{"product_id":"9781803276717-south-asian-goddesses-and-the-natural-environment","title":"South Asian Goddesses and the Natural Environment","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis multidisciplinary collection presents 11 essays ranging from the pre-Vedic to the modern era and incorporating research on Hindu, Buddhist and tribal cultures. Authors ask whether the worship of goddesses, strongly linked to fertility rituals, might have mitigated the ecological decline of South Asia in the pre-British and post-colonial eras.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSouth Asian Goddesses and the Natural Environment \u003c\/em\u003eis a multidisciplinary collection of 11 essays ranging from the pre-Vedic to the modern era and incorporating research on Hindu, Buddhist and tribal cultures. The authors ask whether the worship of goddesses, strongly linked to fertility rituals, might have mitigated the ecological decline of South Asia in the pre-British and post-colonial eras.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe manifold powers of the \u003cem\u003eDevi, \u003c\/em\u003ewhether nurturing or destructive, could be constructed as companions to the unstoppable forces of Nature. This binary paradigm, however, is misleading. For millions of South Asian people, the \u003cem\u003eDevi\u003c\/em\u003e is Nature and Nature is \u003cem\u003eShe\u003c\/em\u003e. Amongst scholars, the connections between the South Asian Goddesses and the natural environment have been debated and contested for centuries. This collection of essays, the last of a trilogy on the \u003cem\u003eDevi \u003c\/em\u003eor iconic female by Australian scholars and their collaborators, interrogates the paradoxes of worshipping the feminine divine and yet ignoring the natural environment that validates \u003cem\u003eHer\u003c\/em\u003e existence. Historical and cultural sources, many of them in Sanskrit, point to the \u003cem\u003eDevi\u003c\/em\u003e-Nature complex but in ignoring the role of human agency, appear to exonerate society from taking responsibility for the ecological devastation manifested throughout the South Asian region. The \u003cem\u003eDevi \u003c\/em\u003eis omnipotent but in the role of the nurturing Mother she will not intervene if we remain passive. South Asian deities teach us to respect the environment, a necessary but insufficient condition for compelling us to behave in a manner that respects the wonders of the universe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41766486638689,"sku":"9781803276717","price":56.21,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_27712606.jpg?v=1722034350","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781803276717-south-asian-goddesses-and-the-natural-environment","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}