Volume 32 Number 3 / July 2006
shaped his ideas, a website making Higgins’s
writings accessible to students, perhaps even a
reissuing of this book to eliminate typos (for
example, events going from 1945 to 1862, the
copy of Gibbon’s Knights of Labor letter has
“confusion” where “confession” should be) and
to insert a picture of the subject.
Mary Elizabeth Brown
Marymount Manhattan College
CURANDERO: A LIFE IN MEXICAN
FOLK HEALING. By Eliso “Cheo” Torres
and Timothy L. Sawyer, Jr. Albuquerque: Uni-
versity of New Mexico Press, 2005. Pp. ix +
170. $14.95, ISBN 0-8263-3640-X.
In the Hispanic world, the curandero—liter-
ally “a person who heals”—is a familiar yet
enigmatic figure. The origins of such “healers”
are obscure: curanderos functioned as practitio-
ners of folk medicine in both medieval Spain
and pre-Columbian America. In fact, their prac-
tice ranges from that of herbalists with expert
knowledge of the use of plants for medicinal
purposes and counselors who advise people on
personal problems to intermediaries in resolv-
ing family issues and community disputes as
well as intercessors with allegedly miraculous
powers. This book, which is basically an auto-
biographical account of its author’s childhood
reminiscences and personal experiences in
Mexico and the Southwest, is both fascinating
and frustrating. Historians will find legendary
information about such well-known curanderos
as Don Pedro Jaramillo (1829-1907), Teresita
Urrea (1873-1906), and El Niño Fidencio
(1898-1938), but nothing approaching an in-
depth critical investigation and historical
interpretation. Those interested in alternative
medicine will find descriptions of various
plants and their purported curative potential,
but not a diagnostic catalogue, much less a sci-
entific corroboration, although some herbal
medicines have been shown to have beneficial
therapeutic effects. Theologians will find subtle
hints about the supernatural, but no systematic
theological discussion. Finally, while the author
mentions university-sponsored courses on
curanderismo, no syllabus is provided. In sum,
this book is more anecdotal than academic:
readers seeking information about curander-
ismo are likely to finish reading with more
questions than answers.
John T. Ford
Catholic University of America
LATINOS AND THE NEW IMMIGRANT
CHURCH. By David A. Badillo. Baltimore,
MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Pp.
xxiii + 275. Cloth, $60.00, ISBN 0-8018-8387-
3; paper, $22.95, ISBN 0-8018-8388-1.
Given the fact that Latinos have emigrated
from some 20 different countries and settled in
176 different Roman Catholic dioceses in all 50
states, telling the story of Latinos in “the new
immigrant Church” is an impossibly large
project and so inevitably selective. The author’s
selection of four representative cities—Chi-
cago, Miami, New York, and San Antonio—has
the merit of studying the three largest groups of
Latino immigrants—Mexicans, Puerto Ricans,
and Cubans—but unfortunately neglects the
millions of Latinos who live in Los Angeles as
well as those from Central and South America.
Also largely overlooked are those Latinos who
live in small towns and rural areas as well as
migrant workers and their families. Finally,
while other Christian churches are occasionally
mentioned, this study’s focus is almost exclu-
sively on the Roman Catholic Latino experi-
ence. On the whole, this well-written book is
woven together from an abundant amount of
statistical data, historical resources, govern-
ment reports, contemporary commentaries,
news items, and personal examples in a very
readable but somewhat unsystematic fashion.
On the minus side, scholars will notice some
corrigenda as well as disputanda that seem-
ingly stem from a summary use of sources
rather than a critical engagement with them;
however, there is a useful and extensive multi-
faceted bibliography. On the plus side, readers
will find this book an interesting, albeit some-
what impressionistic, broad-stroke portrait of a
church struggling to respond to the newest
wave of immigrants.
John T. Ford
Catholic University of America
South Asia
TANTRA: SEX, SECRECY, POLITICS,
AND POWER IN THE STUDY OF RELI-
GION. By Hugh B. Urban. Berkeley: Univer-
sity of California Press, 2003. Pp. xiv + 372.
Cloth, $60.00, ISBN 0-520-23062-0; paper,
$24.95, ISBN 0-520-23656-4.
Urban’s book is an important addition to
scholarship on the construction of religion in
colonial India and its cross-cultural dynamics.
