Academic literature on the topic 'Mathura (India: District)religious life and customs'

Most of the visitors (pilgrims in the majority) and the dwellers (mostly Hindus) perform some sorts of rituals at varying degrees and become involved in the religious activities to gain solace or soul healing. Of course, as sidetrack visitors also perform other activities of recreation and side-show. However, these are the marginal activities. It is obviously noted that personality of pilgrims and dwellers in the context of economic, social, cultural, job status, and perspective of life, has a direct effect on the nature of environmental sensitivity to its sacred landscapes and mythologies that support and make them alive. Ongoing rituals, continuous performances of Ramalila in the evening, pilgrimages and auspicious glimpses to the divine images, and associated happenings together make the whole are a part of the sacred environment. These are categorised within the frame of responsive perception, testing Kevin Lynch’s scale of imageability represented with the five elements, viz. path, edge, node, district, and landmark. The perceptual survey of dwellers and pilgrims are codified into a composite cognitive map that reflects the generalised images of various behavioural attributes that fit the cultural and natural landscapes of the city; this is similar to other holy cities of north India like Varanasi, Mathura, and Chitrakut.

Son Koli, Macchimar Koli, Christian Koli, Vaiti Koli and Mangela Koli are fishermen by profession. Their main occupation is fishing. They are found along the North Konkan coast from Vasai, near Mumbai city to Ratnagiri district in south of Maharashtra.Generations of these Kolis have been in the fishing occupation as their sole profession for survival. In spite of being settled in and around Mumbai city, which prides in calling itself the first metropolitan city of India, the Koli community has still retained the core of their traditional culture. They still distinguish themselves from the rest of the population in their customs and habits, and their social and religious life. This is largely due to their collective dependency on their only profession of fishing.During the last two decades there has been rapid commercialization of fishing and related business activities like procurement, supply chain, and vending of the fishery products. Commercial fishing involving large corporations having license and territory demarcation use mechanized fishing using trawlers for catch. Also the profession has been infiltrated by other communities who had so far never been in this traditional profession. All these and many other socio-economic factors which have emerged lately have resulted in several challenges being posed for the Koli community of Bombay.This research paper intends to highlight the past, the present and the future challenges that the Koli community faces at the thresholds of development and globalization.

The Sarartha-varsini is an orthodox Guariya vaisnava commentary on the Bhagavad-gita. This research project aimed to use the text of the Sarartha-varsini as the starting point for an investigation into the Gauriya sect around the time of its composition. The project began by establishing a scholarly edition of the text with the aid of extant manuscripts and available printed editions. A critical edition and translation of the first three chapters are presented in the appendix. As the project progressed, interesting archival material surfaced, and the relationship of the sect with the state of Amber/Jaipur became the focus. The role of Gauriya religious dignitaries in religious debate in Jaipur was investigated, and the issue of sectarian affiliation emerged as an issue for which the text if the Sarartha-varsini was particularly illuminating. Joseph O’Connell and Klaus Klostermaier had done fine academic research on works by the same author and had even touched on this work. Nevertheless, a large amount of groundwork remained to be done to ascertain basic issues such as names, dates, claims of authorship, and other biographical details. Section One and Two of this dissertation review previous scholarship and tradition on these issues and provide new insights from textual analysis and archival investigation. With regard to the politico-religious milieu in Rajasthan, V.S. Bhatnagar, Monika Horstman and Irfan Habib had already performed significant archival research and published extremely useful findings. My study therefore greatly assisted in this area, and this dissertation was able to build on the very solid foundation established by these fine scholars. This study contains reference to many archival documents already published by them, and it introduces a good deal of previously unpublished archival records. Of particular interest are the new records regarding the influence of Visvanatha Cakravarti, Krnadeva Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, and Baladeva Vidyabhusana. Section Three combines old and new material to create for the first time a ‘historical’ snapshot of these Gauriya dignitaries and the politico-religious issues of their times. The analysis of the sectarian influences on the text of the Sarartha-varsini (Section 4) brings together the historical issues of the era and the edited text. This section provides clear empirical analysis on the sectarian affiliation of the sect in matters of doctrine. The textual evidence clearly indicates that the Gauriya-Madhva affiliation was merely an ‘official’ stance. Evidence from the text points to a much stronger doctrinal allegiance to Sridhara Swami and the Bhagavata-purana. The Bhagavad-gita commentary has provided an invaluable common platform from which to compare the Gauriya sect with other established sects and important commentators.