Table of Contents

Thomas B. Coburn, Devi: The Great Goddess Cynthia Ann Humes, Vindhyavasini: Local Goddess yet Great Goddess David R. Kinsley, Kali: Blood and Death Out of Place Vasudha Narayanan, Sri: Giver of Fortune, Bestower of Grace Donna M. Wulff, Radha: Consort and Conqueror of Krishna Diana L. Eck, Ganga: The Goddess Ganges in Hindu Sacred Geography Wendy Doniger, Saranyu/Samjna: The Sun and the Shadow Kathleen M. Erndl, Seranvali: The Mother Who Possesses Sarah Caldwell, Bhagavati: Ball of Fire Lindsey Harlan, Sati: The Story of Godavari Lise McKean, Bharat Mata: Mother India and Her Militant, Matriots

About the Author

John S. Hawley is Professor of Religion at Barnard College and Director of the the National Resource Center for South Asia at Columbia University. Donna M. Wulff is Professor of Religion at Brown University. Together they edited The Divine Consort: Radha and the Goddesses of India (1986).

Reviews

Editors Hawley (religion, Barnard Coll.) and Wulff (religion, Brown Univ.) offer a collection of scholarly essays exploring the portrayals of 12 Hindu goddesses from a number of regions and time periods. Well written and thoroughly researched, the essays explore the multivarious roles of the goddess in a religion where the presence of the female divine is vital, real, and contradictory. The editors have divided the essays into sections discussing the goddess as supreme and goddess as consort; goddesses who mother and possess; and, finally, Kali in the Western goddess spirituality movement. Recommended for graduate collections on religion, women's studies, Asian studies, and sociology.‘Gail Wood, SUNY Coll. of Tech. Lib., Alfred