This pilgrimage is most often taken
by men, since, according to the charter
myth, the site is forbidden to women
of childbearing age. The pilgrimage
itself is a highly structured ritual
process. Pilgrims carry out their spiri-
tual training for the journey in well-
defined village groups, each headed by
a local leader, who supervises their
strict religious discipline. Their
preparatory vows commence forty-five
to sixty days before the actual journey
begins, and entail strict celibacyand
avoiding the company of women, dis-
tinctive dress, a ban on shavingand
wearing shoes, a strict vegetarian diet,
daily worship, and the erasing of all
social and status distinctions among
members. In essence, the men training
for this pilgrimage live as renunciant
ascetics for this period and later revert
to their normal identities. The pilgrim-
age itself is an arduous and exhausting
journey over the twisted ridges of the
Periyar Hills, during which pilgrims
symbolically divest themselves of their
egos, to be filled with the graceof God.
For a first person account of the
Shabari Malai pilgrimage, see E.
Valentine Daniel, Fluid Signs, 1984.
Shabda
(“word”) In Indian philosophy, the
general term for authoritative testimo-
ny. This is generally accepted as one of
the pramanas, the means by which
human beings can gain true and accu-
rate knowledge, except by the materi-
alists, who reject all pramanas except
perception (pratyaksha). Such
authoritative testimony is of two sorts.
It most often refers to authoritative
scriptural texts, such as the Vedas, but
it can also refer to verbal instruction
given by one’s guru, which is consid-
ered to have equal authority, at least
by members of that spiritual lineage.
Shabda is an important pramana
because it tells people about those
things that the other pramanas cannot
uncover, such as the nature of the
heavens, the course of the soul after
death, proper religious life, and so
forth. With regard to the liberation of
the soul, it is often the most important
pramana, since this cannot be discov-
ered in any other way.Shabdabrahman
(“Brahman-as-sound”) This term
refers to the notion that the Supreme
Reality (Brahman) exists in its most
subtle form, not as matter, but as
sound. This idea is particularly preva-
lent in tantra, a secret, ritually based
system of religious practice, and helps
to explain the tantric stress on
mantra, or sacred sound, as the essen-
tial means through which one gains
access to this reality. In this under-
standing, the primary mantra (mula-
mantra) of one’s particular deity
would be the clearest articulation of
shabdabrahman, with other mantras
conceived as derivative forms of
that primary mantra; these latter
mantras were the source for everyday
speech and the mundane sounds of
ordinary experience.Shachi
In Hindu mythology, the wife of the god
Indra, also known as Indrani. See
Indrani.Shaddarshana
(“six perspectives”) Collective name for
the six schoolsof classical Hindu phi-
losophy. These six were usually grouped
in three pairs: Nyayaand Vaisheshika,
Samkhyaand Yoga, and Purva Mim-
amsaand Vedanta. See six schools.Shaiva
Devotee (bhakta) of the Hindu
god Shiva, who along with Vishnuis
one of the major figures in the
Hindu pantheon. From the evidence at
hand, it seems that the earliest
sectarian Shaivites were the
Kapalikas, Kalamukhas, andShaiva