizers see themselves as traditional Sunni Muslims as opposed to the new doctrines of the Wahhabi-inspired movements and their counter-claims to Sunni orthodoxy. Thus any study of Sufi sm must acknowledge two areas of complexity. The fi rst of these is that Sufi sm remains a highly visible player with regard to what defi nes orthodoxy in the Muslim world. The second concerns certain imbalances or misconceptions that still exist in the traditional methods of studying Sufi sm in the West. Muslims who have an allegiance to the Sufi tariqa feel that they have been marginalized, fi rst through misrepresentation in scholarly texts and second, through the vehement attacks of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Islamic reform movements. In the twentieth century, the independence of many Muslim nations created an internal struggle over what forms of government should exist in the newly created states. This struggle has given rise to the Islamic Movement in which a variety of groups are fi ghting to establish societies based upon the tenets and laws of Islam rather than imported Western models of governance. Once again Islam has come to symbolize terror, devastation and a threat to world peace. Sufi sm, on the whole, has escaped this latter distortion of Muslim culture and tradition. The Western media frequently represents the externals of Islam as an oppression of individual freedom but usually fails to comprehend the inner loyalties or spirit of the faith. In this context the continuing vitality of Sufi sm in the Muslim world is rarely mentioned. However, although Sufi sm is not branded with the latter distortion in regard to terrorism or extremism it has suffered considerably from academic and scholarly Orientalist approaches as much or more than any other eastern religious phenomenon. It could be argued that it is the desire for the exotic arising out of the ‘mysterious east’ that has always distorted traditional scholarly approaches to the study of Sufi sm. Eastern mysticism has often been the Orientalist’s paradise. The classic textual example for this approach is Fitzgerald’s translation of Omar Khayyam that in many respects represents the traditional method to the study of Sufi sm by the translation of the poetry of signifi cant Sufi mystics into a variety of European languages. As a consequence of this approach and its focus on long dead mystics, Sufi sm was turned into a virtually extinct tradition which was perceived to have fl ourished in Persia, Turkey and India during a particular period of Islamic history and was represented by exceptional men and women who achieved high mystical awareness and expressed it in ecstatic poetry. Later studies developed this approach by tending to focus on Sufi sm as an historical phenomenon, tracing its origins, rise, infl uence and subsequent decline. This scholarly focus on Sufi sm as a neo-Platonic mystical theosophy has served to distort the living reality of the complexity of contemporary traditional Muslim belief and practice. On the other hand, anthropologists have focused on case studies of cults formed around tomb shrines and eclectic practices which enter ‘orthodox’ Islam from rural societies in the Muslim hinterland. In doing so they have failed to acknowledge the unity of perception among traditional Muslims that links the tombs, saintly lineages, rural traditions, living saints and the network of tariqas which include the great mystic poets among their historic founders. It is this unity of allegiance which defi nes itself increasingly as Ahl as-Sunnat wa-Jamaat in an attempt to position itself as normative Islam. There are signs that these distorted approaches to the study of Sufi sm are beginning to change and that scholars like Schimmel (1985), Werbner (1998), Westerlund and Rosander (1998) and Geaves

(2004) are beginning to re-examine Suﬁ sm as a vibrant living tradition still existing at the heart of traditional Islam.

Suggested reading Burckhart, T. (1990), An Introduction to Sufi sm. Northampton: Aquarian Press. Geaves, R. A. (2000), The Sufi s of Britain. Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press. Lings, M. (1995), What is Sufi sm. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society. Nicholson, R. (1989), The Mystics of Islam. Harmondsworth: Arkana. Rizvi, S. A. A. (1997), A History of Sufi sm in India Vol.1. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.

Gellner elaborates on Arberry’s suggestion that the form of Islam based on popular beliefs and practices is found mainly in rural areas, and provides a sociological analysis in which Islam can be divided into rural and urban forms with two sets of characteristics. The latter form is marked by strict monotheism, puritanism, stress on scriptural revelation and therefore on literacy, egalitarianism among the believers and consequently the absence of human mediation and its accompanying hierarchy, a minimization of elaborate ritual or mysticism and a focus on sobriety and moderation, and fi nally a stress on the observance of rules rather than emotional states. The former set of characteristics belonging to rural Islam consists of a tendency towards both this-world and other-world hierarchies, a reliance on human intermediaries in this world and a hierarchy of spirits in the other, the development of perceptual symbols or images rather than the abstract word which in turn leads to a multiplicity of ritual and mystical practices, and fi nally loyalty towards personalities rather than a formal set of rules (Gellner,1968, p. 130). Gellner goes on to argue that the urban literate and egalitarian Islam is represented by seminary (madrasa)-trained clerics (ulema) and is to some degree identical throughout the Muslim world and can be defi ned as orthodox, whereas ‘the hierarchical, less puritanical, emotionally and sensually indulgent Islam of the saints, holy men etc is more fragmented (1968:130)’. Gellner bases his observations on the argument that rural Muslims whether from the tribe or village require spiritual intermediaries between themselves and a remote deity because illiteracy renders the abstract reasoning of theologians and trained ulema and even the revealed voice of the deity itself beyond them (1968, p. 133). He suggests, however, that rural Muslims require the sacred for settling disputes and defi ning the norms of village or tribal life. For this reason, hierarchical, charismatic religious personnel are essential (1968, p. 134). He concludes that the relationship of this religious elite with their followers is one of intense personal loyalty rather than obedience to a set of principles or rules and that this is liable to expose the villagers or tribesmen to accusations of heterodoxy (1968, p. 135). On the other hand, the city dweller is more likely to be literate and therefore the literate trained ulema can best function as mediators of scripture (1968, p. 135). Thus a division is placed between the orthodox, urban, literate ulema representing the teachings of the Qur’an and the

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury LEVELS OF RELIGION heterodox, rural, illiterate but charismatic Sufi shaikhs providing a direct mediation between their followers and an immanent deity. Thus Muslim belief and practice is divided into various orthodoxies described as ‘scripturalist’ Islam and a remainder which Asim Roy argues is perceived as a ‘shadowy and bottomless pit of “folk” or “popular” Islam usually denigrated by members of the orthodoxies as contaminated or corrupted by contact with local or indigenous forms of non-Islamic religions’ (Roy, 1998, p. 5). Roy is aware that this kind of dichotomy not only plays into the hands of various orthodoxies but is also infl uenced by their polemic or didactic writing since the nineteenth century (1998, p. 34). Pnina Werbner, an anthropologist also suggests that the division between a folk tradition and an ‘offi cial’ religion in the work of Orientalists and sometimes seen in the studies of anthropologists has been infl uenced by the discourse of various Islamic reform movements who have been critical of Sufi sm (Werbner, 1998, p. 5). Islam is not the only religion to have raised debates concerning value-laden labels of ‘high’ and ‘low’ being given to the rich variety of beliefs and practices that coexist in any tradition that has succeeded in establishing itself in the world and existing over a large period of historical time and across signifi cant stretches of geographical distance. Buddhism, too, although its study, similar to Sufi sm, has been marked by a focus on doctrine and interpretation of sacred texts, has caused some scholars to be dismayed by the difference between a scholarly portrait of the religion and the beliefs and practices found by observers of indigenous Buddhists in various localities around the world. A contemporary visitor to the Buddhist nations of South-East Asia would certainly be surprised if they expected to fi nd the doctrinal Buddhism of academic texts. Although the Theravada School dominates the region, there is little evidence of a doctrinally orthodox tradition focused purely on the teachings of the historical Buddha. Adherents to Buddhism worship at shrines to Hindu deities and frequent locations associated with fertility, usually considered to be the abode of local deities or spirits. Donald Swearer reminds us that since the earliest beginnings through to the present, South-East Asian Buddhism has been both diverse and eclectic. He states:

the area covered by present-day Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos defi es rigid classifi cation. Both archaeological and chronicle evidence suggest that the religious situation in the area was fl uid and informal, with Buddhism characterised more by miraculous relics and charismatic, magical monks than by organized sectarian traditions. (Swearer, 2002, pp. 119, 120)

