Given To The Goddess

Who and what are marriage and sex for? Whose practices and which ways of talking to god can count as religion? Lucinda Ramberg considers these questions based upon two years of ethnographic research on an ongoing South Indian practice of dedication in which girls, and sometimes boys, are married to a goddess. Called devadasis, or jogatis, those dedicated become female and male women who conduct the rites of the goddess outside the walls of her main temple and transact in sex outside the bounds of conjugal matrimony. Marriage to the goddess, as well as the rites that the dedication ceremony authorizes jogatis to perform, have long been seen as illegitimate and criminalized. Kinship with the goddess is productive for the families who dedicate their children, Ramberg argues, and yet it cannot conform to modern conceptions of gender, family, or religion. This nonconformity, she suggests, speaks to the limitations of modern categories, as well as to the possibilities of relations—between and among humans and deities—that exceed such categories.

This dissertation pursues questions of religion, relatedness, and postcolonial governance through an ethnography of 'sacred prostitution' and its reform in Karnataka, South India. Devadasis (god's servants) are male and female bodied Dalit women whose sexuality and religiosity are bound up in their relationship with the goddess Yellamma to whom they are given by their families. This dedication is conducted as a rite of marriage. By virtue of this dedication they become pujaris (priests) for Yellamma, whom they embody and whose blessings they are empowered to bestow in rites of life passage, healing and fertility. In the most recent wave of almost a century of reform begun in the colonial era, these rites have been banned and those devadasis who do not renounce them and their ties to the goddess are threatened with fines and imprisonment.

Discover the inner Goddess energies that lie within you through nine Goddess archetypes—an empowering guide on finding healing, strength, and transformation, for readers of Warrior Goddess Training The Goddess is guiding your life . . . You know 'the Goddess' as a divine feminine figure of myth, art and faith—but are you aware that, in truth, the Goddess is a life force that lives in you? Did you know that your multi-faceted experiences of life as a woman are influenced by Goddess consciousness? Do you sense that you have a hidden feminine energy that longs to be seen, accepted, valued—and used for a healing purpose? In this highly engaging and stirring book, leading intuitive Sophie Bashford takes you on a journey to meet nine Goddess archetypes, which will help you to: • Understand the many ups and downs, emotions and cycles of your life through the ‘eyes of the Goddess’ • Discover how the Goddesses can ignite your spiritual growth and uncover your feminine healing gifts • Learn how to work with each Goddess for self-healing, positive inner change and empowerment • Get in touch with a divine feminine support and healing system comprising nine archetypes, including Kali, Mary Magdalene, Aphrodite and Isis Sharing intuitively channeled messages, beautiful guided meditations and moving personal experiences, Sophie leads you into safe territories where your darkest inner fears can be healed, your deepest dreams awakened and your entire life transformed.

An anthology with contributions from nineteen writers, The Goddess in America is a book that identifies the enduring experience of Goddess Spirituality through a four-part discussion focused on the Native Goddess, the Migrant Goddess, the Goddess in relation to other aspects of American culture (Feminism, Christianity, Witchcraft etc.) and the Goddess in contemporary America.

"This comprehensive text, highly acclaimed as the premier sourcebook on goddesses, introduces students of religion to the various manifestations and complex nature of the goddess. Often a stranger to contemporary devotees of monotheistic religions, the goddess forces the recognition of female power, which can transform deeply held beliefs. The recent renewed interest in goddesses and the rise of feminist scholarship are addressed in this well-chosen collection of essays, written by an international group of scholars. The book elucidates the diverse religious cultures and periods of history in which goddesses have played an important role by providing examples of ancient and modern goddesses in Eastern and Western religious traditions, in major world and tribal religions, and in living religions and those no longer practiced."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Bringing together Hiltebeitel's major essays on the the Mahābhārata, the Rāmāyaṇa, and the south Indian cults of Draupadī and Kūttāṇṭavar along with new articles written especially for this collection, this two volume work offers a comprehensive re-reading of the Indian epic tradition by the foremost scholar in Indian epic studies today.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Pursuing her desire to be a knight, Alanna learns many things in her role as squire to Prince Jonathan, but fears Duke Roger, an ambitious sorcerer with whom she knows she will one day have to deal.