Devi Mahatmya: The Crystallization of the Goddes Tradition

The Devi-Mahatmya is well-known to both devotees and scholars of the Indian Great Goddess. It is the first comprehensive account of the Goddess in Sanskrit, and it has maintained its centrality in the Goddess (Sakta) tradition to the present day. Like so much in that tradition, however, the text has until now resisted careful study from an historical perspective. It is this study that the present volume accomplishes.

The central task here is to explore how an anonymous Sanskrit text

articulates a view of ultimate reality as feminine when there is virtually

no precedent in the Sanskrit tradition for such a view. To accomplish this

task, an appropriate method of scriptural analysis is developed. This

involves an examination of Hindu understanding of the Puranas in general,

and of the Devi-Mahatmya in particular, along with consideration of several

recent scholarly discussions, in India and elsewhere. Subsequently, a

comprehensive inquiry into the Goddess's epithets in this text is

undertaken, followed by examination of the earlier history of the myths

that the Devi-Mahatmya associates with her. The study culminates in

translations of the text's hymns, which are annotated so as to indicate the

synthesis that is here being accomplished. The resulting illumination of

Sanskritized form of Goddess worship is what Daniel H.H. Ingalls calls in

his Foreword "a notable scholarly achievement."

Review(s)

About the Author(s)

THOMAS B. COBURN is a Professor of Religious Studies at St. Lawrence

University, New York, where he also currently serves as Vice President of

the University and Dean of Academic Affairs. In addition to Devi Mahatmya,

he is the author of Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi

Mahatmya and A Study of Its Interpretation, as well as numerous articles on

Indian and comparative topics.