Reading the medieval in the modern : the living tradition of hagiography in the Vallabh sect of contemporary Gujarat

This dissertation considers how and why a canon of medieval Hindi hagiography has continued to be significant for modern Gujarati devotees who follow the teachings of the sixteenth-century Hindu theologian Vallabhacharya. The texts in question, known as vārtās, are based on oral hagiographies of Vallabhacharya, his descendants, and their early disciples, and provide sectarian history, theology, vicarious epiphany, and examples of devotional and social conduct. In modern contexts, however, devotees do not simply read the vārtās to perpetuate didactic accounts of sectarian orthodoxy, but rather approach the narratives as negotiable grammars of tradition, which speak directly to modern, middle-class concerns. Based on archival and ethnographic research in urban Gujarat, the four chapters of this dissertation trace the various sites—including sectarian temples, private homes, courtrooms, print publications, and the Internet—in which the hagiographies have continued to be read and discussed. By considering hagiography ethnographically, this research shows how practices of individual and group reading, exegesis, and textual commentary allow for both the performance of devotion and critical negotiations between sectarian ideals inherited from the past and everyday life in the present. Drawing on theories of reading and narrative, performance, and lived religion, this case study reveals the inherent diversity of sectarian discourse, even in scripturally specific settings. This dissertation contributes to scholarship in the field of South Asian religions by considering distinct expressions of devotionalism (bhakti) in middle-class communities of modern, urban India and the enduring significance of premodern Hindu texts in contemporary contexts. More broadly, this project participates in ongoing discussions of how communities around the world continue to address current social and ethical dilemmas through the lived practices of scriptural interpretation