In Mahayana forms of Buddhism, especially in its Tibetan manifestations, the above is even more apparent. A vast body of popular customs and beliefs coexist alongside Buddhism, sanctioned by the practitioners and it would be simplistic to make a dichotomy between the religion of the monk and the popular practices of the rural people. Techniques of divination, worship of local deities, propitiation of demons, seasonal festivals, sacralization of the land, especially mountains, household gods and

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury THE STUDY OF RELIGION particular pre-Buddhist cosmologies all fi gure largely in the day-to-day life of the laity. But as stated by Per Kvaerne, monks actively participate in the activities that take place outside the monastery, while simultaneously studying Mahayana philosophical systems and practising Tantra within the confi nes of the monastery (Kvaerne, 2002a, pp. 199, 200). In addition lay concerns are legitimized within Buddhist temples. Buddhism has provided the cosmological base for the activities of the laity, even though many predate the arrival of the religion. Sometimes these activities and beliefs of popular religion are associated with Bon, the original religion of Tibet, but Kvaene, writing on Bon, argues that the other religion of Tibet bears the same relationship to popular practices as Buddhism, that is, it sanctions and integrates them into itself as a seamless whole (2002a, p. 118). Buddhism in China has integrated a number of practices that it shares with other Chinese religions such as Taoism or Confucianism. Many of these predate all three religions and can be traced back to the Shang dynasty (circa 1500–1050 BCE) and the Chou dynasty that replaced it in 1050 BCE. Many of the practices were associated with divination and were motivated by pragmatic concerns. Overmyer explains how the Shang interpreted the patterns of cracks in oxen or sheep bones, after inserting heated bronze into bored holes. Petitions were made concerning weather, illness, harvests, fertility and administrative decisions. Sacrifi ces of fl esh and grain were made to spirits of the air while libations of fermented spirits were offered to the spirits of the earth. Precision was sought in the performance of rituals as it was believed that it aided reciprocity (Overmyer, 2002, pp. 258, 259). The Chou focused on ancestor veneration, believing that their ancestors resided in a heavenly realm and had the power to infl uence longevity, health and fertility. Natural phenomena were also deifi ed and revered (2002, p. 259). Such practices may have predated even the above dynasties and found their origins in the Neolithic period. What is undeniable, is the degree to which they remain a part of the everyday religious life of the Chinese, practised by millions that claim allegiance to Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism where even those traditions were more concerned with soteriology in their doctrines and practices. However, it is important to note that the quest for immortality is found in Chou engravings as early as the eighth-century BCE (2002, p. 266), thus the pragmatic concern for health and longevity overspills into the hope for immortality that becomes a quest to transcend the world. Although the connections between the newer Chinese religions such as Taoism and Confucianism with the older pragmatic beliefs and practices are assured, each of the new religions, including Buddhism became associated at various times in history with social elites. As a part of separating themselves from the rural masses in which they often had their own origins, the new classes criticized the ancient pragmatic traditions of the rural populace, claiming the superior truth of their emerging religions. Sometimes this resulted in actual suppression in which governments would label particular activities as excessive (2002, p. 292). On the other hand, the newly emergent religions became associated with high status and provided a vehicle for the masses to improve their social position. Thus the old and the new were merged and various

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury LEVELS OF RELIGION forms of popular religion became the norm with the exception of certain specialists, such as the Buddhist monk, the Taoist priest or the Confucian state offi cial, each of whom may have wished to maintain doctrinal purity for either religious or political motivations. One of the most useful categorizations of Buddhism is proposed by Melford Spiro who utilizes a fourfold division of Nibbanic, Kammatic, Apotropaic and Esoteric (Spiro, 1970). Spiro’s categorization bears some resemblance to those of Weightman, Mandelbaum and Ballard discussed below in relation to Hinduism and Punjabi religious forms. Nibbanic Buddhism refers to the fi nal goal of the Buddha’s message, that is, nirvana. Thus the practitioners of this aspect of Buddhism focus on the means of liberation from this world by close observance of Buddhist doctrines and practices as enshrined in sacred texts believed to be the teachings of Gautama Buddha or other enlightened luminaries. The ideal practitioner will be the world-renouncing monk who acknowledges that Buddhist end-goals can be achieved only by total rejection of the world (1970, pp. 31–65). Kammatic Buddhism is defi ned as a religion of proximate salvation, that is a shift in the soteriological goal from the absolute nirvana to that of better rebirth. In a sense, the practitioners of Kammatic Buddhism, more likely to belong to the laity than the order of monks, have accepted the proposition that the planes of nirvana and samsara are eternally distinct and separate. Although the monk may endeavour to attain nirvana, most Buddhists see themselves passing innumerable lives in samsara. Consequently, they are concerned with ethical, moral and religious behaviour which will make samsara as pleasurable as possible, or at least reduce its level of suffering. For many Buddhists, although intensely aware of the nature of dukkha (suffering, unsatisfactoriness), much of samsaric life is thukkha (pleasure) and to be pursued. Rather than the knowledge required by the pursuer of nirvana, the practitioners of Kammatic Buddhism focus on meritorious action in order to achieve their desires rather than the former’s attempts to eliminate desire (1970, pp. 66–91). Apotropaic Buddhism is not concerned with either nirvanic liberation or better rebirth. On the contrary, it is concerned with pragmatic elements in everyday life such as health, longevity, fertility, drought, fl oods and other natural forces that can bring either disaster or prosperity. Furthermore it assumes that these requirements for daily well-being can be controlled by magical means that enlist either the assistance of the benign spirits or keep away the malign infl uence of supernatural beings through the intercession of specialist practitioners or ritual activity. The everyday world is assumed to be fi lled with dangerous spirits and beings from whom protection is essential (1970, pp. 140–61). Spiro’s fi nal category of esoteric Buddhism refers to a number of sects, that although soteriological in their motivation, are not purely Buddhist but rather draw upon syncretic meetings with other Chinese, Indian or indigenous religions. The practices of esoteric Buddhism are not normative as in the other categorizations but require initiation. Spiro argues that these sectarian movements also transform the soteriological intentions of exoteric Buddhism away from the future (fi nal nirvana or better rebirth) to the present

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury THE STUDY OF RELIGION and immediate (1970, 162–87). Spiro’s esoteric Buddhism generally typiﬁ es the type of Buddhism usually described as Tantric.

Sikhism

In Geaves’ research in the Punjabi village of Danda (Geaves, 1998), he noted how Sikh villagers had created an identity through observing time-hallowed traditions that conﬂ icted sharply with Khalsa orthodoxies which insisted upon the following markers to establish who was a Sikh.

1 Sikhs acknowledge ten human Gurus beginning with Guru Nanak and ending with Guru Gobind Singh.

2 After Guru Gobind Singh, the Guru Granth Sahib became the eleventh and ﬁ nal Guru.

3 The Gurudwara is the Sikh place of worship.

4 Sikhs attach no importance to the worship of relics or graves.

5 Sikhs do not renounce the world or take up vows of celibacy.

6 Sikhs will put their faith in no other religious book except the Guru Granth Sahib.

7 Sikhs do not believe in caste, untouchability, magic, amulets, omens, astrology, fasts, graves or occult powers.

8 A Sikh is someone who accepts the baptism administered by ﬁ ve Sikhs in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib and adopts the ﬁ ve Ks – kesh, kangha, karra, kaccha and kirpan.

