Academic literature on the topic 'Goddesses, Hindi, in art'

It is well known that some goddesses are worshipped in both the Buddhist and Hindu Tantric traditions. A form of the Buddhist Vajrayoginī, accompanied by Vajravarṇanī and Vajravairocanī, is the prototype of the Hindu Chinnamastā accompanied by Ḍākinī and Varṅinī. Forms of Ekajaṭā and Mañjughoṣa were adopted from the Buddhist pantheon into the Hindu and worshipped by the same name. Usually it is not easy to trace how and when these adaptations took place. In the case of Mahācīnakrama-Tārā, a special form of Tārā, it has long been suspected that the goddess was imported from the Buddhist Tantric pantheon into the Hindu pantheon. In this paper I demonstrate, on the basis of clear textual evidence, how the goddess's description in a Buddhist sādhana was incorporated into the Hindu Phetkāriṅītantra, which was then quoted as an authoritative source regarding the goddess by later Hindu Tantras. I further examine representations of the goddess in art, and provide a new edition and translation of two sādhanas of Mahācīnakrama-Tārā.

In India, music is believed to be as eternal as God. Before the creation of the world —it existed as the all-pervading sound of "Om" —ringing through space. Brahma, the Creator, revealed the four Vedas, the last of which was the Sama Veda —dealing with music.Vedic hymns were ritualistic chants of invocation to different nature gods. It is not strange therefore to find the beginnings of Hindu music associated with Gods and Goddesses. The mythological heaven of Indra, God of Rain, was inhabited by Gandharvas (singers), Apsaras (female dancers) and Kinnaras (instrumentalists). Saraswati, Goddess of Music and Learning, is represented as seated on a white lotus playing on the Veena. The great sage Narada first brought the art to earth and taught it to men.

This article is an exploration of Kali, a Hindu deity, through Panofskian three-tiered meanings of a visual art: pre-iconographical description, iconographical analysis and iconological interpretation. It presents neither a dogmatic nor an erotic interpretation of Kali but a purely objective analysis of the Hindu deity. It is argued that Kali has layers of implications, associations and meanings as well as multiple forms, namely Kali, Chinnamasta Kali, Tara, Bhuvaneshwori, Bagalamukhi, Dhumbavati, Kamala, Bhairavi, Sodasi, and Matangi. Each form is also associated with different mythologies, allegories and allusions of their origin. It is assumed that this article has had great significance in the academia as well as for the academicians and academics who are interested in carrying out research works, with an objective description, analysis and interpretation of any visual art. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ctbijis.v1i1.10464 Crossing the Border: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Vol.1(1) 2013; 11-20

Within the Indian classical dance style of bharatanāṭyam, performers traditionally embody the stories of Hindu gods and goddesses. This paper discusses selected examples of how Christian themes have been incorporated into the art form by both Hindu and non-Hindu participants, including the adaptation of the aesthetics of the nāyikā, a female heroine yearning for her absent beloved. In an extended case study, I examine the presentation of one such unique nāyikā, a Christian Indian woman who contracts HIV from her husband, in particular demonstrating how various gesture sequences draw upon the recognizable, empathetic foundation of the suffering heroine to depict the realities of the illness of HIV. The despair and pain of the nāyikā, and the role of a sakhī as sympathetic doctor, invite audiences into a familiar aesthetic framework that also creates receptivity towards a significant social critique.

Lions, particularly male lions, have been an important symbol for thousands of years and appear as a theme in cultures across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The cultural significance of stucco pair lion motif in Shiva temples of Bengal and relates with various types of representation of the same motif found in others. The pair Lion used as stucco (Jora Shiva Temple, Muroli, Jessore district). Shiva is the braver among the all God and Goddesses in Hindu religion during the early period and still. Thus we have found many Shiva temple build in Bengal (present West Bengal(Paschimbango) and Bangladesh). This article try to analyses about how the pair lion motif is depicting of the Shiva temple and what is the relation between Shiva and lion under Mythology and Purana. Shiva is the second most important male deity of Hindu. The usual Shiva –lingam’s which were mainly worshipped in the temples and under trees or in an open space. We would have tried to decipher about Pair Lion Motif decoration of 18th – 19th century Shiva temple of Bangladesh. Those would have to help the history of evaluation of stylized art waves is coming out by its decoration motif with ritual, beliefs and faith of Bengal society. We may look at the artistic tradition of lion sculptures those are widely found from different parts of west Bengal and Bangladesh.

