This volume contains fifteen articles by eminent Indian and European scholars describing and analyzing various aspects of folk culture in South Asia. The principal emphasis?is?on?folk?religion,?including?both?ritual?performances?and?oral?texts.

The articles cover a wide spectrum of regional traditions, ranging from Kerala and Karnataka in the southwest to Nepal and the Himalayas in the northeast, and a stunning variety of materials, including ball games, oral poetry, a ritual hunt, ghost and deity possession, and the traditions of itinerant genealogists. Several major themes typical of Indian folk religion bind the different articles together. Among these themes are references to a royal and martial paradigm for understanding divinity, and?an?emphasis?on?the god’s?immediate?presence,?in?possession?and?in?ritual.

Papers included are – Part I: King Kha]n]doba’s hunt and his encounter with B?n?i, the shepherdess; Ritual rivalry in Kerala; performing possession: ritual and con-sciousness in the Teyyam complex of Northern Kerala; T?i Parad?vata; a goddess and her ritual impersonation in the Teyyam tradition of Kerala; Siva under refuse: the hidden Mah?deva and protective stones in Nepal: On Himalayan ball games, head-hunting , and related matters; God, ghosts and demons: possession in South Asia; Part II: The genres of Tu_lu folk-poetry: an introduction; Kannal?ye: the place of a Tu_lu p?]ddana among interrelated oral traditions; Text variability and authenticity in the Siri cut; Avat?ra, avenger, and king; narrative themes in the R?jasth?n? oral epic of Devnar?y?]n; The episode of the golden ?iva image in the Baga_r?vat; Itinerant Vai]s]navite genealogists of the Ganges basin; Nas?ruddin and ?din?th, Niz?muddin and K?niphn?th; Hindu-Muslim religious syncretism in the folk literature of the Deccan;?The?king?and?the?tribal?bard:?patterns?of?protest?by?two?minorities.