Nine Nights of Power


Book Description

The autumnal Navarātri festival—also called Durgā Pūjā, Dassehra, or Dasain—is the most important Hindu festival in South Asia and wherever Hindus settle. A nine-night-long celebration in honor of the goddess Durgā, it ends on the tenth day with a celebration called "the victorious tenth" (vijayadaśamī). The rituals that take place in domestic, royal, and public spaces are closely connected with one's station in life and dependent on social status, economic class, caste, and gender issues. Exploring different aspects of the festival as celebrated in diverse regions of South Asia and in the South Asian diaspora, this book addresses the following common questions: What does this festival do? What does it achieve, and how? Why and in what way does it sometimes fail? How do mass communication and social media increase participation in and contribute to the changing nature of the festival? The contributors address these questions from multiple perspectives and discuss issues of agency, authority, ritual efficacy, change, appropriation, and adaptation. Because of the festival's reach beyond its diverse celebrations in South Asia, its influence can be seen in the rituals and dances in many parts of Western Europe and North America.




Nine Nights of the Goddess


Book Description

Explores the contemporary nature and the diverse narratives, rituals, and performances of the Navar?tri festival. Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navarātri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navarātri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.




Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power


Book Description

"Amazzone's voice is strong and clear. Goddess Durga promises the transformation, empowerment, and dignity that is our birthright."--Marisa Tomei, Academy Award-winning actor.




Nine Worlds in Nine Nights


Book Description

View more details of this book at www.walkerbooks.com.au




The Life of a Text


Book Description

The Life of a Text offers a vivid portrait of one community's interaction with its favorite text—the epic Ramcaritmanas—and the way in which performances of the epic function as a flexible and evolving medium for cultural expression. Anthropologists, historians of religion, and readers interested in the culture of North India and the performance arts will find breadth of subject, careful scholarship, and engaging presentation in this unique and beautifully illustrated examination of Hindi culture. The most popular and influential text of Hindi-speaking North India, the epic Ramcaritmanas is a sixteenth century retelling of the Ramayana story by the poet Tulsidas. This masterpiece of pre-modern Hindi literature has always reached its largely illiterate audiences primarily through oral performance including ceremonial recitation, folksinging, oral exegesis, and theatrical representation. Drawing on fieldwork in Banaras, Lutgendorf breaks new ground by capturing the range of performance techniques in vivid detail and tracing the impact of the epic in its contemporary cultural context.




The Dark Powers of Tolkien


Book Description

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion are some of the greatest tales of good versus evil ever told. From the creation of Arda to the War of the Ring, Tolkien's Middle-earth has seen war and rebellion, devastation and loss, in which the powers of darkness emerged. Here in his latest book, best-selling author and Tolkien expert David Day explores Tolkien's portrayal of evil, and the sources that inspired his work: from myth, literature and history. This work is unofficial and is not authorized by the Tolkien Estate or HarperCollins Publishers.




SAHIH MOSLIM (THE AUTHENTIC HADITHS OF MUSLIM) 1-4 VOL 2


Book Description

إن أصح الكتب بعد القرآن الكريم وصحيح البخاري صحيح الإمام مسلم فقد التزم فيه أعلى درجات الصحة للأحاديث واشترط له شروطا خاصة وقد تلقته الأمة بالقبول . وقد اعتمد في وضع الاحاديث طريقة الكتب حسب الكتب الفقهية وقليلا من غيرها ككتاب العلم والإيمان وغيرهما وفي ن




An Encyclopedia of Tolkien


Book Description

List of illustrations -- Introduction -- A dictionary of sources -- Charts -- Battles -- Three primary ring legends -- Tolkien's ring -- Index of sources -- Index.







Gods and Planets


Book Description

What happens when Mars and Venus are in love? How does Jupiter defend himself against Saturn, his difficult father? To whom does Mercury hurry with his cap of invisibility and his winged shoes? Drawing on the psychology of C. G. Jung, Ellynor Barz looks into the foundations of astrology by recounting the myths of the planetary gods. Engaging and amusing her presentation also offers new and surprising insights for both psychology and astrology. When we understand the peculiarities and characteristics of the ancient gods symbolically as possibilities in our own human psyches - projected in astrology onto the big screen of the night sky - we discover a realm of ancient human wisdom that may exceed in subtlety most psychological models explaining the human psyche. Drawing on and actualizing the many unique possibilities inherent within - as described by the horoscope - is a life-long task. All persons have the same fundamental capabilities for experience which we rediscover in these astrological symbols. But the interplay of these essential forces arises in each individual in an entirely unique manner, corresponding to the natal horoscope. This book addresses first the astrological layperson. But it also suggests a point of view seldom considered by the astrologer. And for the interested psychologist, a domain of knowledge and experience is revealed a wealth of material that is more deeply related to psychology than one might expect.