Deogarh
Small town in the extreme southern part
of the state of Uttar Pradesh, seventy
miles south of the city Jhansi, in a part of
Uttar Pradesh almost completely
enclosed by the state of Madhya
Pradesh. It is famous as the site for one
of the few surviving temples from the
Gupta dynasty, a fifth-century temple
dedicated to Vishnuas the Dashavatar
(“Ten Incarnations”). The temple itself is
a masonry cube about twenty feet on
each side, topped by a ruined tower that
would have originally been about forty
feet high. In its modest size and square
construction, this temple shows little
resemblance to the Hindu temples of a
later age. However, it prefigures later
architecturein its magnificent carvings:
in the images carved in panels on the
side walls, around the temple’s single
door, and on friezes at the top of the
walls. The portrayal of the divine figures
in these carvings is identical to that
done centuries later, which indicates
that the images used to represent these
deitieswere already fixed at the time the
temple was built.
Deoghar
(“God’s home”) Sacred site (tirtha) in
the southeastern corner of the modern
state of Bihar, about 130 miles south-
east of the city of Patna. Deoghar is
famous throughout India as the site for a
temple to the god Shiva, in his form as
Vaidyanath, the “Lord of Physicians.”
Vaidyanath is one of the twelve jyotir-
lingas, a group of sacred sites deemed
especially holy to Shiva, and at which
Shiva is believed to be uniquely present.
Deoghar hosts an enormous religious
gathering on the festival of Shivaratri
(February—March) and during the
lunar monthof Shravan( July—August),
both of which are times deemed partic-
ularly sacred to Shiva. On both occa-
sions, pilgrims draw water from the
Gangesat Sultanganj, more than sixty
miles from Deoghar, and then walk
to Deoghar to present the water as
an offering to Shiva. This particular
observance combines devotion to God
with the willingness to suffer hardship; it
is often performed to fulfill a vow made
when asking for some divine favor. As in
many Hindu holy places, pilgrim traffic
peaks at Deoghar at certain festival
times and at other times of the year
drops off to almost nothing.Deoras, Balasaheb
(1915–1996) Third sarsanghchalak
(“Supreme Leader”) of the Rashtriya
Svayamsevak Sangh(RSS), a conserva-
tive Hindu organization whose express
purpose is to provide the leadership
cadre for a revitalized Hindu India. The
RSSis a highly autocratic organization
that lays great stress on obedience to
authority, thus the sarsanghchalak
wields virtually complete power over it.
During Deoras’s tenure from 1973 to
1994, he took a much more activist
stance than his predecessor, M.S.
Golwalkar, particularly in promoting
the growth of the RSS’s affiliate organiza-
tions, in giving the RSSan orientation to
social service, and in actively seeking to
recruit members and establish shakhas
(branches) in all parts of the country. For
further information see Walter K.
Andersen and Shridhar D. Damle, The
Brotherhood in Saffron, 1987; Tapan
Basu et al., Khaki Shorts and Saffron
Flags, 1993; and Christophe Jaffrelot,
The Hindu Nationalist Movement in
India, 1996.Deshastha
The model for traditional Indian society
was as a collection of endogamoussub-
groups known as jatis(“birth”). These
jatis were organized (and their social
status determined) by the group’s hered-
itary occupation, over which each group
had a monopoly. This sort of differentia-
tion applied even to brahmins, whose
role has been to serve as priests, schol-
ars, and teachers. The Deshastha brah-
min jati is a subset of the Maharashtri
brahmins, who were themselves one of
the five southern brahmin communitiesDeogarh