Religious Festivals in South India and Sri Lanka

Exciting celebrations in special time, religious festivals are more than color­ful public spectacles. They are mirrors and windows in and through which a full range of human values and concerns – whether religious, aesthetic, social, economic and political – can be seen. In this volume, twelve scholars explore various dimensions of meaning in some of the many festivals that are vigorously conducted in South India and Sri Lanka. Approaching their subjects from several interdisciplinary per­spectives, the authors base their descriptions and interpretations on primary sources: literary documents, their own first-hand observations, and, frequently, a productive combination of textual and contextual data. The essays included to unravel the technical intricacies and symbolisms of festival calendars; analyze representative festival cycles; and vividly describe and comment on individual festival performances – from the spectacular Citra Festivals in Madurai, Mahasivaratri, Asa_la Perahäras at Kataragama and Kandy to less familiar instances of village festivals, temple festival drama, and festive ritual art forms. Collectively, these essays document some of the richness of festival performances in certain parts of South Asia. Further, through the questions that are posed and the answers that are given in them, they suggest fruitful ways of reconsidering the significance of religious festivals, wherever they are observed.