Nine nights of the goddess : the Navarātri festival in South Asia / edited by Caleb Simmons, Moumita Sen, and Hillary Rodrigues.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Simmons, Caleb, editor.

Sen, Moumita, editor.

Rodrigues, Hillary, 1953- editor.

Series:

SUNY series in Hindu Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Durgā (Hindu deity).

Durgā.

Durgā-pūjā (Hindu festival)--South Asia.

Durgā-pūjā (Hindu festival).

Fasts and feasts--Hinduism.

Fasts and feasts.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (376 pages)

Place of Publication:

Albany, New York : State University of New York, [2018].

Summary:

Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navarātri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navarātri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.

Contents:

Introduction: movements of Navaratri / Caleb Simmons and Moumita Sen

The splendor of the sun: brightening the bridge between Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa and Devī Māhātmya in light of Navarātri ritual timing / Raj Balkaran

Which Durgā? What Navarātra? Remarks on reconfigurations of royal rituals in the Kathmandu Valley / Astrid Zotter

The king and the Yadu Line: performing lineage through Oasara in nineteenth-century Mysore / Caleb Simmons

Dasara and the selective decline of sacrificial polity in a former princely state of Odisha / Uwe Skoda

Politics, religion, and art in the Durgā Pujā of West Bengal / Moumita Sen

Durgā Pujā committees: community origin and transformed mediatized practices employing social media / Xenia Zeiler

Navaratri in Benares: narrative structures and social realities / Silje Lyngar Einarsen

Dolls and demons: the materiality of Navaratri / Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama

Ritual complementarity and difference : Navarātri and Vijayadaśamī in Kāñcipuram / Ute Hüsken

Bengali Durgā Pujā: procedures and symbolism / Hillary Rodrigues

The internal Navarātri: Sarkar Baba of Benares and the Goddess within / Jishnu Shankar

Kolus, caste, and class: Navarātri as a site for ritual and social change in urban South India / Nicole A. Wilson

Display shows, display tells: the aesthetics of memory during Pommai Kolu / Deeksha Sivakumar

Royal Darbar and domestic kolus: social order, creation, procreation, and re-creation / Vasudha Narayanan

Navarātra and Kanyā Pujā: the worship of girls as representatives of the Goddess in Northwest India / Brigitte Luchesi

Conclusion / Hillary Rodrigues.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781438470719

1438470711