9 Sikhism respects all other faiths but it is a distinct separate world faith in its own right with clearly deﬁ ned religious boundaries.

Items four and seven clearly relate to popular religion, and several others could be argued as an attempt to clearly demarcate a Sikh ‘high’ tradition. However, the reality of village life found that in practice these were subverted by a different set of identity markers where there were:

1 Sikhs who challenge the orthodox line of succession from the ten Sikh Gurus through to the Guru Granth Sahib by allegiance to living gurus;

2 Sikh ascetics;

3 Sikhs who worship miracle saints and at village sacred sites;

4 Sikhs who believe in evil spirits, witchcraft, sorcery and magical healing;

5 Sikhs who draw on the Hindu Puranas more than the Guru Granth Sahib;

6 Sikhs who do not perceive Sikh identity as a distinct religious tradition but as an ethnic identity.

KHALSA SIKHISM AND THE ‘FIVE KS’

n the homepage of www.sikhs.org, the traditional Khalsa account of its formation by the tenth OSikh Guru, Gobind Singh on Baisakhi Day, 1699 is described. The website states that Guru Gobind Singh ‘baptized’ fi ve Sikhs (panj piare) and then requested the fi ve newly initiated Khalsa members to baptize him. The site goes on to describe the Khalsa ‘baptism’ which continues to the present day as a replication of the original initiation carried out in 1699. The ceremony involves drinking of Amrit (sugar water stirred with a dagger) in the presence of fi ve Khalsa Sikhs as well as the Guru Granth Sahib. The initiate is instructed to (i) never remove any hair from any part of their body, (ii) not to use tobacco, alcohol or any other intoxicants, (iii) not to eat the meat of an animal slaughtered in the Halal style obligatory to Muslims, (iv) not to commit adultery. In addition, the initiate is required to wear the physical symbols of a Khalsa Sikh and to follow the Khalsa Code of Conduct. The physical markers of a Khalsa are unproblematically described as Kesh (uncut hair), Kangha (the traditional style comb worn in the hair); Kara (the steel bracelet worn on the right wrist); Kaccha (the baggy shorts worn as underwear) and Kirpan (a ceremonial sword or dagger). In addition to these fi ve obligatory symbols (commonly known as the 5 Ks), the website also lists a sixth requirement, dastar (the turban). The turban is stated to be mandatory for all Sikh men and optional for Sikh women. At no point does the author of the website suggest that there are other ways to be Sikh or that there were problems in introducing the Khalsa to Sikhs at the time of its inception. We are informed that Guru Gobind Singh personally baptized thousands of men and women into the Khalsa order and that all Sikhs are expected to be Khalsa or be working towards that objective. Hew McLeod’s historical enquiries into Sikh narratives have cast doubt on the introduction of the fi ve Ks, while Harjot Oberoi’s studies have demonstrated that the Khalsa body as it is now formed has been a fraught and contested process within Sikhism but the intention here is to make a distinction between the Khalsa discourse of the fi ve Ks and how they are actually utilized in the ‘lived religion’ of Sikhs. There is no doubt that many Sikhs acknowledge that they should ideally be Khalsa or be working towards that objective, but that does not mean that they actively pursue Khalsa membership. Some Sikhs believe that it can achieved over several incarnations while others only demonstrate their allegiance to the Khalsa narrative by wearing the physical markers on special occasions. For example, many young Sikh men, both in Britain and Northern India, will adopt the 5 Ks, growing their hair and beards, for their wedding ceremony in the gurdwara. However, before attending the festivities in the evening, they will shave and cut their hair. In such customs, the young men acknowledge the Khalsa symbols as normative and ideal but may never adopt them again. It can be argued that these young men acknowledge the religious signifi cance of the Khalsa, enough to want to adopt the outer forms for a special occasion in the gurdwara, and sanctifying their marriage in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib. Countless others, however, do not appear

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury THE STUDY OF RELIGION to acknowledge the religious signifi cance but rather keep their hair uncut and wear the turban, or even more commonly wear the kara, simply because they are external markers of Sikh ethnic identity. We have already written on the porous borders between religions in the Punjab, especially those between Sikh and Hindu identities. However, in my experience, individuals and families do know whether they are ‘Sikh’ or ‘Hindu’ even though religious beliefs and practices or cultural norms are shared. Those that claim ‘Sikh’ identity will often wear the kara, or may leave their hair uncut without any intention of committing to the Khalsa ideal. To be a Khalsa Sikh, is not simply a matter of committing to the fi ve Ks. It is primarily a religious initiation that welcomes a Sikh into a particular commitment, both spiritual and ethical. Many books focus on the amrit ceremony as the defi ning feature of Khalsa initiation, however, ethnographic research carried out among Sikhs in Coventry (Nesbitt, 2004) shows that young Sikhs also talk of amrit in a number of ways not connected to the Khalsa ceremony. Nesbitt notes that ordinary tap water became amrit, a medium of spiritual power able to heal, transform and protect, and used in everyday life to ensure success. The means of transformation were various contacts with the Guru Granth Sahib, blessed by Sikh sants or babas (holy men), or brought from Sikh sacred sites in India. It is clear from ethnographic accounts, that the outer or physical symbols of the Khalsa are not exclusively owned by that particular religious option within Sikhism. Although Nesbitt notes that Sikhs do not use the Khalsa physical symbols as distinguishing marks between Sikhs and non- Sikhs but will often refer to them as the difference between ‘Sikhs’ and ‘proper Sikhs’. This would demonstrate that to some degree the Khalsa narrative has become normative for claims of Sikh orthodoxy but we do not know whether the informants that make the distinction are referring to initiation or baptism or simply wearing the outer markers of Sikh identity. Far more research needs to be done to establish what wearing one or more of the 5 Ks means to the Sikh that does so, as well as their signifi cance to the observant Khalsa member.

Further reading Geaves, R. A. (1998), ‘Baba Balaknath: an exploration of religious identity’, Diskus, vol. 5.1. — (2005), ‘The dangers of essentialism: South Asian communities in Britain and the “World Religions” approach to the study of religions’, Journal of Contemporary South Asia, Special Edition – Teaching Across South Asian Religious Traditions 14(1), March: 75–90. Kalsi, S. S. (1992), The Evolution of the Sikh Community in Britain: Religious and Social Change among the Sikhs of Leeds and Bradford. University of Leeds: Community Religions Project Monograph. Nesbitt, E. (2004), Intercultural Education: Ethnographic and Religious Approaches. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press.

Religious practices in Danda demonstrated the strength of popular religion in the region. Harjot Oberoi refers to this as the existence of ‘an enchanted universe’ (Oberoi, 1994, pp. 143, 144). Geaves notes that in Danda, villagers, mostly women, would queue to seek solutions to the everyday problems of village life in temples that did not belong to orthodox movements of either Sikhism or Hinduism. The priests would advise but also carry out magic rituals designed to ensure successful resolution of the problems brought to him by the villagers (Geaves, 1998).

