Devi, The Great Goddess: Female Divinity in South Asian Art.

• Author: KINSLEY, DAVID
• Position: Review

Devi, The Great Goddess: Female Divinity in South Asian Art. By VIDYA DEHEJIA, with contributions by twelve others. Washington, D.C.: ARTHUR M. SACKLER GALLERY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1999, in association with Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, and Prestel Verlag, Munich. Pp. 408 with many color and black and white plates. $85.

This sumptuous volume was published on the occasion of the exhibition "Devi: The Great Goddess" at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibition included approximately one hundred twenty items representing South Asian goddesses (or females), all of which are shown in this volume. There are depictions of goddesses (or females) from several religious traditions: Hindu, Buddhist, tribal, and Jain. The book has two main sections: articles by scholars on aspects of the goddesses and a catalogue that includes descriptions of each item and several brief articles. The volume also includes several photographs of major goddess shrines and temples, people worshipping goddesses, and some items not included in the exhibition.

The articles by the twelve contributors cover a wide range of topics, reflecting the diversity of the items in the exhibition. Vidya Dehejia, in the introductory piece, reflects on the centrality of visual images in Southeast Asian goddess religion. She comments on images from archeological sites; contemporary goddess festivals; modern renderings of goddesses; and living representatives of goddesses such as kumaris, virgin girls who represent, or embody, goddesses in certain circumstances. She also reflects on the problems involved in trying to order such diverse materials, and how best to classify the materials.

Thomas Coburn contributes a clear summary and commentary on the Devi-mahatmya, a sixth-century C.E. Sanskrit text, which is the best-known and most important text on Hindu goddess mythology (a text Coburn himself has translated). Episodes from this text, especially the second, describing Durga's defeat of a buffalo demon, are very common in Hindu iconography, and many examples are featured in the exhibit, so it is helpful to have Coburn's treatment of the text included in the volume.

George Michell, a scholar of Indian temple architecture, contributes an article on goddess shrines. He notes that goddesses are often geographically embedded in the landscape, reflecting the sacrality of the land. He comments on variations in goddess temples in different parts of India and in...