The Goddesses of Hinduism and Buddhism represent the largest extant collection of living female divinities anywhere in the world. These South Asian Goddesses, interestingly, are also products of predominantly patriarchal and male supremacist societies. The fifteen interdisciplinary essays in this book engage with the impact of powerful female deities—their images, projections, textuality and history—on the social standing and psychological health of women. Do South Asian Goddesses empower women or serve the interests of patriarchal culture? While attempting answers, the contributors discuss contemporary Indian women who have accepted Goddesses as spiritually and socially liberating, as well as the seeming contradictions between the power of Indian Goddesses and the lives of Indian women. They also debate such topics as the element of male desire in the embodiment of female deities, the question of who speaks for the Goddesses, and the politics and theology of western feminist use of Hindu and Buddhist Goddesses as models for reflection. This book is essential for scholars and researchers in the field of South Asian religion and gender as also for those reading feminist theology, cultural studies and mythology.
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