Alongside the Sikh gurdwaras and the Hindu temples, the village of Danda contained many small shrines. Some of these are specifi cally Sikh shrines but at one well-frequented location on the outskirts of the village; devotees claimed to have no idea of the religious background of the holy man who is remembered there and nor did it seem to matter to them. The two most important Sikh shrines are dedicated to Banda Singh, a famous disciple of Guru Gobind Singh and the other to one of the panj pyares. Both of these shrines revealed something of the relationship between village modes of popular Sikhism and the more formal, institutionalized Khalsa. The shrine to Banda Singh was maintained by an old Sikh devotee, a man in his nineties, he had tended the shrine since his youth. He had never married and perceived his service to the shrine as devotion to God and the Sikh Gurus. In his account of the origins of this long dedication to the shrine of Banda Singh, he claims that while passing the shrine as a young man, the shakti of the shrine possessed him. His attitude towards the Khalsa was contemptuous. He accused them of reading the Guru Granth Sahib ‘like parrots’ and having no inner awareness of the truth revealed by Guru Nanak. The second shrine to one of the panj pyares also demonstrated the ambiguous nature of the relationship between popular shrine worship and the more formal Sikh worship in the gurdwara. In the village of Danda a very high proportion of the Sikh population has migrated to the West. The migrants sent considerable amounts of wealth back to the village to construct new gurdwaras. These refl ect the religious affi liation of the migrants in their new homes and demonstrate their allegiance to orthodox Khalsa Sikhism. The new gurdwaras are run by committees of prominent Sikhs in the village. One such gurdwara was built close to the shrine dedicated to the pyari. In spite of being a splendid new construction the gurdwara could not compete with the popularity of the shrine, but remained empty. Eventually the situation was resolved by rebuilding the gurdwara on top of the old shrine’s location. The infl uence of migrant Sikhs has reinforced the Khalsa in the villages but still compromises have to be made with traditional Sikh practice in the rural regions of the Punjab.

Hinduism

Scholars of Hinduism, in particular, have created a number of category systems to describe the complexity of the living religious traditions that make up the strands or layers that comprise the whole. Sharma has noted that the study of popular Hinduism presents problems for the researcher who is faced with an inextricable relationship between the ‘multiplicity and diversity of ritual practitioners’ that function within the vast variety of local cults and pan-Hindu practices (Sharma, 1970). Several studies have attempted to categorize this complex relationship by suggesting that cults develop strategies of authentication that move them from a ‘Little Tradition’ to a ‘Great Tradition’ (Singer, 1972) or from local Hinduism to all-India Hinduism (Srinivas, 1952).

Srinivas refers to this process in Hinduism as ‘sanskritization’ but it is important to understand that Srinivas is not referring to the Sanskrit language but to a process whereby a marginalized ‘mobile group’ in Hindu society introduces changes of custom, ritual, ideology or lifestyle to bring themselves closer to the mainstream of Hinduism (Srinivas, 1989). However, Srinivas, an highly educated member of a Brahmin intellectual elite, seems to be suggesting that lower castes or deprived sectors of Hindu society can achieve parity or respectability by incorporating aspects of Hindu religious doctrine such as varnashramdharma, samsara, dharma, pap, punya, and moksha more usally associated with higher-caste groups. Srinivas’s sankritization theory has been criticized by a number of anthropologists and sociologists but remains an important contribution in the process of classifying and categorizing Hinduism’s diversity and complexity. It would appear, certainly, that Srinivas is saying that if a tradition within Hinduism has gained credibility or popularity throughout India then it has been sanskritized. A closer look at Srinivas’s ideas will reveal the categorization of religious phenomena as either ‘high’ or ‘low’. It is advisable to look out for descriptions of South Asian religious traditions as contrasts between ‘elite’, ‘ofﬁ cial’, ‘orthodox’ or ‘intellectual’ as opposed to ‘folk’ or ‘popular’. As with Srinivas, there may be elements of elitism that are associated with particular groups within the tradition that have a vested interest in promoting their values over and above the claims of others. This may be to do with class or caste distinctions or a feeling of superiority that arises from feeling that a more exclusive access to truth is possessed by various self-proclaimed orthodoxies. The above categories often bear a relation to societal divisions. Tarachand states:

There have always been two distinct strata of society in India, the one higher and the other lower; the ﬁ rst small in numbers but in possession of highly developed religious, social orders and institutions. The second, comprising the great mass of the people who occupy a humbler rung in the cultural ladder. The ﬁ rst provides the intellectual and aristocratic and the second the folk element in India’s culture. (Tarachand, 1963)

Hinduism, in particular, creates problems for the Western mindset inﬂ uenced by a religious outlook in which divine providence benignly oversees the progress of the human race through linear time to a ﬁ nal day of reconciliation and judgement, and also post-Enlightenment secular ideas of progress. In contrast, Hinduism, historically estimated to be around 5–6,000 years old, deals in vast stretches of mythological cyclical time, in which the eternally changing (the creation) is intermingled with the eternally changeless (Brahman) into a seamless reality only distinguished by the liberated soul. On the one hand, all Hindus subscribe to a worldview in which concepts such as samsara, karma and dharma are central, while on the other hand, this worldview is so marked by diversity, that Western scholarship of Hinduism has even argued as to whether there is one entity that can be labelled ‘Hinduism’ or that there are several overlapping ‘Hinduisms’.

Perhaps one of the most effective ways to understand this diversity is the idea of layering. In the West we are more familiar with the old being replaced by the new through technological or scientifi c development. This ideal of progress also affects academic theories, medicine, the gadgets in our homes and even the way we dress. Its most infl uential form is the theory of evolution, but such theories are not only confi ned to the development of species. This paradigm of progress has historically replaced the Christian ideal of providence, but even here God works in history with a succession of interventions and revelations that replace or modify the former religion, gradually bringing humankind to a fuller and more complete awareness of the relationship between the individual and the divine. Thus the old is discarded by the new. Muslims also inherited this paradigm of progress, perceiving Islam to be the fi nal revelation that superceded the former monotheisms of Judaism and Christianity. However, Hinduism operates with a very different paradigm in which nothing is replaced as outdated but rather is layered over by new developments building a complex, interrelated web in which all the strata coexist in both harmony and tension with each other. Thus, a visit to India will introduce the observer to all the forms of Hinduism that have developed over the last 5,000 years. One can fi nd the animism of the aboriginal people, pantheistic and monistic mysticism, monotheism, polytheism and non-theism all thriving alongside each other and continuously throwing up new combinations and possibilities. There are also historical layers existing alongside each other as modern sectarian movements coexist with Victorian, mediaeval and ancient forms of the religion. It is typical of Hinduism, that the contemporary observer will witness middle-class computer workers in Delhi come out of their offi ce at lunchtime and pay acknowledgement to a roadside shrine whose deity has existed for thousands of years and which does not belong to any main pantheon of gods and goddesses. Several scholars have tried to make sense of this layering without falling into the trap of making value judgements such as ‘high’ and ‘low’ or ‘primitive’ and ‘folk’ as opposed to ‘orthodox’ or ‘offi cial’. One of the earlier attempts to achieve this categorization, was developed by Mandelbaum in which he categorized Hinduism as having three complexes: Pragmatic, Dharmik and Transcendental (Mandelbaum, 1966). Simon Weightman connected these three complexes in Hindu belief and practice to three distinct but overlapping motivations, survival and improvement in this life, the acquisition of merit and therefore a better rebirth and fi nally salvation or liberation (Weightman, 1978, pp. 38–42).

The pragmatic or Kismetic realm

In the ﬁ rst complex, Weightman noted that people prayed to various deities, or went on pilgrimages to shrine centres, or utilized the services of a variety of religious experts in order to achieve this-worldly goals which were concerned with achieving success or avoiding failure, or attempts to obviate the effects of misfortune, fate or karma.

