CONCEIVING THE GODDESS An old woman drawing a picture of Durga-Mahishasuramardini on a village wall, Gujrat State, India. Photo courtesy Jyoti Bhatt, Vadodara, India. CONCEIVING THE GODDESS TRANSFORMATION AND APPROPRIATION IN INDIC RELIGIONS Edited by Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat and Ian Mabbett Conceiving the Goddess: Transformation and Appropriation in Indic Religions © Copyright 2017 Copyright of this collection in its entirety belongs to the editors, Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat and Ian Mabbett. Copyright of the individual chapters belongs to the respective authors. All rights reserved. Apart from any uses permitted by Australia’s Copyright Act 1968, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the copyright owners. Inquiries should be directed to the publisher. Monash University Publishing Matheson Library and Information Services Building, 40 Exhibition Walk Monash University Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia www.publishing.monash.edu Monash University Publishing brings to the world publications which advance the best traditions of humane and enlightened thought. Monash University Publishing titles pass through a rigorous process of independent peer review. www.publishing.monash.edu/books/cg-9781925377309.html Design: Les Thomas. Cover image: The Goddess Sonjai at Wai, Maharashtra State, India. Photograph: Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat. ISBN: 9781925377309 (paperback) ISBN: 9781925377316 (PDF) ISBN: 9781925377606 (ePub) The Monash Asia Series Conceiving the Goddess: Transformation and Appropriation in Indic Religions is published as part of the Monash Asia Series. The Monash Asia Series comprises works that make a significant contribution to our understanding of one or more Asian nations or regions. The individual works that make up this multi-disciplinary series are selected on the basis of their contemporary relevance. The Monash Asia Series of the Monash Asia Institute replaces Monash University’s MAI Press imprint, which, from the early 1970s, has demonstrated this University’s strong interest and expertise in Asian studies. Monash Asia Series Editorial Board Professor Marika Vicziany, Chair, Professor of Asian Political Economy, Monash Asia Institute, Faculty of Arts Professor Greg Barton, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts Associate Professor Gloria Davies, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts Dr Julian Millie, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts Dr Jagjit Plahe, Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics Dr David Templeman, School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies, Faculty of Arts National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Title: Conceiving the Goddess : transformation and appropriation in Indic religions / Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat; Ian Mabbett. ISBN: 9781925377309 (paperback) Subjects: Goddesses, Indic--South Asia. Women and religion--South Asia. South Asia--Religion. Other Creators/Contributors: Bapat, Jayant Bhalchandra, 1938- editor. Mabbett, I. W. (Ian William), 1939- editor. Dewey Number: 294.5211 Contents Dedication ............................................ vii Acknowledgments ......................................viii Preface ...............................................ix A Note on Style and Diacritics .............................xi Chapter 1 ..............................................1 On Appropriation and Transformation Ian Mabbett and Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat Chapter 2 .............................................25 Crowns, Horns and Goddesses: Appropriation of Symbols in Gandhāra and Beyond Angelo Andrea Di Castro Chapter 3 .............................................56 The Appropriation of the Goddess into the Purāṇic Narrative: Integration/Appropriation in the Vāmanapurāṇa Greg Bailey Chapter 4 .............................................78 The Yakṣiṇī Devī of Mangaon: Appropriation of a Jain Goddess by Brāhminic Hinduism Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat Chapter 5 ............................................102 Appropriating the Inappropriate John R. Dupuche Chapter 6 ............................................126 Ravidās and the Gaṅgā: Appropriation or Contestation? Peter Friedlander CONCEIVING THE GODDESS Chapter 7 ............................................142 The Goddess Chinnamastā’s Severed Head as a Re-Appropriation of the Cosmic Sacrifice Ian Mabbett Chapter 8 ............................................160 The Appropriation of Durgā Pratish Bandopadhayay Chapter 9 ............................................179 From a Śaktipīṭha to Kuladaivata: The Appropriation of Goddess Jogāī of Ambe Madhavi Narsalay Chapter 10 ...........................................211 The Female