Crossing the Lines of Caste

What does it mean to be a Brahmin and what could it mean to become one? Over the years intellectuals and dogmatists have offered plenty of answers to the first question but the latter presents a cultural puzzle since normative Brahminical ideology deems it impossible for an ordinary individual to change caste without first undergoing death and rebirth. <p/>There is however one notable figure in the Hindu mythological tradition who is said to have transformed himself from a king into a Brahmin by amassing great ascetic power or<em> tapas</em> the ornery sage Visvamitra. Through texts composed in Sanskrit and vernacular languages oral performances and visual media <em>Crossing the Lines of Caste</em> examines the rich mosaic of legends about Visvamitra found across the Hindu mythological tradition. It offers a comprehensive historical analysis of how the storyworlds conjured up through these various tellings have served to adapt upgrade and reinforce the social identity of real-world Brahmin communities from the ancient Vedic past up to the hypermodern present. <p/>Using a performance-centered approach to situate the production of the Visvamitra legends within specific historical contexts <em>Crossing the Lines of Caste</em> reveals how and why mythological culture has played an active dialogical role in the construction of Brahmin social power over the last three thousand years.<br>