ABSTRACT
Sustaining a Hindu universe at an everyday life level requires an extra ordinary range of religious specialists and ritual paraphernalia. Historically, this has been a challenge for Hindu communities located outside India. Not unexpectedly a ‘diasporic’ location has produced a variety of local responses to this need, including some highly innovative and creative ones. At the level of practice, Hinduism is an embodied religion and grounded in a materiality, that makes the presence of specific physical objects (which carry an immense ritual and symbolic load) an indispensable part of its religious practices. In Singapore, expressions of Hinduism are visible in different societal domains: public places of worship (in Agamic temples and ‘shrines’), household worship and the realm of festival Hinduism. In all of these locations, the performance of daily and calendrical practices sees reliance upon a number of crucial ritual objects and services. Traditionally, both services and objects required for worship were provided and produced by caste groupings and jati(s) that were charged with these responsibilities and the entire endeavour carried spiritual and scared connotations. The almost sacred connection between caste and occupation/profession has been severed not just in the Hindu Diaspora but in India itself, particularly in urban spaces. As such, skills and responsibilities for supporting Hindu worship (originally carried by specific caste communities) have been gradually transferred into ‘other’ secular, hands. In the Hindu context, this severing has been crucial for the commercialization of this domain and the commodification of ritual objects.