Specifically, the book “unravel[s] the complex
genealogy of Tantra,” a category that Urban
argues was first “imagined” as an “ism” in the
nineteenth century via the “Victorian horror of
Tantric licentiousness.” Importantly, Urban’s
thesis moves beyond mere deconstruction by
suggesting that Tantrism be understood as a
“dialectical image” (Benjamin) or “Rorschach
text,” revealing the interests of a wide variety
of human actors. Thus, “Tantra” is both the
projected “Other” of Orientalists, missionaries,
officials, and Indian reformers and (especially
as Kali) the symbolic site of Indian revolution-
ary struggle. After examining related literary
images of Tantra, Urban considers three more
iterations of this “conflicted, contested and con-
tradictory” category: 1) Tantra as “deodorized”
in the early scholarship of Woodroffe and the
nationalism of Vivekananda; 2) as an “ideal
solution to modern man’s spiritual crisis” in the
work of Zimmer, Evola and Eliade; and 3) as
Religious Studies Review / 207
a “neoromantic celebration of Tantric sexual
liberation” in the globalized, American world
of God-men, gurus, and “ecstasy on-line.”
Though, as Urban himself says, the discourses
examined here “may not always tell us much
that is terribly useful about any particular form
of Asian religion,” the book is a sophisticated
treatment of both the theoretical issues and the
wealth of material involved in the historical
construction of “Tantrism.” As such, Urban’s
work contributes significantly to the continuing
cross-cultural encounter at the heart of the his-
tory of religions and its “embodied” contexts.
Timothy S. Dobe
Grinnell College
C;;VAKACINT: :MA N . I: THE HERO
C;;VAKA N – , THE GEM THAT FULFILLS
ALL WISHES BY TIRUTTAKKATE VAR,
VERSES 1-1165. Translated with Notes and
Introduction by James D. Ryan. Fremont, CA:
Jain Publishing Company, 2005. Pp. xiv + 450.
$90.00, ISBN 0-89581-854-X.
This excellent translation of roughly one-
third of an important yet little studied Tamil
Jain text marks a significant contribution to the
study of both Tamil literature and South Asian
Jain literary cultures more generally. Of uncer-
tain provenance, the C+vakacint/ma n. i is tradi-
tionally attributed to a (roughly ninth-century)
Jain monk named Tiruttakkat6var; it is perhaps
most notable for what Ryan rightly terms as its
“graphic eroticism” that culminates in the royal
hero’s rejection of a life of sexual exploits to
become a Jain mendicant. In addition to the
translated verses, Ryan provides a brief intro-
duction to the text that includes a summary of
the entire narrative and draws a connection
between excessively erotic imagery and the cul-
tivation of detachment from sexuality, useful
notes on the translation, a glossary of key
names and Tamil terms, and an index. The
translations themselves do an admirable job of
rendering complex Tamil poetic syntax into
clear and readable English, opening up the
text to specialists and nonspecialists alike.
Were the price tag not so staggering, the
C+vakacint/ma n. i, as Ryan presents it here,
would be a welcome addition to course syllabi
covering South Asian religions, literary cul-
tures, narrative traditions, and poetics. One
hopes that Ryan intends to translate the remain-
der of this engaging and complex narrative
work.
Anne E. Monius
Harvard Divinity School
DANCE OF DIVINE LOVE. INDIA’S
CLASSIC SACRED LOVE STORY: THE
R::SA L;; l:
: OF KRISHNA. By Graham M.
Schweig. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 2005. Pp. xxv + 391. $35.00, ISBN: 978-
0-691-11446-0.
This book is a scholar’s educated expression
of his love for the Bh/gavata Pur/ n. a (he has
also been a longtime member of ISKCON),
208 / Religious Studies Review
especially its central image: the r/sa l+l/ of
K r.sn
. . a, in which he dances with 16,000 milk-
maids simultaneously, each of whom possesses
such a perfect and singularly focused devotion
that each sees herself as the sole consort of the
Lord. This has long been regarded as the arche-
typal image (and text) of K r.sn . . a devotion. Sch-
weig introduces the textuality of BhP 10.29-33,
the r/sa l+l/ section, and discusses the concept
of divine love, particularly as it is found in the
Caitanya school of Vaisn . . avism. He then pro-
vides fine translations of these chapters and two
others of nearly equal import, the so-called
Ven.u-G7ta and Bhramara-G+ta (BhP 10.21 and
10.47), the songs of Kr.sn . . a’s flute, and the black
bee. He follows this with textual notes based
largely on a few Caitanyaite commentaries. He
then provides the Sanskrit text to the r/sa l+l/
chapters in both Devan5gar7 script and roman
transliteration. The book concludes with notes
on translation and versification. Despite the
blurbs on the book jacket, it is difficult to imag-
ine this book as required reading for courses in
Indian religion; other more complete transla-
tions of the BhP and tenth skandha are more
likely candidates. Rather, it is probable that this
volume will be marketed by Princeton Univer-
sity Press for its crossover potential. Regard-
less, scholars of Vaisn
. . avism will be pleased by
this volume and its singular focus.
