South Asian Goddesses and the Natural Environment

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-

South Asian Goddesses and the Natural Environment is a multidisciplinary collection of 11 essays ranging from the pre-Vedic to the modern era and incorporating research on Hindu, Buddhist and tribal cultures. The 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. The manifold powers of the Devi, whether nurturing or destructive, could be constructed as companions to the unstoppable forces of Nature. This binary paradigm, however, is misleading. For millions of South Asian people, the Devi is Nature and Nature is She. Amongst scholars, the connections between the South Asian Goddesses and the natural environment have been debated and contested for centuries. This collection of essays, the last of a trilogy on the Devi or iconic female by Australian scholars and their collaborators, interrogates the paradoxes of worshipping the feminine divine and yet ignoring the natural environment that validates Her existence. Historical and cultural sources, many of them in Sanskrit, point to the Devi-Nature complex but in ignoring the role of human agency, appear to exonerate society from taking responsibility for the ecological devastation manifested throughout the South Asian region. The Devi is omnipotent but in the role of the nurturing Mother she will not intervene if we remain passive. South Asian deities teach us to respect the environment, a necessary but insufficient condition for compelling us to behave in a manner that respects the wonders of the universe.

Preface References Chapter 1: South Asian Religions and the Natural Environment - Marika Vicziany Chapter 2: The Archaeological and Religious History of Lajjagauri, a Pre-Vedic Fertility Deity on the Indian Sub-continent - Ravi Korisettar Chapter 3: Female Avatara and Guarantor of Fertility: Does the Great Goddess Relate to Nature and the Environment in Some Puranas? - Greg Bailey som Chapter 4: The Adoration of Mother Earth in Brahminic, Folk and Tribal Beliefs and Practices in India - Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat Chapter 5: In the Ocean of Suffering: Tara as Protector from Real or Psychological Waters? - David Templeman Chapter 6: Dariyadev: The Koli sea god and the Fishing Environment in Mumbai - Anusha Kesarkar-Gavankar and Marika Vicziany Chapter 7: Entering the Goddess's Womb: How a Rainforest Valley Became a Tibetan Sacred Site - Ruth Gamble Chapter 8: Durga Puja and the Environment - Pratish Bandopadhayay Chapter 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 Chapter 10: The Descent of the Ganga in India and Mauritius - Peter Friedlander Chapter 11: Reflections on Dhere's research on 'Lajjagauri' and 'Sri ?nandanayaki' - Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat,

Preface

References

Chapter 1: South Asian Religions and the Natural Environment – Marika Vicziany

Chapter 2: The Archaeological and Religious History of Lajjāgaurī, a Pre-Vedic Fertility Deity on the Indian Sub-continent – Ravi Korisettar

Chapter 3: Female Avatāra and Guarantor of Fertility: Does the Great Goddess Relate to Nature and the Environment in Some Purāṇas? – Greg Bailey

Chapter 4: The Adoration of Mother Earth in Brāhminic, Folk and Tribal Beliefs and Practices in India – Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat

Chapter 5: In the Ocean of Suffering: Tārā as Protector from Real or Psychological Waters? – David Templeman

Chapter 6: Dariyadev: The Koli sea god and the Fishing Environment in Mumbai – Anusha Kesarkar-Gavankar and Marika Vicziany

Chapter 7: Entering the Goddess’s Womb: How a Rainforest Valley Became a Tibetan Sacred Site – Ruth Gamble

Chapter 8: Durgā Pūjā and the Environment – Pratish Bandopadhayay

Chapter 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

Chapter 10: The Descent of the Ganga in India and Mauritius – Peter Friedlander

Chapter 11: Reflections on Dhere’s research on ‘Lajjāgaurī’ and ‘Śrī Ᾱnandanāyakī’ – Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat

• Edited by Marika Vicziany
• Edited by Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat

The Australia-based scholars who have produced this volume have spent decades researching and thinking about Hindu goddesses. Their many previous publications have contributed richly to our understanding of the meanings of these goddesses to their worshipers. This new volume asks a crucially important question about those Hindu goddesses that are identified with forces of nature: does their worship have a beneficial effect on the environment? An influential volume published a quarter century ago asks, “Is the Goddess a Feminist?” This volume asks an analogous question: “Is the Goddess an environmentalist?” – Anne Feldhaus, Distinguished Foundation Professor of Religious Studies Emerita, Arizona State University

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