Women in Ochre Robes: Gendering Hindu Renunciation (Suny Series in Hindu Studies) - Softcover

Khandelwal, Meena

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0791459225 ISBN 13: 9780791459225

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2003

Synopsis

Meena Khandelwal offers an engaging and intimate portrait of extraordinary Hindu women in India who wear "ochre robes," signifying their renunciation of marriage and family for lives of celibacy, asceticism, and spiritual discipline. While the largely male Hindu ascetic tradition of sannyasa renders its initiates ritually "dead" to their previous identities, the women portrayed here are very much alive. They struggle with, and joke about, the tensions and ironies of living in the world while trying not to be of it.

Khandelwal juxtaposes the common refrain that "in renunciation there is no male and female" with arguments that underscore the importance of gender. In exploring these apparent contradictions, she brings together worldly and otherworldly values within renunciation and argues that these create tensions that are at once emotional, social, and philosophical.

About this title

Review:

..". This book provides richly detailed accounts of the author's many months living with, observing, and interacting with sannyasinis, their followers, and fellow ascetics. Descriptions of daily life at the ashrams, reports of long conversations, attention to the details of place, dress, food and its preparation, and the descriptions of visitors all help create vivid pictures of the lives of the sannyasinis."

Synopsis:

Offers an engaging and intimate portait of extraordinary Hindu women in India who wear ochre robes, signifying their renunciation of marriage and family for lives of celibacy, asceticism, and spiritual discipline.

About this edition

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0791459225
• ISBN 13: 9780791459225
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254