Revelry, rivalry, and longing for the goddesses of Bengal : the fortunes of Hindu festivals
Annually during the months of autumn, Bengal hosts three interlinked festivals to honor its most important goddesses: Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri. While each of these deities possesses a distinct iconography, myth, and character, they are all martial. Durga, Kali and Jagaddhatri often demand blood sacrifice as part of their worship and offer material and spiritual benefits to their votaries. Richly represented in straw, clay, paint, and decoration, they are similarly displayed in elaborately festooned temples, thronged by thousands of admirers
Print Book, English, ©2011
Columbia University Press New York, New York, ©2011
xviii, 372 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780231129183, 9780231129190, 9780231527873, 0231129181, 023112919X, 023152787X
634739827
Pūjā origins and elite politics
The goddess in colonial and postcolonial history
Durgā the daughter : folk and familial traditions
The artistry of Durgā and Jagaddhātrī
Durgā on the Titanic : politics and religion in the Pūjā
The "orientalist Kālī" : a Tantric icon comes alive
Approaches to Kālī Pūjā in Bengal
Controversies and the goddess
Deva in the diaspora
Appendix : an overview of the press in Bengal up to 1947