Veda on Parade: Revivalist Ritual as Civic Spectacle

Abstract

An analysis is presented of a month-long Vedic ritual performance undertaken in 1992 by holy man Ranganath Selukar Maharaj in rural Maharashtra, examining its ritual structure, the rhetoric of religious reform and national welfare, and the appeal made by both the ritual's organizers and its opponents to the authority of science and «modern rationalism». The analysis of the event's ritual structure introduces the concept of «spectacle», which is defined as a form of public, ceremonial action that frames the ritual actions and thus endows these fixed, «classical» elements with a local and contemporary significance. The spectacle, besides arousing public interest, makes explicit the ideology implied in the present ritual performance and dramatizes the social alignments between the ritual agents and the other participants.