Śiva, the Erotic Ascetic PDF Download

Author: Wendy Doniger
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195202503
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
On Hindu mythology and the god Siva.

Author: Wendy Doniger
Publisher: London ; New York : Oxford University Press
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
In this book, O'Flaherty applies structural methods to trace the development of an Indian approach to navigating the conflict between spiritual aspirations and human desires by examining several Hindu myths featuring the god Shiva. In the myths that she analyses Shiva encounters and confronts two themes that are seemingly contradictory, especially to those from other cultures: asceticism and eroticism. O'Flaherty makes a point of clearly delineating the contradiction as she explains Shiva, generally considered to be "the great ascetic," is simultaneously "the god of the phallus." O'Flaherty identifies numerous myths about Shiva that engage with myriad themes and ideas, including different sexual orientations demonstrated by Shiva and his Vedic antecedents, Shiva's role as the sexual creator in opposition to Bhrama's role as the Creator of the Universe, the importance of Shiva's off-spring, Shiva testing the sages for their chastity and teaching them that spiritual meditation is the only way to overcome sexual desire, and the probable dangers that are caused due to extreme chastity. There are even references to ancient medical procedures that can be compared to the modern-day practice of surrogacy, as in one myth when Shiva's seed is dropped into the Ganges River, and impregnates the wives of seven sages who were bathing in it at the time. O'Flaherty also examines different sexual forms of Shiva in various myths as both androgynous and intersexual. This orientation is commonly known as Shiva's Ardhanadheshwara avatar, which is often depicted as possessing physical characteristics that are half-male and half-female. Throughout the book, she examines interlinking aspects portrayed in several myths related to Shiva with a particular focus on the balance she sees between asceticism and eroticism in his identity and actions.

Author: Wendy Doniger
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
ISBN: 9788120803862
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
This work deals at length with various theories about relgion prevalent at the time when Megasthenes visited India very interesting and scholarly views have been put forth regarding investigations of Megasthenes their reliability and the reliability of his reporters.

Author: Mahadev Chakravarti
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
ISBN: 9788120800533
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The present book throws new light on the gradual development of the concept of Rudra-Siva in his animal, phallic and human forms, since the days of the Harappa Civilization. It examines how Siva, the composite Aryan-non-Aryan Divinity, was not only admitted but was ultimately crowned with an exalted position in the Brahmanical pantheon; how the bull once identified with the deity, was regulated to the position of a vahana; how phallism was related to Saivism and also how Siva, in his different forms, was represented in early Indian Art and the Art of Further India. The wide range and depth of the author's research fills a vital gap in the subject and his treatment of the entire subject is unique. This methodical study on Siva also contains an exhaustive bibliography.

Author: Wendy Doniger
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594202056
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 808

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Book Description
An engrossing and definitive narrative account of history and myth that offers a new way of understanding one of the world's oldest major religions, The Hindus elucidates the relationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds. The Hindus brings a fascinating multiplicity of actors and stories to the stage to show how brilliant and creative thinkers have kept Hinduism alive in ways that other scholars have not fully explored. In this unique and authoritative account, debates about Hindu traditions become platforms to consider history as a whole.

Author: S. Kramrisch
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691019307
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description
One of the three great gods of Hinduism, Siva is a living god. The most sacred and most ancient book of India, The Rg Veda, evokes his presence in its hymns; Vedic myths, rituals, and even astronomy testify to his existence from the dawn of time. In a lively meditation on Siva--based on original Sanskrit texts, many translated here for the first time--Stella Kramrisch ponders the metaphysics, ontology, and myths of Siva from the Vedas and the Puranas. Who is Siva? Who is this god whose being comprises and transcends everything? From the dawn of creation, the Wild God, the Great Yogi, the sum of all opposites, has been guardian of the absolute. By retelling and interweaving the many myths that keep Siva alive in India today, Kramrisch reveals the paradoxes in Siva's nature and thus in the nature of consciousness itself.

Author: Wendy Doniger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190499281
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
"In this scholarly and superbly readable book, one of the world's foremost authorities on ancient Indian texts seeks to restore the Kamasutra to its proper place in the Sanskrit canon, as a landmark of India's secular literature. In investigating, and helping us understand, a much celebrated but under-appreciated text, Wendy Doniger has produced a rich and compelling text of her own that will interest, delight, and surprise scholars and lay readers alike"--

Author: Sandhya Mulchandani
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This book explores a number of ancient Indian erotic texts that take the reader through the terrain of the beautiful, the sensual, and the most desirable. The Kama Sutra, Kokashastra, Geeta Govinda, Panchcayala, Anang Ranga, Kama Sambhav and Rasik Priya are all treatises on erotic love, a subject the author explores with grace, subtlety and a generous appreciation of the basic human urge to desire and be desired.

Author: Elliot R. Wolfson
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823224201
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1256

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Book Description
This long-awaited, magisterial study-an unparalleled blend of philosophy, poetry, and philology-draws on theories of sexuality, phenomenology, comparative religion, philological writings on Kabbalah, Russian formalism, Wittgenstein, Rosenzweig, William Blake, and the very physics of the time-space continuum to establish what will surely be a highwater mark in work on Kabbalah. Not only a study of texts, Language, Eros, Being is perhaps the fullest confrontation of the body in Jewish studies, if not in religious studies as a whole. Elliot R. Wolfson explores the complex gender symbolism that permeates Kabbalistic literature. Focusing on the nexus of asceticism and eroticism, he seeks to define the role of symbolic and poetically charged language in the erotically configured visionary imagination of the medieval Kabbalists. He demonstrates that the traditional Kabbalistic view of gender was a monolithic and androcentric one, in which the feminine was conceived as being derived from the masculine. He does not shrink from the negative implications of this doctrine, but seeks to make an honest acknowledgment of it as the first step toward the redemption of an ancient wisdom. Comparisons with other mystical traditions-including those in Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam-are a remarkable feature throughout the book. They will make it important well beyond Jewish studies, indeed, a must for historians of comparative religion, in particular of comparative mysticism. Praise for Elliot R. Wolfson: "Through a Speculum That Shines is an important and provocative contribution to the study of Jewish mysticism by one of the major scholars now working in this field."-Speculum

Author: Wendy Doniger
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300235232
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
An esteemed scholar of Hinduism presents a groundbreaking interpretation of ancient Indian texts and their historic influence on subversive resistance Ancient Hindu texts speak of the three aims of human life: dharma,artha, and kama. Translated, these might be called religion, politics, and pleasure, and each is held to be an essential requirement of a full life. Balance among the three is a goal not always met, however, and dharma has historically taken precedence over the other two qualities in Hindu life. Here, historian of religions Wendy Doniger offers a spirited and close reading of ancient Indian writings, unpacking a long but unrecognized history of opposition against dharma. Doniger argues that scientific disciplines (shastras) have offered lively and continuous criticism of dharma, or religion, over many centuries. She chronicles the tradition of veiled subversion, uncovers connections to key moments of resistance and voices of dissent throughout Indian history, and offers insights into the Indian theocracy’s subversion of science by religion today.