Selva J. Raj (1952–2008) was Chair and Stanley S. Kresge Professor of Religious Studies at Albion College. His books include Dealing with Deities: The Ritual Vow in South Asia, also published by SUNY Press, and South Asian Christian Diaspora: Invisible Diaspora in Europe and North America. Corinne G. Dempsey is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. She is author of Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India and The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple. Together Raj and Dempsey coedited Popular Christianity in India: Riting between the Lines and Miracle as Modern Conundrum in South Asian Religious Traditions, both also published by SUNY Press.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgments1. Introduction: Ritual Levity in South Asian TraditionsSelva J. Raj and Corinne DempseyPART 1. Laughing Inside Out: Playful Breaks with Convention 2. Serious Levity at the Shrine of St. Anne in South IndiaSelva J. Raj3. Don’t Take It Badly, It’s Holi: Ritual Levity, Society, and AgricultureA. Whitney Sanford4. Playing the Married Lady: Primary Marriage among the Newars of NepalLiz WilsonPART 2. Gods and Humans at Play: Religious Humor and Divine Intimacy 5. The "Artful Trick": Challenging Convention through Play in Upstate New YorkCorinne Dempsey and Sudharshan Durayappah6. Friendship, Humor, Levity, and Love in a Hindu Women’s Ritual TraditionTracy Pintchman7. Laughing until It Hurts... Somebody Else: The Pain of a Ritual JokeWilliam P. Harman8. Gods’ Play and the Buddha’s Way: Varieties of Levity in Contemporary Sinhala PracticeJonathan WaltersPART 3. Playing to Win: Edging Out the Competition 9. Playing with Durga in BengalRachel Fell McDermott10. Turning Karbala Inside Out: Humor and Ritual Critique in South Asian Muharram RitesAmy C. Bard11. A Catholic Charismatic Healer at Play in North IndiaMathew N. Schmalz12 ResponseJonathan Z. SmithList of ContributorsIndex

"Sacred Play should … be read by any scholar looking to consider religion and humour as a field of inquiry because it grounds humour in complex webs of social interaction that are both immediate and structurally supported and shows how humour is involved in domination by and resistance to, freedom from and captivity by, the social systems in which religious people and their traditions are embedded." — Studies in Religion