Goddesses and Women in the Indic Religious Tradition

Contents: Introduction. 1. Roles for women in Vedic Srauta Ritual/Stephanie W. Jamison. 2. Tibetan fairy glimmerings: Dakinis in Buddhist spiritual biography/Victoria Kennick Urubshurow. 3. Women, Earth and the Goddess: a Sakta-Hindu interpretation of embodied religion/Kartikeya C. Patel. 4. Women in the worship of the Great Goddess/Hillary Rodrigues. 5. Between Pestle and Mortar: women in the Marathi Sant Tradition/Vidyut Aklujkar. 6. Sankara on the salvation of women and Sudras/Katherine K. Young. Index.

"Goddesses and Women in the Indic Religious Tradition goes beyond the traditional sources that lie at the basis for determining the position of goddesses and women in India. Following the lead of a "hermeneutics of surprise" the book identifies, indeed, surprising new material -- and conclusions; for example the analysis of Vedic Srauta ritual. Or by offering surprising conclusions, when the location is obviously one involving women and goddesses, or anthropology discovers that the worship of the Great Goddess temporarily elevates the position of women. Other examples of the effectivity of the "hermeneutics of surprise" are seen when applied to the role of dakinis, Sakti worship, the Marathi Sant tradition, and to Sankara\'s commentaries."