When the world becomes female : guises of a South Indian goddess / Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Flueckiger, Joyce Burkhalter.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gangamma (Hindu deity)--Cult--India--Tirupati.

Gangamma (Hindu deity).

Worship (Hinduism).

Cults.

Tirupati (India)--Religion.

Tirupati (India).

India.

India--Tirupati.

Physical Description:

xvi, 314 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2013.

Summary:

During the goddess, Gangamma's festival in the town of Tirupati, male celebrants take on female guise, and the streets are filled with men wearing saris, braids, and the guise of the goddess herself. By contrast, women participate by intensifying the rituals they perform for Gangamma throughout the year, such as cooking and offering food. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, argues that within the festival ultimate reality is imagined as female and women identify with the goddess, whose power they share. Vivid accounts by male and female participants offer new insights into gendered experiences of Gangamma's traditions and the nature of Hindu village goddesses. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Imaginative Worlds of Gangamma

1 An Aesthetics of Excess 27

2 Guising Transformation, Recognition, and Possibility 54

3 Narratives of Excess and Access 75

4 Female-Narrated Possibilities of Relationship 97

5 Gangamma as Ganga River Goddess 113

Part 2 Those Who Bear the Goddess

6 Wandering Goddess, Village Daughter: Avilala Reddys 139

7 Temple and Vesham Mirasi: The Kaikalas of Tirupati 157

8 The Goddess Served and Lost: Tatayyagunta Mudaliars 180

9 Exchanging Talis with the Goddess: Protection and Freedom to Move 210

10 "Crazy for the Goddess": A Consuming Relationship 242.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780253009524

0253009529

9780253009562

0253009561

OCLC:

811006515