Encountering the Goddess: A Translation of the Devi-Mahatmya and a Study of Its Interpretation.

• Author: Kinsley, David

This is an English translation of a famous Hindu goddess text and a discussion of the religious roles the text has played and plays in the Hindu tradition. The work represents a continuation of the author's previous research on this text (The Devi-Mahatmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition, 1988) and supplements that work very well.

An English translation of this text in contemporary idiom that is sensitive to the historical context of the work is most welcome. The translations of several ancillary texts that have been associated with the DM for many centuries ("The Armour," "The Stopper," and "The Bolt") are also welcome. The translation itself, a clear improvement over earlier versions, stays close to the Sanskrit, which at times lends the translation a somewhat infelicitous quality. For example: "And (her) lion, tossing its mane and uttering a terrible roar, / Rooted around searching for breaths still coming from the bodies of the enemies of the gods" (2.67, p. 44). While accurate, it might have been more felicitous to have said something like " . . . for signs of life among the enemy bodies." But this is a quibble and for the most part the translation reads well.

The author's attempt to place the text in liturgical context, and to discuss the ways in which...