South Asian goddesses and the natural environment / / edited by Marika Vicziany and Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat.

• TeilnehmendeR: Bapat, Jayant Bhalchandra, 1938-
• Place / Publishing House: Oxford : : Archaeopress,, 2024.; ©2024.
• Year of Publication: 2024
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (261 pages)

This multidisciplinary collection presents 11 essays ranging from the pre-Vedic to the modern era and incorporating research on Hindu, Buddhist and tribal cultures. Authors ask whether the worship of goddesses, strongly linked to fertility rituals, might have mitigated the ecological decline of South Asia in the pre-British and post-colonial eras.

Table of Contents

1. South Asian religions and the natural environment / Marika Vicziany -- 2. The archaeological and religious history of Lajjāgaurī, a pre-Vedic fertility deity on the Indian sub-continent / Ravi Korisettar -- 3. Female avatāra and guarantor of fertility : does the Great Goddess relate to nature and the environment in some Purāṇas? / Greg Bailey -- 4. The adoration of Mother Earth in Brāhminic, folk and tribal beliefs and practices in India / Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat -- 5. In the ocean of suffering : Tārā as protector from real or psychological waters? / David Templeman -- 6. Dariyadev : the Koli sea god and the fishing environment in Mumbai / Anusha Kesarkar-Gavankar and Marika Vicziany -- 7. Entering the Goddess's womb : how a rainforest valley became a Tibetan sacred site / Ruth Gamble -- 8. Durgā Pūjā and the environment / Pratish Bandopadhayay -- 9. Weapons of the weak : Koli deities and the Indian courts in Koli responses to environmental destruction / Marika Vicziany, Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat and Anusha Kesarkar-Gavankar -- 10. The descent of the Ganga in India and Mauritius / Peter Friedlander -- 11. Reflections on Dhere's research on 'Lajjāgaurī' and 'Śrī Ᾱnandanāyakī' / Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat.