Wendy Doniger Livres

Describes the beliefs, rituals, and symbols of shamanism and explores its practice in various cultures and influence on religious tradition

Originally published under the title Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva, this book traces the development of an Indian approach to an enduring human dilemma: the conflict between spiritual aspirations and human desires. The work examines hundreds of related myths and a wide range of Indian texts--Vedic, Puranic, classical, modern, and tribal--centering on the stories of the great ascetic, Siva, and his erotic alter ego, Kama.

The earliest of the four Hindu religious scriptures known as the Vedas, and the first extensive composition to survive in any Indo-European language, the Rig Veda is a collection of over 1000 individual Sanskrit hymns. A work of intricate beauty, it provides a unique insight into early Indian mythology, religion and culture. This selection of 18 of the hymns, chosen for their eloquence and wisdom, focuses on the enduring themes of creation, sacrifice, death, women, the sacred plant soma and the gods. Inspirational and profound, it provides a fascinating introduction to one of the founding texts of Hindu scripture, an awesome and venerable ancient work of Vedic ritual, prayer, philosophy, legend and faith.

Exploring the contrasting backgrounds of her parents, the narrative delves into their unique Jewish traditions brought from Europe during World War I and their divergent paths in America during World War II. Her father’s role as a publisher and her mother’s activism highlight the influence of their religious attitudes on the author’s identity. This personal journey reflects the complexities of being a Jewish woman and a scholar of religion, shaped by her parents' experiences and beliefs.

Twenty-two-year-old Wendy Doniger arrived in Calcutta in August 1963, on a scholarship to study Sanskrit and Bengali. It was her first visit to the country. Over the coming year--a lot of it spent in Tagore's Shantiniketan--she would fall completely in love with the place she had till then known only through books.The India she describes in her letters back home to her parents is young, like her, still finding its feet, and learning to come to terms with the violence of Partition. But it is also a mature civilization which allows Vishnu to be depicted on the walls in a temple to Shiva; a culture of contradictions where extreme eroticism is tied to extreme chastity; and a land of the absurd where sociable station masters don't let train schedules come in the way of hospitality. The country comes alive though her vivid prose, introspective and yet playful, and her excitement is on full display whether she is telling of the paradoxes of Indian life.

An engrossing and definitive narrative account of history and myth that offers a new way of understanding one of the world's oldest major religions from one of the world's foremost scholars on Hinduism.

While focusing on the central problem of evil, the author illuminates every aspect of Hindu thought. She corrects the widespread belief that Hindu thought does not recognize the problem of evil, and shows conclusively that the mythology of tribal societies and the Puranas deal with this question extensively.

Presents seventy-five seminal myths which feature the many incarnations of Vishnu, who saves mankind from destruction, and the mischievous child Krishna, alongside stories of the minor gods, demons, rivers and animals including boars, buffalo, serpents and monkeys.

Doniger's exploration of the ring's symbolism as a manacle that binds a woman to a man is particularly insightful, as is her witty deconstruction of the modern myth of the diamond engagement ring that proves to have much more to do with savvy marketing than any enduring romantic tradition. Library Journal