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa
THE RENEWAL OF THE PRIESTHOOD:
MODERNITY AND TRADITIONALISM
IN A SOUTH INDIAN TEMPLE. By C. J.
Fuller. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 2003. Pp. xx + 207; maps. Cloth, $57.50,
ISBN 0-691-11657-1; paper, $18.95, ISBN 0-
691-11658-X.
In the present volume, a sequel to Servants
of the Goddess: The Priests of a South Indian
Temple (Cambridge University Press, 1984),
Fuller revisits the Minakshi temple in Madurai.
Examining the social, economic, religious, and
political life of the temple’s hereditary Brahmin
priests, he suggests, in a reversal of judgment
from the first volume, that they are doing quite
well in a modernizing, economically growing
Indian state. It is largely through education, he
argues, that the priests have acquired new spir-
itual authority, which appeals to their increas-
ingly wealthy and increasingly religious clients
(who are often influenced by “Hindutvaism”),
leading to a better economic life and, in some
instances, employment in the United States.
The renewal of the priesthood involves what is
actually a modernist endeavor to uphold “tradi-
tion” as well as the pursuit of more plainly
modern objectives: professionalization, innova-
tion on ancestral customs, and development of
a novel system of education, one influenced by
modern notions of scriptural authority and
dependent on modern philology to recapture
relevant scriptural sources, the Shaiva Agamas.
Fuller’s decades-long engagement with the
Volume 32 Number 3 / July 2006
Minakshi temple community greatly benefits Pinney, one of the foremost visual anthro-
this detailed yet concise volume. The sections pologists of India, provides a meticulously
dealing with education, material life and ritual detailed discussion of the implicit roles played
purity, anti-Brahmanism, local, national and by god posters in Indian cultural politics. He
language politics, and relations between temple asks, “Can we have a history of images that
and government are all very informative. The treats pictures as more than simply a reflection
volume is of real value to scholars concerned of something else, something more important
with the relationship between traditionalism happening elsewhere? Is it possible to envisage
and modernity, Indian temple worship, history as in part determined by struggles
Shaivism, and/or the relationship between reli- occurring at the level of the visual?” To answer
gion and the state. Every major university these two central questions, he explores the
library should own a copy. production, consumption, and interpretation of
John Nemec chromolithographs from the 1870s onward.
University of Virginia Pinney begins by not treating images as resid-
ual, focusing rather on how pop art actively
contributes to the making of history. By looking
THEORY AND PRACTICE OF YOGA:
at this new medium of production in the social
ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF GERALD
context in which it emerged (i.e., colonial
JAMES LARSON. Edited by Knut A. Jacob-
India), Pinney is able to show how Indian citi-
son. Leiden: Brill, 2005. $199.00, ISBN: 90-
zens worked out their religious and political
04-14757-8
identities through images. Pictures, in other
This volume contains twenty articles includ-
words, did not simply mirror reality but actively
ing the editor’s introduction and a list of
participated in forging it. This book is full of
Larson’s many publications. The articles are all
insights about visuality in India, which every
on the topics of yoga, usually inclusive of
student knows is central to an embodied Indian
S5m.khya, topics of primary concern to Larson
worldview. In this excellent study, Pinney
throughout his distinguished career. Most of the
reminds us that the images had “social lives,”
articles are by his former students (e.g., Jacob-
created and circulated for different reasons,
sen, Pflueger, Lidke, Kumar, Muller-Ortega),
some political, others commercial, and yet oth-
while a few are by major scholars with whom
ers devotional. The book not only advances
Larson has been associated over the years
theoretical arguments about the relationship
(Rukmani, Pal, Zysk). Among the most inter-
between religion and politics in India but also
esting articles are Rukmani’s on the question
forces us to reflect more deeply on how history
of j+vanmukti in the S5m.khyas9tra, a concept
itself is produced. The book is lavishly illus-
that she sees becoming diluted as S5m.khya
trated, marvelously produced, and well argued,
advances; Muller-Ortega’s on Abhinavagupta’s
yet it is still affordable enough to be assigned
critique of the liberative methods of Patañjali’s
in undergraduate classes.
Yogas!tras; C. Davis’s on the yoga exercises of
Frank Korom
Dara Shukoh and his appropriation of these into
Boston University
Islamic revelation; S. Timalsina’s on visualiza-
tion of various subtle rhythms or cycles
(vis. uva) and levels of meaning in mantras, all
RAJA NAL AND THE GODDESS; THE
derived from various Tantras; and Jacobsen on
NORTH INDIAN EPIC DHOLA IN
a modern tradition of S5m.khya practice in East-
PERFORMANCE. By Susan Snow Wadley.
ern India, founded by the scholar-monk
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.
