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This book explores the tantric concept of Shakti, or the principal female cosmic entity and her pilgrimage sites. It offers a first-hand view of the multidimensional ways in which Shakti asserted its supremacy over existing Vaishnava and orthodox Brahmanical traditions in post mediaeval Bengal and India. The interdisciplinary chapters pave the way to understanding the intra-textual relationships between philosophical and conceptual ideas in literary texts and their oral transmission. Divided into three thematic sections: Cult Inclusiveness, Sakti Pithas, and the Sakta Philosophy, the book invites readers to explore a contested area of scholarship from unique perspectives, offering rich insights into the nature of negotiations between diverse religious streams. It also urges readers to examine the many innovative approaches and theoretical models on the goddess culture of East India. The book is of interest to students and scholars of religious textual studies, anthropology, pilgrimagestudies, comparative religion, Sanskrit and Bengali languages, regional studies, South Asian cultures, goddess traditions and cultural history of mediaeval Bengal.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
The Making of Tantric Radha: A Reading from the Sri-Krsnayamala.- Prema and Sakti: VaisnavaSahajiya Appropriations of GaudiyaVaisnavism and Saktism in the Anandabhairava of Prema-dasa.- Tantra from Below: Inclusivity, Secrecy and Non-Conceptual Yogas in the Baul-Sahajiya Traditions.- Weaving the Body and the Cosmos: Yantric Homologies at a Goddess Temple in Northeastern India.- The Metamorphosis of the "Gachh Tar Vali " and the Making of a Sakti-Pi ha in Mithila.- Power and Desire in the worship of the Goddess Kamakhya.- Gynocentric Cosmogony in the DevibhagavataPurana.- The Monistic Sakta Philosophy in the Guhyopanisad .
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Prof. Madhu Khanna (D.Phil.Oxon) is a former director of the Centre for the Study of Comparative Religion and Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Author or editor of eight books and academic papers, her most recent publications are
Encyclopedia of Hinduism and
Tribal Religion (Section Editor), published by Springer Publishing, USA (2022), and
Tantra on the Edge- Inspiration and Experiments in Twentieth-Century Indian Art, Published by Delhi Art Gallery (Forthcoming May 2022). She is also a mentor and co-creator of the Centre for Indic and Agamic Studies in Asia (CIASA) and a founding member of the Tantra Foundation, New Delhi.
