The modern monastic Santmat movement of Bihar: building bridges between Sanātana Dharma and Sant-Mat

This article analyzes how the modern movement of Santmat, literally "the views of sants," primarily popular in the rural areas of northern India, uniquely situates itself within the context of "Vedic Dharma." Through the monastic leadership's redefinition of the categories o...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Howard, Veena R. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: SpringerOpen [2017]
In: International journal of Dharma Studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 5
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)

MARC

LEADER 00000caa a22000002 4500
001 1694347117
003 DE-627
005 20240409125804.0
007 cr uuu---uuuuu
008 200409s2017 xx |||||o 00| ||eng c
024 7 |a 10.1186/s40613-017-0058-8  |2 doi 
035 |a (DE-627)1694347117 
035 |a (DE-599)KXP1694347117 
040 |a DE-627  |b ger  |c DE-627  |e rda 
041 |a eng 
084 |a 0  |2 ssgn 
100 1 |e VerfasserIn  |0 (DE-588)1037791223  |0 (DE-627)756258375  |0 (DE-576)382057724  |4 aut  |a Howard, Veena R. 
109 |a Howard, Veena R. 
245 1 4 |a The modern monastic Santmat movement of Bihar  |b building bridges between Sanātana Dharma and Sant-Mat 
264 1 |c [2017] 
336 |a Text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a Computermedien  |b c  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a Online-Ressource  |b cr  |2 rdacarrier 
520 |a This article analyzes how the modern movement of Santmat, literally "the views of sants," primarily popular in the rural areas of northern India, uniquely situates itself within the context of "Vedic Dharma." Through the monastic leadership's redefinition of the categories of Vedic Dharma and Sanātana Dharma, the Santmat tradition creates a space where vernacular Hindu practices and mystical Vedic paths can co-exist. Thus, it stands apart from other contemporary Sant Mat traditions that reject Vedic Dharma. In this article, I pair an examination and analysis of the Santmat movement's historical development and methods, in which Vedic wisdom coheres with the sants' spiritual insights, with an ethnographic analysis of how this movement enacts a creative integration of vernacular traditions. I suggest that this particular Santmat's "bricolage," to borrow a term from Claude Levi-Strauss, illustrates a distinctive example of experimental dharmas in the context of vernacular sant traditions in contemporary North India. Santmat's skillful integration of local religious vernaculars gives expression to its engagement with lived devotional traditions. Such mixing of practices, which illustrate the processes of hybridity and syncretism, has helped to make the esoteric practices more meaningful and relevant to the everyday lives of the masses, including the tribal and rural people of Bihar and Nepal, populations often marginalized in orthodox Hindu practices. I examine the experimentation occurring within the Santmat tradition and argue that Bihar's Santmat movement may be termed "Vernacular Vedic Dharma." Furthermore, I address how within the 21st-century rise of extremism, Santmat shows that Vedic Dharma, within its manifold strands of practices and philosophies, encourages an adherence to the harmonizing esoteric spiritual path as well as a universal ethical framework. 
601 |a Sant-Mat 
773 0 8 |i Enthalten in  |t International journal of Dharma Studies  |d Berlin : SpringerOpen, 2013  |g 5 (2017) article 21  |h Online-Ressource  |w (DE-627)782642918  |w (DE-600)2764676-2  |w (DE-576)403781787  |x 2196-8802  |7 nnns 
773 1 8 |g volume:5  |g year:2017 
856 |u https://internationaljournaldharmastudies.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40613-017-0058-8  |x unpaywall  |z Vermutlich kostenfreier Zugang  |h publisher [open (via page says license)] 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1186/s40613-017-0058-8  |x Resolving-System  |z kostenfrei 
935 |a mteo 
951 |a AR 
ELC |a 1 
LOK |0 000 xxxxxcx a22 zn 4500 
LOK |0 001 3621294023 
LOK |0 003 DE-627 
LOK |0 004 1694347117 
LOK |0 005 20200409152848 
LOK |0 008 200409||||||||||||||||ger||||||| 
LOK |0 035   |a (DE-Tue135)IxTheo#2020-02-28#64DD2F9ADB54CA2681507A2A3949350B7ECA788B 
LOK |0 040   |a DE-Tue135  |c DE-627  |d DE-Tue135 
LOK |0 092   |o n 
LOK |0 852   |a DE-Tue135 
LOK |0 852 1  |9 00 
LOK |0 935   |a ixzs  |a ixzo  |a zota 
OAS |a 1 
ORI |a SA-MARC-ixtheoa001.raw 
REL |a 1 
SUB |a REL