The Ayodhya decision and Marwari mercantile patronage: materializing a devotional geography for Rāma through Hanumān
Issued Date
2023-01-01
Resource Type
ISSN
09584935
eISSN
1469364X
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85168907136
Journal Title
Contemporary South Asia
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Contemporary South Asia (2023)
Suggested Citation
Saul R.J. The Ayodhya decision and Marwari mercantile patronage: materializing a devotional geography for Rāma through Hanumān. Contemporary South Asia (2023). doi:10.1080/09584935.2023.2229756 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/89631
Title
The Ayodhya decision and Marwari mercantile patronage: materializing a devotional geography for Rāma through Hanumān
Author(s)
Author's Affiliation
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Abstract
This article argues that even as the legal dispute over the Ram Janmabhumi site remained unresolved for decades, an unimpeded surge in Marwari mercantile financing of new temples for Hanumān, Rāma’s most celebrated devotee, provided the material foundation for a nationwide space exalting Rāma through the worship of Hanumān. Living in the pan-Indian urban diaspora and tracing descent to Rajasthan, Marwari merchants coalesced into devotional organizations dedicated to Hanumān and allied Vaiṣṇava deities (such as Rāma and Kṛṣṇa), initially centered on shrines in Rajasthan itself, from the 1980s on–coeval with the Ram Janmabhumi movement’s escalation. Marwaris had long been known as philanthropists for various social causes, but this article suggests that their philanthropy had evolved by the 1990s. Since the destruction of the Babri mosque at that time, Marwaris funded numerous new temples for Hanumān, in which Rāma was of course also revered. Some Marwaris assumed advisory roles in Hindu activist groups, seemingly embracing a commitment to restore canonical Hindu values eroded by centuries of foreign rule and modern caste politics. This article thus looks at Marwari patronage of deities’ temples as anticipating a post-2019 Ayodhya verdict Hindu devotional geography.