Deities would be propitiated, offered petitionary prayers, or religious vows would be made, sometimes involving fasting, penance or visits to pilgrimage centres in order to try to enlist the assistance of supernatural beings to cure diseases that were resisting medical treatment, to request healthy offspring, to guarantee a good harvest or to protect against malevolent powers such as ghosts, the evil eye or the countless forms of other-world beings that haunt subcontinent rural life. Roger Ballard in his analysis of Punjabi religious life renames the pragmatic complex as Kismetic. He defi nes the term as ‘those ideas, practices and behavioural strategies which are used to explain the otherwise inexplicable, and if possible to turn adversity in its tracks’ (Ballard, 1996, p. 18). Life in rural or urban subcontinent, as in many other parts of the world outside of the affl uent industrialized nations, is not always easy; for the Indian villager trying to raise a family, often slightly above subsistence level, there are many crises. Indian rural life remains an environment where supernatural beings live and interact with human beings and the forces of nature to create a universe that the sociologist Max Weber described as the ‘enchanted garden’ where modern rationality has not yet taken hold (Weber, 1962, p. 226). Harjot Oberoi, describing the nineteenth-century Punjab, reminds us that life for the majority was dependent on the seasonal cycles of nature and their fl uctuating infl uence on agriculture. The failure of the monsoon could lead to drought and famine; fevers and undernourishment were endemic and from time to time epidemics of cholera, typhoid and smallpox would sweep through areas decimating whole villages. Oberoi notes that to come to terms with these misfortunes, the people participated in ‘popular religion’ (Oberoi, 1994, pp.140–203). Although less likely to be the victims of infectious plagues or famines, and in spite of rapid urbanization, Indian life remains to this day essentially rural and although most villagers would be aware of factories in their vicinity and to draw upon the products of increasing use of modern technology, life still remains dependent on the cycles of nature and children still die of diseases that have been eradicated in the West. Life remains uncertain and often troubled. In addition to these natural misfortunes, there is also always the risk of upsetting or angering a local divinity. Ursula Sharma identifi es two types of supernatural troubles (Sharma, 1970). The fi rst is caused by the anger of a supernatural being who may feel that his or her worship has been neglected; or that someone has disrespected the location in the village believed to be held sacred in their name. Village life is bound by thousands of approved and forbidden activities that can either propitiate or bring the displeasure of a local supernatural being. Even urinating in the wrong place can cause the anger of a divinity or supernatural being if they inhabit that location. The second source of problems is sorcery, where a witch, sadhu, ghost, or the evil eye places a curse on the victim, often as a result of envy. Thus the supernatural world is called upon to relieve the host of problems that can arise from the vagaries of fortune, the lack of control of the natural world and the belief that the living space of the villagers is shared with a panoply of supernatural beings. In the Hindu context, although there is considerable variation from region to region, even village to village, the supernatural beings propitiated as part of the Kismetic or

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Devatas and demi-gods

Although these will range from village to village, they are not the familiar gods known to students of Hinduism, or commonly worshipped throughout India. Minor deities can vary from deiﬁ ed forces of nature, deiﬁ ed heroes and villains and even spirits of diseases. The smallpox goddess is an example of such a deity that has managed to develop out from her local origins and become established in the wider Hindu pantheon. Such local deities are properly known as gram devata and they may inhabit ponds, groves of trees, particular rocks or have small shrines erected to them often painted on stones, lumps of clay or wooden posts. They may be associated with a particular caste group of profession or have a particular function associated with protecting the village in some way although it should be remembered that they can all bring misfortune or disaster if neglected.

Mata worship

Although Hinduism has signiﬁ cant all-India forms of goddess or Devi worship focused around Durga and Kali, the consorts of Shiva, and Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, there are myriad feminine demi-gods that may or may not be associated with shakti, the female power or energy of the ultimate being that pervades the universe. Mata cults can be found throughout India, and although the term means ‘mother’ not all of the female gods are benign. Some are very ferocious and malign, however, generally if appeased in the right way through ritual they are usually regarded as kind and helpful protectors. As female forms of gram devatas, they can be associated with particular diseases. If a mata is believed to be troublesome, a household shrine may be built but it may also be removed if the goddess becomes peaceful and ceases to disturb the family. However, it might be inadvisable to stop worshipping a mata, as Pocock notes that specialist exorcists may advise troubled villagers that they are guilty of neglecting a mata who was promised worship in a vow by an ancestor (Pocock, 1973).

Ghosts and demons

Ghosts in Northern India are generally referred to as bhuts or preta. Most villages will be populated by ghosts, generally the troubled spirits of people who have died violently, in strange circumstances, or by suicide. Ghosts will usually trouble those who might have been involved in the death, although there is considerable evidence to

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The evil eye (nazar)

The evil eye, also found within the Muslim world, is the malignant eye of envy which is always present in close-knit rural populations throughout the subcontinent as there will always be people who are worse or better off than others. Thus none is immune to the nazar and a number of protections exist to avert its gaze. Sorcery is also an ever- constant threat from the supernatural and may be invoked by those who hold grudges and feel envious of an individual’s or a family’s success.

Omens and astrology

In addition to malevolent and benevolent supernatural powers, there is also the realm of the auspicious and inauspicious. It is not only important what actions are performed, but where and when they occur. Particular days may be considered inauspicious for events to take place whereas others may be regarded as auspicious. Chance events and coincidence are likely to be interpreted as part of chain of auspiciousness or its opposite. Consequently, palm readers, astrologers and various other diviners and fortune-tellers are signiﬁ cant to maintain that the right times are observed for particular actions and to interpret coincidence or chains of events. Journeys are also subject to omens and travelling which is regarded as a hazardous undertaking will be subject to the rules of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness.

Remedies and rituals

The pragmatic dimension of religious life has its own rituals and remedies for the problems that arise from the interaction of the supernatural with the human world and these require specialists that have their own knowledge of how to appease gram

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The Dharmik realm

The Dharmik complex is decribed by Weightman as ‘the quest to acquire merit and to be reborn well’ (Weightman, 1978, p. 38). Mandelbaum stated that it is concerned with ‘the proper fate of the soul after death and the proper maintenance of the social order’ (Mandelbaum, 1966, p. 1,175). However, it should be noted that the Dharmik complex, although concerned with the destiny in the afterlife is not usually focused on the ultimate aims of the religious quest associated with ﬁ nal salvation or liberation. These remain essentially the realm of the transcendental complex. For those religions that believe in rebirth or transmigration of the soul, such as Hinduism, Jainism, or Buddhism, the Dharmik complex is more concerned with modes of behaviour or ways of living and observance that can lead to being born again in a better existence than the previous one and thus minimizing the degree of suffering caused by karmic reaction. The appropriate behaviour in the Indian traditions is deeply connected to one’s station in life, maintained or inﬂ uenced by the Hindu caste system, and thus functions as a mode of social order and control. Or as it is succinctly put by Roger Ballard, ‘Dharmic is concerned with a divinely ordained prescribed set of rules that govern the universe and human behaviour’ (Ballard, 1996, p. 18). In Hinduism, the Dharmik complex is concerned with acquiring merit (punya) and avoiding impurity (pap). Generally, a distinction can be made between sadharan dharma, which is applicable to everybody and jati dharma, which is associated with the modes of behaviour distinct to caste membership. Whereas we saw that the deities associated with the pragmatic or Kismetic dimension were often localized or placed in the category of supernatural beings such as ghosts and demons, the gods of the Dharmik complex are usually the devas or high gods, worshipped as ishvaras, or personal gods that partially manifest the qualities of Brahman, the supreme being. The deities are usually venerated, sometimes under different names, throughout India,

