ABSTRACT
As an Indologist who was rather inexperienced in field research, I entered the field (the South Indian temple town Kāñcipuram) with some Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) money in my pocket — but suddenly found myself having many expenses for ritual gifts I could not reimburse with the DFG. Thus, saris, dhotis, fruits etc., had to be brought along with my visits and requests for interviews to the diverse ritual specialists I met. Retrospectively I also discovered that my vastradāna (giving traditional clothes) to all the employees and hereditary office holders in the Varadarāja temple had opened many doors which would have remained locked for a long time otherwise. At the same time, I myself was also showered with saris, blouse pieces, mañjanam, and other items suitable to be given as token of respect to a married woman. This way I was first personally confronted with a South Indian system of ritual economy, and then with the difficulties of translating this into a Western research grant economy, which had allowed me to do my research in Kāñcipuram. UH
