Paper short abstract:

Discussion on the Aghor Tradition of ascetics in India.

Paper long abstract:

Treating text, either oral or written, as a narrative of life is always at once a delightful as well as a challenging effort in that one has to put on glasses to look at the text in a particular light. This is as true of marginalized communities as of hagiographical narratives. But what if the hagiographical narrative itself belonged to a marginalized section of society? Then the effort becomes doubly interesting. My paper tries to tweak out the double interest so expressed in the case of a book belonging to the Aghor tradition of ascetics in India. The title of the book is "Aghor Guru Guh" in Hindi, which can be translated as "Mysteries of the Aghor Master". This book deals with the life and teachings of Aghoreshwar Mahaprabhu Baba Bhagawan Ram ji, also known as Sarkar Baba to his devotees. He has been the most renowned Aghor ascetic of Varanasi in our times, bringing Aghor from the cremation ground into society, starting a leprosy hospital in Varanasi, and writing books on the subject of Aghor where earlier, only colonial or other kinds of somewhat skewed views existed on the subject of Aghor.