Reciting the Goddess


Book Description

Reciting the Goddess presents the first critical study of the Svasthanivratakatha (SVK), a sixteenth-century Hindu narrative textual tradition. The extensive SVK manuscript tradition offers a rare opportunity to observe the making of a specific, distinct Hindu religious tradition. Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz argues that the SVK serves as a lens through which we can observe the creation of modern 'Hinduism' in the Himalayas, as the text both mirrored and informed key moments in the self-conscious creation of Nepal as the 'world's only Hindu kingdom' in the late medieval and early modern period. Birkenholtz mines the literary historiography that is contained within the SVK text itself, chronicling the text's literary and narrative development as well as the development of the Svasthani goddess tradition. She outlines the process whereby the SVK gradually transformed into a Purana text, and became a critical source for Nepali Hindu belief and identity. She also examines the elusive character of the goddess Svasthani whose identity is tied to the pan-Hindu goddess tradition, and the representation of women in the SVK and the ways in which the text influenced local and regional debates on the ideal of Hindu womanhood. Reciting the Goddess presents Nepal's celebrated SVK as a micro-level illustration of the powerful ways in which people, place, and literature intersect to produce new ideas and concepts of identity and place, even in a historically non-literate culture.




The Festival of Indra


Book Description

The Festival of Indra details the textual and performative history of an important South Asian festival and its role in the development of classical Hinduism. Drawing on various genres of Sanskrit textual sources—especially the epic Mahābhārata—the book highlights the innovative ways that this annual public festival has supported the stable royal power responsible for the sponsorship of these texts. More than just a textual project, however, the book devotes significant ethnographic attention to the only contemporary performance of this festival that adheres to the classical Sanskrit record: the Indrajatra of Kathmandu, Nepal. Here, Indra's tall pole remains the festival's focal point, though its addition of the royal blessing by Kumari, the "living goddess" of Nepal, and the regular presence of the fierce god Bhairav show several significant ways that ritual agents have re-constructed this festival over the past two thousand years.




Demoting Vishnu


Book Description

"This book examines how public ritual once placed kings at the privileged apex of Nepal's government, and how in the 21st century those same rituals stopped serving the king and turned instead to authorize party-based politicians. Ritual upheaval undermined the institutional logic of monarchy, and demonstrated that kingship was contingent/dispensable"--







Asian Home: Situating Self in Western Women’s Select Travel Narratives


Book Description

How did the West’s countercultural notions widen their zeal and zest onto the Himalayas? How did Nepal turn out to be a safe haven for Western women who made their travels to different Asian countries? With no direct traces of colonialism, the opening of Nepal to foreigners after 1951 offered travelers a new destination for imbibing Eastern spiritual traditions. The post-War condition was fertile for several radical movements. Many people found solace in traveling to escape from the brutal after-effects of the Second World War. The socio-political and economic conditions of Europe and America post-World War II necessitated the need to travel to overcome the trauma of the war. For women, travel became the means of empowerment and at the same time a spiritual endeavour. The knowledge and understanding of theology and other spiritual knowledge led many travelers to be part of the ‘hippie trail’, in which Nepal is the final destination. This book offers a fresh outlook to women’s perceptions of a second home in a foreign land.
















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