Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth

<p>In analyzing the parallels between myths glorifying the Indian Great Goddess Durga and those glorifying the Sun Surya<i> </i>found in the <em>Marka¿¿eya Pura¿a</em> this book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the <i>Marka¿¿eya Pura¿a</i> privileging worldly values of which Indian kings the Goddess (Devi) the Sun (Surya) Manu and Marka¿¿eya himself are paragons.</p><p>This book features a salient discovery in Sanskrit narrative text: just as the <i>Marka¿¿eya Pura¿a</i> houses the <i>Devi Mahatmya </i>glorifying the supremacy of the Indian Great Goddess Durga it also houses a <i>Surya Mahatmya</i> glorifying the supremacy of the Sun Surya in much the same manner. This book argues that these <em>mahatmyas</em> were meaningfully and purposefully positioned in the <i>Marka¿¿eya Pura¿a</i> while previous scholarship has considered this haphazard interpolation for sectarian aims. The book demonstrates that deliberate compositional strategies make up the Saura–Sakta symbiosis found in these mirrored <em>mahatmyas</em>. Moreover the author explores what he calls the dharmic double helix of Brahmanism most explicitly articulated by the structural opposition between <em>prav¿tti </em>(worldly) and <em>niv¿tti</em> (other-worldy) <em>dharmas</em>.</p><p>As the first narrative study of the <i>Surya Mahatmya</i> along with the first study of the <i>Marka¿¿eya Pura¿a</i> (or any Pura¿a) as a narrative whole this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Religion Hindu Studies South Asian Studies Goddess Studies Narrative Theory and Comparative Mythology.</p>