Encountering Kāli : in the margins, at the center, in the West

Introducing Kālī studies / Jeffrey J. Kripal and Rachel Fell McDermott -- Kālī / David R. Kinsley -- Kālī the terrific and her tests: the Śākta devotionalism of the Mahābhāgavata Purāṇa / Patricia Dold -- The domestication of a goddess: caraṇa-tīrtha kālīghāṭ, the mahāpīṭha of Kālī / Sanjukta Gupta -- Dominating Kālī: Hindu family values and tantric power / Usha Menon and Richard A. Shweder -- Kāḷi in a context of terror: the tasks of a goddess in Sri Lanka's civil war / Patricia Lawrence -- Kālī Māyī: myth and reality in a Banaras ghetto / Roxanne Kamayani Gupta -- Wrestling with Kālī: South Asian and British constructions of the dark goddess / Cynthia Ann Humes -- "India's darkest heart": Kālī in the colonial imagination / Hugh B. Urban -- Why the Tāntrika is a hero: Kālī in the psychoanalytic tradition / Jeffrey J. Kripal -- Doing the mother's Carribbean work: on shakti and society in contemporary Trinidad / Keith E. McNeal -- Margins at the center: tracing Kālī through time, space, and culture / Sarah Caldwell -- Kālī's new frontiers: a Hindu goddess on the internet / Rachel Fell McDermott -- Appendix: documentary film and video resources for teaching on Kālī and fierce goddesses / Sarah Caldwell.

Encountering Kali explores one of the most remarkable divinities the world has seen—the Hindu goddess Kali. She is simultaneously understood as a blood-thirsty warrior, a goddess of ritual possession, a Tantric sexual partner, and an all-loving, compassionate Mother. Popular and scholarly interest in her has been on the rise in the West in recent years. Responding to this phenomenon, this volume focuses on the complexities involved in interpreting Kali in both her indigenous South Asian settings and her more recent Western incarnations. Using scriptural history, temple architecture, political violence, feminist and psychoanalytic criticism, autobiographical reflection, and the goddess's recent guises on the Internet, the contributors pose questions relevant to our understanding of Kali, as they illuminate the problems and promises inherent in every act of cross-cultural interpretation.

Explores one of the most remarkable divinities the world has seen - the Hindu goddess Kali. This title focuses on the complexities involved in interpreting Kali in both her indigenous South Asian settings and her Western incarnations. It illuminates the problems and promises inherent in various acts of cross-cultural interpretation. This title explores one of the most remarkable divinities the world has seen - the Hindu goddess Kālī. She is simultaneously understood as a blood-thirsty warrior, a goddess of ritual possession, a Tantric sexual partner, and an all-loving, compassionate mother This edited volume provides multiple perspectives on the popular Hindu goddess Kali, ranging from South Asian manifestations in various historical, textual, political, and cultural contexts to Western scholarly, colonial, and modern devotional understandings Exploring the Hindu goddess Kali, this volume focuses on the complexities involved in interpreting Kali in both her indigenous South Asian settings and her Western incarnations. The goddess Kali is almost always described as having a terrible, frightening appearance.