When the goddess was a woman : mahābhārata ethnographies : essays. / Volume 2 / / by Alf Hiltebeitel ; edited by Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee.

• Superior document: Numen book series ; v. 132
• Author: Hiltebeitel, Alf.
• TeilnehmendeR: Adluri, Vishwa.; Bagchee, Joydeep.
• Year of Publication: 2011
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the history of religions ; v. 132.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (672 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Explicitly acknowledging its status as a strī-śūdra-veda (a Veda for women and the downtrodden), the Mahābhārata articulates a promise to bring knowledge of right conduct, fundamental ethical, philosophical, and soteriological teachings, and its own grand narrative to all classes of people and all beings. Hiltebeitel shows how the Mahābhārata has more than lived up to this promise at least on the ground in Indian folk traditions. In this three-part volume, he journeys over the overlapping terrains of the south Indian cults of Draupadī (part I) and Kūttāṇṭavar (part II), to explore how the Mahābhārata continues to be such a vital source of meaning, and, in part III, then connects this vital tradition to wider reflections on prehistory, sacrifice, myth, oral epic, and modern theatre. This two volume edition collects nearly three decades of Alf Hiltebeitel’s researches into the Indian epic and religious tradition. The two volumes document Hiltebeitel’s longstanding fascination with the Sanskrit epics: volume 1 presents a series of appreciative readings of the Mahābhārata (and to a lesser extent, the Rāmāyaṇa), while volume 2 focuses on what Hiltebeitel has called “the underground Mahābhārata,” id est, the Mahābhārata as it is still alive in folk and vernacular traditions. Recently re-edited and with a new set of articles completing a trajectory Hiltebeitel established over 30 years ago, this work constitutes a definitive statement from this major scholar. Comprehensive indices, cross-referencing, and an exhaustive bibliography make it an essential reference work. For more information on the first volume please click here .

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter One. Draupadī’S Hair / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Two. Draupadī’s Garments / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Three. Śiva, The Goddess, And The Disguises Of The Pāṇḍavas And Draupadī / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Four. Purity And Auspiciousness In The Sanskrit Epics / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Five. The Folklore Of Draupadī: Sārīs And Hair / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Six. Orders Of Diffusion In Indian Folk Religion / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Seven. Draupadī Cult Līlās / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Eight. Colonialist Lenses On The South Indian Draupadī Cult / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Nine. Review Of Landscapes Of Urban Memory / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Ten. Draupadī’s Question / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Eleven. Dying Before The Mahābhārata War: Martial And Transsexual Body-Building For Aravāṉ / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Twelve. Hair Like Snakes And Mustached Brides: Crossed Gender In An Indian Folk Cult / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Thirteen. Kūttāṇṭavar: The Divine Lives Of A Severed Head / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Fourteen. Kūttāṇṭavar’s Cross: Making That Young Bride, Whoever She Is, A Widow / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Fifteen. The Indus Valley “Proto-Śiva”: Reexamined Through Reflections On The Goddess, The Buffalo, And The Symbolism Of Vāhanas / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Sixteen. Fathers Of The Bride, Fathers Of Satī: Myths Rites, And Scholarly Practices / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Seventeen. Two Ways To Tell A Story: Ālhā In The Bhaviṣya Purāṇa / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Eighteen. Boar And Twins: Comparing The Tulu Kōtị-Cennaya Pāḍdana And The Tamil Elder Brothers Story / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Nineteen. On The Handling Of The Meat And Related Matters: Two South Indian Buffalo Sacrifices / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Chapter Twenty. Transmitting Mahābhāratas: Another Look At Peter Brook / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Bibliography / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee -- Index / V. Adluri and J. Bagchee.