Mutating Goddesses

It is an enduring contradiction that Hindus revere their goddesses but their society is dominated by Brahmanical patriarchy. Although we assume that the worship of goddesses implies the celebration of so-called female power, we overlook how the development of such practices of devotion occurred within a highly patriarchal society that subjugated women in everyday life. Addressing this oversight, Mutating Goddesses traces the shifting fortunes of four goddesses—Manasā, Caṇḍī, Ṣaṣṭhī, and Lakṣmī—and their mutation within the goddess-invested tradition of Bengal’s Hinduism. It uses the vibrant laukika archive comprising religious practices and beliefs that, unlike the ṣāstrik perspective, have not been affected by the emergence and consolidation of the male Brahman and the Sanskrit language. Using narratives such as kathās, laukika bratakathās, and maṅgalkābyas, Sengupta explores the period between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries and investigates the correlation of gender, caste, and class in the sanctioning of female subjectivities through goddess formation. Thus, she excavates the multiple and layered heritage of Bengal to illustrate how tradition is a result of strategic selection by those in power.