Retheorizing Religion in Nepal

GREGORY PRICE GRIEVE is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA. He has published articles in Numen, Culture, Theory and Critique, Journal of Material Religion, and Studies in Nepalese History and Society.

Introduction: Preparing the Materials: Prolegomenon for a Study of Prosaic Religion Part I: Tradition, Modernity, and the Challenge of Prosaic Hinduism Framing the Study: Theorizing the Histories of Tradition in Bhaktapur, Nepal Laying Down the Grid: Cosmology and the Place of Tradition in Bhaktapur, Nepal Part II: Prosaic Religion and the Construction of Lived Worlds Sketching the Central Point: Cadastral God-Images and the Politics of Scriptural Mediation Illustrating Samsara: Religious 'Recipes' for Making a Prosaic Lived World Performing Prosaic Tantra: Jhinjan Minjan Danigu's Animating Affect and Social Critique of Religious Experience Bringing a Forged Mandala to Life: The Cow Procession and the Improvisation of Cadastral Generative Matrixes Conclusion: Interrupted by Ornament: Looking Back at Prosaic Religion in Bhaktapur, Nepal