{"product_id":"offering-flowers-feeding-skulls-popular-goddess-worship-in-west-bengal-paperback","title":"Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJune McDaniel\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Indian state of West Bengal is home to one of the world's most vibrant traditions of goddess worship. The year's biggest holidays are devoted to the goddesses Durga and Kali, with lavish rituals, decorated statues, fireworks, and parades. In \u003cem\u003e Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls\u003c\/em\u003e, June McDaniel provides a broad, accessibly written overview of Bengali goddess worship. McDaniel identifies three major forms of goddess worship, and examines each through its myths, folklore, songs, rituals, sacred texts, and practitioners. In the folk\/tribal strand, which is found in rural areas, local tribal goddesses are worshipped alongside Hindu goddesses, with an emphasis on possession, healing, and animism. The tantric\/yogic strand focuses on ritual, meditation, and visualization as ways of experiencing the power of the goddess directly. The devotional or bhakti strand, which is the most popular form, involves the intense love and worship of a particular form of the goddess. McDaniel traces these strands through Bengali culture and explores how they are interwoven with each other as well as with other forms of Hinduism. She also discusses how these practices have been reinterpreted in the West, where goddess worship has gained the values of sexual freedom and psychological healing, but lost its emphases on devotion and asceticism. \u003cem\u003eOffering Flowers, Feeding Skulls\u003c\/em\u003e takes the reader inside the lives of practicing Shaktas, including holy women, hymn singers, philosophers, visionaries, gurus, ascetics, healers, musicians, and businessmen, and offers vivid descriptions of their rituals, practices, and daily lives. Drawing on years of fieldwork and extensive research, McDaniel paints a rich, expansive portrait of this fascinating religious tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJune McDaniel\u003c\/strong\u003e is Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Religious Studies Program at the College of Charleston. She is the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Madness of the Saints: Ecstatic Religion in Bengal\u003c\/em\u003e (1989) and \u003cem\u003eMaking Virtuous Daughters and Wives: An Introduction to Women's Brata Rituals in Bengali Folk Religion\u003c\/em\u003e (2002).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 368\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.82 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 05, 2004\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51773992927520,"sku":"9780195167917","price":91.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/e608b5a0da1c96a02fa018d27f69abe2.webp?v=1780437683","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/offering-flowers-feeding-skulls-popular-goddess-worship-in-west-bengal-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}