Kalikapurana

Kalikapurana
Author: Biswanarayan Shastri
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
Total Pages: 210
Release: 1994
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9788120811249

Kalikapurane Murtivinirdesah, ninth in the series of the Kalamulasastra programme is a compilation of about 550 verses from the Kalika Purana which give physical description of a number of gods, goddesses, and demi-gods etc. While some of them are simply conceptual, others are represented in stone and metallic sculptures.

The Divine Library

The Divine Library
Author: Rufus C. Camphausen
Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co
Total Pages: 423
Release: 1992-06
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9780892813896

Succinctly describes 140 sacred texts, dating from the earliest times to the present, in relation to the cultures that created them.

Nine Nights of the Goddess

Nine Nights of the Goddess
Author: Caleb Simmons
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2018-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 143847069X

Explores the contemporary nature and the diverse narratives, rituals, and performances of the Navar?tri festival. Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navarātri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navarātri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.

Hindu Goddesses

Hindu Goddesses
Author: Lynn Foulston
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2009-07-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1802071342

Explores the diversity of Hindu goddesses and the variety of ways in which they are worshipped. Although they undoubtedly have ancient origins, Hindu goddesses and their worship is still very much a part of the fabric of religious engagement in India today. This book offers an introduction to a complex and often baffling field of study.

Becoming Assamese

Becoming Assamese
Author: Madhumita Sengupta
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2016-05-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317197771

This book explores the making of colonial Northeast India and offers a new perspective to the study of the Assamese identity in the nineteenth century as a distinctly nineteenth-century cultural phenomenon, not confined to linguistic parameters alone. It studies crucial markers of the self — history, customs, food, dress, new religious beliefs — and symbols considered desirable by the provincial middle class and the way these fitted in with the latter’s nationalist subjectivities in the face of an emphatic Bengali cultural nationalism. The author shows how colonialism was intrinsically linked to the assertion of middle class intelligentsia in the region and was instrumental in eroding the essential malleability of societal processes nurtured by the Ahom state. Rich with fresh research data, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of history, political science, area studies, and to anyone interested in understanding Northeast India.

Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema

Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema
Author: Anway Mukhopadhyay
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2022-11-16
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1527591239

This collection presents cross-disciplinary explorations of the tropes, themes and representational frameworks constellating around the figure of the Goddess in South Asian cinema. It critically approaches the Goddess theme in various genres of South Asian cinema, using analytical tools culled from gender studies, comparative cultural studies, and religious studies, as well as film semiotics. The films discussed here represent variegated thematizations of the Goddess across regions in South Asia, including Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and various geo-cultural locations in India. As the volume highlights the regional and politico-cultural differences and commonalities in representational schemes between South Asian films of different genres through the Goddess motif, it will appeal to scholars of film studies, South Asian studies and comparative religion, and will hold a special appeal for those interested in Goddess cultures and theology.

The Goddess Re-discovered

The Goddess Re-discovered
Author: Saumitra Chakravarty
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2022-08-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000632873

The book critically analyses questions of gender and sexuality in the medieval religious texts of Bengal. It analyses the emergence of religious cults in patriarchal contexts, the humanization of the goddess figure as a wife and mother who is subject to social and ethical codes, and demythologization of folk epics. This book discusses the folk genre of the Mangal Kavyas such as the Chandi Mangal and the Manasa Mangal, against the perspectives of Sanskrit texts like the Devi Mahatmya and the Devi Bhagavata Purana, and compares and contrasts the Kalika Purana against the texts and practices of the Tantric cult, to shed light on the paradoxes and parallels in the images of Kali found in the texts and practices dominant in the eastern region of India. The author also highlights the centrality of Chaitanya in the Gaudiya Vaishnava movement, the social and religious revolution he brought with the philosophy of raganuga bhakti along with the androgynous aspects in his relationships; explores the concept of mystical eroticism in the love of Radha and Krishna as seen in the song sequences of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas; and discusses women’s Rama-kathas found in a variety of languages across India. Rich in archival material, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of gender studies, women’s studies, literature, medieval history, social history, cultural anthropology, religious studies, cultural studies, South Asia studies, and those interested in the history of medieval Bengal.

Durga Puja

Durga Puja
Author: Prata'pachandra Ghosha
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2022-07-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 3368119850

Reprint of the original, first published in 1871.