Digital Hinduism

Xenia Zeiler is Associate Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research is situated at the intersection of digital media, religion and culture in India and the worldwide Indian community. Other foci are Digital Humanities (with a focus on video games) and Tantric traditions. She is author of numerous articles and book chapters on digital and mediatized Hinduism and co-edited several volumes and special journal issues, including Mediatized Religion in Asia (Routledge 2019) and Methods for Researching Video Games and Religion (Routledge 2018).

• List of figures List of tablesList of contributors Introduction: Digital Hinduism: Studying Hinduism at the intersections of digital media and culture XENIA ZEILERPART 1Who belongs? Identity and finding one’s place 1 Whats(up) with Hinduism? Digital culture and religionamong Bengali Hindus APARAJ I TA DE AND RAJIB NANDI2 Hindu religious identification in India’s online matrimonial market FRITZI-MARIE TITZMANN3 Automatic rituals and inadvertent audiences: ISKCON, Krishna and the ritual mechanics of Facebook N ICOLE KARAPANAGIOTIS4 Cultural regrouping in the diaspora: Mediating Hindu identity online JULI L. GITTINGERPART 2Who defines? Authority and appropriation5 Authors, self-fashioning and online cultural production inthe age of Hindu celevision PRAMOD K. NAYAR6 Instagram your Durga Puja! Social media, hashtags and state-sponsored cultural marketing DHEEPA SUNDARAM7 Sāṃkhyayoga and the Internet: The website of a contemporary Hindu monastic institution KNUT A. JACOBSEN8 Mediatized gurus: Hindu religious and artistic authorityand digital culture HANNA MANNILA AND XENIA ZEILERPART 3Who debates? Contest and negotiation 9 The Internet: A new marketplace for transacting pūjā items VINEETA SINHA 10 Taming Hindu Śakta Tantra on the Internet: Online pūjāsfor the goddess Tripurasundarī SRAVANA BORKATAKY-VARMA11 New media and spiritualism in India: Understanding online spiritualism in convergence cultures JESNA JAYACHANDRAN Streaming the divine: Hindu temples’ digital journeys YAEL LAZA RPART 4 Critical reflection Reflections on digital Hinduism: Sacred images, dominant Hindu narratives and the generational digital divide H EI NZ SCHEI FINGERIndex