The asura’s demise at the hands of the goddess is a theme frequently revisited in Hindu myth. It is the chronicle of a death foretold. So too is the Bhadrakāḷīmāhātmya, a sixteenth century regional purāṇa from Kerala, that narrates the tale of fierce goddess Bhadrakāḷī and her predestined triumph over asura king Dārika. Violence is ubiquitous in this narrative, which was designed with one goal in mind: glorifying the ultimate act of defeating the asura enemy. In its course the story exhibits many kinds of violence: self-harm, cosmic warfare, murder, etc. This paper argues that (1) violence comes to serve as a structural aspect in the text. Reappearing consistently at key moments in the narrative, violence both frames and structures the goddess’s tale. Yet, it is not only the violent act that dominates, it is its accompaniment by equal acts of regeneration that dictates the flow of the narrative, creating a pulsating course of endings and beginnings; (2) these cycles, that strategically occur throughout the narrative, come to serve as a Leitmotif referring to the cyclic tandem of destruction and regeneration that has dominated post-Vedic Hindu myth in many forms. The pulsating dynamic of death and revival thus becomes a specific narrative design that aims to embed the regional goddess within a grander framework of Time.

Abstract- As one of the relics of the Classical Era, temples and shrines have been known as a means of worshipping the gods and goddesses or one’s ancestors, especially in the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Observers often regard the ornaments of these temples as mere visual art objects, as eye candy that may beautify their outward appearance. However, when examined more closely, these ornaments carry a certain meaning in each of the temples. The aim of this research study is to explore the deeper significance of these ornaments and their location. This research can be classified as qualitative, using the descriptive-analytical method. Employing the Purposive Sampling method regarding ornamentation, eleven temples have been selected that meet the research requirements. Both Hinduism and Buddhism have been known to make a division into three worlds, namely the lower, middle and upper spheres. This division has also shaped the elements of temples into their respective head, body and legs/feet. Further categorization yields six motifs, all of which can be found in temples in various shapes, consisting of several types of ornament that embellish the three elements mentioned above. Each of the motifs carries a variety of meanings. In this research study, the relationship between the meanings and their exact location (placement) is analyzed, indicating that they are in keeping with the division into three worlds, but then again there are ones that do not follow that pattern, and still others that are not affected at all. Development of the physical shape of the ornaments has occurred in several ornaments, but the majority of the changes in their physical shape has left no impact on the meaning contained within these ornaments.Keywords: temple, ornament, meaning, placement, physical shape

“My first raising of the kuṇḍalinī was hearing Ma [her teacher] speak about art.” The experience of the awakening of śakti within practitioners in contemporary cultures occurs both in traditional religious settings and within novel circumstances. Traditional situations include direct transmission from a guru (śaktipāta), self-awakening through the practice of kuṇḍalinī-yoga or haṭhayoga, and direct acts of grace (anugraha) from the goddess or god. There are also novel expressions in hybrid religious-cultural experiences wherein artists, dancers, and musicians describe their arts explicitly in terms of faith/devotion (śraddhā, bhakti, etc.) and practice (sādhanā). They also describe direct experience of grace from the goddess or describe their ostensibly secular teachers as gurus. In contemporary experience, art becomes sādhanā and sādhanā becomes art. Creativity and artistic expression work as modern transformations of traditional religious experience. This development, while moving away from traditional ritual and practice, does have recognizable grounding within many tantric traditions, especially among the high tantra of the Kashmiri Śaiva exegetes.

