The Oxford History of Hinduism: The Goddess
Price: 1295.00 INR
ISBN:
9780198846307
Publication date:
28/03/2019
Hardback
368 pages
234.0x156.0mm
Price: 1295.00 INR
ISBN:
9780198846307
Publication date:
28/03/2019
Hardback
368 pages
234.0x156.0mm
Edited by Mandakranta Bose
Rights: OUP UK (Indian Territory)
Edited by Mandakranta Bose
Description
The Oxford History of Hinduism: The Goddess provides a critical exposition of the Hindu idea of the divine feminine, or Devī, conceived as a singularity expressed in many forms. With the theological principles examined in the opening chapters, the book proceeds to describe and expound historically how individual manifestations of Devī have been imagined in Hindu religious culture and their impact upon Hindu social life. In this quest the contributors draw upon the history and philosophy of major Hindu ideologies, such as the Purāṇic, Tāntric, and Vaiṣṇava belief systems. A particular distinction of the book is its attention not only to the major goddesses from the earliest period of Hindu religious history but also to goddesses of later origin, in many cases of regional provenance and influence. Viewed through the lens of worship practices, legend, and literature, belief in goddesses is discovered as the formative impulse of much of public and private life. The influence of the goddess culture is especially powerful on women's life, often paradoxically situating women between veneration and subjection. This apparent contradiction arises from the humanization of goddesses while acknowledging their divinity, which is central to Hindu beliefs. In addition to studying the social and theological aspect of the goddess ideology, the contributors take anthropological, sociological, and literary approaches to delineate the emotional force of the goddess figure that claims intense human attachments and shapes personal and communal lives.
About the Editor
Mandakranta Bose is Professor Emerita, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, Canada. She studied Sanskrit and Hindu religious texts in Calcutta, comparative literature in Vancouver, and holds a doctorate from Oxford in textual studies in the classical performing arts of India. Bose is the editor of The Ramayana Revisited (2004) and Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India (2000).
Contributors:
Gavin Flood
Tracy Pintchman
Bihani Sarkar
Sanjukta Gupta
Elizabeth Rohlman
Tracy Coleman
Heidi Pauwels
Madhu Khanna
Brenda Beck
Prabhavati Reddy
Krishna Datta
Saswati Sengupta
Rachel Fell McDermott
Tracy Pintchman
Mandakranta Bose
Edited by Mandakranta Bose
Table of contents
Abbreviations
Notes on the Contributors
Series Introduction, Gavin Flood
1. Introduction, Mandakranta Bose
2. Cosmological, Devotional, and Social Perspectives on the Hindu Goddess, Tracy Pintchman
3. From Magic to Deity, Matter to Persona: The Exaltation of Maya, Bihani Sarkar
4. Lalita, the Graceful and Enchanting Goddess of Kancipuram, Sanjukta Gupta
5. Sri/Laksmi: Goddess of Plenitude and Ideal of Womanhood, Mandakranta Bose
6. The Elusive Sarasvati: A Goddess, a River, and the Search for the Universal in the Particular, Elizabeth Rohlman
7. Radha: Lover and Beloved of Krsna, Tracy Coleman
8. Sita: Enduring Example for Women, Heidi Pauwels
9. Here are the Daughters: Reclaiming the Girl Child 'Kanya, Bala, Kumari' in the Empowered Tales and Rituals of Sakta Tantra, Madhu Khanna
10. Becoming a Living Goddess, Brenda Beck
11. Bathukamma: The Folk Song Tradition of the Flower Goddess of Telangana in South India, Prabhavati Reddy
12. A Goddess from Bengal: Devi Manasa, Goddess of Serpents, Krishna Datta
13. Domestication of the Disorderly Devi: the Can di Mangalakavya of Bengal, Saswati Sengupta
14. A 'Muslim' Poet in the Lap of the 'Hindu' Mother: The Freedoms and Burdens of Kazi Nazrul Islam and the Hindu Goddess Kali in Modern Bengal, Rachel Fell McDermott
15. The Divine Mother Comes to Michigan, Tracy Pintchman
Afterword, Mandakranta Bose
Edited by Mandakranta Bose
Features
