When the Goddess Was a Woman

Mahābhārata Ethnographies - Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel, Volume 2
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-19380-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 132, 624 Seiten, Format (B × H): 166 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 1213 g

Reihe: Numen Book Series / Texts and Sources in the History of Religions

Explicitly acknowledging its status as a stri-sudra-veda (a Veda for women and the downtrodden), the Mahabharata articulates a promise to bring knowledge of right conduct, fundamental ethical, philosophical, and soteriological teachings, and its own grand narrative to all classes of people and all beings. Hiltebeitel shows how the Mahabharata has more than lived up to this promise at least on the ground in Indian folk traditions. In this three-part volume, he journeys over the overlapping terrains of the south Indian cults of Draupadi (part I) and Kuttantavar (part II), to explore how the Mahabharata continues to be such a vital source of meaning, and, in part III, then connects this vital tradition to wider reflections on prehistory, sacrifice, myth, oral epic, and modern theatre.

This two volume edition collects nearly three decades of Alf Hiltebeitel’s researches into the Indian epic and religious tradition. The two volumes document Hiltebeitel’s longstanding fascination with the Sanskrit epics: volume 1 presents a series of appreciative readings of the Mahabharata (and to a lesser extent, the Ramayana), while volume 2 focuses on what Hiltebeitel has called “the underground Mahabharata,” i.e., the Mahabharata as it is still alive in folk and vernacular traditions. Recently re-edited and with a new set of articles completing a trajectory Hiltebeitel established over 30 years ago, this work constitutes a definitive statement from this major scholar. Comprehensive indices, cross-referencing, and an exhaustive bibliography make it an essential reference work. For more information on the first volume please click here.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Adluri, Vishwa

Bagchee, Joydeep

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Hinduismus Hinduismus: Heilige Texte & Traditionsliteratur
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Über Autor(innen)

Vishwa Adluri, Ph.D. (2002) in Philosophy, New School for Social Research, teaches in the Departments of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York. He has published extensively on ancient philosophy, Indian philosophy, and religion. His work mainly explores the epic traditions (both Greek and Indian). Recent and forthcoming publications include Parmenides, Plato, and Mortal Philosophy: Return from Transcendence (Continuum Publishing) and the edited volume Greek Religion: Philosophy and Salvation (De Gruyter, forthcoming). An edited volume on the Mahabharata is currently under preparation at BORI. He is currently working on a monograph on German Indology (co-authored with Joydeep Bagchee) titled The Nay Science: A History of German Indology.

Joydeep Bagchee, Ph.D. (2009) in Philosophy, New School for Social Research, is a post-doctoral fellow at Marburg University, Germany and has interests in Heidegger, Indian philosophy, and the Bhagavad G¯it¯a. He is currently completing a monograph on the history of reception of Indian thought in Germany (The Nay Science: A History of German Indology). In addition, he has published numerous articles and reviews on Indian philosophy and religion. Bagchee is also the author of two forthcoming translations of Heidegger’s work (Indiana University Press).