Schedule

RELI 350/ASIA 350 Home Page

Week I - September 4: Introduction: The Divine Feminine

• The Divine Feminine: two definitions of religion, four levels of interpretation
• Asian Goddess Traditions: Contending Narratives
• Overview of the Seminar and its Methods
• Recommended:
  • Ramanujan, "Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?" ( reserve)
  • Gross, "Hindu Female Deities as a Resource for the Contemporary Rediscovery of the Goddess" (on reserve)

Week II - September 11: Devã: The One and the Many

• Theologies of the Goddess: ÷aktã, prakçti , and màyà
• Streams of Tradition in India, China, Tibet, and Beyond
• Sacred Speech (Vàc) and the mother of the gods
• Reading:
  • Kinsley, Ch. 9.
  • Coburn, Devã: "The Great Goddess" (in Devã)
  • èg Veda, 10.71, 10.125 (reserve)
• Recommended:
  • Brown, "The Creative Role of the Goddess Vàc in the èg Veda" (on reserve)
  • Panikkar, The Vedic Experience, pp. 88-112.

Week III - September 18: Goddesses of Nature

• The Goddess as Sacred Ceography
• Goddess as River, as Earth, as Mother
• Amaterasu and the Female Sun
• Reading:
  • Eck, "Gaïgà" (Devã)
  • Kinsley, Chs. 1, 12 "Amaterasu, "The Japanese Ancestral Goddess"
  • èg Veda, (Selections on Reserve)

Week IV - September 25: Goddesses of Culture

• Lakùmã and Royal Soveregnty
• Saraswatã and the Aquisition of Wisdom
• Reading:
  • Kinsley, Chs. 2,4
  • Yogavasiùñha (excerpts on reserve)
  • Narayanan, "ørã: Giver of Fortune, Bestower of Grace" (Devã)

Week V - October 2: The Goddess as Wife

• Sãtà: the ideal wife
• The incarnations of ørã
• Reading:
  • Dimmit, "Sãtà: Fertility Goddess and øaktã" ( reserve)
  • Kinsley, Ch.,5
  • Sutherland, "Sãtà and Draupadã" (on reserve)
• Recommended:
  • Peter Brook's Film, The Mahàbhàrata (Part I)

Week VI - October 9: The Divine Consort and the Lover of the Goddess

• Why "Everyone in Braj is a Woman,"
• The Cult of Ràdhà and The Indian Goddess of Love
• The Lovers of Kàlã
• Reading:
  • Miller (tr.), The Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gãtagovinda
  • Wulff, "Ràdhà: Consort and Conqueror of Krishna" (Devã))
  • Goswami, "Ràdhà: The Play and Perfection of Rasa" (reserve)
  • McLean, Devoted to the Goddess: The Life and Work of Ramprasad (selections)
• Recommended:
  • Kinsley, Chapter 6,
  • Hein, "Ràdhà and the Erotic Community" (reserve)
  • Vaudeville, "Krishna Gopàla, Ràdhà, and the Great Goddess" (DC)
  • Mcdaniel, "The Tantric Ràdhà" (reserve)

Week VII - October 23: The Tears of Tàrà

• The Goddess as the giver of grace
• Kuan- Yin and the Chinese Goddess Tradition
• Tàrà, the óakinis and Tibetan Tantra
• Reading:
  • Beyer, The Cult of Tàrà (selections on reserve)
  • Kinsley, Ch. 11, "Kuan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy"(reserve)
  • Paper, "The Persistence of Female Deities in Patriarchal China" (reserve)
  • Wilson, In Praise of Tara (selections on reserve)
• Recommended:
  • "The Gender Symbolism, of Kuan-Yin Bodhisattva" (reserve)
  • "Red Tàrà" (reserve)

  >Field-Work Analysis Due

Week VIII: October 30: The Daughter of the Mountain

• Satã and the Sacrifice of Dakùa
• øiva and Parvatã-øiva/øaktã
• Reading:
  • Kalidasa, Kumàrasa§bhava (selections on reserve)
  • Kinsley, Ch. 3
  • Harlin, "Satã, The Story of Godàvarã" (Devã)
• Recommended:
  • Hawley, Satã, The Blessing & The Curse: The Burning of Wives in Village India
  • Courtright, Satã, Sacrifice, and Marriage: The Modernity of Tradition

Week IX - Nov. 6: At The Left Hand of the Goddess

• Reading:
  • Shaw, Passionate Enlightenment
  • "The five-fold sacrament" (on reserve)
• Recommended:
  • Kripal, Kàlã's Child
  • Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization
• Film Showing:
  • The Bandit Queen (Nov..12 8:00pm.)

  >Research Paper Abstract and Bibliography Due

Week X - Nov. 13: The Goddess at War: From Durgà to Kàlã

• Mahiùa-mardinã: the Goddess and her Weapons
• The Blissful Wrath of Kàlã
• Weaver, "India's Bandit Queen" (on reserve)
• Reading:
  • Kinsley, Chs. 7,8, "Blood and Death out of Place" (Devã)
  • Caldwell, "Bhagavati: Ball of Fire" (Devã)
• Recommended:
  • Kripal, Kinsley, Chs.9,10
  • Berkson, The Divine and the Demoniac: Mahi÷a's Struggle with Durgà

Week XI - November 20: Goddess as Mother

• The Making of a Goddess
• The Politics of Divinity
• Reading:
  • Kurtz: All The Mothers are One
  • Mckean, "Bhàrat Màtà: Mother India and Her Militant Matriots"
• Film:
  • ai Santoshi Ma
• Recommended:
  • Neumann, The Great Mother
  • Downing, The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine
  • Erndl, Victory to the Mother

Week XII - November 27: Goddesses of Possession, Healing, and Disease

Class Presentations Begin

• Goddesses of Death, Disease, and Transformation
• Shamanism and Spirit Possession: Bearing the Heat
• The Devã Bhàv of Amritananda Mayi Ma
• Reading:
  • Dimock, "A Theology of the Repulsive: The Myth of the Goddess øãtalà" (reserve)
  • Erndl, "øeràïvàlã: The Mother Who Possesses" (Devi)
  • Kinsley, Ch. 11
  • "Ammachi" (selections on reserve)
• Recommended:
  • Dimock, "The Goddess of Snakes in Medieval Bengali Literature" (History of Religions 1, no.2, Winter 1962) , Part two with A.K. Ramanujan in History of Religions (3, no.2. Winter, 1964)
• Wed Evening Film Festival:
  • øãtalà in Spring, Bearing the Heat

Week XIII- Dec. 4: Kàlã Beyond All Borders

• Kàlã as Cult Figure: The Indian Goddess in the West
• Class Presentations
• Reading:
  • McDermott, "The Western Kàlã"

  >last day to hand in response papers

  >Research Paper Due December 14

December 11, 12. 7:30pm: Class Presentations