Religion and Making of a Region (A Study of Santal Parganas)

About The Book

The present book, “Religion and Making of a Region: A Study of Santal Parganas” is a collection of the improved version of the author’s earlier published research papers on the theme. The data collected during his field research work has been utilized here to articulate his postulations. The author has also utilized the findings of the latest research works of different scholars working in this field.

In this study, the role played by the Baidyanath Cult in the development of the regional culture of the Santal Parganas has been studied. The study of the Baidyanath Cult also reflects the process of the interaction, amalgamation and integration of various diverse traditions of Indian socio-cultural life. Thus the study of the Santal Parganas region of the modern Jharkhand province of India tries to test and underline the hypothesis that there does exist a unique relationship between “Religion” and “Region” in the Indian sub-continent. Needless to say that apart from highlighting the integrative feature of religion, reconstructing history in chronological order of the region of Santal Parganas has been explored in the present study of the Baidyanath Cult. Hence, the author has tried to identify and establish the relationship between religion; the Baidyanath Cult and the making of a region; the Santal Parganas in the present work.
The author claims that this work may be regarded as a pioneering work of the field since the twin themes of the Baidyanath Cult and the emergence of Santal Parganas as a distinct geocultural region have been studied for the first time in this book.

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