Revelry, rivalry, and longing for the Goddesses of Bengal : the fortunes of Hindu festivals / Rachel Fell McDermott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McDermott, Rachel Fell.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Durgā-pūjā (Hindu festival)--India--West Bengal.

Durgā-pūjā (Hindu festival).

Jagaddhātrī-pūjā (Hindu festival)--India--West Bengal.

Jagaddhātrī-pūjā (Hindu festival).

Kālī-pūjā (Hindu festival)--India--West Bengal.

Kālī-pūjā (Hindu festival).

West Bengal (India)--Religious life and customs.

West Bengal (India).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (391 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press New York, c2011.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

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. The first book to recount the history of these festivals and their revelry, rivalry, and nostalgic power, this volume marks an unprecedented achievement in the mapping of a major public event. Rachel Fell McDermott describes the festivals' origins and growth under British rule. She identifies their iconographic conventions and carnivalesque qualities and their relationship to the fierce, Tantric sides of ritual practice. McDermott confronts controversies over the tradition of blood sacrifice and the status-seekers who compete for symbolic capital. Expanding her narrative, she takes readers beyond Bengal's borders to trace the transformation of the goddesses and their festivals across the world. McDermott's work underscores the role of holidays in cultural memory, specifically the Bengali evocation of an ideal, culturally rich past. Under the thrall of the goddess, the social, political, economic, and religious identity of Bengalis takes shape.

Contents:

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.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613094063

9781283094061

1283094061

9780231527873

023152787X

OCLC:

732958140