"This volume is distinguished not just by its geographical and linguistic diversity but also by its variety of disciplinary approachestextual, historical, literary, visual, and anthropological. All of the chapters take pains to showcase Hinduism's lived and living traditions as they adapt and change. Further, they expand how we understand the sweetening/intensification dialectic within the context of several current impulses, including globalization and the rise of Hindu majoritarianism in India." Archana Venkatesan, University of California, Davis
"The driving theme of this book opens into fascinating twists and turns in the study of Hindu traditions while poking important holes in scholarly assumptions. Against the backdrop of long-observed processes of Sanskritization, or sweetening, we find these processes to be far from inevitable or unidirectional. Through this collection's vivid explorations of how deities, rituals, and traditions sweeten and intensify over time and space, we find a new appreciation for the dynamism of Hindu traditions." Corinne G. Dempsey, Nazareth University