Tradition in Transition: Globalisation, Priests, and Ritual Innovation in Neighbourhood Temples in Bangalore

Abstract

This paper focuses upon the nature and function of ritual in neighbourhood temples in Bangalore city in South India. The paper examines how modified rituals are created by entrepreneur priests as ‘strategies of engagement’ ostensibly to make Hinduism more accessible to an emergent class of devotee. I analyze three distinct ‘strategies’: the incorporation of technology into forms of worship in neighbourhood temples, and the meaning both of the acquisition and use of the technology; the use of new international and national imagery in traditional alankara (dressing of the deity), and the construction of a nationalist/cosmopolitan imagery; and the ‘recycling’ of traditional folk village deities to cater to the new demands of the contemporary urban middle class devotee base.

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