Refiguring the Body

Barbara A. Holdrege is Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the South Asian Studies Committee at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her books include Bhakti and Embodiment: Fashioning Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies in Kṛṣṇạ Bhakti and Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture, also published by SUNY Press. Karen Pechilis is NEH Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Comparative Religion Department at Drew University. Her books include Interpreting Devotion: The Poetry and Legacy of a Female Bhakti Saint of India and The Embodiment of Bhakti.

• Introduction: Body Matters in South AsiaBarbara A. HoldregePart I. Material Bodies, Embodied Selves, and Perfected Embodiments1. Perfected Embodiment: A Buddhist-Inspired Challenge to Contemporary Theories of the BodyMichael Radich2. Body, Self, and Embodiment in the Sanskrit Classics of ĀyurvedaAnthony Cerulli3. Bodily Gestures and Embodied Awareness: Mudrā as the Bodily Seal of Being in the Trika Śaivism of KashmirKerry Martin Skora4. Bodied, Embodied, and Reflective Selves: Theorizing Performative Selfhood in South Indian PerformanceHarshita Mruthinti KamathPart II. Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies5. Observations on the Bodies of the Gods in the MahābhārataKendall Busse6. Bhakti and Embodiment: Bodies of Devotion and Bodies of Bliss in Kṛṣṇa Bhakti Barbara A. Holdrege7. To Body or Not to Body: Repulsion, Wonder, and the Tamil Saint Kāraikkāl AmmaiyārKaren Pechilis8. Bodies of Desire, Bodies of Lament: Marking Emotion in a South Indian Vaiṣṇava Messenger PoemSteven P. Hopkins Part III. Gendered and Engendering Bodies9. Defining Women’s Bodies in Indian Buddhist Monastic LiteratureCarol S. Anderson10. Murderer, Saint, and Midwife: The Gendered Logic of Engendering in Buddhist Narratives of Aṅgulimāla’s ConversionLiz Wilson11. Fruitful Austerity: Paradigms of Embodiment in Hindu Women’s Vrat PerformancesTracy PintchmanAfterword: Bodies of KnowledgeKaren PechilisContributorsIndex

"…Refiguring the Body makes for a dense but fascinating read. Scholars of Asian traditions should definitely read it, and it will probably have special appeal to scholars of yoga, dance and performing arts, as well as women's and gender studies." — Nova Religio"The sheer weight of textually and ethnographically well grounded evidence speaking to distinctive South Asian paradigms of embodiment is this volume's greatest contribution, and one that should inspire continued in-depth scholarship into both the traditions themselves and potential cross-cultural applications of their insights." — Body and Religion