Norvin Hein was a scholar of Indian religions; The Miracle Plays of Mathura, published by Yale University Press, is a direct ethnographic and textual study of the Ras Lila performances enacting Krishna's youthful exploits still staged around Mathura and Vrindavan. Its strength is Hein's own sustained firsthand observation of the tradition. Its limit is that any single scholar's fieldwork captures the tradition as performed in that particular period and locality, so a claim about the plays today benefits from more recent scholarship or direct testimony alongside it.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier2
Norvin Hein's The Miracle Plays of Mathura, published by Yale University Press in 1972, the middle tier reflecting an academic study of the Ras Lila devotional dramas performed around Mathura and Vrindavan documenting a specific twentieth century tradition. Its authority rests on the author's own extended fieldwork observing the performances. Its limit is that it documents the tradition as practiced when Hein studied it, so a claim about earlier or more recent forms of the plays needs a source addressing that period specifically. NotesNorvin Hein was a professor of the history of religion at Yale Divinity School. This 313 page study documents the trained raslila performance troupes he observed and recorded in the Braj region around Mathura in the late 1940s; ISBN 9780300011975. Tier 2, a named scholar's field-based monograph rather than a tertiary encyclopedia entry.
Citation
AuthorNorvin Hein
PublisherYale University Press
Publication Year1972
Source Typeacademic monograph
Claims Backed By This Source (12 claims)
This source backs 12 claims across the atlas. As facts: 10 well-attested. Plus 2 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Performance Works, 3 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Articles, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
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