AbstractAztec images of decapitated goddesses link the symbolism of astronomy with politics and the seasonal cycle. Rituals reenacting decapitation may refer to lunar events in the context of a solar calendar, providing evidence of a luni-solar calendar. Decapitation imagery also involves metaphors expressing the rivalry between the cults of the sun and the moon. Huitzilopochtli's decapitation of Coyolxauhqui can be interpreted as a symbol of political conquest linked to the triumph of the sun over the moon. Analysis of Coyolxauhqui's imagery and mythology indicates that she represents the full moon eclipsed by the sun. Details of the decapitation myth indicate specific links with seasonal transition and events taking place at dawn and at midnight. Other decapitated goddesses, often referred to as earth goddesses with “lunar connections,” belong to a complex of lunar deities representing the moon within the earth (the new moon). Cihuacoatl, a goddess of the new moon, takes on threatening quality when she assumes the form of a tzitzimime attacking the sun during a solar eclipse. The demonic new moon was greatly feared, for it could cause an eternal solar eclipse bringing the Aztec world to an end.

This paper explores the intertwined history of certain goddesses of the Middle East and the Americas. This history informs the original invented contemporary deities that my project centers around. Using recycled materials and collected objects, my project displays two religious altars, one from my heritage and one from my experience living in Brazil. One altar is based on afro-Brazilian sea goddesses, and one is a contemporary imagined interpretation of a Judeo-Christian female figure. The two altars together compose an installation that seeks to unify a pagan practice and two distinct monotheistic traditions while still honoring their separate parts. These parts is built in the studio.

Lucian, writing in the mid-second century AD, recorded his observations of an "exotic" local cult in the city of Hierapolis in what is today Northern Syria. The local goddess was known as Dea Syria to the Romans and Atargatis to the Greeks. Lucian's so-named De Dea Syria is an important record of life and religion in Roman Syria. De Dea Syria presents to us an Oriental cult of a fertility goddess as seen through the eyes of a Hellenized Syrian devotee and religious ethnographer. How accurate Lucian's portrayal of the cult is questionable, though his account provides for us some indication that traditional religious practices were still being observed in Hierapolis despite Greek and Roman colonization. The origins of Near Eastern fertility goddesses began in the Bronze Age with the Sumerian goddess Inanna who was later associated with the Semitic Akkadian deity Ishtar. The worship of Ishtar spread throughout the Near East as a result of both Babylonian and Assyrian conquests. In Syria some of the major sites of her worship were located in Ebla and Mari. The later Phoenician and Canaanite cultures also adopted the worship of Ishtar melding her into their religions under the names of Astarte and Asherah respectively. By the Greco-Roman era, the Nabataeans and Palmyrenes also worshipped a form of the Near Eastern fertility goddess, calling her by many names including Atargatis, Astarte, al-Uzza and Allat. The Greeks and Romans found parallels between this eastern goddess and their deities and added her to their pantheons. Through this process of adoption and adaptation, the worship of this goddess naturally changed. In her many guises, Atargatis was worshipped not only at Hierapolis in the Greco-Roman period, but also at Delos, Dura Europos, and Khirbet et-Tannur. At all of these centers of worship vestiges of traditional practices retained in the cult were apparent. It is necessary to look at the cult as a whole to understand more fully whether her cult retained its original Oriental character or was partially or fully Hellenized. Temple architecture is an important part of Atargatis' cult which is often overlooked in the analysis of her cult. This thesis examines whether Atargatis' cult remained Oriental or became Hellenized by tracing the historical development of the temple architecture, associated cult objects, and decoration from their traditional origins down to the introduction of Greco-Roman styles into the Near East.

