Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing for the Goddesses of Bengal: The Fortunes of Hindu Festivals

Rachel Fell McDermott

Published by Columbia University Press 2011

Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing for the Goddesses of Bengal

The Fortunes of Hindu Festivals

Rachel Fell McDermott

https://doi.org/10.7312/mcde12918

Overview
Contents

About this book

Annually during the months of autumn, Bengal hosts three interlinked festivals to honor its most important goddesses: Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri. While each of these deities possesses a distinct iconography, myth, and character, they are all martial. Durga, Kali, and Jagaddhatri often demand blood sacrifice as part of their worship and offer material and spiritual benefits to their votaries. Richly represented in straw, clay, paint, and decoration, they are similarly displayed in elaborately festooned temples, thronged by thousands of admirers.

The first book to recount the history of these festivals and their revelry, rivalry, and nostalgic power, this volume marks an unprecedented achievement in the mapping of a major public event. Rachel Fell McDermott describes the festivals' origins and growth under British rule. She identifies their iconographic conventions and carnivalesque qualities and their relationship to the fierce, Tantric sides of ritual practice. McDermott confronts controversies over the tradition of blood sacrifice and the status-seekers who compete for symbolic capital. Expanding her narrative, she takes readers beyond Bengal's borders to trace the transformation of the goddesses and their festivals across the world. McDermott's work underscores the role of holidays in cultural memory, specifically the Bengali evocation of an ideal, culturally rich past. Under the thrall of the goddess, the social, political, economic, and religious identity of Bengalis takes shape.

Author / Editor information

Rachel Fell McDermott is professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College. Her books include Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kali and Uma from Bengal and Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West.

Reviews

McDermott's Revelry, Rivalry, and Longing is a wonderful book that thoroughly presents the development of three of the most important festivals in Bengal.

Chris J. Fuller:
McDermott's pioneering study is a scholarly achievement that is impressive, enlightening and enjoyable to read.

Jeffrey J. Kripal, Rice University, author of Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred:
This is a book of superior, indeed pristine scholarship that significantly advances our knowledge on a number of fronts, historical and theoretical. What is so artful about this particular work is the way it handles multiple, sometimes abstract theoretical issues (iconography, ritual theory, colonial history, mythology, postcolonial theory, sacrifice, censorship, poster art, prostitution, environmentalism, and diaspora and immigration studies) through very concrete historical details and, most important, a single, overarching historical narrative spanning some three to four centuries. This is a truly comprehensive book, and it will become the definitive study of the subject.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Notes on Transliteration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Pūjā Origins and Elite Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. The Goddess in Colonial and Postcolonial History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
3. Durgā the Daughter: Folk and Familial Traditions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
4. The Artistry of Durgā and Jagaddhātrī Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
5. Durgā on the Titanic: Politics and Religion in the Pūjā Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
6. The “Orientalist” Kālī: A Tantric Icon Comes Alive Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
7. Approaches to Kālī Pūjā in Bengal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
8. Controversies and the Goddess Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
9. Devī in the Diaspora Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 392
Illustrations
- Other: 37 illus.

eBook

Published: May 31, 2011
ISBN: 9780231527873