Journey Through the Twelve Forests

The first thorough study of its kind, this is a lively account of the Ban Yatra, a circular pilgrimage that takes place in the northern Indian land of Braj. This anthropological chronicle offers an appealing mixture of personal anecdote, religious theory, Indian history, and tales of the gods. Basing his work on personal experience in the field, as well as a combination of primary sources in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali-many untranslated and unstudied in Western languages-and a wide range of secondary literature, Haberman places the pilgimrage in its cultural and historical context, interweaving his account with retellings of the tales of Krishna around with the journey revolves.