Nine Nights of the Goddess

The Navaratri Festival in South Asia

Caleb Simmons, Moumita Sen, Hillary Peter Rodrigues, Caleb Simmons, Moumita Sen, Hillary Peter Rodrigues

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781438470719
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navar?tri—alternatively called Navar?tra, Mah?navam?, Durg? P?j?, Dasar?, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayada?am?, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navar?tri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navar?tri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.

Index

Ādivāsis

and Dasara, 84, 88, 95

and Kant Debī, 84, 88

Mahiṣāsura as hero of, 109

and the Paudi Bhuiyan, 85, 87

and sacrificial polity, 97

as “Scheduled Tribes,” 7

and ties with king, 93, 97

and worship of Mahiṣāsura, 17n4

Ali, Haidar, 65, 287

Ambedkar, B. R., 108

Amma, Meenakshi, 248–50

Aryans, 7, 8

astrological mythology, 30–35. See also Jyotiṣa (classical Indian astrology)

Āśvina

and ancestors, 141

bright half of, 58n4

and Dasara, 87

and festivals in Benares, 141, 151

and Hindu month of Āśvin, 4

lunar month of, 33, 34, 299

military background of, 141

and Navarātra procedures, 44, 46–47

and Navarātri times, 33, 153n1, 197, 199–200, 289, 292

as September–October, 1, 292, 299

See also Jyotiṣa (classical Indian astrology)

Baba, Sarkar

and Aghor tradition, 216, 220

and austerity, 15, 217–18, 219, 222, 230

and becoming like the Goddess, 229, 230

name of, 215

and Navarātri, 217–19, 220, 221–23, 224, 225, 226, 228, 230–31

and offerings, 232n4

and presence of the Goddess, 226, 227

and ritual practice, 216–17, 223–24, 227

and sacrifice, 222

and Shri Sarveshwari Samooh, 216

storie...