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury LEVELS OF RELIGION such as Vishnu and his various incarnations, particularly Rama and Krishna, Shiva, Ganesh, Skanda, or manifestations of the goddess (shakti) such as Durga, Lakshmi or Saraswati. The principal functionaries and benefi ciaries of the Dharmik complex are the Brahmin priests through the performance of a variety of pujas (ritual worship of the deities), family rites of passage and the ancient Vedic fi re sacrifi ce. The priests also function as the offi ciates in the temples to the above named deities. Sadharan dharma can be divided into general ethical and moral codes such as prohibitions on murder, violence, theft and the codifi cation of appropriate sexual behaviour. It also includes the correct behaviour of family and kinship networks towards each other, elaborating the ideal relationships of husband and wife, brother and sister, parents and children, ruler and subjects, guru and disciple and relations between castes. It is also concerned with religious behaviour that brings merit such as pilgrimages to famous temples, shrines, holy cities; feeding the poor, giving donations to Brahmin priests and religious mendicants or projects to build temples, shrines or other religious constructions; bathing in holy rivers; visiting holy men and women for their blessings; listening to religious discourse; attending religious festivals and ceremonies; reading scriptures and practising meditation, and recitation of a god’s name. All of the above would be considered actions and modes of behaviour that acquire merit and would assist in bringing a better rebirth and also providing enhanced status in one’s social standing. There would also be a crossover into the pragmatic realm, in that it would be hoped that the fruits of a righteous life or the blessings of a chosen deity would safeguard the performers and their families. Jati dharma or caste dharma is the code of behaviour specifi c to caste standing. It informs a member of a caste of the appropriate relationships within the caste membership but also towards other castes either higher or lower in the hierarchy. It is in this context that the regulations that govern purity and impurity are most felt at the daily level. In order to avoid the pollution that can result from intimate contact with lower castes, Indian villages are segregated into caste quarters. However, contact with impurity is inevitable. Contact with animals is ranked on a purity/impurity hierarchy in which the cow sits at the top and pigs or dogs would rank very low. Most human bodily functions and major life crises are considered to be sources of impurity. Thus birth and death are regarded as polluting. Contact with a menstruating woman, or human emissions such as saliva, urine, faeces, semen, afterbirth are all pollutants, but contact through touch, sharing food or utensils, with a member of a lower caste are all everyday hazards. Since there is no way to avoid pollution, rural people have developed a number of ways to cope with its consequences. First, contact with pollutants can be avoided by creating a hierarchical social system whereby a number of specialist occupations deal with substances that pollute, for example washing clothes, funeral functionaries, street cleaning, tanning etc. However, when contact is made, each caste will have the traditional prescribed method for purifi cation. Perhaps the most universal is the use of water in ritual bathing in running water. Severe forms of pollution can be dealt with by

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Transcendental realm

Weightman states that the transcendental complex is so named because it refers to a number of spiritual paths whose principal motivation is to take the individual to a state of being that transcends ‘both the world of caste and every level of existence’ (Weightman, 1978, p. 39). This realm of religion belongs to a vast variety of paths which the Indian traditions have provided for humankind to achieve liberation or salvation from samsara, defi ned as everything that has temporality, a beginning and an end. This may range from fl eeting life forms, thoughts and feelings that only last a microsecond to vast galaxies and universes that may exist for billions of years. Usually Indian traditions do not regard samsara as evil, but problematic for human pursuit of fulfi lment as Indian philosophy posits the idea that a condition of mental and spiritual unsatisfactoriness remains continuous throughout almost endless rebirths if our pursuit of pleasure fulfi lment is based on desire for sense pleasures located in the ephemeral. In addition, the inexorable law of karma keeps the cycle of endless rebirth into the world of phenomena going. However, there is a way out; although there are different methods to ultimate escape, and diverse beliefs in regard to the existence or non-existence of the soul, God and the nature of the world, most Indian traditions posit the ultimate destination of mukti or moksha, a fi nal liberation or salvation from the endless wheel of samsara. In order to understand the variety of Hindu positions in regard to transcending the physical and mental realms of existence so as to experience the Divine realm, it is best to divide them into two categories: those that posit a means of liberation and others that insist that human bondage cannot be overcome without salvation. The basic distinction between them concerns agency. In the fi rst model, the human being has the ability to overcome the obstacles through self-effort, albeit assisted by the teachings and guidance of a guru. Shankara, the founder of Advaita Vedanta, the path that perceives liberation as complete identifi cation of Brahman and Atman regarded grace as the possession of human life, the desire to seek liberation, the meeting with a teacher able to provide correct guidance and fi nally one’s efforts to maintain the disciplines (sadhana) specifi c to the path. Devotion is perceived in terms of commitment to the inner disciplines of yoga, renunciation and possibly asceticism. The ideal for such a life is the world-renouncer or sannyasin monk. However, it is bhakti (devotion) that provides for the vast majority a means of deliverance from the world of samsara through communion with the Divine in various forms. The principal modes of bhakti are devotion to Vishnu, Shiva, the various aspects of the goddess or the formless divine of the Sants, discovered as the inner ruler of the heart. However, each of these paths insists upon the primary and essential

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury LEVELS OF RELIGION requirement of the grace of the divinity in order to attain salvation, unearned but given to the devotee who discovers the means of self-surrender. Those who committed themselves completely to worship of the Divine in its manifest or unmanifest forms are countless in India’s long spiritual history, and each is likely to have generated sects, ranging in size from a handful of followers to those who command the allegiance of millions. It is through such sects that the majority of Hindus would fi nd the means to engage with the transcendental dimension, attempting to replicate the devotion of the founder in their lives, or alternatively offering their devotion to the founder in the hope that his blessings would transform their lives. Roger Ballard has refi ned these categories, introducing a fourfold classifi cation of Panthic, Dharmic, Kismetic and Qaumic (Ballard, 1996). Although Ballard’s classifi cation was developed as a tool for analysing religion in the Punjab, it is applicable in other Indian contexts. The Kismetic dimension, derived from the Middle-Eastern term ‘Kismet’ signifying fate, corresponds to the pragmatic, whereas Dharmic is concerned with divinely ordained prescribed sets of rules that govern the universe and human behaviour. It obviously refers to the same complex referred to as Dharmik and described in detail above. Although Dharmic is derived from the Sanskrit Dharma, it can equally be used to analyse Muslim modes of religious expression as well as Indian traditions. It is in the introduction of Panthic and Qaumic, that Ballard introduces new and valuable categories not found in the earlier classifi cation described above.

Qaumic

Qaumic is used by Ballard to describe the more recent phenomenon where a group of people use a set of religious ideas and activities to close ranks as a community and advance their common social, economic and political interests (Ballard, 1996, pp. 25–8). In the Indian context, it is commonly argued that the categories of Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam were political constructs that evolved as part of the British attempts to organize on the basis of differentiating religious communities. Certainly in the twentieth century, increasingly religious and cultural identity with being Muslim, Sikh or Hindu is being politicized. Examples of this include Khalsa movements within Sikhism that mobilize around the campaign for an independent state; Islamic movements that place religion at the centre of one’s personal and political identity; and the Hindutva movement which links Indian nationalism with Hindu cultural identity. Such movements delineate rigid boundaries between themselves and others and politically campaign for their own community’s advantage often aggressively challenging the other community’s right to equality. The Qaumic (nation) category of religion creates a type of religious fundamentalism that is rooted in a sense of national identity belonging only to a particular religious community and, in which, there is a strong creation of a sense of ‘otherness’ when relating to the followers of religious traditions outside one’s own.

