From Library Journal
Editors Hawley (religion, Barnard Coll.) and Wulff (religion, Brown Univ.) offer a collection of scholarly essays exploring the portrayals of 12 Hindu goddesses from a number of regions and time periods. Well written and thoroughly researched, the essays explore the multivarious roles of the goddess in a religion where the presence of the female divine is vital, real, and contradictory. The editors have divided the essays into sections discussing the goddess as supreme and goddess as consort; goddesses who mother and possess; and, finally, Kali in the Western goddess spirituality movement. Recommended for graduate collections on religion, women's studies, Asian studies, and sociology.?Gail Wood, SUNY Coll. of Tech. Lib., Alfred
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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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.
