ABSTRACT
I have been observing the religious behaviour of individuals, groups and institutions from a sociological perspective since I became a student of sociology at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1951. I have observed it in several different parts of the country, but more intensively in Gujarat and Delhi, in a variety of settings: villages (including so-called tribal villages); towns and cities; small as well as large temples; and domestic as well as public rituals. I used these empirical observations in a systematic analysis for the fi rst time when M.N. Srinivas and I jointly wrote an article on Hinduism for an encyclopaedia in 1968.1 The present essay is an attempt to carry forward some of the ideas expressed in that piece as well as to examine the literature on sects. While I am fully aware of the limitations of my experience and of my reading of the literature, I have a few general arguments to offer.
