ABSTRACT
The article examines the Hindu term pavitratā in relation to home shrines of newly arrived immigrants from India living in the United States. Respectful honouring of god’s pavitratā (sacredness) and pavitra (sacred) powers is an extremely significant part of showing Hindu devotion. I argue that within a diasporic domestic setting, pavitratā, to accommodate the domestic shrine, has to be ‘produced’, since immigrants, uncertain of their stay in the United States, rent apartments that lack a pūjā (worship) room and provide them with limited space and control over the domestic settings of their homes in a new country. This production of pavitratā is important to note, since home shrines are the recreation of the ‘objectivation’ of the sacred in a new country on a more private and personal level. Hindu domestic space abroad has received less scholarly attention and documentation compared to the more public and congregational Hindu temples in the United States. My study explores the step-by-step process in the production of pavitratā through immigrants’ use of furniture in rented apartments as temporary workers, their purchase of religious objects, and the architectural manipulation in independently owned homes after becoming permanent residents. It thus foregrounds the constantly evolving relationship of immigrants with religion on an individual level – one that is repeatedly negotiated and controlled by uncertainties such as visa status and temporary or permanent residency in the country.
