Children of the Goddess: Devotion and Female Priesthood in Bengal

The women featured in the book Children of the Goddess: Devotion and Female Priesthood in Bengal live on the frontier between the tribal and the low-caste society in Bengal, and turn to religion in order to forge a new identity. Often rejected by their own community, and having lived through long and difficult personal crises some of them turn to religion to a cultured identity. Some may succeed in becoming female priests, presiding over a Goddess shrine, having given up their femininity by ceasing to menstruate. As Parvati, the central personality of the book, puts it: 'Now I no longer need a child. I am the child of the Goddess', even as she innovates on the boundaries of Hinduism. The book provides a window to a little-known world where social marginality, subaltern assertion, the politics of gender, and the contestation between tribal religion and Hinduism merge to produce a unique perspective on popular Hinduism.