<i>Danda Yatra</i> : Odisha’s Ritual of Fire and Pain—A Testament to India’s Enduring Devotional Traditions

Danda Yatra , a rigorous ritual of self-mortification practised in Odisha, India, embodies the resilience of devotional traditions within the broader landscape of Hindu religious practices. Rooted in Shaivite devotionalism yet deeply entwined with folk religiosity, the ritual draws participants into an ascetic discipline that transforms bodily suffering into sacred offering. Through historical contextualisation, ethnographic observation and comparative analysis, this study situates Danda Yatra at the intersection of theology, performance and social life. The endurance of the ritual across centuries of political, economic and cultural change underscores its role as a living heritage practice, one that adapts to shifting contexts while preserving its devotional intensity. More than an act of penance, Danda Yatra functions as a communal expression of faith, a negotiation between tradition and modernity, and a medium for articulating local religious identity within broader Hindu frameworks. This article’s central contribution lies in demonstrating how pain operates as both a theological category and a lived medium of devotion, thereby advancing scholarship on embodied religious experience. Specifically, it challenges conventional theories of ritual efficacy by foregrounding pain-as-devotion as a generative force, and rethinks vernacular Shaivism in light of local–global ritual dynamics that shape contemporary Hindu practice.