Devi: Goddesses of India

Front Cover
John Stratton Hawley, Donna Marie Wulff
University of California Press, 1996 - Religion - 352 pages
The monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have severely limited the portrayal of the divine as feminine. But in Hinduism "God" very often means "Goddess." This extraordinary collection explores twelve different Hindu goddesses, all of whom are in some way related to Devi, the Great Goddess. They range from the liquid goddess-energy of the River Ganges to the possessing, entrancing heat of Bhagavati and Seranvali. They are local, like Vindhyavasini, and global, like Kali; ancient, like Saranyu, and modern, like "Mother India." The collection combines analysis of texts with intensive fieldwork, allowing the reader to see how goddesses are worshiped in everyday life. In these compelling essays, the divine feminine in Hinduism is revealed as never before—fascinating, contradictory, powerful.
 

Contents

PROLOGUE The Goddess in India
1
Three kinds of relations between goddesses and gods as typified by their
15
G O DD ESSES
18
DEVI The Great Goddess
31
A modern rendition of Devi as the slayer of the buffalodemon
37
VIND HYAVAS INI Local Goddess yet Great Goddess
49
Vindhyavāsini goddess of Vindhyachal
50
The triangle yatra
64
Bathers in the Ganges during the festival of Makarasamkrānti
139
SAR ANY USAMJ N A The Sun and the Shadow
153
ŠERAN VALI The Mother Who Possesses
173
BHAGAVATI Ball of Fire
195
SATI The Story of Godavari
227
BHARAT MATA Mother India and Her Militant Matriots
250
EPILO GUE The Western Kāli
281
O S S ARY
315

KALI Blood and Death Out of Place
77
1 Sri on the breast of Visnu
96
Rādhā and Krishna taking shelter from the rain 1
117
GANGA The Goddess Ganges in Hindu Sacred Geography
137

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