Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth

<p>In analyzing the parallels between myths glorifying the Indian Great Goddess Durgā and those glorifying the Sun Sūrya<i> </i>found in the <em>Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa</em> this book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the <i>Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa</i> privileging worldly values of which Indian kings the Goddess (Devī) the Sun (Sūrya) Manu and Mārkaṇḍeya himself are paragons.</p><p>This book features a salient discovery in Sanskrit narrative text: just as the <i>Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa</i> houses the <i>Devī Māhātmya </i>glorifying the supremacy of the Indian Great Goddess Durgā it also houses a <i>Sūrya Māhātmya</i> glorifying the supremacy of the Sun Sūrya in much the same manner. This book argues that these <em>māhātmyas</em> were meaningfully and purposefully positioned in the <i>Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa</i> while previous scholarship has considered this haphazard interpolation for sectarian aims. The book demonstrates that deliberate compositional strategies make up the Saura-Śākta symbiosis found in these mirrored <em>māhātmyas</em>. Moreover the author explores what he calls the dharmic double helix of Brahmanism most explicitly articulated by the structural opposition between <em>pravṛtti </em>(worldly) and <em>nivṛtti</em> (other-worldy) <em>dharmas</em>.</p><p>As the first narrative study of the <i>Sūrya Māhātmya</i> along with the first study of the <i>Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa</i> (or any Purāṇa) 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>