The rise of the Goddess in the Hindu tradition /

This study focuses on the rise of the Great Goddess tradition as an integrated development of three defining concepts: sakti, the cosmic principle of creative energy; m=ay=a, objective illusion and the power of delusion; and prak.rti, the material world as it takes on varying relations with the divine. The main argument is that the Great Goddess developed over time as a blend of Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical elements, but that the essential identity of the Goddess as "Great" was constructed within the context of the Vedic and Brahmanical systems. Examining texts from the Vedic, philosophical, and Pur=a.nic traditions, the author notes that the Brahmanical orthodoxy had to incorporate elements of the popular, nonorthodox, autochthonous tradition in order to maintain its popularity; this happened in such a way that the orthodox tradition was able to maintain its authority all the while adapting itself to fit the changing religiosity of the culture at large. Pintchman is able to show that goddess worship was (and is) not a marginal expression of Hinduism but instead central to the most orthodox trends of the tradition. From this, the author can then make suggestive observations about how structures of the Great Goddess could shape contemporary concepts of female gender, treatment of women in Indian society, and roles that women are asked to play. Notes; an especially helpful bibliography of texts and translations of primary sources. Undergraduate; graduate; faculty. E. Findly; Trinity College (CT)