Girls: life cycles of, 17; Sanskrit school
for, 180. See alsoBrides
Gitagovinda, 102
Gitananda, Swami, 180
Gobardhan: Divalifestival, 105, 111n3,
112n16
God: female incarnations of, 173, 179;
gender of, 181; lilaof, 130, 136; om-
nipresence of, 131; patriarchal images
of, 173; pratyaksha deivam, 219, 222;
transcendence of, 203; within, 190–91
Goddesses, Hindu: attributes of, 158;
lunar cycle worship, 165; manifesta-
tions of, 161, 162; multiplicity of, 173;
worship of, 173–74. See alsoDeities,
Hindu
Goddess possession, 20, 158–68; artiin,
166; dynamics of, 160–68; encourage-
ment of, 164; legitimacy tests for,
167–68; in little tradition, 164; of mar-
ried women, 167; in nonritual context,
164; in northwest India, 160; periodic,
165; playing form of, 162–65, 168;
prasadain, 166; predisposition for,
167; pujain, 166; reasons for, 167; rela-
tion of identity in, 160; semantics of,
160–68; wind form, 162–63, 165
Gorakhnath (yogi), 202
Gosvamin priests: Bengali, 107
Goswami, Shrivatsa, 16
Goswamis, 107; Six, 55
Govardhan. SeeGobardhan
Govil, Arun, 145, 151
Govindalilamrtam, 59; performance of, 56
Guha: in Ramlilasof Ramnagar, 127
Guha, Ranajit, 282
Gupta, Sita, 178
Guru Bagh (Banaras), 202
Gurus: charisma of, 21; darshanof, 21; of-
ferings to, 79
Hair symbolism, 163
Hallstrom, Lisa, 21; Mother of Bliss, 177
Hamid, Shahul: dargahof, 25, 266–70;
descendants of, 268
Hanuman (monkey deity): devotion to
Ram, 215n12; in Divali festival, 92,
93, 94; iconography of, 44; miracle at
Babri Mosque, 260; in New Year’s
celebrations, 1–2, 3; in ramlilas, 19,
118, 127; in televised Ramayana,
152
Hare Krishna movement, 289; establish-
ment of, 2
Haricand, King, 163
Harnakas (demon king), 99, 111n2
Harnam (teacher), 208
Hatri(earthenware), 94, 97
Hawley, John, 23, 25
Heimann, Betty, 48–49, 51–52
Henotheism, 211, 212
Hershman, Paul, 163
Hess, Linda, 19
Hillman, James, 47
Hinduism: alternative histories of, 277;
American Hindus’ knowledge of,
243–44; apathy concerning, 284;
bhakti, 15–16, 201–5, 210, 212; bias
concerning, 291; binarism with non-
Hinduism, 289–90; Brahminical, 206;
Christian critics of, 22; coherence
within, 11; commonalities in, 11–16;
continuity in, 249; contributions to
world, 253; cosmology, 14, 51, 278; de-
votional life of, 9; diversity in, 9,
47–48; divine play in, 163, 168, 169n7;
doctrine in, 12; emic/etic studies of,
279–80; English texts on, 10, 27n5; fu-
ture of, 23–24; generic, 244; harmony
in, 250; for Hindus, 271–85; identity
in, 141; indigenism in, 281; individual-
ity in, 250; individual sacraments in,
104; liberal study of, 293; lived, 16, 22,
24; local expressions of, 22; militant,
24–25, 257–65; misrepresentation of,
26, 284; monasticism in, 76–87;