At the Feet of the Goddess

Nowhere is the feminine dimension of the divine more omnipresent, vibrant and alive than in Hinduism. Lynn Foulston's work stands out through its great attention to local details relating to their diverse locations, their rich phenomenology, here documented by new visual evidence, their presence and power in people's lives, and the joyous celebration of their existence and influence through numerous rituals and festivities. It is a joy to read this book, and it is a challenge to ponder its evidence, for many of its nuanced observation and conclusions raise questions about earlier goddess research and invite us to new evaluation of the significance of dynamic goddess beliefs and practices in Indian culture . Professor Ursula King university of Bristol. Huddled under trees, at the edge of a water tank or at the center of a busting settlement, the divine feminine in the form of local goddesses pervades and characterizes local Hindu religion. Found in a variety than the lofty orthodox goddess, supply the daily spiritual sustenance that keeps heart and soul together for the mass of the Hindu population. At the feet of the Goddess: the divine feminine in local Hindu religion is an investigation of local Hinduism. It embraces ritual, worship and iconography, rather than philosophy and metaphysics, in two communities. In each of these sites, as is common within many local worship is based in ritual and grounded in tradition that may not be fully comprehended by its adherents, it is female deities that predominate. Although local worship is based on ritual and grounded in tradition that may not be fully comprehended by its adherents, it is also partly based in, and is a reflection of, a more complex metaphysical undercurrent. Local goddesses, in particular, while representing anthropomorphized figures for the majority of their devotes, are concurrently the personifications of the abstract concept of sakti-female energy. This book, which contains colour plate illustrations of temple shrines and goddess, is a major event in the study of goddess belief and practice India.