This book explores the diversity of Hindu goddesses and the variety of ways in which they are worshiped. Although they undoubtedly have ancient origins, Hindu goddesses and their worship is still very much a part of the fabric of religious engagement in India today, and this work offers an introduction to a complex and often baffling field of study. Part I, Beliefs, Providing a series of encounters with a range of Hindu goddesses, starting with the idea of Goddess as a philosophical concept, this work moves on to topics that include textual evidence for belief structures, goddess mythology,...

At the Feet of the Goddess embraces ritual, worship and iconography, rather than philosophy and metaphysics, in two communities. In each of these sites, as is common within many local communities across India, it is female deities that predominate. Although local worship is based on ritual and grounded in a tradition that may not be fully comprehended by its adherents, it is also partly based in, and is a reflection of, a more complex metaphysical undercurrent. Local goddesses, in particular, while representing anthropomorphized figures for the majority of their devotees, are concurrently the...