Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Flueckiger, Joyce Burkhalter.

Title When the world becomes female : guises of a South Indian goddess / Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger
Published Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2013

Copies

Description 1 online resource
Contents An aesthetics of excess -- Guising, transformation, recognition, and possibility -- Narratives of excess and access -- Female-narrated possibilities of relationship -- Gangamma as Ganga river goddess -- Wandering goddess, village daughter : Avilala Reddys -- Temple and vesham mirasi : the Kaikalas of Tirupati -- The goddess served and lost : Tatayyagunta Mudaliars -- Exchanging talis with the goddess : protection and freedom to move -- "Crazy for the goddess" : a consuming relationship -- Possibilities of a world become female
Summary During the goddess Gangamma's festival in the town of Tirupati, lower-caste men take guises of the goddess, and the streets are filled with men wearing saris, braids, and female jewelry. By contrast, women participate by intensifying the rituals they perform for Gangamma throughout the year, such as cooking and offering food. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger argues that within the festival ultimate reality is imagined as female and women identify with the goddess, whose power they share. Vivid accounts by male and female participants offer new insights into Gangamma's traditions and the nature of Hindu village goddesses
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Gangamma (Hindu deity) -- Cult -- India -- Tirupati
Worship (Hinduism)
Hindu cults.
RELIGION -- Hinduism -- Theology.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
Hindu cults
Religion
Worship (Hinduism)
SUBJECT Tirupati (India) -- Religion
Subject India -- Tirupati
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780253009609
025300960X
1299667635
9781299667631