Women in the Hindu Tradition

Women in the Hindu Tradition PDF Author: Mandakranta Bose
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135192588
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
This book accounts for the origin and evolution of the nature and roles of women within the Hindu belief system. It explains how the idea of the goddess has been derived from Hindu philosophical ideas and texts of codes of conduct and how particular models of conduct for mortal women have been created. Hindu religious culture correlates philosophical speculation and social imperatives to situate femininity on a continuum from divine to mortal existence. This creates in the Hindu consciousness multiple - often contradictory - images of women, both as wielders and subjects of authority. The conception and evolution of the major Hindu goddesses, placed against the judgments passed by texts of Hindu sacred law on women’s nature and duties, illuminate the Hindu discourse on gender, the complexity of which is compounded by the distinctive spirituality of female ascetic poets. Drawing on a wide range of Sanskrit texts, the author explains how the idea of the goddess has been derived from Hindu philosophical ideas and also from the social roles of women as reflected in, and prescribed by, texts of codes of conduct. She examines the idea of female divinity which gave rise to models of conduct for mortal women. Instead of a one-way order of ideological derivation, the author argues that there is constant traffic between both ways the notional and the actual feminine. This book brings together for the first time a wide range of material and offers fresh stimulating interpretations of women in the Hindu Tradition.

Women in the Hindu Tradition

Women in the Hindu Tradition PDF Author: Mandakranta Bose
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135192588
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book accounts for the origin and evolution of the nature and roles of women within the Hindu belief system. It explains how the idea of the goddess has been derived from Hindu philosophical ideas and texts of codes of conduct and how particular models of conduct for mortal women have been created. Hindu religious culture correlates philosophical speculation and social imperatives to situate femininity on a continuum from divine to mortal existence. This creates in the Hindu consciousness multiple - often contradictory - images of women, both as wielders and subjects of authority. The conception and evolution of the major Hindu goddesses, placed against the judgments passed by texts of Hindu sacred law on women’s nature and duties, illuminate the Hindu discourse on gender, the complexity of which is compounded by the distinctive spirituality of female ascetic poets. Drawing on a wide range of Sanskrit texts, the author explains how the idea of the goddess has been derived from Hindu philosophical ideas and also from the social roles of women as reflected in, and prescribed by, texts of codes of conduct. She examines the idea of female divinity which gave rise to models of conduct for mortal women. Instead of a one-way order of ideological derivation, the author argues that there is constant traffic between both ways the notional and the actual feminine. This book brings together for the first time a wide range of material and offers fresh stimulating interpretations of women in the Hindu Tradition.

Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women

Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women PDF Author: Julia Leslie
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
ISBN: 9788120810365
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
The considerable interest currently being expressed in women and religion has thrown down an important challenge; the need to see women not merely as the passive victims of an oppressive ideology but also perhaps primarily as the active agents of their own positive constructs. This book therefore aims to fill a notable gap in the literature. Twelve contributors study the role of women in Hindu religion by examining textual studies of the part played by women in a variety of religion rituals, both past and present, by exploring the socio-religious context of their various communites; and by using specialist material to draw on cross-cultural conclusions.

Women's Lives, Women's Rituals in the Hindu Tradition

Women's Lives, Women's Rituals in the Hindu Tradition PDF Author: Tracy Pintchman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195177061
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
In this text, 11 leading scholars of Hinduism explore the complex relationship between Hindu women's ritual activities and their lives beyond ritual.

Tradition and Liberation

Tradition and Liberation PDF Author: Catherine A Robinson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136822003
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The text examines the role of the Hindu tradition in the ideology and methodology of the Indian women's movement. By showing how leaders of the movement have restated aspects of the tradition, it provides insight into the ways in which a women's movement can restate a religious tradition. Throughout Indian society religion has been central to debate about the position of women and opposition to the women’s movement has often been rationalised in terms of religion. Through a review of the speeches and writings of leading figures of the movement from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it identifies positive as well as negative representations of the tradition and its implications for women. It shows when and why the movement has chosen either to offer a traditional justification for its aims and activities or to eschew such a justification in favour of an alternative rationale.

Jewels of Authority

Jewels of Authority PDF Author: Laurie Patton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195350642
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
The essays in this collection address the problem of Hindu women's relationship to authority, both within and without the textual traditions of Sanskrit, Tamil, Hindi, and English. The authors adopt a method of close textual and ethnographic reading, which results in some surprisingly new and subtle ways of interpreting older, more "classical" discourses, such as Veda and Mimamsa, as well as newer discourses, such as the RSS use of the Devimahatmya.

Dharma's Daughters

Dharma's Daughters PDF Author: Sara S. Mitter
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813516783
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
"A formidable achievement. . . . Mitter spans almost the entire spectrum of the 'woman's question' providing both information and insight into the complex patterns that determine the image, self-image, and status of women in contemporary India." -- Manini Chatterjee, The Hindu (India). -- Book cover.

Female Ascetics in Hinduism

Female Ascetics in Hinduism PDF Author: Lynn Teskey Denton
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791484629
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Female Ascetics in Hinduism provides a vivid account of the lives of women renouncers—women who renounce the world to live ascetic spiritual lives—in India. The author approaches the study of female asceticism by focusing on features of two dharmas, two religiously defined ways of life: that of woman-as-householder and that of the ascetic, who, for various reasons, falls outside the realm of householdership. The result of fieldwork conducted in Varanasi (Benares), the book explores renouncers' social and personal backgrounds, their institutions, and their ways of life. Offering a first-hand look at and an insightful analysis of this little-known world, this highly readable book will be indispensable to those interested in female asceticism in the Hindu tradition and women's spiritual lives around the world.

Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage

Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage PDF Author: Arti Dhand
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791479889
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
The Hindu tradition has held conflicting views on womanhood from its earliest texts—holding women aloft as goddesses to be worshipped on the one hand and remaining deeply suspicious about women's sexuality on the other. In Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage, Arti Dhand examines the religious premises upon which Hindu ideas of sexuality and women are constructed. The work focuses on the great Hindu epic, the Mahābhārata, a text that not only reflects the cogitations of a momentous period in Hindu history, but also was critical in shaping the future of Hinduism. Dhand proposes that the epic's understanding of womanhood cannot be isolated from the broader religious questions that were debated at the time, and that the formation of a sexual ideology is one element in crafting a coherent religious framework for Hinduism.

The High-caste Hindu Woman

The High-caste Hindu Woman PDF Author: Ramabai (Pandita)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Hindu women
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description


Woman and Goddess in Hinduism

Woman and Goddess in Hinduism PDF Author: T. Pintchman
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230119921
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Offering multilayered explorations of Hindu understandings of the Feminine, both human and divine, this book emphasizes theological and activist methods and aims over historical, anthropological, and literary ones.