Religious texts, priestly education and ritual action in south Indian temple Hinduism

Bibliographic Data

ID4738722
AuthorsC J Fuller (0000-0002-9162-6839, Department of Anthropology, The London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume31
Issue1
Pages3-25
Publication date1997-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueContributions to Indian Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0069-9659 • E-ISSN: 0069-9667
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/006996679703100102
OpenAlexW2118336894
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited10

This article, mainly based on research among the priests of the Mīnāksī temple in Madurai, Tamilnadu, examines the relation between religious texts and ritual action. In the Mīnāksī temple, all ritual should in theory conform to the prescriptions of the Agamas containing Śiva's own directions for his worship. The article contains data about education in the religious schools, where priests and their sons mainly learn texts by heart; it shows that education improves the performance of ritual because educated priests are able to recite texts when carrying out rituals, whereas uneducated priests can perform only the physical ritual acts. Nevertheless, education has virtually no impact on how priests carry out physical ritual, which largely depends on 'techniques of the body' acquired through practice. Through a critical discussion of Humphrey and Laidlaw's theory of ritual action, the article concludes with a discussion of the problem of ritual misperformance and emphasises its salience for the priests themselves

Action (physics · Ancient history · Hinduism · Relation (database · Salience (neuroscience · Sociology · Temple · Theology · Worship · Anthropology · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Religious studies · Study and Philosophy of Religion

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