Heber, Reginald. Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Prov-
inces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824–1825, vol. 2.
Philadelphia, 1828. A record of his diary, the second volume
contains Bishop Heber’s encounter with Sahajanand Swami
in March 1825. The Bishop’s conversation with the “Hin-
doo reformer” as well as his descriptions of the meeting have
been deployed by the Swaminarayan movement as proof of
its founder’s impact on the colonial presence in Gujarat. As
a historical record, this diary confirms the positive impres-
sion that the original Swaminarayan movement and its
founder made on a Christian emissary and his countrymen.
Kim, Hanna Hea-Sun. “Being Swaminarayan: The Ontology and
Significance of Belief in the Construction of a Gujarati Dias-
pora.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York, 2001.
An ethnographic exploration of the Bochasanwasi Shri Ak-
shar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha based on fieldwork
conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, and India.
Looks at the ways in which followers think about and partici-
pate in Swaminarayan devotionalism and draws closer atten-
tion to female followers and their engagement with Swami-
narayan prescriptions of behavior. Provides comprehensive
bibliography for BAPS publications.
Monier-Williams, Monier. “The Vaishn:ava Religion, with Special
Reference to the S ́iksha ̄-Pa ̄tr ̄ı of the Modern Sect called
Sva ̄mi-Na ̄ra ̄yan:a.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great
Britain and Ireland, n.s., 14 (1882): 289–316. Written after
Monier-Williams, Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford,
had toured the Gujarat region in 1875. Though its language
and tone are reflective of the author’s Orientalist perspective,
this article does contain an early portrait of the Vadtal
Swaminarayan ga ̄dd ̄ı during a Hindu new year celebration.
Monier-Williams, Monier, ed. “Sanskrit Text of the S ́iksha ̄-Pa ̄tr ̄ı
of the Sva ̄mi-Na ̄ra ̄yan:a Sect.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic So-
ciety of Great Britain and Ireland, n.s., 14 (1882): 733–772.
Includes the full Sanskrit text of the Shikshapatri given to
Monier-Williams by the a ̄ca ̄rya of the Vadtal ga ̄dd ̄ı in 1875.
Also includes Monier-Williams’s English translation, which,
when compared to the English translations by the sects in the
Swaminarayan movement, reveals striking elisions and differ-
ing transliterations.
Mukta, Parita. “The Public Face of Hindu Nationalism.” Ethnic
and Racial Studies 23, no. 3 (May 2000): 442–466, argues
that diasporic Hindus in the United Kingdom are fostering
religious nationalism through temples and temple-sponsored
activities. Polemical in tone, the article critiques the activities
of the London BAPS temple.
Pocock, David. Mind, Body, and Wealth: A Study of Belief and
Practice in an Indian Village. Oxford, 1973. An incisive eth-
nographic look at various Hindu sects in Gujarat. Included
is an introduction to the original Swaminarayan community,
its founder, and its central texts. This book is notable for its
early effort to refrain from using the word religion in order
to avoid an artificial separation of Hindu practices from
other areas of social life.
Pocock, David. “Preservation of the Religious Life: Hindu Immi-
grants in England.” Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s.,
10, no. 2 (1976): 341–365. An ethnographic encounter with
the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan
Sanstha community in London, this is useful for its observa-
tions of BAPS in its early diasporic formation. Certain points
are remarkably prescient and others, when combined with
more recent data (cf. Kim, 2001), underscore the transfor-
mative capacity of this community, most notably reflected in
profound changes in the role of women.
Shukla, Sandhya. “Building Diaspora and Nation: The 1991
‘Cultural Festival of India’.” In Cultural Studies 11, no. 2
(1997): 296–315. Pointed critique of diasporic South Asians
and their modes of identity and ethnicity-making. Article di-
rects attention to the BAPS-sponsored “Cultural Festival of
India,” the first national event for the American Swami-
narayan community.
Williams, Raymond Brady. Religion of Immigrants from India and
Pakistan: New Threads in the American Tapestry. Cambridge,
U.K., 1988. Provides a closer look at Gujarati Swaminarayan
communities in the United States, including the original
Swaminarayan and Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam
Swaminarayan Sanstha sects.
Williams, Raymond Brady. An Introduction to Swaminarayan
Hinduism. Cambridge, U.K., 2001. A revised and updated
version of an earlier text, A New Face of Hinduism: The
Swaminarayan Religion, Cambridge, U.K., 1984. The most
comprehensive and accessible English-language source by a
non-Swaminarayan devotee on the history and religious phi-
losophy of the Swaminarayan movement. Contains a wealth
of details particularly with respect to the administration and
organization of the dominant Swaminarayan sects. This
focus, which is necessarily a male one owing to the gender
segregation in the lay and religious hierarchy, is enriched by
Williams’s first-hand interviews with the male religious lead-
ership in the major sects of the Swaminarayan movement.
Primary materials and websites
Texts and other printed materials by the founder, principal reli-
gious leaders, and followers of the Swaminarayan Movement
are generally available outside of India at the larger temples
connected to the different Swaminarayan sects. Though all
sects use the same core texts (e.g., Vachanamritam, Shiksha-
patri), translations reflect their sectarian orientation. In addi-
tion to books and other published media, the web sites for
the two largest Swaminarayan sects offer explanatory essays
and updates on current temple and community activities.
The web site for the original Swaminarayan ga ̄dd ̄ıs is
http://www.moksha.akshardham.org. The web site for the Bocha-
sanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha is
http://www.swaminarayan.org.
HANNA H. KIM (2005)SWAMI VIVEKANANDA SEE VIVEKANANDA
SWANS. Related to the elements of both air and water,
the swan is a symbol of breath, spirit, transcendence, and
freedom. In many religious traditions it is interchangeable
with the goose or duck in signifying the soul. Swans connote
both death beneath the waters and rebirth, or victory over
death, in the air. The complexity of the symbol is reflected
in its alchemical representation as the union of opposites, the
mystic center.SWANS 8893