Jae-Eun Shin

Change, Continuity and Complexity (eBook, ePUB)

The Mahavidyas in East Indian Sakta Traditions

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

The Mahavidyas are the representative Tantric feminine pantheon consisting of ten goddesses. It is formed by divergent religious strands and elements: the mat¿ and yogini worship, the cult of Kali and Tripurasundari, Vajrayana Buddhism, Jain Vidyadevis, Saiva and Vai¿¿ava faith, Srividya, the Brahmanical strand of Puranic traditions, etc. This volume is the first attempt to explore the historical process, through which these traditions culminated in the Mahavidya cult and the goddesses with different origins and contradictory attributes were brought into a cluster, with special reference to socio-political changes in the lower Gäga and Brahmaputra Valley between the 9th and 15th centuries CE.
Based on a close analysis of Puräas, Tantras and inscriptional evidence, and on extensive field research on archaeological remains as well as sacred sites, Jae-Eun Shin discusses the two trajectories of the Mahavidyas in eastern Sakta traditions. Each led to the systematization of Dasamahavidyas in a specific way: one, as ten manifestations of Durga upholding dharma in the cosmic dimension, and the other, as ten mandalic goddesses bearing magical powers in the actual sacred site. Their attributes and characteristics have neither been static nor monolithic, and the mode of worship prescribed for them has changed in a dialectical religious process between Brahmanical and Tantric traditions of the region.
This is the definitive work for anyone seeking to understand goddess cults of South Asia in general and the history of eastern Sakta traditions in particular. To aid study, the volume includes images, diagrams and maps.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 376
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Mai 2018
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780429831027
• Artikelnr.: 56831910

Autorenporträt

Jae-Eun Shin is currently a research collaborator at Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo. She has written extensively on goddess cults and sacred sites in eastern India and on the history of Kamarupa, especially its state formation and religious identity construction.

Inhaltsangabe

1. Introduction 2. Grouping of Multiple Feminine Divinities 3. Making of the Mah
vidy
s in the
kta Upapur
nas and Tantras in Eastern India 4. Locating of the Mah
vidy
s in the Sacred Landscape 5. Conclusion