Sakti's Revolution

Contents Plates xiii Preface xix Acknowledgments xxxi Abbreviations xxxiii Part I Origins 1 Introduction 3 The Question of Matriarchies 3 Defining Female/Male Dominance 3 Cherokee Matriarchy 5 Indian Adivasi Matriarchy 6 Myths Reflect Patriarchal Coup 9 The Shift to Agriculture 10 1 The Milieu of The Indus Culture: c. Third To First Millennia BCE 14 Tree Worship and the Holy Groves of the Goddess 14 Hathor 17 Asherah 17 The Tree Cult in India 19 Astral Imagery 22 Sacred Prostitutes 26 The Goddess and Her Cyclical Sacrificial Consort 28 The Demise of Shamanism, the Rise of the Military, the war Goddess, and the Law 34 Inanna 39 Ishtar 40 Anath 42 Law Codes 44 The Indus Valley Civilization 46 Indus Culture 49 Slaves and War 51 The Goddess and the Bull 52 The Fall 54 The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) 54 The Indigenous Aryan Argument 56 2 Warfare And Male Supremacy 64 Masters of War 66 Brahmanic Religion 70 Tamil Religion 71 Mazdean Religion 72 Judeo-Christian Religion 74 Islam 76 Divine Feminine Violence 77 Sati 80 The "Myth" of Women Warriors 86 3 Tribes 92 Resistive Dimensions of Tribal Religion 94 Mariyamman 97 Ellaiyamman 100 Deification of Suffering and Violent Death 102 Spirit Possession 109 The Nagas: A Modern Fertility and Skull Cult 112 Ritual Specialists and Sacrifices 115 Fertility and Megaliths 116 Head-taking 117 Warfare 118 Fertility, Agriculture, and Death 120 Christian Reforms 121 Fierce Tribal Goddesses in Sanskritic Literature 123 Archaic Tribal Festivals 127 Hookswinging (Covadi) 128 Navaratri/Dasahara Festival 129 Rites to Awaken Earth Mother 131 Tantrism 132 Part II Historiography 141 4 The Early Tamils: The Cankam Age 143 The Tamil Country 143 The Religious Landscape 149 Feudalism, Divine Martial Law, and the Glories of War 151 Women and the Warrior Ethic 158 The Decline and Fall of the Heroic Bardic Mode 161 Ancient Tamil Sylvan Goddesses 163 Korravai 164 Aiyai-Kumari 169 Kannaki 170 5 The Early Aryans: Vedic Through Epico-Puranic Eras 177 The "Civilizing Mission" of Brahmanic Hegemony 177 Bourgeois Ideology 178 The Cast System 179 Conversion or Marginalization/Pauperization of Tribals 182 Mythic Legitimization of Tribal Oppression 186 Vedic and Post-Vedic Sylvan Goddesses 190 Nirrti 192 Laksmi 194 Aditi 195 Sita 195 Prthivi 195 Sarasvati 196 Durga 196 Kali 196 Raksasas 198 Apsaras 198 Grama-devatas 198 Birth Goddesses 198 City Protectresses 199 Disease Goddesses 200 Matrkas 201 Yaksinis 203 Mythic Assimilation and Dilution of Goddesses 205 Siva's Anti-Brahmanic Origin 208 The Accouterments of Aryan Warriors 210 Vedic Women 211 Proto-Sramana: The Wandering Mendicant 213 Vedic Metaphysics 215 The Earth-based Atharvaveda 215 Magic and Medicine 216 Expiatory Rites and Charms 218 Witches and Demons 218 Effigies, Spells, and Curses 219 6 Asceticism, Sramanism, And The Great Goddess Revival: c. 600 BCE-AD 300 227 Historico-Ideological Context of Sramanism 227 The Dialectic of Sramanism and Brahmanism 230 The Ideological Shift from Yajna to Ascenticism 233 The Buddha, Asceticism, and Class Society 237 The Ajivikas and the Jainas 245 Bhakti Cults 246 Sramanic Absorption of Indigenous Goddesses 248 Early Buddhism 250 Mahayana Buddhism 250 Vajrayana Buddhism 252 Jainism 253 7 Brahmanic Devaluation of Women Versus Liberation Symbology 258 The Vanishing Freedom of Women: Post-Vedic Period 258 Legal Treatises Governing Marriage and Inheritance 260 The Arthasastra 260 The Manusmrti 261 Mahisasura-mardini 273 8 The Rise of The Sakta Counter Culture The Classical Period (AD 300-700) 279 The Historico-Religious Preconditions 279 Social Surplus and the Subaltern Temple Builders 281 Sakti's Counter-Culture 283 Buddhism 284 Tantrism and Saktism 285 Puranic Literature, Brahmanic Property, and Land-Grants 287 Literary and Archaeological Evidence 288 The Yogini and Kapalika Cults 289 Asceticism: The Repossession of the Body 292 9 The Flowering of Esoteric Yogic Cults Amid Islamic Invasions: The Early Medieval Period (AD 700-1300) 297 The Rise of Islam 297 Pre-Islamic Semitic Polytheism in Arabia 297 Muhammad and Islam 302 Islam in India 308 Gender and Caste Oppression 311 Yogic Cults of the Kaula Marga 314 A Tantric Catalogue 315 Kaula Marga as Anarchy 316 The Yogini Cult 320 The Kapalika Cult 328 The Natha Cult: Gorakhanatha and the Eighty-four Siddhas 342 Buddhist Siddhacaryas of the Sahajiya Cult 347 Vajrayana Buddhists 351 10 The Medieval Cakrapuja 372 The Elements of Cakrapuja 372 11 The Late Medieval Period (AD 1300-1700) 378 Male Sacrifice to the Fierce Sakti 380 12 Fierce Goddesses In Modernity 385 The Birth of Modern Hinduism, the Thrust of European Empire 385 Adivasis under British Colonialism 389 Bharata Mata and the Freedom Movement 395 13 Sakti In The Global Village 400 The Power of Collective Women 401 All Our Goddesses are Armed 403 Islamists and Maoists 405 The Martyr 407 Kali in Wartime 410 The Progressive Potential of Goddesses 413 The Feminist Dimension of Folklore 417 Epilogue 426 Bibliography 428 Index 472