Locating religion within Bhakti performance practice: A study of Sri Krishna Parijatha of North Karnataka

Abstract

Religious rituals have often been traced to their origins in structured performances on the one hand, while on the other, trends in secularization of performance have also been studied. The larger inquiry, within the scope of this paper, relates to the possibility of situation of religious trends through an analysis of the origin and development of performative practices. The paper attempts to historically situate the performance practice of Sri Krishna Parijatha of North Karnataka within the regional, as well as, the larger corpus of Bhakti performance practices, so as to locate the development of the movement over time. The central hypothesis remains that Sri Krishna Parijatha, as a performance practice, emerges out of specific historical, religious and cultural contexts, and a change in these contexts stimulates a state of flux within the performative tradition itself, which is best foregrounded through an understanding of its changing effects on its audiences.