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Studies on Tantra in Bengal and Eastern India

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Editors:
  1. Madhu Khanna

    1. Tagore National Fellow, National Museum New Delhi, New Delhi, India

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  • Highlights the distinctiveness and all-inclusiveness of the religious culture of Bengal and East India
  • Provides innovative methodological perspectives on the rich traditions of Shakta Pithas
  • Brings together a group of top scholars to explore interdisciplinary approaches and new methodologies

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction

    • Madhu Khanna
    Pages 1-9

  4. The Śākta Pīṭhas: Great and Small, Ancient and Modern

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 99-99
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    2. Power and Desire in the Worship of the Goddess Kāmākhyā

      • Brenda Dobia
      Pages 101-126

    3. The Metamorphosis of the “Gāchh Tar Vālī” and the Making of a Śakti-Pīṭha in Mithila

      • Kamal K. Mishra
      Pages 127-151

  5. Śākta Theology

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 153-153
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    2. Gynocentric Cosmogony in the Devībhāgavata Purāṇa

      • Arghya Dipta Kar
      Pages 155-172

    3. Revisiting Śākta Advaita: The Monistic Śākta Philosophy in the Guhyopaniṣad

      • Sthaneshwar Timalsina
      Pages 173-184

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 185-188
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the tantric concept of Shakti, or the principal female cosmic entity and her pilgrimage sites. It offers a first-hand view of the multidimensional ways in which Shakti asserted its supremacy over existing Vaishnava and orthodox Brahmanical traditions in post mediaeval Bengal and India. The interdisciplinary chapters pave the way to understanding the intra-textual relationships between philosophical and conceptual ideas in literary texts and their oral transmission. Divided into three thematic sections: Cult Inclusiveness, Śakti Pithas, and the Śākta Philosophy, the book invites readers to explore a contested area of scholarship from unique perspectives, offering rich insights into the nature of negotiations between diverse religious streams. It also urges readers to examine the many innovative approaches and theoretical models on the goddess culture of East India. The book is of interest to students and scholars of religious textual studies, anthropology, pilgrimagestudies, comparative religion, Sanskrit and Bengali languages, regional studies, South Asian cultures, goddess traditions and cultural history of mediaeval Bengal.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Tagore National Fellow, National Museum New Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Madhu Khanna

About the editor

Prof. Madhu Khanna (D.Phil.Oxon) is a former director of the Centre for the Study of Comparative Religion and Civilizations, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Author or editor of eight books and academic papers, her most recent publications are Encyclopedia of Hinduism and Tribal Religion (Section Editor), published by Springer Publishing, USA (2022), and Tantra on the Edge- Inspiration and Experiments in Twentieth-Century Indian Art, Published by Delhi Art Gallery (Forthcoming May 2022).   She is also a mentor and co-creator of the Centre for Indic and Agamic Studies in Asia (CIASA) and a founding member of the Tantra  Foundation, New Delhi.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Studies on Tantra in Bengal and Eastern India

  • Editors: Madhu Khanna

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3022-5

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-19-3021-8Published: 21 February 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-19-3024-9Published: 22 February 2024

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-19-3022-5Published: 20 February 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 188

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 6 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Comparative Religion, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Religion

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