The Iconic Female: Goddesses of India, Nepal and Tibet

by Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat (Editor), Ian W. Mabbett (Editor)

The energy of the goddess fills every facet of Indian life. To her devotees, the goddess appears in myriad mother, boon-giver, destroyer of evil, divine lover, protector and/or bloodthirsty ogress. The more that is discovered about her, the more teasingly complex and multivalent the Devi appears. She is both constant and changing, loved and feared, worshipped and forgotten, only to be re-discovered and worshiped again. In this book, for the first time, ten Australian researchers, working on many aspects of the Devi, have come together and offered, in a single collection, new research on the divine female. This book begins a renewed quest for the iconic Devi who continues to emerge in her many, unpredictably powerful forms.

230 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2008