Very often, these forms of religion are very exclusive and create an essentialist version of the wider tradition that denies diversity.

Panthic

Panthic refers to a type of religious organization, usually associated with North Indian sant/bhakti traditions. Charlotte Vaudeville defi ned Sant as a distinct tradition on the basis of their emphasis on satnam, satsang and satguru. She states: ‘whether they be born Saiva, Vaisnava, or Muslim, all the Sant poets stress the necessity of devotion to and practice of the Divine Name (satnama); devotion to the Divine Guru (satguru) and the great importance of the “company of the Sants (satsang)”. The Name, the Divine Guru and the satsang are the three pillars of the Sant sadhana’ (Vaudeville, 1987). Bhakti refers to Indian devotional traditions but the Panthic can also be found in Sufi sm or any other religious movement where a group of followers organize themselves to promote and follow the teachings of a spiritual master, living or dead. The overriding motive is usually concerned with closer proximity or experience of the Divine through mystical union (Ballard, 1996, pp. 16, 17). However, Panthic types of organization undergo transformation and the motivation may shift from the transcendental to the pragmatic. This transformation of the Panthic religious organization has been categorized by Daniel Gold (1987). Gold suggested that the various forms that Sant lineages have taken have been affected by their relationship to the charisma of the founder Sant (1987, p. 85). He continued to argue that generally there are three stages in the life of a Sant lineage: (i) it begins with a solitary fi gure or mystic like Kabir, Nanak or Ravidas. Their authority is derived from their own personal charisma, and it is highly unlikely that they had any intention of beginning a panth. The followers of an individual Sant were part of no overarching formal organization, but were united with their teacher in commitment to the value of personal experience (ii) these lineages are sometimes continued by disciples who became noteworthy Sants in their own right. Usually the disciple is chosen to continue as the Guru by the original Sant. A Sant lineage is called a parampara as long as the dominant focus of spiritual power is still contained in the living holy man. Sikhism was thus a parampara until the death of the tenth human Guru, Gobind Singh. (iii) The term panth is used for the fi nal phase of Sant lineage, when it has become a sectarian institution. The panths claim to spread the teachings of the past Sant(s), but the dominant focus of spiritual power now resides in ritual forms and scripture. A panth is usually offi ciated over by a mahant who looks after the ritual and administration. Often even the mahant is overseen by a committee of eminent followers as the panth becomes progressively institutionalized. The mahant’s charisma is clearly derived from his position, and his traditional connection to the original Sant. Geaves in his research of Northern India has added a fourth category to Gold’s. He suggests that a panth can develop around the samadhi of the deceased Sant in

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury LEVELS OF RELIGION which the focus of worship manifests as veneration of the deceased master. Although the shrine will be administered by successors of the Sant (either by blood relatives or mahants), their authority derives from the spiritual presence of the dead Sant embodied in the remains and within the follower’s heart. He claims that the samadhi panths are looser knit organizations than sectarian institutions and can provide the inspiration for new forms of the tradition to emerge as a result of contact with the blessings of the deceased master. Such shrine forms of religious organization develop into pilgrimage centres and create new possibilities for the Kismetic, Dharmik and Panthic to manifest. The relationship between Panthic, Dharmik and Kismetic is highly fl uid and usually interwoven one with the others. We can see that Ballard describes the motivation of the Panthic as transcendental but Gold considers panths to have developed institutional forms in which the dominant focus is ritual and scripture. This would suggest an emphasis on the Dharmik. Geaves, on the other hand, notes that shrine centres focused on the remains of a deceased holy man or woman often display Kismetic characteristics but with the possibility to transform back to an emphasis on the transcendental. Pnina Werbner in her study of Sufi movements describes this process as ‘waxing and waning’ (Werbner, 1990). She observes an historical pattern where a Sufi tariqa (order) forms and fl ourishes under the leadership of a charismatic saint but then transforms into a shrine cult on his/her death. She suggests that new cults can appear ‘energised through the emergence of a new charismatic saint’ which revitalize the old tariqa. In such a case there may be a change of emphasis from a transcendental motivation to Kismetic and then back again to transcendental.

Charisma and institutionalization

Werbner’s differentiation between organizational forms that develop around living Sufi saints and those that form after their death is similar to Gold’s analysis and provides another way of categorizing religions, usually found among certain sociologists infl uenced by Max Weber. Such categorization begins with the premise that certain kinds of religious tradition sprung out from the intimate experience of the founder, and were created by the ideas and beliefs of followers, who were in many cases, not able to come to terms with or comprehend the inner experiences that comprised the founder’s revelation. Such theories of religion usually accept the ideas of William James that the development of a religion is from personal to institutional (James, 1928). It is suggested that without the benefi t of the founder’s inner experience, it is almost certain that subsequent generations of believers will develop religious institutions that were not fully intended by the founder, and it is this tension that is explored. Many sectarian movements may have appeared as offshoots, schisms and divisions from the time of the original founder and these may be considered as part of the process of rationalization as defi ned by Weber or institutionalization as defi ned by

O’Dea, or as a reaction to these processes, an attempt to get back to the ideals of the original charismatic moment, however that may be conceived. Put in simple terms, institutionalization can be defi ned as the process of transforming an ad hoc situation into a formal structure of organization with established routines of behaviour and a set of rules or laws. O’Dea argued that there is room in human society for the brilliant, the unusual, the innovative to take place. However, society cannot maintain an attitude towards it for very long without wanting to bring it into the circumscribed arena of orderliness and predictability. The strength of society is that it gives stability, but the price paid for the stability is negation of spontaneity and creativity (O’Dea, 1964). O’Dea continues by stating that the ‘charismatic moment’ can only be put up with for a short period of time as any attempt to prolong it would lead to instability, would unnerve and create insecurity. He makes a negative judgement on society in that it must tame the ‘hero’ and bring him or her down to the commonplace. The transcendentalism of the charismatic is therefore neutralized. He does suggest that, on the positive side, if society did not pursue this course then the charismatic moment would fi zzle out and the society would not be able to obtain any lasting benefi t from it (1964, p. 80). The important point in O’Dea’s argument is that in taming the charismatic, there occurs a distortion. There is a constant or recurring tension between the forces which work for stability, even at the risk of distortion and the forces which work for a truer realization of the initial charismatic moment. Berger is also indebted to Weber’s ideas on the routinization of charisma. In an article published in 1974, he writes:

Religious institutions assign the potentially disruptive manifestations of the other reality (as opposed to the reality of the ordinary, everyday world) to carefully circumscribed times and places in society. They domesticate the ecstasies, channel them into socially acceptable and useful activity (such as moral conduct), and even manage to convert the religious deﬁ nition of reality into legitimations of the sociopolitical order. (Berger, 1974, p. 132)

O’Dea looked at this process in greater detail and divided it into fi ve dilemmas: the dilemma of mixed motivation, the symbolic dilemma, the dilemma of administrative order, the dilemma of delimitation and the dilemma of power. These are all fully developed in O’Dea, but it is the fi rst two dilemmas that are particularly useful for the arguments presented here. In the dilemma of mixed motivation, O’Dea argued that the only motivation of the founder-innovator is communicating his or her message, but that successors will have additional motivations, such as personal power, prestige, status and infl uence (O’Dea, 1964, p. 84). The Symbolic Dilemma deals with the confl ict between the spontaneity of the transcendental experience, often ecstatic, and the requirements for the fruits of that experience to be stored up and passed on for the benefi t of future generations. Thus the symbols of a faith, especially sacred objects like scriptures or liturgies and sacraments are preserved and formalized in sacred rites and objects to meet the psychological needs of successive generations of followers (1964,

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury LEVELS OF RELIGION pp. 84–6). It is possible for these of the faith to become so sacred that they cannot even be touched or approached by the faithful unless in a state of ritual purity. O’Dea’s ideas can be used to provide a theory which explores the movement from religious experience to the experience of religion. Along with William James he appears to be asserting that religious objects are associated with institutionalized or social forms of religion rather than the experiential vision often associated with founders.

