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Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley

Author: Arun Gupto

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-10-30

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 131736922X

In South Asia goddesses are conceptualized and worshipped in a fascinating range of forms — from cosmic beings to bacterial manifestations, from human-like appearances to creatures with animal and insect semblances. This book maps the diverse identities of goddesses through metaphors of grace, rage and knowledge, and offers an in-depth insight into femininity, sexual politics, ritual worships, religion, ecology and gender. Grace manifests as motherly sublimity, warring protectors, and varying personifications of sexuality. Rage encapsulates the fearful aspects of goddesses and independent identities of women. Knowledge evokes associations with order, reason and intellect in conflating gendered binaries of body/mind and nature/culture. The volume explores how these deity attributes are expressed and embedded through anthropomorphic as well as inorganic forms of nature, beautiful women, multi-legged and many-armed animals, epistemic selves, demonic beings, glamorous personifications as also grotesque sub-humans. A methodological combination of critical theory, mythological and philosophical concepts, along with popular ethnographic narratives and lived experiences, this monograph will greatly interest scholars and researchers of religious studies, cultural studies, folklore, art, literature, sociology and gender studies, especially those interested in Nepal and Hinduism.

GODDESSES OF KATHMANDU VALLEY (SECOND EDITION)

Author: ARUN. GUPTO

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781138556744

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Mother-goddesses in Kathmandu

Author: Musashi Tachikawa

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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A Study Of 15 Temples, Their Structure And History Which Possess The Images Of Eight Matrkas. Furnishes Material For Hindu Iconography In Nepal. Has 26 Chapters And Is Profusely Illustrated 272 Plates In Black And White.

Wild Goddesses in India and Nepal

Author: Axel Michaels

Publisher: Peter Lang Group Ag, International Academic Publishers

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13:

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She kills and destroys. She causes illness and disaster. The wild goddess evokes fear and terror. People worship her with blood-sacrifices and alcohol in order to appease her rage, but also in order to participate in her power for she is at once a force of destruction and a force of regeneration, of life, and of sexuality. Her creative violence reflects the ambivalent power of nature. The idea of frightening goddesses is preserved in regionally different forms throughout South Asia. The Institute for the Science of Religions, University of Berne, and the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Zurich, coordinated a symposium on wild goddesses in India and Nepal. The papers and reports on ongoing research presented at this symposium are published in this volume.

Gods, Men, and Territory

Author: Anne Vergati

Publisher: Manohar Publishers and Distributors

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13:

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The Newars who live in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal are well known for their urban civilisation as well as for the social organisation of their territory, which they have conserved for centuries. The author shows that for the Newars there exists a complex relationship between gods and men and also that their notion of territory is inextricably linked with the sanctuaries and temples, where gods have precise sites. Even though political power has always been in the hands of the Hindus, the co-existence of Hinduism and Buddhism since the fifth century and the influence of Tantrism later on has given rise to a complex pantheon. The sanctuaries and temples are not merely decorative, they are functional as well. Each festival takes place around a temple and these mark out the territory the Newars inhabit. The Newar town not only has a religious centre but a political centre as well. For instance, at Bhaktapur the royal goddess Taleju is the political figure head and the goddess Tripurasundari the religious figure head. The royal goddess Taleju being the sovereign deity of the town, it is obvious that the political centre has primacy over the religious centre. The seats of the deities within a territory are situated in concentric circles. Published in association with Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi.

The Living Goddess

Author: Isabella Tree

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2014-01-15

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 9351186105

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In a small medieval palace on Kathmandu’s Durbar Square lives Nepal’s famous Living Goddess—a child chosen from the Buddhist caste of goldsmiths whose role is to watch over the country and protect its people. Once she attains puberty, another girl takes her place. To Nepalis she is the embodiment of Devi and for centuries the kings of Nepal have sought her blessing to rule. Legends swirl about her. But the facts remain shrouded in secrecy and closely guarded by the Living Goddess’s priests and caretakers. Why are Buddhist girls worshipped by Hindu monarchs? Are the initiation rituals as macabre as they are rumoured to be? And what happens to Living Goddesses once they attain puberty? Using myth, religion, history and her unprecedented access to the priests, caretakers and ex-Living Godessess, Isabella Tree takes us deep into this hidden world. Through it she draws a vivid portrait of the girl-goddess, the beliefs and practices of traditional Nepal, and the uneasy journey it now makes towards modernity. Deeply felt and written over many years of travel and research, The Living Goddess is a profound, compelling and extremely moving book.