The Gurucaritra Parayan: Social Praxis of Religious Reading Lecture
October 13, 2016
The Yadunandan Center for India Studies will be presenting a lecture by Dr. Mugdha Yeolekar from Loyola Marymount University entitled “The Gurucaritra Parayan: Social Praxis of Religious Reading.”
Dr. Yeolekar addresses one of the most critical problems in the study of religion: How do scriptures acquire significance in religious communities in ways that go beyond the meaning of their words? Based on ethnographic research, she analyzes the complex relationship between a 16th century religious text and its readers in contemporary urban India. She argues that the comprehension and meaning making of the text, is enhanced in the mind of the reader in three distinct ways: the ritual praxis, the materiality of the text, and the specific context of the reader.
The Gurucaritra Parayan: Social Praxis of Religious Reading downloadable (PDF) flyer