The thesis concerns representations of Roman women of the imperial period depicted in the guise of a divinity. Portraits of women of all social levels have been included as have representations in any media excluding numismatic evidence. The latter, with its specific contextual characteristics, is only included and discussed as comparanda for the main body of material. The juxtaposition of a recognisable reality and a heightened reality in these representations raises a variety of interpretative questions: whether it is possible to establish a correlation between the mythological interpretation of a goddess and the socio-personal interpretation of an image of a mortal woman; the nature of the message being communicated through the choice of a particular deity; and whether the choice of deity for association in some way may be seen to conform to established ideals or topoi for women. The work examines Roman portraiture as a vehicle for self-expression and the transmission of ideals. Various aspects of the 'mechanics' for achieving this (idealisation, imitation, etc.) are investigated. Though, of particular importance to the argument is the relationship between image and spectator: the perception of portraits and the various factors contributing to forming an interpretation. Thus portraiture is established as a medium which within its contextual framework also includes the spectator - and the spectator's cultural reference points. The main body of the thesis centres on a dual examination of the range of deities with which Roman women were associated and the women presented in the divine guises, respectively proposing avenues of interpretations for the divine allusions and offering suggestions for methods of interpreting their use. The examination of the various deities in whose guises Roman women appear is also juxtaposed with the distinctions and attributes used to characterise women in literary and epigraphic sources. The correlation between these helps to elucidate the values represented in the images of women under discussion, and how they fit within a framework of ideals and virtues, and with the social personae of Roman women. Similarly, affinities between social status and mythological depiction are juxtaposed with a discussion of the role of the mythological representations themselves - exploring especially the relationship between mythological narrative and the tradition of exempla in Roman literature. It is further argued that interpretation is influenced also by viewer response - encouraged through empathetic identification and social emulation - and that the images of women in divine guises therefore may be perceived both as revealing intrinsic personal characteristics and as a costume symbolically articulating aspirational values. The inherent duality in these representations does in other words not so much concern degrees of reality as interacting realities: the individual"as a social participant, the public persona evidencing personal virtues. The images of Roman women presented therefore contain equally a reconfiguring response to the world and a socialising affirmation of identity.

