Vicissitudes of the Goddess

Reconstructions of the Gramadevata in India's Religious Traditions
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-0-19-932503-0
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 649 g

This book provides a detailed history of Hindu goddess traditions with a special focus on the local goddesses of Andhra Pradesh, past and present. The antiquity and the evolution of these goddess traditions are illustrated and documented with the help of archaeological reports, literary sources, inscriptions and art. Tracing the symbols and images of goddess into the brahmanical (Saiva and Vaisnava), Buddhist, and Jaina religious traditions, the book argues
effectively how and with what motivations goddesses and their symbolizations were appropriated and transformed. The book also examines the evolution of popular Hindu goddesses such as Durga and Kali, discussing their tribal and agricultural backgrounds. It also deals extensively with how and in what
circumstances women are deified and shows how these deified women cults share characteristics with the village goddesses.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Padma, Sree

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Buddhismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Hinduismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Östliche Religionen Jainismus

Über Autor(innen)

Sree Padma is the executive director of the Inter-Collegiate Sri Lanka Education (ISLE) Program, a study abroad program in Sri Lanka. She also teaches at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, offering courses on the cultural history of south Asia. She has been a research associate in the Department of History and Archaeology at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, where she completed her Ph.D. She has taught at Harvard University as a
lecturer and research associate in women's studies and history of religions and at Bowdoin College as assistant professor of history. She is the author of Costume, Coiffure, and Ornament in the Temple Sculpture of Northern Andhra (Agama Kala Prakasan, 1991) and the co-editor of Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of
Andhra (State University of New York Press, 2008).