Coburn provides a fresh and careful translation from the Sanskrit of this fifteen-hundred-year-old text. Drawing on field work and literary evidence, he illuminates the process by which the Devi-Mahatmya has attracted a vast number of commentaries and has become the best known Goddess-text in modern India, deeply embedded in the ritual of Goddess worship (especially in Tantra). Coburn answers the following questions among others: Is this document "scripture?" How is it that this text mediates the presence of the Goddess? What can we make of contemporary emphasis on oral recitation of the text rather than study of its written form? One comes away from Coburn's work with a sense of the historical integrity or wholeness of an extremely important religious development centered on a "text." The interaction between the text and later philosophical and religious developments such as those found in Advaita Vedanta and Tantra is quite illuminating. Relevant here are the issues of the writtenness and orality/aurality of 'scripture, ' and the various ways by which a deposit of holy words such as the Devi-Mahatmya becomes effective, powerful, and inspirational in the lives of those who hold it sacred.

Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmya and a Study of Its Interpretation (Suny Hindu Studies)

Religion & Spirituality

Coburn, Thomas B.

Hinduism

State University of New York Press

Coburn provides a fresh and careful translation from the Sanskrit of this fifteen-hundred-year-old text. Drawing on field work and literary evidence, he illuminates the process by which the Devi-Mahatmya has attracted a vast number of commentaries and has become the best known Goddess-text in modern India, deeply embedded in the ritual of Goddess worship (especially in Tantra). Coburn answers the following questions among others: Is this document "scripture?" How is it that this text mediates the presence of the Goddess? What can we make of contemporary emphasis on oral recitation of the text rather than study of its written form? One comes away from Coburn’s work with a sense of the historical integrity or wholeness of an extremely important religious development centered on a “text.” The interaction between the text and later philosophical and religious developments such as those found in Advaita Vedanta and Tantra is quite illuminating. Relevant here are the issues of the writtenness and orality/aurality of 'scripture,' and the various ways by which a deposit of holy words such as the Devi-Mahatmya becomes effective, powerful, and inspirational in the lives of those who hold it sacred.

Encountering the Goddess: a Translation of the Devi-mahatmya and a Study of Its Interpretation

Devi, the Great Goddess of India, is beautiful, beneficent, terrifying, all-powerful, and glorious. Ubiquitous in India's social and spiritual fabric, she has, over the millennia, been painted, sculpted, carved, and wrought from silver and bronze in myriad shapes and forms. Devi: The Great Goddess brings together 120 of these diverse examples of Devi and a group of distinguished essayists who explore facets of Devi worship and tradition, including ritual, architecture, literature, history, and contemporary issues such as feminism and gender politics. The book appeals to readers compelled by the exploration and interpretation of the art, religion, and history of India.

Devi: The Great Goddess : Female Divinity in South Asian Art

Arts & Photography

Dehejia, Vidya

History & Criticism

Prestel Pub

Devi, the Great Goddess of India is beautiful, beneficent, terrifying, all-powerful, and glorious. Ubiquitous in India's social and spiritual fabric, she has, over the millennia, been painted, sculpted, carved, and wrought from silver and bronze in a myriad of shapes and forms. Devi: The Great Goddess brings together one hundred and twenty of these diverse examples of Devi and a group of distinguished essayists who explore facets of Devi worship and tradition, including ritual, architecture, literature, history and contemporary issues such as feminism and gender politics.
From a terra-cotta goddess figurine dating to 100 B.C. to "At the Hub of Things" (1987), a monumental contemporary sculpture by Anish Kapoor, to twentieth-century folk art figurines, the beauty and diversity of the art of the Great Goddess showcased here testify to her continual and powerful presence in the life of India. "India is a land of stories, " asserts Thomas Coburn, author of "The Threefold Vision of the Devi Mahatmya, " the principle sacred text devoted to worship of the Great Goddess. A land of stories, vibrant history, and extraordinary art, India is home to Devi, the Great Goddess, celebrated in this volume with stories, poems, scholarship, and lavish illustrations. The book will appeal to readers compelled by the exploration and interpretation of the art, religion, and history of India.

Sackler Art Gallery

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Coburn, Thomas B.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Coburn, Thomas B.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Coburn, Thomas B.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmya and a Study of Its Interpretation (Suny Hindu Studies)

Encountering the Goddess: a Translation of the Devi-mahatmya and a Study of Its Interpretation

Devi: The Great Goddess : Female Divinity in South Asian Art

Devi: The Great Goddess : Female Divinity in South Asian Art