Emotions in religious practice: Gerrit Lange's dissertation on the snake goddess Naini in the Himalayas

Gerrit Lange's dissertation has been published by De Gruyter Brill. The book examines the worship of the snake goddess Naini (also known as Nāginā or Nagini Devi) in the villages of the Pindar Valley in the Indian Himalayas and focuses on the role of emotions in rituals, narratives, and processions. The central question is what the goddess “feels” and how these emotions are addressed and performed in ritual interactions. The study shows that exploring non-human emotions opens up new perspectives on religious practice. The publication is available as open access; the volume appears in the series Religion in Contemporary Asia (vol. 1).

_{Photo: Gerrit Lange at the De Gruyter Brill booth at IAHR 2025 with two of the series editors, Edith Franke and Monika Schrimpf.}

Among other things, the work describes the biannual yātrās, in which the Naini goddesses are carried through the local area on bamboo poles. The beginning of such journeys requires the literal “digging up” of the goddess: a pot is taken out of the ground—an act that stages her origin from Nāglok, the underworld of the snake deities. Rituals and festivals are said to have the declared aim of “satisfying” the goddesses and appeasing their anger at a lack of worship. Through these practices, the communities strengthen social bonds, especially with women who have mostly married into other villages, where they are visited by their goddess.

The analysis is based on repeated field research in the Himalayas and elaborates how feelings are named in narratives about the goddess and embodied in ritual practice. The dissertation thus contributes to the understanding of religious experience, which is not only described on the basis of texts, but also examined in its performative and affective dimensions.

Gerrit Lange researches at CERES on Hindu deities, the ethnography of South Asia, comparative mythology, and religion and emotion. This thematic focus also shapes the present work.

The volume Naiṇī Mātā – Cobra Mum: Unearthing and Enacting the Feelings of Nine Himalayan Hindu Goddesses (language: English, 2025) is available for download in open access on the De Gruyter Brill publishing website: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111631493/html?recommended=sidebar&srsltid=AfmBOooF66u053Ht4gmpLTCJcsQ6fbhl3rOqBSj1jatwesPoFRznNMFK