An introduction to South Asia's diverse communities and religious traditions, especially Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim, and Jain, through stories of and by several of the religion's most celebrated, sometimes most controversial, moral and spiritual adepts. Sources include works of narrative literature, visual art, drama, poetry and ethnography. Special attention to gender and the body as sites of ethical engagement, implicit theories of the self and selftransformation, and the role of the moral or spiritual adept in society and as an agent of social reform.