"The energy of the goddess fills every facet of Indian life. To her devotees, the goddess appears in myriad forms: a mother, boon-giver, destroyer of evil, a divine lover, a protector and/or a bloodthristy ogress. The more we discover about her, the more teasingly complex and multivalent the Devi appears. She is constant and changing, loved and feared, worshipped and foregotten only to be re-discovered and worshipped.

In this book, for the first time, ten Australian researchers working on many aspects of the Devi have come together and offered, in a single collection, new research on the divine female. This book is the beginning of a renewed quest for the iconic Devi who continues to emerge in her many, unpredictably powerful forms."
                                                                                                                            [from Blurb]

Contents

Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgements

1. Contextualising the goddess / Ian Mabbett and Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat

2. Archaeology of the goddess : An Indian Paradox / Angelo Andrea Di Castro

3. Parvati as creator of maya or victim of maya : the role of Ganesa's mother in the Ganesapurana / Greg Bailey

4. When Renuka was not a goddess / Rashmi Desai

5. The Lajjagauri : mother, wife or yogini / Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat

6. Devi and tantric practice / John R. Dupuche

7. The dakini in Tibetan hagiography / David Templeman

8. Devi's lion herders : bards and bardic goddesses and the moral regulation of power in late-medieval Rajasthan / Marx Harcourt

9. Songs in the presence of Mammai Mataji / Effy George

10. The Khadadevi Temple of modern Mumbai : communal harmony and the Koli goddess / Marika Vicziany and Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat

Bibliography

Index