Ebook: Dealing with deities: the ritual vow in South Asia

Introduction: the deal with deities--ways vows work in South Asia / Selva J. Raj and William P. Harman -- "The vow": a short story / Shankarrao Kharat -- Negotiating relationships with the goddess / William P. Harman -- Shared vows, shared space, and shared deities: vow rituals among Tamil Catholics in South India / Selva J. Raj -- Religious vows at the Shrine of Shahul Hamid / Vasudha Narayanan -- In the company of pirs: making vows, receiving favors at Bangladeshi Sufi shrines / Sufia Uddin -- Bara: Buddhist vows at Kataragama / Sunil Goonasekera -- Performing vows in diasporic contexts: Tamil Hindus, temples, and goddesses in Germany / Martin Baumann -- Singing a vow: devoting oneself to Shiva through song / Karen Pechilis -- Monastic vows and the Ramananda Sampraday / Ramdas Lamb -- Negotiating karma, merit, and liberation: vow-taking in the Jain tradition / M. Whitney Kelting -- Vows in the Sikh tradition / Louis E. Fenech and Pashaura Singh -- When vows fail to deliver what they promise: the case of Shyamavati / Tracy Pintchman -- Two critiques of women's vows / Jack E. Llewellyn -- Toward a typology of South Asian lay vows / Selva J. Raj and William P. Harman.