[ES] «Diosas Primigenias, sus mitos, estética e influencia en el arte y las sociedades hipermodernas líquidas», tiene sus fuentes en distintas áreas del conocimiento como la arqueología, la antropología, la sociología, el arte, los feminismos, la teología, etc., con el fin de facilitar la comprensión de la compleja sociedad actual. Para sustentar las hipótesis y objetivos del trabajo, en una primera parte, hemos elaborado un marco teórico con antecedentes en los mitos primigenios, a partir las teorías de Carl Jung o Mircea Eliade entre otros. En el segundo capítulo revisamos los datos arqueológicos alejados de la visión patriarcal, basándonos en datos científicos de Marija Gimbutas entre otras arqueólogas, proponiendo una visión diferente de la forma de organización social y del rol femenino, de acuerdo con la She Story. El mito aquí tratado, fijado en el subconsciente colectivo, forma parte de la estética de nuestras sociedades líquidas por lo que en el tercer capítulo analizaremos la evolución del pensamiento occidental desde Descartes a Lipovetzky, tocando brevemente a Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Fromm, y posteriormente las teorías de Marc Augé y Zygmunt Bauman. La segunda parte, cuarto capítulo dedicado a Zygmunt Bauman, y cómo sus teorías sociales han descrito minuciosamente la sociedad en que actualmente vivimos. Todo en esta generación líquida está entrelazado, arte, sociedad, tecnología, comunicaciones globales, mass media, comercio, política, mitos, esta liquidez abarca todos los aspectos de nuestras vidas y se refleja en el cuerpo femenino. Analizamos la presencia y manipulación por parte de los medios de comunicación masiva y las tecnologías, de lo que Zygmunt Bauman denomina la Generación Líquida. Generación que ha nacido con las tecnologías y que no entendería su realidad sin estar «conectada». Entregando su libertad a los nuevos líderes de opinión que son los trenders o los bloggers. Traspasando su lealtad incondicional a las empresas tecnológicas tipo Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, etc Se revisa con perspectiva de género el cuerpo femenino en estos tiempos líquidos, a partir de las teorías fundamentales de Judith Butler, Paul B. Preciado y Griselda Pollock. Dando paso al estudio de las teorías de Bauman con el cambio de perspectiva que los mass media, el marketing, y el consumo voraz de información en red han provocado en los mitos estudiados y de forma específica en el mito de la Diosa Primigenia alterando su significado en pos de la comer- cialización por cantantes como Rosalía, la familia Kardashian o la Mujer Maravilla. En el quinto capítulo serán las teorías de la doctora Griselda Pollock sobre la visión de cuerpo femenino a través de las artes, la creación del canon feminista y su posición frente al cuerpo femenino líquido las que sean hilo conductor del trabajo. Finalmente en el sexto y último capítulo se presentan ejemplos del abuso que las comunicaciones masivas, y la tecnología descontrolada desvirtúan los mitos aquí tratados. Se analiza cómo los mass media, los big brothers, los mitos Marvel, la música pop o el rap, representados por ejemplo en la rapera Minaj, o en Cuban doll, los han utilizado para convertirse en Diosas Primigenias mutantes y desvirtuadas. Se cierra el estudio con ejemplos de las artistas visuales y escultoras, desligadas del fenómeno del comercio rampante; productoras plásticas que advierten de estos peligros y nos conciencian de que el verdadero mito primigenio de esta Diosa sigue vivo y sano, en un mundo donde aún existe la conciencia y la salud mental, como Ana Mendieta, Rebecca Horn, Nalini Malani entre otras. Sirva como colofón mi producción llevada a cabo en relación con el presente proyecto de investigación; materializado en tres exposiciones personales a lo largo de este período bajo los títulos de: «Mujeres Celestes, Mitos Primigenios», «Mitos en tiempos líquidos» y «Mito poemas
[CA] Aquesta investigació «Deesses Primigènies, els seus mites, estètica i influència en l'art i les societats hipermodernes líquides», té les seues fonts en diferents àrees del coneixement com l'arqueologia, l'antropologia, la sociologia, l'art, els feminismes, la teologia, etc., amb la finalitat de facilitar la comprensió de la complexa societat actual, l'estructura líquida que la defineix i la seua influència en l'estètica del cos femení. Per a sustentar les hipòtesis i objectius del treball, en una primera part, hem elaborat un marc teòric amb antecedents en els mites primigenis, a partir les teories de Carl Jung o Mircea Eliade. En el segon capítol revisem les dades arqueològiques allunyades de la visió patriarcal, i basant-nos en dades científiques de Marija Gimbutas entre altres arqueòlogues, analitzem la història des d'un punt de d'acord amb la She Story. El mite ací tractat, fixat en el subconscient col·lectiu, forma part de l'estètica de les nostres societats líquides pel que en el tercer capítol analitzarem brevíssimament l'evolució del pensament occidental des de Descartes a Lipovetzky, recorrent les diferents teories fonamentals per a comprendre on ens trobem en l'actualitat. Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche i Fromm, i posteriorment a les teories de Marc Auge i els «no llocs» i Zygmunt Bauman i la societat líquida. La segona part s'inicia amb el quart capítol dedicat a Zygmunt Bauman, i com les seues teories socials han descrit minuciosament la societat en la que actualment vivim. Tot en aquesta generació líquida està entrellaçat, art, societat, tecnologia, comunicacions globals, mass media, comerç, política, mites, i aquesta liquiditat abasta tots els aspec- tes de les nostres vides i es re ecteix en el cos femení. Analitzem també la presència i manipulació per part dels mitjans de comunicació massiva i les tecnologies, del que Zygmunt Bauman denomina com la «Generació líquida», la societat líquida en l'estètica femenina. Generació que ha nascut amb les tecnologies i que no entendria la seua realitat sense estar «connectada». Entregant la seua llibertat als nous líders d'opinió que són els trenders, els bloguers, les momagers, a les empreses tecnològiques tipus Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, etc., totes elles dedicades als mitjans de comunicació massiva i al control de dades que faciliten als sistemes suprapanòptics per a manipular aquesta llibertat voluntàriament entregada. En el cinquè capítol es resumeixen les xarrades i seminaris haguts amb Griselda Pollock en els seus estudis sobre la visió de cos femení a través de les arts, la creació del cànon feminista i la seua posició enfront del cos femení líquid. Finalment en el sisè i últim capítol es presenten exemples de com l'abús absurd que les comunicacions massives, i la tecnologia descontrolada desvirtuen els mites ací tractats. S'analitza com els mass media, els big brothers, els mites Marvel, la música pop o el rap, representats per exemple en les Kardashians, o en la rapera Minaj, o en Rosalía els han utilitzats per a convertir-se en Deesses Primigènies mutants i desvirtuades. Es tanca l'estudi amb exemples de les artistes visuals i escultores, deslligades del fenomen del comerç rampant; productores plàstiques que adverteixen d'aquests perills i ens consciencien que el vertader mite primigeni d'aquesta Deessa continua viu i sa, en un món on encara existeix la consciència i la salut mental, com Ana Mendieta, Louise Burgeoise, Rebecca Horn, Nalini Malani entre altres. Servisca com a colofó la producció duta a terme en relació amb el present projecte d'investigació; materialitzat en tres exposicions personals al llarg d'aquest període sota els títols de: «Dones Celestes, Mites Primigenis», «Mites en temps líquids» i «Mite poemes femenins».
[EN] This investigation «Primeogenial Goddesses, their myths, aesthetic and inuflence in art and in the hyper-modern liquid societies» is supported by several areas of knowledge, such as archaeology, anthropology, theology, sociology, art, feminisms and psychology, etc., in order to grasp the complexity of the society in which we live. To sustain the hypothesis and objectives of this paper, in the first part we elaborate a theoretical framework, with the background of the primeogenial myths and the female body, based on the theories of Carl Jung or Mircea Eliade among other theorist. In the second chapter archaeological data is revised, based on scientific data of Marija Gimbutas among other archaeologists giving a different point of view, the She Story. The Inherited in the collective subconscious, the myth of the Primogenial Goddess forms part of the aesthetics of our liquid societies, for that reason, in the third chapter, very briefly we analyze the evolution of western thought, from Descartes to Lipovetzky, journey through fundamental theories to understand where we stand now a days: Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and Fromm arriving to the «no place» theory of Mark Augé and finally the liquid society theory of Zygmunt Bauman. On the second part of this work, chapter four, dedicated to Zygmunt Bauman, how its social theories have meticulously analyse the society we live in. How everything is intertwined; art, society, technology, global communications (mass media), commerce, politics, myths in this liquid generation, which cover all aspects of our lives and how it reflects in the feminine body. A generation that has been born into the technologies, and would never understand its own reality if «not connected». They blindly trust it and their new leaders of opinion the trenders, bloggers, momagers, the new loyalty is devoted to technological corporations like Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, handing the private information to the supra panoptic systems, information voluntarily given by the individuals of this generation. A perspective of gender is revised, the female body in liquid times, through the essential theories of Judith Butler, Paul. B. Preciado and Griselda Pollock. How all converge with the theories of Bauman, changing the perspective that mass media, marketing and the insatiable commerce of information on the net. On the fifth chapter Griselda Pollock through its lectures of the feminine body in the arts, the feminine body and the canon, the creation of this feminist canon and the position of the feminine body of the primeogenial myth in modernity, lightens us in such aspects. The sixth and last chapter, examples are given of the absurd abuse of the massive communications, uncontrolled technology and how they undermine and distort the myths we study. This bricoleur mentioned by Levi-Strauss leads to a nonsense power of the voracious commerce that mass media impose on us, like the big brothers, represented by the Kardashians, the Marvel myths. The phenomenon like rappers Minaj, or Rosalía among other mutant Primeogenial Goddesses, twisted and distorted. To close this thesis with samples of art, visual artists and sculptress, detached from the phenomenon of the voracious commerce, plastic producers in which mental health and consciousness still exist among others, Ana Mendieta, Louise Burgeoise, Rebeca Horn, Nalini Malani, or Sahara Sitkin. I conclude this research with my own artistic production which has been presented in three personal exhibits through the duration of the investigations: «Celestial women, Primeogenial myths», «Myths in liquid times» and «Feminine myth-poetics».
Leiva Del Valle, A. (2020). Diosas primigenias, sus mitos, estática e influencia en las sociedades hiper-modernas líquidas [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/156046
TESIS