Harihar5nanda :ra n.ya, the center of which is
Pp. xii + 242. $22.95, ISBN 0-253-21724-5.
an artificial cave in Bengal in which he and his
Wadley’s long-awaited study of the oral
lineage successors have lived, practiced their
epic Dhola is finally here. Based on a lifetime
yoga, written their books, and not left for any
of collecting, translation, and analysis, Wadley
reason for decades at a time. By no means do
here utilizes a number of orally performed
these exhaust the list of valuable articles in this
variants of the epic to address how the folk
volume. A few are much too long for their own
view of such things as caste and gender differ
good and should have been subjected to a
from common textual understandings in the
strong editorial hand, notably A. Rigopoulos’s
written, classical literature of India. Even
on the Guru-G+t/. This is somewhat painful
though sometimes oral and written accounts
given the cost of the volume. Thus, this valu-
are in agreement, quite often they are not,
able book will enter the caves of research librar-
which reminds the reader of the importance of
ies and be available only to a few scholars.
context for understanding how opinions are
Frederick M. Smith
disseminated and how knowledge is formu-
University of Iowa
lated. This epic, fondly nurtured in the Braj
region of Northern India mostly by lower-caste
“PHOTOS OF THE GODS”; THE men who cannot read and write, is full of mys-
PRINTED IMAGE AND POLITICAL tery, intrigue, and magic. By providing a full
STRUGGLE IN INDIA. By Christopher Pin- translation as well as analyzing the context of
ney. London: Reaktion Press, 2004. Pp. 240. performance, Wadley provides us a good story
$29.00, ISBN 1-86189-242-X. while also pointing out analytically that narra-
Volume 32 Number 3 / July 2006
tives have a powerful way of expressing opin-
ions about the nature of social interaction and
the densely layered etiquette of human rela-
tionships, not only in the way men and women
of various castes interact with each other, but
also in the way we interact with our gods and
goddesses. The book is perfect for a course on
religion and gender in India or on the perfor-
mance of oral traditions.
Frank J. Korom
Boston University
INFINITE INTELLIGENCE. By Meher
Baba. Myrtle Beach, NC: Sheriar Foundation,
2005. Pp. xxviii + 746. $75.00, ISBN 978-1-
880619-21-5
Baba (1894-1969) was one of the best-
known spiritual figures of India during the
twentieth century. Although he maintained
silence for the last forty-four years of his life,
he communicated either through an idiosyn-
cratic system of sign language (understood by
only a few disciples) or by chalk on slate.
Through these laborious methods, a fairly large
oeuvre emerged over these decades. The
present volume is an edited summation of his
teachings on a large number of topics of eso-
teric significance. It is written clearly and is
supplemented by a large number of diagrams
and tables. Baba was a great systematizer of
unconscious and superconscious states, the
relation between thinking and imagination,
levels of devotional practice and experience,
and much more. Drawing on a background in
Islamic (particularly Sufi) thought from the Iran
of his ancestors, Hindu thought from his native
India, and Christian experience, he forged a
message of complexity and subtlety that con-
tinues to be influential in present-day religious
and spiritual circles in India and elsewhere in
the world. This well-produced introduction to
Baba’s thought is recommended for undergrad-
uates and graduate students with an interest in
modern Indian thought or religious movements.
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa
ANANDAMATH, OR THE SACRED
BROTHERHOOD. By Bankimcandra Chat-
terji. Translated with an Introduction and Crit-
ical Apparatus by Julius J. Lipner. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. xiii + 315.
£14.99, ISBN 0-19-517858-0.
This translation of Bankim’s classic fic-
tional account of sanny5s7 rebellion in early
colonial Bengal supersedes all previous English
renderings in its accuracy and attention to
detail. Often cited in studies of Indian nation-
alism and the emergence of modernist forms of
Hindu self-assertion, Anandamath is the source
of the svadeshi mantra, Bande M/taram or
“Hail to the Mother(land).” Until now, English-
language readers have had to make due with
incomplete translations and recycled generali-
zations about Bankim’s agenda. Lipner allows
us to explore the complete text (and its vari-
ants), ponder its place in Bankim’s larger
corpus, and tackle the question of Bankim’s
perspective on Hindu–Muslim communalism.
Lipner seeks nuance where others have not. His
fairness notwithstanding, his translation does
reveal certain chilling ways that the text
encodes “the future in the past” (to use his own
phrase). If there is any complaint, it may be that
at just 100 pages, Bankim’s novel is almost lost
inside Lipner’s expansive framework. With a
120-page introduction and nearly 50 pages of
critical apparatus, this is almost 2 books in 1: a
translation and a critical study of the text.
