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Seminar: The Goddess in South Asian Art
Fall 2005
Wednesdays: 10-12:45pm
Dr. Dina Bangdel
Virginia Commonwealth University
Office: 302 Buford Hall
Phone: 628-7037
Office Hrs: Wednesdays 1-3 or by appointment
email: dbangdel@vcu.edu
The course will explore the construction of the feminine divine in South Asia in the multivalent and complex manifestations as Devi, the Great Goddess. Through the language of myth, ritual, and visual imagery, we will attempt to understand the rich tradition of goddess worship in South Asia, from consort, supreme deity, local village goddesses (gramadevata) to the modern embodiments nation and nation-state.
Against this backdrop, some of the questions we will explore in this seminar are: Who is the goddess in South Asia? In particular, how had Indic culture constructed of the multiplicity of the feminine divine, and alternatively, how has the Hindu goddess been constructed as constructed within colonial and post-colonial structures of Western scholarship. Is there such a thing as the “Great Goddess”? How do new constructions and identities of the feminine divine continue evolve through within these traditions? In “finding” Mahadevi, how can we experience “glory” of the Great Goddess though pilgrimage, puja, and in her multivalent forms visual forms
Required Texts:
Katherine Erndl, Victory to the Mother: The Hindu Goddess of Northwest India in Myth Ritual, and Symbol (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993). (VM)
John Stratton Hawley and Donna M. Wulff, eds., Devi: Goddess of India(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996) (DGI)
Tracy Pintchman, ed. Seeking Mahadevi : Constructing the Identities of the Hindu Great Goddess (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001). (SM)
Alf Hiltebeitel & Kathleen M. Erndl, Is the Goddess a Feminist: The Politics of South Asian Goddesses (New York: New York University Press, 2000)
Recommended Texts:
David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).
June McDaniel, Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
There will be a final research paper (undergraduates: 8-10 pages; graduate students:10-15 pages) and a formal 20-minute presentation on your topic of choice.
Attendance:
A significance portion of the grade is based on class discussion/participation, hence attendance is absolutely CRITICAL. Since we only meet once a week, you are allowed one (1) unexcused absence during the entire semester. You will be required to present a dated note from a certified medical doctor, or a note of excuse from the Dean of the School of the Arts for an acceptable excuse for an absence. Missing class beyond the one unexcused absence will result in the lower of the final course grade by one full letter grade for each excessive absence.
Papers:
The writing assignments in this course include :
Weeks 3 and 4: Make appointments to see me regarding your paper topic/bibliography
Weeks 7 and 8: Make appointments to see me regarding progress on paper
Weeks 10 and 11: Make appointment for rough draft
Research paper due on the day of the Finals
Final Presentation:
A 20-minute formal presentation will be based on your final research topic. You will be graded on the clarity of presentation, arguments, and delivery. You may either use Powerpoint or slides for this.
Short Reaction Papers 20%
Final Paper / Presentation 45%
VCU Honor Code:
All students are subject to the policies and regulations of the VCU Honor System. It is the student's responsibility to familiarize themselves with the honor system as presented in the Schedule ofClasses, the VCU Resource Guide, and the Undergraduate Bulletin, or on the VCU web site at:
http://www.students.vcu.edu/rg/policies/rg7honor.html
Disability Accommodations:
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 require Virginia Commonwealth University to provide academic adjustments or accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Students seeking academic adjustments or accommodations must self-identify with the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities on the appropriate campus. After meeting with the Coordinator, students are encouraged to meet with instructors to discuss their needs and, if applicable, any laboratory safety concerns related to their disabilities.
Academic Campus Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities: 828-1139.
Students requesting accommodation based on a disability MUST provide documentation from the Campus Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities. This documentation is generally in the form of a letter from that office detailing specific requests. Students not cleared by that office are not eligible for adjustments.
Course Schedule
Week 1: August 31
Introduction to the Course (We will formally meet next week!)
Films:
· Feature Film: Devi ("The Goddess"). 1963. Director Satyajit Ray.
· Handouts and Response paper due in the next class
Week 2: September 7
Encountering Mahadevi in South Asia: Goddess Imagery in South Asia
·Discussion and responses to the film Devi
· Slide lecture: “Reading” the South Asian goddess:
Iconography, Iconology, and Symbolism
· Methodology and Approaches: Constructing the Feminine Divine in South Asia
Discussion /Readings::
• VM: Introduction; pp 3-17
• DGI: Prologue; pp 1-28
• SM: Introduction: Identity Construction and the Hindu Great Goddess
Week 3: September 14
Benevolent Devi: Goddess as Consort, Mother, and Protector
Discussion /Readings::
Sri-Laksmi (consort of Vishnu)
·Kinsley, “Sri-Laksmi” The Goddesses’ Mirror, Internet Resources BL473.5 .K56 1989eb(Cabel Library e-book)
Sita (consort of Rama, incarnation of Vishnu)
· Kinsley, “Sita: the Ideal Wive” The Goddesses’ Mirror, Internet Resources BL473.5 .K56 1989eb(Cabel Library e-book)
Radha (“consort” of Krishna, incarnation of Vishnu):
· DGI: Donna M. Wulff, “Radha: Consort and Conqueror of Krishna” 109-134
Barbara Stoller Miller, “The Divine Duality of Radha and Krishna” (reserve)
Parvati (consort of Shiva)
·Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, “The Shifting Balance of Power in the Marriage of Siva and Parvati”, Divine Consort. (reserve)
Make appointments this week and next week:
Ideas on Paper topics/Bibliography
Week 4: September 21
Constructing Mahadevi in Myth and Ritual: Durga and Kali as Supreme Goddesses
Discussion /Readings:
DURGA
•VM: Chapter 1: Myth of the Great Goddess; pp 18-36
• David Kingsley, “Durga: Consort of None,” Divine Consort (reserve)
· IGF: Is the Devi Mahatymya a Feminist Scripture, 123-153.