- Sweeping history of the EU that highlights how the push for a common currency - the euro - has undermined the entire political project
- Features all of the major players in the European drama of the past half century, showing how their missteps in economic policy led to the impasse in Europe today
- Offers profound insights into the roots of Europe's current disorder, especially distrust of the political systems and elites that seem increasingly undemocratic to the European masses
Edited by Mandakranta Bose
Description
The Oxford History of Hinduism: The Goddess provides a critical exposition of the Hindu idea of the divine feminine, or Devī, conceived as a singularity expressed in many forms. With the theological principles examined in the opening chapters, the book proceeds to describe and expound historically how individual manifestations of Devī have been imagined in Hindu religious culture and their impact upon Hindu social life. In this quest the contributors draw upon the history and philosophy of major Hindu ideologies, such as the Purāṇic, Tāntric, and Vaiṣṇava belief systems. A particular distinction of the book is its attention not only to the major goddesses from the earliest period of Hindu religious history but also to goddesses of later origin, in many cases of regional provenance and influence. Viewed through the lens of worship practices, legend, and literature, belief in goddesses is discovered as the formative impulse of much of public and private life. The influence of the goddess culture is especially powerful on women's life, often paradoxically situating women between veneration and subjection. This apparent contradiction arises from the humanization of goddesses while acknowledging their divinity, which is central to Hindu beliefs. In addition to studying the social and theological aspect of the goddess ideology, the contributors take anthropological, sociological, and literary approaches to delineate the emotional force of the goddess figure that claims intense human attachments and shapes personal and communal lives.
About the Editor
Mandakranta Bose is Professor Emerita, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia, Canada. She studied Sanskrit and Hindu religious texts in Calcutta, comparative literature in Vancouver, and holds a doctorate from Oxford in textual studies in the classical performing arts of India. Bose is the editor of The Ramayana Revisited (2004) and Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India (2000).
Contributors:
Gavin Flood
Tracy Pintchman
Bihani Sarkar
Sanjukta Gupta
Elizabeth Rohlman
Tracy Coleman
Heidi Pauwels
Madhu Khanna
Brenda Beck
Prabhavati Reddy
Krishna Datta
Saswati Sengupta
Rachel Fell McDermott
Tracy Pintchman
Mandakranta Bose
Table of contents
Abbreviations
Notes on the Contributors
Series Introduction, Gavin Flood
1. Introduction, Mandakranta Bose
2. Cosmological, Devotional, and Social Perspectives on the Hindu Goddess, Tracy Pintchman
3. From Magic to Deity, Matter to Persona: The Exaltation of Maya, Bihani Sarkar
4. Lalita, the Graceful and Enchanting Goddess of Kancipuram, Sanjukta Gupta
5. Sri/Laksmi: Goddess of Plenitude and Ideal of Womanhood, Mandakranta Bose
6. The Elusive Sarasvati: A Goddess, a River, and the Search for the Universal in the Particular, Elizabeth Rohlman
7. Radha: Lover and Beloved of Krsna, Tracy Coleman
8. Sita: Enduring Example for Women, Heidi Pauwels
9. Here are the Daughters: Reclaiming the Girl Child 'Kanya, Bala, Kumari' in the Empowered Tales and Rituals of Sakta Tantra, Madhu Khanna
10. Becoming a Living Goddess, Brenda Beck
11. Bathukamma: The Folk Song Tradition of the Flower Goddess of Telangana in South India, Prabhavati Reddy
12. A Goddess from Bengal: Devi Manasa, Goddess of Serpents, Krishna Datta
13. Domestication of the Disorderly Devi: the Can di Mangalakavya of Bengal, Saswati Sengupta
14. A 'Muslim' Poet in the Lap of the 'Hindu' Mother: The Freedoms and Burdens of Kazi Nazrul Islam and the Hindu Goddess Kali in Modern Bengal, Rachel Fell McDermott
15. The Divine Mother Comes to Michigan, Tracy Pintchman
Afterword, Mandakranta Bose