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 : 304

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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 Power

Nine Nights of Power PDF Author: Ute Hüsken
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438484089
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

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

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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.

Nine Worlds in Nine Nights

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

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

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

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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.

The Power of Tantra

The Power of Tantra PDF Author: Hugh B. Urban
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857731580
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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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.

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

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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.

Power and Persuasion

Power and Persuasion PDF Author: Stanley Brandes
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812292499
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Demonstrates how the annual fiesta cycle reflects political dependency of local communities on the nation-state, helps maintain formal authority, and perpetuates behavioral norms and social values.

Power to the People

Power to the People PDF Author: Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1466893745
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
A guided tour of a revolution in the making that promises to change our lives Global warming, rolling black outs, massive tanker spills, oil dependence: our profligate ways have doomed us to suffer such tragedies, right? Perhaps, but Vijay Vaitheeswaran, the energy and environment correspondent for The Economist, sees great opportunity in the energy realm today, and Power to the People is his fiercely independent and irresistibly entertaining look at the economic, political, and technological forces that are reshaping the world's management of energy resources. In it, he documents an energy revolution already underway--a revolution as radical as the communications revolution of the past decades. From the corporate boardroom of a Texas oil titan who denies the reality of global warming to a think tank nestled in the Rocky Mountains where a visionary named Amory Lovins is developing the kind of hydrogen fuel-cell technology that could make the internal combustion engine obsolete, Vaitheeswaran gamely pursues the people who hold the keys to our future. Man's quest for energy is insatiable. It is also essential. By avoiding the traditional binaries that pit free markets against the wisdom of conservation and the need for clean energy, Power to the People is a book that debunks myths without debunking hope.

Find Your Power: Runes

Find Your Power: Runes PDF Author: Kitty Guilsborough
Publisher: Godsfield Press
ISBN: 1841815411
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
Wondering about life, finances, or career? Consult the runes and awaken your intuition - insight garnered from runes can be applied to many facets of life. Runes have long been used as tools for transformation, they can teach you about the power of nature. By working with the runes and learning to understand your connection with the universe and your place within it, you will have no choice, but to grow on all levels. Find Your Power: Runes is a rich source and guidebook to help you take steps towards personal growth and self-empowerment, within these pages you will learn about the history of ancient runes and how to read and interpret them. Unlock the magic for yourself and begin your journey to your best life.

Ideology and Power in the Viking and Middle Ages

Ideology and Power in the Viking and Middle Ages PDF Author: Gro Steinsland
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004205063
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
This book analyses the Nordic pre-Christian ideology of rulership, and its confrontation with, survival into and adaptation to the European Christian ideals during the transition from the Viking to the Middle Ages from the ninth to the thirteenth century.