Protector of Yolmo’s Hidden Land David Templeman Chapter 11 ............................................225 Ekveera Devi and the Son Kolis of Mumbai: Have the Kolis Appropriated the Karle Buddhist Chaitya? Marika Vicziany, Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat and Sanjay Ranade Chapter 12 ...........................................257 Modern Appropriations of Devī Martin Hříbek About the Editors and Contributors ........................278 Index ................................................281 vi Dedication Dr. R. C. Dhere (21/7/1930 – 1/7/2016) Photo courtesy of the Dhere family. The scholars who have contributed to this volume are committed to bridging the knowledge gap that exists because outstanding scholarship in Indian languages is not readily accessible to English-speaking audi- ences. For this reason we dedicate this volume to the late Dr Ramchandra Chintaman Dhere, a prolific writer on many aspects of folk culture and religion in India. Dhere’s extraordinary research publications, comprising over a hundred books and several hundred articles, are written mainly in Marathi. Only a small proportion of his work has been translated. His unique insights into the complexities of Indian history and culture deserve widespread international recognition. Known fondly as Aṇṇā, Dhere was actively pursuing his research and writing until his sad demise on July 1st 2016. He knew that we had decided to dedicate this work to him in recognition of his contributions to research. Those of us who knew him personally have felt a great loss, but all of us will miss his imaginative insights into Indian life. Our appreciation of the extraordinary efforts he made to record aspects of Maharashtrian history and culture (not easily accessible even to scholars) is the basis for this dedication. Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat and Ian Mabbett – vii – Acknowledgments This book is a sequel to the earlier publication, The Iconic Female: Goddesses of India, Nepal and Tibet, edited by us and published by the Monash Asia Institute in 2008. The present volume brings together outstanding research by twelve authors, many of whom contributed to the previous volume. However, in addition, it contains contributions from researchers in two other continents. The co-ordination of twelve major contributions and integrating them into a thematically unified and cohesive whole with a central theme has been a long, complex, time-consuming and, at times, frustrating task. As editors, we are very pleased to see the successful conclusion of our labours. We are grateful to the contributors for the enthusiasm, responsiveness and patience with which they have adapted the perspectives of their individual pieces of research to fit into a collection that to us is a lot more than the sum of its parts. A work of such complexity requires major effort and contributions from a number of people. We thank them all. However, we must partic ularly mention the continuing inspiration and the constant practical involve ment of Professor Marika Vicziany, whose energy and encouragement have con- trib uted as much as anything else to make the publication of this book pos- sible. We thank members of the Monash Publications Committee for their useful feedback and encouragement. We are grateful to the team at Monash University Publishing, especially Nathan Hollier, Joanne Mullins, Les Thomas, Laura McNicol Smith and others, for their meticulous work and infectious enthusiasm in producing this volume with the utmost care and attention to detail. Our friend and mentor, Dr Rashmi Desai, has also been a constant source of help in spite of his health problems. We also thank him for alerting us to the photograph on the frontispiece of this book. We are deeply indebted to Mr Jyoti Bhatt who took the photograph and has kindly allowed us to use it. We thank Alfonso Martínez Arranz for painstakingly preparing the index for this book. Finally, we thank John Harris, who has provided the superb line drawings for many of the chapters in this book. Having long been retired, we are both at an age where family, child ren, grandchildren and social interaction need to take a higher priority than academic pursuits such as this book. We are grateful to our respective spouses, Sunanda and Jaccy, for allowing us to pursue our interests, often at the expense of our families. Jayant Bhalchandra Bapat and Ian Mabbett – viii – Preface Australian scholarship about India has grown enormously during the last ten years, but mainly in the field of business and economics. Interest in Indology, broadly defined as the study of India’s culture, history, litera- ture, philosophy, languages and social life, has continued to decline with few young scholars replacing the rapidly ageing population of the ‘old hands’. This is a problem that worries us and is being addressed by the