Description: The first book to offer a detailed framework, a fine-grained history, and an analytically nuanced understanding of one of the rarest branches of Hindu worship.
Brief description: Lokesh Ohri is an anthropologist and activist who has worked for several years in the Himalaya. He was a doctoral fellow at the South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany, and has worked on political rituals, heritage, and resource use in the mountains. He is currently working on an extensive documentation of the river Ganges from source to mouth.
Review Quotes:
"A fascinating piece of work. I have learned a lot and feel honoured, almost initiated, to have had such a knowledgeable guide to the Mahasus, their realm, and the devta ka kaam." - John Keay, author of India: A History, Revised and Expanded Edition
"Mahasu Devta was-and in many respects still is-the most powerful local deity in the Western Himalayas. The history of his cult tells us a great deal about Himalayan culture and religion, about relations between Paharis, the colonial regime, and about how the hills have changed in the course of modernisation." - William S. Sax, author of God of Justice: Ritual Healing and Social Justice in the Central Himalayas