Claim and Association of Differently Located Ritual and Political Actors Associated with the Village Shrine among the Rajbansi People of Morang, Nepal

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v14i0.29997

Keywords:

dhami, jimdar, Rajbanshi, rivalry, village shrines

Abstract

This paper discusses how differently located ritual actors (Dhami) and socio-political actors or leaders (Jimdar) among the Rajbansi community link or associate themselves with the Maharaj Than to claim or legitimize their ritual and political power what Sherry Ortner (1989) calls it “to gain upper hand” in the Rajbansi society. Because the Maharaj Than possesses ʻa great virtueʼ among the Rajbansi society. Drawing on the ethnographic study of three village shrines of Morang district conducted during 2015-16 among the Rajbanshi. It further discusses how the ritual actors among the Rajbanshi people progressively lost their ritual and spiritual ‘power’ along with the advent of central state’s extractive economic policies, the changed environmental and ecological conditions of the Tarai.

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Author Biography

Bhim Prasad Rai, TU

Bhim Prasad Rai, holds M.Phil. degree in Social Anthropology from Tribhuvan University-TU (2016). He is a Ph.D. candidate at TU (2019 batch), on the theme of ‘Disaster Study’ centering on Thangpal valley, Sindhupalchok district. His Ph.D. study is funded and supported by the Fondation de France-FDF (2019-2021 A.D.), a Paris based philanthropic institution centered on natural disasters.

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Published

2020-12-29

How to Cite

Rai, B. P. (2020). Claim and Association of Differently Located Ritual and Political Actors Associated with the Village Shrine among the Rajbansi People of Morang, Nepal. Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 14, 53–60. https://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v14i0.29997

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Articles