• Preface


• Acknowledgements


• Abbreviations


• Introduction


• 1. The Inception of a Ritual Category


• 2. The Ritual Culture of Appeasement


• 3. Varahamihira's Astrological Ritualism


• 4. Kingship in a Portentous Age


• 5. Signs in the Gods, Gods in the Pots


• 6. Ritual Change and the Problem of Presence


• Conclusion


• Appendices


• Glossary


• Bibliography

Marko Geslani is Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and Premodern South Asian Religions at Emory University.

Rites of the God-King offers a critical revision of mainstream Hinduism from the perspective of the life of a single ritual from medieval India. Drawing theoretical connections to modern ethnographies, it raises questions about the nature of kingship and priesthood, image-worship, and ritual change.