Page 272 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 12: Processes of Change

celebrate the occasion with a big sacrifice. Hundreds of volunteers are enrolled for writing the name, Notes
huge sums of money are collected, elaborate arrangements are made for the accommodation of devotees
who wish to witness the celebration, and attempts are made to involve important people including
ministers and members of the state legislatures in this activity. Local newspapers give much space to
describing the final phase of the celebration, the number of people who had gathered, the arrangements
made for their comfort, the ritual and, of course, the speeches.
Pilgrimages are very popular and enable large numbers to satisfy their religious aspirations as well
as to see the country tourist buses cater to both these needs, as they include shrines as well as objects
of tourist interest in each tour. The social and religious horizons of the people have widened
considerably; the peasants of Rampura village now regularly visit the famous Tirupati temple in
Andhra Pradesh, whereas before World War II they only visited shrines which were nearby. The
richer peasants in Rampura have visited the big pilgrimage centers in South India, such as
Rameshwaram, Madurai and Shrirangam. The urban-educated manage to visit at least once the great
pilgrimage centers of Banaras, Allahabad and Hardwar in the far north. A well-known South Indian
travel agency runs special pilgrim trains for their benefit.
Educated pilgrims are not indifferent to good accommodation, nor to food at the centers they visit.
They also do a certain amount of sightseeing and shopping on the side. Sometimes this is given as
evidence that the religious motive has become extremely weak, if not totally absent in modern
pilgrimages, and that these only provide a good excuse for travel and “patriotic sightseeing”. This
assumes among other things that the only motive in traditional pilgrimages was the religious one—
which, indeed, is questionable. For traditional pilgrimage centers were also shopping centers, and
orthodox women who returned from pilgrimages waxed eloquent about the sights they had seen, the
abundance or scarcity of vegetables and fruit, and the local price of milk and ghee.
The Brahmins of Mysore—like other Dravidian-speaking Brahmins in South India—are all traditionally
followers of one or another of the three well-known sects: Smarthas (pure Monists), Sri Vaishnavas
(qualified Monists) and Madhvas (Dualists). Each sect has a few monasteries (mathas, each presided
over by a head (mathadhipathi or swami), and traditionally the monastic head exercised control over
the conduct of his flock. Members had to be initiated into the sect by the monastic head, and when the
latter visited their town or village they showed the respect due him by performing the “pada puja”
(worshipping his feet and drinking the water used in the worship). The monastic head was the final
authority in all religious matters, including caste disputes, and a follower could appeal to him against
a decision of the caste council excommunicating or otherwise punishing him. This power of the
monastic head has fallen into disuse. Even the purificatory ritual (prayaschitta) which a returnee from
a trip abroad used to undergo has lapsed, owing to the popularity of foreign travel and the increased
secularization of Brahmins. But while the power of the monastic heads has eroded greatly, they still
command the respect and loyalty of their followers. In recent years contact between monastic heads
and the laity seems to have increased. The state governments passed land reform and other legislation
which hit the monasteries hard economically, and which have made inroads into their religious
autonomy; this has resulted in the monastic heads making greater efforts than before to cultivate
their followers. Many educated people now turn to heads of their sects for spiritual and other guidance.
New cults, built around saints, either alive or recently deceased, have come into existence in recent
years. Saibaba, a saint of modern India whose tomb is in Shirdi in Maharashtra, has a large following
in South India, and there are Saibaba prayer groups in several South Indian cities. Shirdi is a favourite
place for pilgrimage. The shrine of Ramana Maharishi at Tiruvannamalai in Madras state is also
visited, though his cult is not as popular as the Saibaba cult. Among the living gurus or teachers,
Swami Chinmayananda is very popular and his lectures attract large audiences. The Ramakrishna
Mission also provides a focus for the religious interests of many people. The rise of new cults and the
functions they fulfil are subjects that need to be studied systematically.
Singer has commented that “The effect of mass media ... has not so much secularized the sacred
traditional culture as it has democratized it.” School textbooks contain incidents from the Hindu
epics and Puranas, the lives of regional saints, and extracts from old poets whose themes are almost
always religious or moral. Journals and books contain much religious matter, and the popular
children’s story magazine Chandamama exploits the inexhaustible mine of the epics, Bhagavata, the

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