Thread by @Manigarm

"HOW I MET SHALIGRAM" (A Thread)

@ShabanaMir1 recently requested a story thread detailing how I first encountered the Shaligram Stones and came to be researching them years later. So, here you go! A bit of Release Day bonus Shaligram content!

I began my Master's fieldwork in northern India in 2012. At the time, I was specifically interested in deity care. As in, how did people encounter the material Divine and look after/care for it day-to-day in their homes. I observed puja and darshan rituals for months.

And then, by chance, I happened to notice a small brass bowl with one of these black fossil stones sitting on a puja home altar (mandir). It struck me as interesting but at the time, I didn't think too much about it. Oh, how that would change in such a short period of time.

Once I saw them, I started seeing them everywhere. It drove me nuts! These small, smooth, black, fossil ammonites at the feet of temple deities, in home puja shrines, at roadside stupas, being carried by devotees, they were everywhere!

So, I finally asked about them. I remember turning to one of my friends and then a recent participant in my work, and asking: "Ok. But what's with the black rocks? I don't understand."

He was the first to utter the words, "Oh? That's Shaligram." And I was completely confused. I had been studying Hinduism and Hindu ritual practices for years by that point and "Shaligram" was a word I had literally never heard before. Ever. From anywhere.

But it was clear at that point that people were not interested in talking to me about Shaligrams. For the most part, they demurred (which is totally OK!) and explained that they didn't really discuss Shaligrams with outsiders. I would need to talk to a guru or other specialist.

And I did! I spoke with sadhus and gurus and teachers, all of whom graciously began to open up the world of Shaligrams to my eyes. But right afterwards, I was slated to return to the US. I had already been in India for several months. Not to worry though, I thought!

I'll ask the South Asian scholars I know back at my home university! Surely, someone will know more!

In a word, however.....no.

A few knew the word and had a vague sense of the practice, but that was all. No real help there.

Fine. To the library!

Surely there would be a book about Shaligrams! Probably something written by a specialist in Hindu ritual practices or a theological text or...something!

No. Nothing. Nada. Blank.

(In time, I did finally get copies of the two extant Puranic commentaries on Shaligrams though!)

Like any good graduate student, it was then that I went to my committee. I had tried everything at my disposal and I didn't know what to do! "There were these stones!" I told them. "And there's nothing about them! Even the people I'm talking to have questions." The response?

"I know what your PhD is about."

And that's how the journey started. From there, I reconnected with my friends in West Bengal and it was they who responded, "If you want to understand Shaligram, well, then you need to go to Nepal. Shaligram comes from Nepal."

As a result, in the summer of 2015, I secured enough funding to make my first long-term pilot project visit to Mustang, Nepal. And to undertake the Shaligram Pilgrimage route for myself.

This became the first vital step in my work as it is now. The more I learned about Shaligrams and directly experienced their world, the more people were willing to talk to me about them. The more knowledge I demonstrated, the more knowledge I could be trusted with.

That's how I first encountered Shaligrams. Working on a project tangentially related to them, without any knowledge of their existence, they came to me. I saw my first Shaligram in a home puja ritual in West Bengal, India and then again and again in homes and temples after that.

Until I couldn't help but ask, "What's with the black rocks?" And someone answered.

A lot of someones actually.

An entire world of someones most unexpected.