ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Introduction
PART I. THE MAHAVIDYAS AS A GROUP
The Ten Mahavidyas; Typical Literary and Iconographic Contexts; The
Mahavidyas as Forms of the Mahadevi;
Mahavidya Origin Myths; Interrelationships among the Mahavidyas;
Worship of the Mahavidyas;
The Mahavidyas and Magical Powers; The Significance of the Term
Mahavidya;
Concluding Observations
PART II. THE INDIVIDUAL MAHAVIDYAS
Kali: The Black Goddess
Tara: The Goddess Who Guides through Troubles
Tripura-sundari: She Who Is Lovely in the Three Worlds
Bhuvanegvari: She Whose Body Is the World
Chinnamasta: The Self-Decapitated Goddess
Bhairavi: The Fierce One
Dharnavati: The Widow Goddess
Bagalamukhi: The Paralyzer
Matarigi: The Outcaste Goddess
Kamald: The Lotus Goddess
PART III. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS
Corpses and Cremation Grounds 233; Skulls and Severed Heads;
Sexuality and Awakened Consciousness; The Conjunction of Death and
Sexual Imagery;
The Roles of Women and Reverence for Women; The Potentially
Liberating Nature of Social Antimodels
NOTES
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
David Kinsley is Professor of Religion at McMaster University, Canada. He is the author of Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition (California, 1985), and The Sword and the Flute: Kali and Krisna, Dark Visions of the Terrible and Sublime in Hindu Mythology (California, 1975).
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