La présente étude s'intéresse aux popula-tions installées en Irlande avant l'arrivée du christianisme (aux environs du Ve siècle de notre ère), et plus précisément aux bâtisseurs des tombes à couloirs du Néolithique ainsi qu'aux Celtes. L'omniprésence d'une com-posante féminine symbolique dans les pay-sages pré-chrétiens (qu'ils soient naturels, mégalithiques ou littéraires) est au centre de cette analyse, qui prend en considération le caractère matrifocal des sociétés archaïques et en évalue l'impact sociétal et rituel chez les Celtes. La thèse examine la spécificité de la perception des reliefs et l'expression sym-bolique de la représentation. Cette dernière se traduit chez les populations du Néolithique par une féminisation du paysage au travers des modifications délibérées de lieux naturels ou la création de sites clefs (tels que Brú na Bóinne ou Loughcrew). Nous montrons aussi que cette perception de l'espace comme fé-minin fut relayée chez les Celtes par la créa-tion de mythes mettant en scène des figures féminines divines ou évhémérisées transfonc-tionnelles. Le rapprochement proposé entre les créa-tions de ces deux groupes humains distants de plusieurs millénaires (de - 3500 à 700) vise à montrer qu'il existe dans les deux cas conception similaire de la terre d'Irlande comme féminine. Pour ce faire, la thèse met en relation plusieurs disciplines. La confron-tation des documents archéo-mythologiques révèle une continuité chronologique dans les représentations qui est liée à l'assimilation de l'héritage culturel indigène par les Celtes venus du continent. Nous avançons l'idée que l'osmose entre ces deux cultures a donné naissance à une identité celte insulaire unique, fortement ancrée dans la terre d'Irlande.

