Solidifying Hinglaj: Striving for a Uniform Tradition

By exploring the features of the most important annual religious festival at Hinglaj, chapter 6 reveals how one local community’s version of Hinduism became hegemonic and synonymous with the “real” or the “actual” tradition of the Goddess. Utilizing the author’s own extensive ethnographic material, it describes how the increasingly plural religious landscapes at Hinglaj has not led to a democratization of interpretation of the shrine’s various traditions but rather to the solidification of one set of narratives and practices favored by the Hinglaj Sheva Mandali. Thanks to the vast institutional network attached to the local temple committee—largely composed of Lasi Lohana group members—Lohana practices at the temple have been framed and disseminated in a way that suggests their association with broader notions of progress and education. This chapter furthermore engages with the ban of animal sacrifice (Hin. bali) at Hinglaj to demonstrate how this prohibition played a significant role for solidifying a coherent tradition at the shrine.