List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Brian K. Pennington and Amy L. Allocco

Part I. Ritual Innovation and Political Power
1. Coronation of the Hindu King: Tradition and Innovation in Nepalese History
Nawaraj Chaulagain
2. Ritual Replacement and the Unmaking of Monarchy: Notes on Nepal's Bhot.o Jatra, 2006-2008
Anne T. Mocko
3. Innovating the Ancient, Instantiating the Urban: The South Asian Indra Festival
Michael C. Baltutis
4. Changes in Ritual Practice at the Himalayan Hindu Shrine of Kedarnath
Luke Whitmore
5. Ritual Renunciation and/or Ritual Innovation? Redescribing Advaita Tradition
Reid B. Locklin

Part II. Ritual and the Economies of Caste and Class
6. Ancestral Rites Reworked: The Transition from Solemn to Domestic Modes of Feeding the Dead
Matthew R. Sayers
7. Flower Showers for the Goddess: Borrowing, Modification, and Ritual Innovation in Tamil Nadu
Amy L. Allocco
8. Consuming Krishna: Women, Class, and Ritual Economies in Pushtimarg Vaishnavism
Shital Sharma

Part III. Ritual and the Negotiation of Gender
9. Village Widow/Town Priestess: Innovating Ritual Power in a Pilgrimage Economy
Brian K. Pennington
10. Leveraging Agency: Young Jain Women's Ritual Innovations through the Updhan Fast
M. Whitney Kelting
11. Ritual Innovation and Masculine Identity Formation in the Contemporary Cult of Lord Ayyappan
Liz Wilson

Part IV. Ritual Innovation in Contemporary Transnational Contexts
12. Dancing the Vedas, Deritualizing Theory: A Study of "The Universal Truth"
Charles S. Preston
13. Ganesha and the Chocolate Almonds: Ritual Innovation and Efficacy in Diaspora
Janet Gunn
14. Recasting Sexuality, Gender, and Family through Contemporary Canadian Ritual Innovation
Sudharshan Durayappah and Corinne G. Dempsey
Contributors
Index

Brian K. Pennington is Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University and the author of Was Hinduism Invented? Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion. Amy L. Allocco is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University.