Coloured Rice: Symbolic Structure in Hindu Family Festivals (second edition)

Coloured Rice is an ethnographic study of rituals conducted by multiple castes in two Karnataka villages, and accompanying myths. Patrilineal family life and the position of women are central themes. Rituals described and analysed are for benign goddesses helping married women, for restless and dangerous goddesses threatening whole families, ancestor propitiation rites, and ant-hill festivals for a cobra deity. Forty-five colour photos have been added to the original text.