Nine Nights of Power

Nine Nights of Power PDF Author: Ute Hüsken
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438484089
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
The autumnal Navarātri festival—also called Durgā Pūjā, Dassehra, or Dasain—is the most important Hindu festival in South Asia and wherever Hindus settle. A nine-night-long celebration in honor of the goddess Durgā, it ends on the tenth day with a celebration called "the victorious tenth" (vijayadaśamī). The rituals that take place in domestic, royal, and public spaces are closely connected with one's station in life and dependent on social status, economic class, caste, and gender issues. Exploring different aspects of the festival as celebrated in diverse regions of South Asia and in the South Asian diaspora, this book addresses the following common questions: What does this festival do? What does it achieve, and how? Why and in what way does it sometimes fail? How do mass communication and social media increase participation in and contribute to the changing nature of the festival? The contributors address these questions from multiple perspectives and discuss issues of agency, authority, ritual efficacy, change, appropriation, and adaptation. Because of the festival's reach beyond its diverse celebrations in South Asia, its influence can be seen in the rituals and dances in many parts of Western Europe and North America.

Nine Nights of the Goddess

Nine Nights of the Goddess PDF Author: Caleb Simmons
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 143847069X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Book Description
Explores the contemporary nature and the diverse narratives, rituals, and performances of the Navar?tri festival. Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navarātri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navarātri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.

Perimenopausal Women With Power Tools

Perimenopausal Women With Power Tools PDF Author: Karen Buley
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press Inc
ISBN: 1509230386
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Book Description
Beth Jorgennson crawls from the wreckage of widowhood into a woodworking class for women. Her four younger classmates spill their secrets during friendly get-togethers, but she keeps hers safe within her guarded heart. Over time, Beth learns to rely on new friends instead of clinging to memories of her late husband. But when a secret from her past reappears, Beth isn't certain if she can handle her world being upended again.

The Power of Tantra

The Power of Tantra PDF Author: Hugh B. Urban
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857715860
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Book Description
In the West, the varied body of texts and traditions known as Tantra for more than two centuries has had the capacity to scandalize and shock. For European colonizers, Orientalist scholars and Christian missionaries of the Victorian era, Tantra was generally seen as the most degenerate and depraved example of the worst tendencies of the so-called 'Indian mind': a pathological mixture of sensuality and religion that prompted the decline of modern Hinduism. Yet for most contemporary New Age and popular writers, Tantra is celebrated as a much-needed affirmation of physical pleasure and sex: indeed as a 'cult of ecstasy' to counter the perceived hypocritical prudery of many Westerners. In recent years, Tantra has become the focus of a still larger cultural and political debate. In the eyes of many Hindus, much of the western literature on Tantra represents a form of neo-colonialism, which continues to portray India as an exotic, erotic, hyper-sexualized Orient. Which, then, is the 'real' Tantra? Focusing on one of the oldest and most important Tantric traditions, based in Assam, northeast India, Hugh B Urban shows that Tantra is less about optimal sexual pleasure than about harnessing the divine power of the goddess that flows alike through the cosmos, the human body and political society. In a fresh and vital contribution to the field, the author suggests that the 'real' meaning of Tantra lies in helping us rethink not just the history of Indian religions, but also our own modern obsessions with power, sex and the invidious legacies of cultural imperialism.

Any Human Power

Any Human Power PDF Author: Manda Scott
Publisher: September Publishing
ISBN: 1914613570
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 478

Book Description
From the author of the much-loved series Boudica and Rome, and the Sunday Times bestseller A Treachery of Spies, comes the visionary novel of a lifetime. Sometimes it takes a revolution to change the world, sometimes it takes a relationship. When Lan, anthropologist and grandmother, lies dying, she makes a promise that binds her long into the Beyond. A decade later her teenage granddaughter is caught up in a global storm of online outrage that unleashes the fury of a young, betrayed generation. For one shining fragment of time, the world is with her granddaughter. But then the backlash begins, and soon she and her family's rural home are besieged by the press, facing the wrath of the old establishment. Watching over the growing chaos is Lan, who taught her family to think independently, approach power sceptically and dream with clear intent. She knows that more than one generation's hopes are on the line. It is only with courage and conviction, grounded in an ancient wisdom, that this digital uprising will survive and grow into what she knows it can be: a human movement, capable of profound change, that can sweep us all to a future that works before it is too late. But Lan is dead, her powers to influence the living are limited and the challenge her grandchildren face is mythic in scale ...

Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power

Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power PDF Author: Laura Amazzone
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 0761853138
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
"Amazzone's voice is strong and clear. Goddess Durga promises the transformation, empowerment, and dignity that is our birthright."--Marisa Tomei, Academy Award-winning actor.

Trinitarian Theology and Power Relations

Trinitarian Theology and Power Relations PDF Author: M. Minister
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 113746478X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Book Description
This text crafts a trinitarian theology that reorients theology from presumptions about the immateriality of the Trinity toward the places where the Trinity matters—material bodies in historical contexts and the intersecting ways political and theological power structures normalize and marginalize bodies on the basis of material difference.

Hindu Prayers, Gods and Festivals

Hindu Prayers, Gods and Festivals PDF Author: Tumuluru Kamal Kumar
Publisher: Partridge Publishing
ISBN: 1482847086
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Book Description
This book is an introduction to Hindu Gods and the symbolism behind each God. The pictures of the Gods are included along with some of the prayers. It covers the more commonly worshipped Gods. In India we have many religious festivals of which the main ones are covered in the book. Some of these are in particular seasons or coincide with the harvest of crops, whereas others are celebrated either for the birth of an avatar or a god or for his victory over a demon. This book basically attempts to provide a basic exposure to the Indian gods and festivals. It is not meant to be a treatise and has been written in particular for Indians settled overseas.

Nine Worlds in Nine Nights

Nine Worlds in Nine Nights PDF Author: Hiawyn Oram
Publisher: Walker Studio
ISBN: 9781406377705
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 48

Book Description
View more details of this book at www.walkerbooks.com.au

The Transformative Power of Performance

The Transformative Power of Performance PDF Author: Erika Fischer-Lichte
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134047495
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
In this book, Erika Fischer-Lichte traces the emergence of performance as 'an art event' in its own right. In setting performance art on an equal footing with the traditional art object, she heralds a new aesthetics. The peculiar mode of experience that a performance provokes – blurring distinctions between artist and audience, body and mind, art and life – is here framed as the breeding ground for a new way of understanding performing arts, and through them even wider social and cultural processes. With an introduction by Marvin Carlson, this translation of the original Ästhetik des Performativen addresses key issues in performance art, experimental theatre and cultural performances to lay the ground for a new appreciation of the artistic event.