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"This innovative book explores religion through music - the source of spiritual elation, social cohesion, and empowerment in cultures around the world."--BOOK JACKET.
"Demonstrating the range and complexity of feminine imagery in Hindu tradition, Devi offers to scholars and beginners alike a fascinating and useful anthology."—Elaine Pagels, author Gnostic Gospels "Thought-provoking and new, yet containing a few classics as well, Devi is a most valuable addition to studies of India—society, religion, culture, and art."—Vidya Dehejia, Smithsonian Institution "A wonderfully informative group of essays about the main goddess figures of India. These sometimes dominate the male and sometimes stand alone, and they range from the fertile river Ganga to the awesome Kali, who is transforming herself in the West."—Ninian Smart, University of California, Santa Barbara
This book explains how Hindus think about divinity in its feminine aspect, as the supreme creative energy of the cosmos. That energy is a single abstract idea but manifests itself in many forms, each imagined as a goddess with particular powers and functions.
A Bollywood blockbuster when it was released in 1977, Amar Akbar Anthony has become a classic of Hindi cinema and a touchstone of Indian popular culture. Delighting audiences with its songs and madcap adventures, the film follows the heroics of three Bombay brothers separated in childhood from their parents and one another. Beyond the freewheeling comedy and camp, however, is a potent vision of social harmony, as the three protagonists, each raised in a different religion, discover they are true brothers in the end. William Elison, Christian Lee Novetzke, and Andy Rotman offer a sympathetic and layered interpretation of the film’s deeper symbolism, seeing it as a lens for understanding mod...
Encountering Kali explores one of the most ramarkable divinities the world has seen. The Hindu goddess Kali is simultaneously understood as a blood thirsty warrior a deity of ritual possession a tantric sexual partner and an all loving compassionate mothe. Popular and scholarly interest in her has been on the rise in the west in recent years. Responding to this phenomenon McDermott and Kripal`s volume focuses on the complexities involved in interpreting Kali in both her indigenous south Asian settings and her more recent Western incarnation. Through the shifting lenses of scriptural history temple architecture political reflection and the goddess`s recent guises on the Internet the contributors pose questions that illuminate our understanding of Kali while addressing the problems and promises inherent in every act of cross cultural interpretation.
This book examines the life of Ānandamayī Mā, one of the most renowned Hindu holy women of modern times. Lisa Hallstrom paints a vivid portrait of this extraordinary woman, her ideas, and her continuing influence. In the process, the author sheds new light on important themes of Hindu religious life, including the centrality of the guru, the influence of living saints, and the apparent paradox of the worship of the divine feminine and the status of Hindu women.
An ideal resource for courses on Hinduism or world religions, this accessible volume spans the entire field of Hindu studies. It provides a forum for the best scholars in the world to make their views and research available to a wider audience. Comprehensively covers the textual traditions of Hinduism Features four coherent sections covering theoretical issues, textual traditions, science and philosophy, and Hindu society and politics Reflects the trend away from essentialist understandings of Hinduism towards tradition and regional-specific studies Includes material on Hindu folk religions and stresses the importance of region in analyzing Hinduism Ideal for use on university courses.
Jouissance as Ananda seeks to resolve the often-problematic Western concept of the ego by proposing a cross-cultural theory of consciousness that draws on Indian philosophy. Author Ashmita Khasnabish uses the Indian concept of ananda to advance Irigaray's theory of jouissance ...
Hindu Goddesses is a valuable sourcebook and reference work for students and scholars of Hindu goddesses and of Hinduism in general. Each goddess is dealt with as an independent deity with a coherent mythology, theology and, in some cases, cult of her own. Within the complex, diverse, and rich goddess traditions of Hinduism, one can find suggestions of nearly every important theme in the Hindu religion. In many ways, this book is as much a study of the Hindu tradition itself as it is a study of one aspect of that tradition. No other living religious tradition has displayed such an ancient, continuous, and diverse history of goddess worship.
Papers presented at a conference held June 1978 at Harvard University, sponsored by the Center for the Study of World Religions.