M.Tech.
My research investigates whether the notion of a Goddess is still relevant as a metaphor to contemporary feminist art, both globally and within a South African context. My hypothesis is that the debate between the first and second-generation feminists regarding the relevance of the Goddess to feminism is incomplete. Using critical literary analysis I examine the issues surrounding the debate, exemplified through an analysis of artworks by Ana Mendieta and Tracey Rose. A further aim of my research is to raise critical debate as to whether a multifaceted and contradictory Goddess, such as the Hindu goddess Kālī, is more relevant to the diversity of options suggested by both postmodernism and a multicultural South Africa. Evidence and interpretation of such an ambivalent Goddess is sought in the work of South African artists Claudette Schreuders and Diane Victor. Arguments from texts relevant to the artworks are critically examined, augmented in the case of Schreuders by an interview. The presence of an ambivalent Goddess is developed in my practical work through exploratory research. Assemblages of varying materials have been created to suggest a metaphorical Goddess. Discussion of these artworks reveals that both materials and concepts are inextricably linked and are intended to invite multiple interpretations. By exploring the issue of feminism in a South African context and adding to a general body of knowledge on South African artists, my research contributes to the University of Johannesburg’s niche area Visually Embodying Identity in a Postcolonial Environment.

Mutating Goddesses begins by examining the paradox of goddess worship in patriarchal societies. Hindu goddesses have been dominantly understood from a śāstrik perspective—deriving from Sanskrit scriptures authorized by the male Brahman—that exiles women. But there are religious practices under Hinduism that are governed by neither the Brahman nor Sanskrit. These laukika practices are held in a hierarchical relation to the śāstrik. Chapter 1 focuses from within that vibrant realm, the kathās/narratives appended to the propitiation of the goddesses known as bratas which allow direct participation of the women and the Dalit castes unlike the Brahmanical rituals. Briefly the Brahmannization of Bengal is traced and the Bengal caste system is sketched, since caste and gender are held together in the dominant construction and reception of goddesses. This Chapter concludes by showing how caste and gender define genres to categorize the construction and reception of goddesses and votives.

