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.
Author info
JOHN STRATTON HAWLEY is Claire Tow Professor of Religion, Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement and, with Kenneth Bryant, of Sur’s Ocean: Poems from the Early Tradition. He is the co-editor, with Vasudha Narayanan, of The Life of Hinduism.
DONNA M. WULFF is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, Brown University, where she founded and directed the South Asian Concentration Program. Her publications include Drama as a Mode of Religious Realization—a book on the Sanskrit plays of Rupa Gosvami—as well as articles on Sanskrit aesthetic theory, the religious significance of sound and music in India, and Hindu nationalism. She is working on a book-length study of a modern Bengali form of religious performance, padavali kirtan. She was the co-editor, with John Stratton Hawley, of The Divine Consort: Radha and the Goddesses of India.