Conclusion

The categorization of religion into levels has both advantages and disadvantages. It needs to be recognized that these categories are obviously ideal types and, in practice, there is considerable overlap, interweaving and inseparability. Individual practitioners may hold to several of the complexes simultaneously and not separate them out from each other. In this position, there may be inconsistencies, paradoxes and degrees of apparent irrationality that may confl ict with the scholar’s attempts to impose order through categorization. Religious adherence is often messy, chaotic and idiosyncratic, functioning as a process to allow individuals access to the irrational and therefore it needs to be borne in mind that any attempt to establish layers or levels of religion is an artifi cial exercise to enable a scholar to dissect a truth story but in doing so distortion of the believer’s reality may take place. However, after making the above critique, there is no doubt that defi ning levels of religion can be a useful analytical tool to help assess movement and transformation both diachronically (concerned with the historical development) and synchronically (looking at a subject at one point in time). We have seen from a number of examples that several scholars have attempted to analyse religious transformation over a period of time, for example sociological attempts to assess motivation from the period of the founder to the establishment of institutions. One way to gain more insight into this process may be to explore transformations in the levels. For example, there has been a change in emphasis from the transcendental to the pragmatic or to the Dharmik. Discerning these shifts in motivation may also help to understand the process of sect formation, as certain groups of believers challenge the prevailing motivation and seek to restore the perceived motivation of either the founder or earlier generations of believers deemed to be more authentic. In the stories of conversion from one faith tradition to another, analysing the levels of religion may show how expectations may differ within the converting group to those of the converted. Conversion is rarely straightforward and John Webster has shown how mass conversion of Dalits (untouchables) to Christianity in the nineteenth-century Punjab created tensions caused by differing motivations. The Christian missionaries saw conversion in salvationary terms and expected consequent change of behaviour, ‘an inner spiritual transformation’ that could be classifi ed as mix of transcendental and

Dharmik, whereas the Dalits saw the move from one religion to another primarily as means to transform their external circumstances (Webster, 2002, p. 106). In Bengt Karlsson’s fascinating account of conversion of a ‘tribal’ community to Christianity, he shows that motivations may be instrumental. Several of his informants pointed out the fi nancial implications of maintaining the Dharmik in Hinduism, where expensive rituals have to be performed and religious specialists paid. The Kismetic or pragmatic also has its expenses, where specialists in healing, exorcism or manipulating the supernatural also demand their fees (Karlsson, 2002, p. 150). Susan Harper notes that in addition to the above benefi ts, most converts continued their former cultural and religious activities, but the moral behaviour and renunciation of alcohol and eating carrion encouraged by the missionaries provided a new sense of identity which allowed a caste to improve its position in the hierarchical world of Hinduism, as they were looked upon more favourably by Hindu high castes, something akin to the process that takes place when joining Hindu sectarian movements. In Harper’s research we are shown a community who move from one dimension (the pragmatic) to the transcendental and Dharmik, in order to obtain the benefi ts of new social and economic status (Harper, 2002, pp. 204–9). The levels of religion can also inform about the relationship between orthodoxy and tradition and provide a means to look at issues of authenticity and truth-claims and how the latter are constructed. This takes us into the realm of identity formation. Geaves’ research in the village of Danda demonstrates how Khalsa narratives of truth are contested by religious practitioners who perceive their religious authority as more authentic as it comes from possession or vision of the deity rather than institutions and formal scriptural-based interpretations of truth. Finally, the use of a model that utilizes levels of religion can show how truth-claims are contested arenas, even within one religious tradition. Dharmik traditions are likely to be in opposition to the pragmatic, as their religious specialists will be in direct competition not only in regard to truth narratives but, more essentially for livelihoods. In addition, those that maintain rigorous allegiance to the transcendental may condemn both the Dharmik and the pragmatic as unable to provide means of salvation that transcend this world or direct access to a universal reality or God. The Qaumic allegiance may be very exclusive as it attempts to promote a political- religious identity that brands all outsiders as ‘other’. It may perceive both the pragmatic and the transcendental as too eclectic, universalist or inclusive, but fi nd itself able to ally with the Dharmik to form cohesive orthodoxies that exclude all non-believers or outsiders from both the rewards of this world and the next. These allegiances and enmities can shift over time. The saint who opposed the Dharmik may fi nd himself incorporated into the cannon sometime after his death. Another who criticized the pragmatic as superstition, may fi nd his remains being used in a shrine centre to cure all manner of illnesses or solutions for human shortcomings and natural disasters. A note of warning has to be given as completion of this chapter. It is important for the student of religion to remain outside the value judgements that can range between practitioners of different levels of religion. At the beginning of the chapter we noted

www.bloomsbury.com/the-study-of-religion-2nd-edition-9781780938400 © George D. Chryssides and Ron Geaves, 2007, 2014 The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods. London: Bloomsbury LEVELS OF RELIGION that scholars can also ﬁ nd themselves making subjective statements supporting one level as more authentic than another. Certainly the pragmatic dimension of religious life calls out for more serious attention by scholars other than anthropologists. Even Oberoi, in his excellent defence of Sikh diversity ﬁ nds himself using a value-biased language when speaking of popular religious practices.

Among the ignorant peasantry whose creed, by whatever name it may be known, is seldom more than a superstition and a ritual, the various observances and beliefs which distinguish the followers of the several faiths in their purity are so strangely blended and intermingled, that it is often impossible to say that one prevails rather than another, or to decide in what category the people shall be classed (my italics). (Oberoi, 1994, p. 9)

For ourselves, the more information that we gather on people’s actual religious experience, the more we are inclined to agree with Emile Durkheim when he states that, ‘there are no religions which are false. All are true in their own fashion – all answer, though in different ways, to the given conditions of human existence’ (Durkheim, 1976, p. 3).

DISCUSSIONDISCUSSION POPOINTSINTS

1 Scholars have sometimes made distinctions between a ‘great’‘great’ and ‘little’ tradition, or between ‘orthodox’ and ‘popular’‘popular’ religion.religion. How helhelpfulpful are such distinctionsdistinctions?? 2 Consider typologies typologies such as SSpiro’spiro’s ‘nibbanic-kammatic-a‘nibbanic-kammatic-apotropaic’potropaic’ and Weightman’sWeightman’s ‘transcendent-dharmik-pragmatic’.‘transcendent-dharmik-pragmatic’. How helhelpfulpful are these? Consider whetherwhether theythey couldcould bebe appliedapplied to otherother religionsreligions thanthan BuddhismBuddhism andand HinduismHinduism respectively.respectively. What adaadaptationsptations mimightght be neededneeded?? 3 Are some levels of religion more worthy of serious study than othersothers?? CConsideronsider argumentsarguments for and against.against. 4 Are some formsforms ofof religion more concerned with ideal spiritual attainment than others? Consider whether this mightmight be the case regardingregarding (a) monasticism, (b) ﬁ rst-generation converts, (c) Western converts to eastern religions, or eastern converts to WesternWestern ones, (d) anyany otherother categoriescategories tthathat susuggestggest tthemselves.hemselves.

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