This chapter investigates the production, deployment, and interpretation of Hindu images, beginning in the nineteenth century, involving the interaction of non-Hindus and Hindus with the image in the Indian context and its eventual travel to the United States and the United Kingdom. Through processes of sacralization, politicization, display, appropriation, commoditization, and protest at various points in history, the Hindu image has been signified and resignified by Hindus and non-Hindus alike. Hindu images serve a multitude of purposes—functioning simultaneously, interdependently, and independently in the religious, social, political, artistic, and commercial realms. While the image of the god/goddess plays numerous roles, this chapter focuses on the image as mūrti, idol (in a pejorative sense), political symbol, art, and commodity.

Chapter 3 examines the question of gender in the cinematic conceptions of the citizen–devotee. The contradictions that traverse the nationalist ideal of femininity manifest themselves in the cinema of the 1950s and 1960s in the form of a conflict between two figures which have been central to the Telugu devotional genre—the sati and sakti—the good wife and the goddess. Hindu mythic characters of ideal wives provided the role models for imagining the ethics of good wifehood. In many of these films the goddess in her fierce and terrifying aspects, whose worship is usually associated with the superstitious lower castes, is dismissed as a sign of primitive nature. In later decades, however, there are perceptible shifts and lower caste village goddesses begin to make an appearance. Drawing on feminist film theory and anthropology of embodiment, I examine the implications of these thematic and generic shifts.

The politic construction of archives is central to the argument of this book. Chapter 2 traces the complex relation between the śāstrik vratas, which are the formalistic ‘Hindu’ rituals sanctioned by the scriptures composed in Sanskrit and performed with the aid of the Brahman priests, and the laukika bratas which are the customary rituals performed by men and/or women without the aid of Brahman priests and the Sanskrit texts. It reveals that the number of śāstrik vratas continues to increase through the ages garnished by the substratum of non-Brahmanical laukika rituals with attention to the notions of vrātya (the liminal other). This chapter identifies and analyses the ideological impulse propelling this commerce in terms of the pre-modern Brahmanical politics of the Purāṇas and the modern excavation of the laukika realm to define the nation in colonial context with implications for the divine feminine.

Manasā worship is placed within a larger map of ophiolatry in India but unlike the cults of male deities associated with snakes, Manasā declines. In the printed bratakathā of the early twentieth century, her liminal qualities are presented through the metaphor of dance prescribed as a taboo. The dancing goddess is traced to the Bengali maṅgalakābyas of Manasā from the fifteenth century that attempt to rein in a laukika goddess with śāstrik norms. The negative representation of the goddess and her decline are found motivated in terms of her origin outside the caste-Hindu pantheon such as old tribal beliefs and Mahāyāna Buddhism, the subaltern caste location of her primary votives, her specialized knowledge and refusal to submit to patriarchal–heterosexual marital norms. Manasā’s malignancy in hegemonic culture emanates from her refusal to conform to Brahmanical femininity. The male scripting of the maṅgalakābyas constructs a good woman—Behulā—to counter her.

The ubiquitous goddesses dotting Bengal are referred to by the epithet mā/mother and commonly trailed by the suffix Caṇḍī and usually calcified as the Brahmanical wife of Śiva. The Caṇḍī maṅgalakābyas by Brahmanical male poets from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries helped propagate the śāstrik framing of the laukika goddesses. The narratives start appearing as the Afghan sultanate of Bengal is incorporated into the Mughal Empire, proliferate in the seventeenth century as the Mughal conquest is consolidated, and stagnate by the end of the eighteenth century as the empire begins to disintegrate and the British Empire start rising. The modern canonized criticism of the Caṇḍīmaṅgalas argues that the genre represents the agenda of shaping a Hindu community in the context of Muslim rule and Caitanya’s critique of Brahmanical norms. But an ideological silence shrouds the detrimental implications of this patronizing project on customary caste and gender practices and rights.