Highly recommended for undergraduate and
graduate libraries.
Brian A. Hatcher
Illinois Wesleyan University
UNTOUCHABLE SAINTS: AN INDIAN
PHENOMENON. Edited by Eleanor Zelliot
and Rohini Mokashi-Punekar. New Delhi:
Manohar, 2005. Pp. 285. Rs. 750.00, ISBN 81-
7304-644-1.
The editors of this volume have brought
together a number of fine essays on untouch-
able saints from three linguistic areas (Tamil,
Marathi, and Hindi). Known for their devo-
tional songs and the later accounts of their lives,
some of these saints are widely revered (e.g.,
Ravidas, Tirupan Alvar), others less so (e.g., the
female relatives of Chokhamela). The editors
have to “tried to keep away from theoretical
discussions” in the hopes of gaining a wider
readership, and most of their authors have writ-
ten accessible essays that will inform the aver-
age reader about the lives and songs of these
extraordinary saints. The problem with avoid-
ing theory, however, is that a number of critical
questions go unanswered. How do we approach
issues of extreme inequality when dealing with
these saints from the bottom of the social hier-
archy, especially when some of them are either
silent about their status or accept that they
deserve their fate because of past sins? This
demands theorizing, and the fact that primary
texts are included alongside of, and not distin-
guished from, the secondary texts of the vol-
ume, might confuse the undergraduate inclined
to read the collection as an occasion for a sim-
plistic self-congratulation and a moralistic con-
demnation. Carefully read, however, this book
serves to expand our knowledge of the heritage
of these saints at a time when interest in subal-
tern voices is at its peak.
James W. Laine
Macalester College
East Asia
BEING BUDDHIST IN A CHRISTIAN
WORLD: GENDER AND COMMUNITY
IN A KOREAN AMERICAN TEMPLE. By
Sharon A. Suh. Seattle: University of Washing-
Religious Studies Review / 209
ton Press, 2004. Pp. ix + 240. $35.00, ISBN 0-
295-98378-7.
Suh’s book is an important contribution to
the study of Buddhist culture in America. Based
on two years of research at Los Angeles’ Kwan
Um Sa (called “Sa Chal” in the book), it pro-
vides an important counterbalance to studies on
Korean Christians in the United States by
emphasizing the roles that ethnicity, gender,
and community identity play in shaping the
lives of Korean Buddhists. The strength of
Suh’s book is not a description of contemporary
Buddhist practice but of how Korean American
Buddhists deploy select Buddhist beliefs and
their own interpretation of American ideals in
attempting to make meaning out of their lives
as ethnic and religious minorities. While more
carefully argued and nuanced than this sweep-
ing summary might suggest, the book is not
without its limitations. There are recurring
themes Suh recognizes but does not fully ana-
lyze as issues of dissonance. For example,
while some Buddhists appreciate the anonym-
ity of temple worship and the nonintrusive
manner of the monk leaders, others lament the
lack of lay positions and outreach programs for
members offered by Christian churches. Suh
interprets this in the context of gender, suggest-
ing that the few men desire positions out of the
need for social recognition, but the issue
appears more complicated because temple
members of different ages, as well as genders,
have different visions of what they would like
their community to be. Limitations aside, Suh’s
book is a great starting point for conversation
on the shaping of Buddhist identity in America.
Richard D. McBride, II
Washington University
RITUAL PRACTICE IN MODERN
JAPAN: ORDERING PLACE, PEOPLE,
AND ACTION. By Satsuki Kawano. Hono-
lulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005. Pp. 115
+ illus. Cloth, $42.00, ISBN 978-0-8248-2877-
6; paper, $17.00, ISBN 978-0-8248-2934-6.
This short but meticulously researched
monograph begins with the premise, which has
become an orthodoxy in contemporary scholar-
ship, that Japanese religiosity emphasizes what
I. Reader has called “the primacy of action”
over belief. What follows is a case study of
rituals and festival events of the citizens of
Kamakura, a city that is interesting not only
because of its rich history dating back to medi-
eval times, but also because of its modern
transformation into an urbanized resort and
tourist attraction. Against those who would
argue that Kamakura provides yet another
example of how Japan is becoming increas-
ingly secularized, Kawano argues that
Kamakura’s ritual life remains alive and well
and provides a wealth of evidence to support
this. Ritual practices, from the individual wor-
ship of kami, Buddhas, and ancestors, to
“everyday environments” (e.g., the house as a