Goddesses and Women in the Indic Religious Tradition goes beyond the traditional sources that lie at the basis for determining the position of goddesses and women in India. Following the lead of a "hermeneutics of surprise" the book identifies, indeed, surprising new material — and conclusions; for example the analysis of Vedic Srauta ritual. Or by offering surprising conclusions, when the location is obviously one involving women and goddesses, or anthropology discovers that the worship of the Great Goddess temporarily elevates the position of women. Other examples of the effectivity of the "hermeneutics of surprise" are seen when applied to the role of dakinis, Sakti worship, the Marathi Sant tradition, and to Sankara's commentaries.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arvind Sharma
ARVIND SHARMA was born in Varanasi, India. He earned a B.A. in History, Economics, and Sanskrit from Allahabad University in 1958 and continued his interests in economics at Syracuse University, earning an M.A. in 1970. Pursuing a lifelong interest in comparative religion, Dr. Sharma gained an M.T.S. in 1974 and then a Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard University in 1978. He succeeded to the Birks Chair of Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and was the first Infinity Foundation Visiting Professor of Indic Studies at Harvard University. He has published over fifty books and five hundred articles in the fields of comparative religion, Hinduism, Indian philosophy and ethics, and the role of women in religion. Widely cited as an authority on Hinduism, amongst his most note-worthy publications are The Hindu Gita: Ancient and Classical Interpretations of the Bhagavadgita (1986), The Experien-tial Dimension of Advaita Vedanta (1993), Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Pre-eminent Scholars from Each Tradition (1994), The Philosophy of Religion: A Buddhist Perspective (1995), Classical Hindu Thought: An Introduction (2000), and The Study of Hinduism (2003).
There are no reviews yet.