The Triumph of the Goddess

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The Triumph of the Goddess
The Canonical Models and Theological Visions of the Devi-Bhagavata Purana

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C. Mackenzie Brown - Author

SUNY series in Hindu Studies

Price: $95.00
Hardcover - 344 pages

Release Date: September 1990

ISBN10: 0-7914-0363-7
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-0363-1

Price: $33.95
Paperback - 344 pages

Release Date: August 1990

ISBN10: 0-7914-0364-5
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-0364-8

Available as a Google eBook for other eReaders and tablet devices. Click icon below...

Summary

"In this Puranthe apotheosis of the Goddess in India is most fully presented. Given the intense interest in the Goddess, and in goddesses generally, it is important to have Brown's close study of the Devi-Bhagavata. One entire area of readership will be those interested in the construction of the Ultimate Reality on feminine terms." -- Diana L. Eck, Harvard University

The authors of the Devi-Bhagavata Puranendeavored to demonstrate the superiority of the Devi over competing masculine deities, and to articulate in new ways the manifold nature of the Goddess. Brown's book sets out to examine how the Puranpursues these ends. The Devi-Bhagavata employs many ancient myths and motifs from older masculine theologies, incorporating them into a thoroughly "feminized" theological framework. The text also seeks to supplant older "masculine" canonical authorities. Part I of Brown's study explores these strategies by focusing on the Puran's self-conscious endeavor to supersede the famous VaisBhagavata Puran

The Devi-Bhagavata also re-envisions older mythological traditions about the Goddess, especially those in the first great Sanskritic glorification of the Goddess, the Devi-Mahatmya. Brown shows in Part II how this re-envisioning process transforms the Devi from a primarily martial and erotic goddess into the World-Mother of infinite compassion.

Part III examines the Devi Gita, the philosophical climax of the Puranmodeled upon the Bhagavad Gita. The Devi Gita, while affirming that ultimate reality is the divine Mother, avows that her highest form as consciousness encompasses all gender, thereby suggesting the final triumph of the Goddess. It is not simply that She is superior to the male gods, but rather that She transcends Her own sexuality without denying it.

"He has accomplished an unprecedented task, that of seeing this Puran's vision whole, against its historical backdrop, with a sharp eye for how its vision reworks familiar material. The scope and importance of what he accomplishes should not be underestimated. Hindu worship of the Goddess has been especially resistant to historical analysis and is therefore of particular interest, both to indologists and to those with an interest in gender studies." -- Thomas B. Coburn, St. Lawrence University

C. MacKenzie Brown is Professor of Religion, Trinity University.

Table of Contents

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Introduction: The Vindication of the Goddess in the Puranic Tradition

Part I. The Teo Bhagavatas: Contending Revelations and Visions of the Divine

1. Origins and Transmission of the Two Bhagavata Puranas: A Canonical and Theological Dilemma

2. Horsing Around with Visnu: A Case of Capital Murder

3. Who Slew Vrtrasura? Deception, Redemption, and Grace in the Two Bhagavatas

Part II. The Two Devi-Mahatmyas: Revisions Within the Tradition

4. The Three Great Adventures of the Devi: Heroic Eroticism and Maternal Compassion

5. The Great Manifestations of the Devi: Maha-Kali, Maha-Laksmi, Maha-Sarasvati

6. Of Merchants and Kings: Worship and Its Fruits in the Frame Stories of the Devi-Bhagavata and Markandeya Puranas

Part III. The Two Gitas: The Harmonization of Traditions and the Transcendence of Gender

7. The Devi Gita and the Bhagavad Gita: Self-Revelations of the Supreme Reality

8. Gita-Reflections in the Mystic Isles: Narada's Journey to the White Island and Trimurti's Journey to the Jeweled Island

Conclusion: The Triumph of the Goddess

Appendix: Three Theories on the Text-History of the Devi-Bhagavata Purana

ABBREVIATIONS

GLOSSARY

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Related Subjects

Hindu Studies

25414/24885(WDE/MS/)

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