On Varanasi’s Tiny Temples

Abstract

In this paper, I present the results of a comprehensive survey of the public temples of the city of Varanasi in north India. Considering the city’s total public temple environment, I argue that an emphasis on major centers of pilgrimage and other large temples has obscured the prevalence of the “tiny” temples which are far more numerous and widespread. These temples do much important work of Hinduism, bringing the power of divinity and the legal weight of the Hindu tradition to bear on the lives of their devotees as well as the many others who encounter them each day.