The volume brings together Sontheimer's English-language articles on the Maharashtrian deity on Khandoba and the equivalent gods mallanna in Andhra Pradesh and Mailara in Karnataka. The articles take into account the differing traditions of the wide variety of castes and tribes for whose member Khandoba (or Mallanna or Mailara) is an important god, and make use of the various kinds of source materials that Sontheimer gathered -- oral epics, of the Dhangar shepherds; narratives, comments and statements made by people belonging to various groups; the songs (padem) of the Vaghyas and Muralis, Khandoba's "bards" and courtesans"; the Sanskrit and Marathi Mahatmyas composed by Brahmanas; descriptions and remarks searched out in the literature of Mahadubhavas, the Varkaris, and other medieval saints; and stray reference culled from published and unpublished historical documents.

ANNE FELDHAUS is professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University.

ADITYA MALIK is a 'Habilitions Kandidat' in the Department of Indology at the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg.

HEIDRUN BRUCKNER is professor of Indology in the Department of Indology and Comparative Religion at the University of Tubingen.