When the Goddess was a Woman

Hiltebeitel, Alf:
When the Goddess was a Woman : Mahābhārata Ethnographies / Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel ; ed. by Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee. - Vol. 2. - Leiden [u.a.] : Brill, 2011. - viii, 612 S. - (Studies in the history of religions : Numen book series ; 132)
ISBN 978-90-04-19380-2
EUR 174,00 / US$ 247,00
DDC: 294.5923046

Beschreibung
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,” i.e., 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. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Acknowledgements. vii
Introduction. xi
Chronology of Works. xxxv
I. MILLENIAL DRAUPADIS
   1. Draupadī's Hair. 3
   2. Draupadī's Garments. 33
   3. Śiva, the Goddess, and the Disguises of the Pāṇḍavas and Draupadī. 53
   4. Purity and Auspiciousness in the Sanskrit Epics. 83
   5. The Folklore of Draupadī: Sārīs and Hair. 101
   6. Orders of Diffusion in Indian Folk Religion. 125
   7. Draupadī Cult Līlās. 147
   8. Colonialist Lenses on the South Indian Draupadī Cult. 167
   9. Review of Landscapes of Urban Memory. 191
   10. Draupadī's Question. 195
II. THE SACRIFICIAL DEATH OF A CO-WIFE'S SON
   11. Dying before the Mahābhārata War: Martial and Transsexual Body-Building for Aravān. 205
   12. Hair Like Snakes and Mustached Brides: Crossed Gender in an Indian Folk Cult. 243
   13. Kūttāntavar: the Divine Lives of a Severed Head. 275
   14. Kūttāntavar's Cross: Making that Young Bride, Whoever She Is, a Widow. 315
III. COMPANION STUDIES
   15. The Indus Valley “Proto-Śiva”: Reexamined through Reflections on the Goddess, the Buffalo, and the Symbolism of Vāhanas. 399
   16. Fathers of the Bride, Fathers of Satī: Myths Rites, and Scholarly Practices. 433
   17. Two Ways to Tell a Story: Ālhā in the Bhaviṣya Purāna. 463
   18. Boar and Twins: Comparing the Tulu Kōtị-Cennaya Pāḍdana and the Tamil Elder Brothers Story. 487
   19. On the Handling of the Meat and Related Matters: two South Indian Buffalo Sacrifices. 517
   20. Transmitting Mahābhāratas: Another Look at Peter Brook. 547
IV. APPARATUS
Bibliography. 583
Index. 607

Autor

ALF HILTEBEITEL is professor of religion, history, and human sciences at the George Washington University. Faculty page.

Herausgeber
VISHWA P. ADLURI, Ph.D. (2002) in Philosophy, New School for Social Research, teaches in the Departments of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York. He has published extensively on ancient philosophy, Indian philosophy, and religion. His new monograph Parmenides, Plato, and Mortal Philosophy: Return from Transcendence will be available from Feb, 2011 from Continuum Publishing; an edited volume on the Mahābhārata is currently under preparation at BORI. Facebook profile.
JOYDEEP BAGCHEE, Ph.D. (2009) in Philosophy, New School for Social Research, is a post-doctoral fellow at Marburg University, Germany and has interests in Heidegger, Indian philosophy, and the Bhagavad Gītā. He is currently working on a translation of Heidegger's Habilitationsschrift (Indiana University Press, forthcoming).

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