Intro
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Archetypal Indra Festival
Jātrā: Politics, Violence, and Power
The Chronology of the Indra Festival and an Introduction to the Chapters
A Note on Language
Chapter One The Early Medieval Indra Festival
Dharma in the Mahābhārata
Drama in the Nāṭyaśāstra
Royal Power in the Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa
Architecture in the Samarāṅgana Sūtradhāra
Devotion in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa
The Urban Habitus in Kathmandu
Chapter Two The Journey from the Forest
Sāit No. 1: The Ban Yātrā

Sāit No. 2: Day One: Cutting the Tree
Day Two: Felling the Poles
Conveying the Pole
Ritual Security, Ritual Violence, Ritual Death
Conclusion
Chapter Three Preparing, Entering, and Establishing the City
Sāit No. 3: The Entrance of the Pole
Kathmandu's Nagara Praveśa
Sāit No. 4: Installing the Pole
The Upāku Procession
Local Ancestral Poles
Sāit No. 5: Visarjan
Chapter Four Nepali Chronicles and the Living Goddess Kumari
Nepālikabhūpa Vaṃśāvalī
The Royal Kumari
The Royal Kumari in the Indra Festival
The Royal Kumari in the NBhV

The 1768 Shah Invasion
Chapter Five The Construction of the Indra Festival in Nineteenth-Century Kathmandu
The Indradhvajotsava Kathanam
Śaktivallabh and the Multiple Kumari
Śaktivallabh's Indra Puja
Local Newar Indrapūjā Texts
Local Newar Indrapūjā Rituals
Conclusion: A Narrative of Erasure
Chapter Six Sacrificing (to) Bhairav: The Resurrection of a Local Himalayan King
Indra's Elephant
Lākhe and Jhyālincha
Akash Bhairav
Newars and Janjati
Contextualizing the Severed Head
Conclusion
Chapter Seven Tantra, the Mahābhārata, and the Iconography of Indra

The Nepalese Parijāta Haraṇa
Cucumbers
Baumata and Ḍāgīṃ
Multiple Readings of Indra
The Brahminical Indra
The Vedic Indra
The Epic Indra
The Tantric Indra
The Folk Indra
Conclusion: Violence, Politics, Danger, and Ritual Change
Notes
Works Cited
Index