Dancing Bodies of Devotion

Katherine C. Zubko is assistant professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Asheville.

• Part I: Religious BodiesChapter 1: Rasa: A Taste of the DivineChapter 2: Balasaraswati and Krishna Ni Begane BaroChapter 3: Francis Barboza and Christian ThemesConclusion: Bhakti Rasa: A Re-Personalized Aesthetic of DevotionPart II: Cultural Bodies Chapter 4: Rasa and Bhakti as Indian CategoriesChapter 5: Dhananjayans’ Sanghamitra Chapter 6: Kalai Kaviri’s Gayatri MantraConclusion: Is there an Indian way of dancing devotion? Part III: Ethical BodiesChapter 7: Na?ya as Visual Education and the Ethics of RasaChapter 8: Dhananjayans’ Stree (Woman) Chapter 9: Monica Cooley’s Subhasitam: Morality Tales of India and Bhagavad Gita SabdamConclusion: An Ethics of Bhakti Rasa: Performance of a Moral Mood Part IV: Pluralistic BodiesChapter 10: Unity and Multiplicity of RasaChapter 11: Malini Srinivasan and Sufi QawwaliChapter 12: Tehreema Mitha and Ratt Jaga (The Vigil) Conclusion: Revisiting “Unity in Diversity”ConclusionGlossaryIllustrated Glossary of Gestures

Zubko argues for Bhakti rasa (aesthetic flavor of devotion) in the classical Indian dance form bharata natyam, and suggests, through ethnographic examples, that there are multiple ways of embodying and communicating this devotional mood. The author's expertise in dance (as well as religion) is evident, and she points out how a dance associated with Hinduism is, in fact, also used to communicate non-Hindu--but definitively Indian--ideas and emotions. For nonexperts, the glossaries of terms and gestures will be useful and necessary. . . .For connoisseurs of this dance form, dance descriptions provide an opportunity to experience the rasa without seeing (or perhaps by imagining) the performance. . . .[The author] includes vignettes of her research experiences. She moves from one of bharata natyam's most celebrated exponents, Balasaraswati, to the much less-known Tehreema Mitha, categorizing performances as primarily devotional, educational, or cultural. In a final section she discusses what she calls 'performed pluralism,' echoing arguments about India's 'unity in diversity' and 'the one and the many.' Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; professionals.