In recent years, India’s “sacred groves” have attracted the attention of NGOs, botanists, specialists in traditional medicine and anthropologists. As small forests or stands of trees set aside for a deity’s exclusive use, their maintenance has led to the conservation of pockets of abundant flora in areas otherwise denuded by deforestation. Based on fieldwork conducted in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over seven years, the book not only analyses the religious and social context in which sacred groves take on meaning for the villagers who maintain them, but also explains their fascinat ... More

In recent years, India’s “sacred groves” have attracted the attention of NGOs, botanists, specialists in traditional medicine and anthropologists. As small forests or stands of trees set aside for a deity’s exclusive use, their maintenance has led to the conservation of pockets of abundant flora in areas otherwise denuded by deforestation. Based on fieldwork conducted in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over seven years, the book not only analyses the religious and social context in which sacred groves take on meaning for the villagers who maintain them, but also explains their fascination for Indian environmentalists, who see them as an exemplary form of traditional community resource management. Focusing on groves near Madurai, Tiruvannamalai, Pondicherry and Chengalpattu, it explores how the localized meanings attached to forested shrines are changing under the impact of globalization and economic liberalization. The study challenges simplistic representations of sacred groves as sites of primitive forms of nature worship and shows how local practices and beliefs regarding sacred groves are at once more imaginative, dynamic and pragmatic than previously thought. Rather than being ancient in origin, as previously asserted by scholars, the book argues that the religious beliefs, practices, and iconography found in sacred groves suggest origins in the politically de-centered eighteenth century, when the Tamil country was effectively ruled by local chieftains (palayakkarars, poligars). In addition, it analyses two projects undertaken by environmentalists that seek to harness the traditions surrounding sacred groves in the service of forest restoration and environmental education.