Goddesses and Women in the Indic Religious Tradition by Arvind Sharma

This book brings together for the first time a wide range of material and offers fresh stimulating interpretations of women in the Hindu Tradition. Instead of a one-way order of ideological derivation, the author argues that there is constant traffic between both ways the notional and the actual feminine. She examines the idea of female divinity which gave rise to models of conduct for mortal women. Drawing on a wide range of Sanskrit texts, the author explains how the idea of the goddess has been derived from Hindu philosophical ideas and also from the social roles of women as reflected in, and prescribed by, texts of codes of conduct. The conception and evolution of the major Hindu goddesses, placed against the judgments passed by texts of Hindu sacred law on women’s nature and duties, illuminate the Hindu discourse on gender, the complexity of which is compounded by the distinctive spirituality of female ascetic poets.

This creates in the Hindu consciousness multiple - often contradictory - images of women, both as wielders and subjects of authority. Hindu religious culture correlates philosophical speculation and social imperatives to situate femininity on a continuum from divine to mortal existence.

It explains how the idea of the goddess has been derived from Hindu philosophical ideas and texts of codes of conduct and how particular models of conduct for mortal women have been created. This book accounts for the origin and evolution of the nature and roles of women within the Hindu belief system.

Goddesses and Women in the Indic Religious Tradition by Arvind Sharma