Journey Through the Twelve Forests

Book excerpt: "A lively account of the Ban Yatra, a circular pilgrimage that takes place in the northern Indian land of Braj, this anthropological chronicle offers an appealing mixture of personal anecdote, religious theory, Indian history, and tales of the gods. Based on personal experience in the field, a combination of primary sources in Sanskrit, Hindi, and Bengali--many never before translated into Western languages--and a wide range of secondary literature, Haberman places the pilgrimage in its cultural and historical context. He interweaves his account with retellings of the tales of Krishna, perhaps the most popular of Indian deities and the entity around which the journey revolves. In the process, Haberman explores the effects of the Ban-Yatra upon its participants and weighs its particular implications for current theories about pilgrimage in general. The first thorough study of this kind of cyclical Hindu pilgrimage, Journey through the Twelve Forests will interest any student of South Asian culture and pilgrimage."--Back cover.