Religious Authority in South Asia: Generating the Guru

This book focuses on genealogies of religious authority in South Asia, examining the figure of the guru in narrative texts, polemical tracts, hagiographies, histories, in contemporary devotional communities, New Age spiritual movements and global guru organizations.

Experts in the field present reflections on historically specific contexts in which a guru comes into being, becomes part of a community, is venerated, challenged or repudiated, generates a new canon, remains unique with no clear succession or establishes a succession in which charisma is routinized. The guru emerges and is sustained and routinized from the nexus of guruship, narratives, performances and community. The contributors to the book examine this nexus at specific historical moments with all their elements of change and contingency.

The book will be of interest to scholars in the field of South Asian studies, the study of religions and cultural studies.

István Keul is Professor in the Study of Religions at the University of Bergen, Norway. His areas of research include various aspects of the history and sociology of South Asian religions. He is the author of a monograph on the Hindu deity Hanuman and has edited volumes on tantra, Yoginis, Banaras and consecration rituals, and recently "Spaces of Religion in Urban South Asia" (2021, Routledge).

Srilata Raman is Professor of Hinduism in the Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Canada. Her monographs include Self-Surrender (Prapatti) to God in Śrīvaiṣṇavism (2007, Routledge) and The Transformation of Tamil Religion: Ramalinga Swamigal and Modern Dravidian Sainthood (2022, Routledge). In addition, she has co-authored two edited volumes and published numerous articles on Tamil religion with a special focus on Śrīvaiṣṇavism and the Tamil Śaivasiddhānta.□