KALI
• DGI: Coburn, “Kali: Blood and Death Out of Place”,in David Kinsley’s Divine Consort 77 – 87 (reserve)
• Chapter 7: “Wrestling with Kali: South Asian and British Constructions of the Dark Goddess”
• Chapter 8: “India’s Darkest Heart”: Kali in the Colonial Imagination
(both in Encountering Kali : In the Margins, At the Center, in the West (eBook) by McDermott, Rachel Fell.; Kripal, Jeffrey John
Internet Resources BL1225.K3 E62 2003eb
• DGI: Rachel McDermott, “The Western Kali”, 281-313
Week 5: September 28
Local Manifestations of the Great Goddess: Sacred Spaces and Multivalency
Discussion /Readings::
• DGI: Cynthia Ann Humes, “Vindhyavasini: Local Goddess yet Great Goddess”
49-76
• SM: Mark Edwin Rohe, “Ambiguous and Definitive: The Greatness of Goddess
Vaisno Devi.
• SM: Sarah Caldwell, “Waves of Beauty, Rivers of Blood: Constructing the Goddess in Kerala.”
· Dina Bangdel, “Goddess of the Periphery, Goddess of the Center: Goddess Jnanadakini
of Nepal, Orientations. (reserve)
· DGI: “Ganga: The Goddess Ganges in Hindu Sacred Geography”
137-153.
· DGI: “Tribal and Local Assimilations of the Great Goddess”
FILM: Bearing the Heat
Week 6: October 5
Encountering Devi: Possession, Pilgrimage, and Ritual
Discussion /Readings::
• VM: Chapter 3: The Call of the Goddess
Chapter 4: Waking the Goddess
Chaper 5: The Play of the Goddess
• DGI: Erndl, “Seranvali: The Mother Who Possesses”, pp. 173-194.
·SM: Chapter 9. K. Erndl, “Goddesses and the Goddess in Hinduism: Constructing the Goddess through Religious Experience”
· June McDaniel, Chapter 1 “Folk Shaktism: Life with the Goddess”
Week 7: October 12
Devi in Contemporary Perspective: New Creations and Constructions
Discussion /Readings:
• VM: Chapter 6: The Goddess and Popular Culture
· Tapati Guha-Thakurta, “Clothing the Goddess: The Modern Contest over Representation of Devi,” Devi, pp. 157-180.
• Stanley Kurtz, “Jai Santoshi Ma”, All Mothers Are One, (Cabel Reserve)
“ Ek-Hi Phase”, All Mothers Are One, (Cabel Reserve)
FILM: Jai Santoshi Ma
Week 8: October 19
In the Image of the Goddess: Nationalism and Politics
-Bharat Mata (Mother India), Sati, Phullan Devi (“Bandit Queen”)
Discussion /Readings::
· DGI: Lisa McKean, “Bharat Mata: Mother India and Her Militant Matriots”
• Lou Ratte, "Goddesses, Mothers, and Heroines: Hindu Women and the Feminine in the Early Nationalist Movement"
• DGI: Lindsay Harlan, “Sati: The Story of Godavari”
· Lata Mani, “The Female Subject, the Colonial Gaze: The Eyewitness Accounts of Sati,” Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India(Internet Resources GT3370 .M36 1998eb)
Week 9: October 26
Women and Goddesses in South Asia
•SM: Chapter 8. Jeffrey J. Kripal, “Perfecting the Mother’s Silence: Dream, Devotion,
and Family in the Deification of Sharada Devi”
• IGF:Lindsey Harlan, “Battles, Brides, and Sacrifice: Rajput Kuldevis in Rajasthan”
• “Images and Roles of Women in Bengali Vaisnava Padavali Kritan, Women, Religion, and Social Change.
· Gayatri Spivak, “Moving Devi”, Devi
· “The Goddess and Women’s Power: A Hindu Case Study”
Week 10: November 2
Women and Goddess in Tantric Hindu Tradition
Discussion /Readings::
· IGF: Rita DasGupta Sherma, “’Sa-Ham—I am She’: Women as Goddess”
· IGF: Rita Gross, “Is the Hindu Goddess a Feminist?”
· June McDaniel, Chapter 3, Offering Flowers and Feeding Skulls.
· June McDaniel, “Interviews with a Tantric Kali Priest: Feeding Skulls in the Town of Sacrifice, Tantra in Practice (reserve)
Week 11: November 9
The Goddess in Tantric Buddhist Tradition
Discussion /Readings::
· Dina Bangdel“Art in the Ritual Context: The Chakrasamvara Tradition in Newar Buddhism,” Orientations.
· Rita Gross, “I will Never Forget to Visualize that Vajrayogini is My Body and Mind.”
(RESERVE)
· Miranda Shaw, "Worship of Women in Tantric Buddhism:
Male is to Female as Devotee is to Goddess." (RESERVE)
· Miranda Shaw, “Is Vajrayogini a Feminist? A Tantric Case Study” (IGF)
Week 12: November 16
Wrap-up Discussion:
Issues and Concepts: Constructing the Goddess
Course Reflection Paper Due: 2-3 pages typed
“Constructing the Goddess in South Asia”
· IGF: Brenda Dobia, “Seeking Ma, Seeking Me”
· IGF: Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, “Real and Imagined Goddesses:
A Debate”
· IGF: Tracy Pintchman, “Is the Hindu Tradition a Good Source
for Western Feminism?”
Week 13: November 23
NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING
Week 14: November 30
Class Presentations: 5 students
Draft papers due
Week 15: December 7
Class Presentations: 5 students
Finals Week:
Class Presentations: 5 students