Heroic Shāktism

Bihani Sarkar undertook a D.Phil in Sanskrit at Wolfson College under the supervision of Prof. Alexis Sanderson (All Souls). After her doctorate in 2011 she was awarded a Nachwuchsinitiative Postdoctoral Fellowship by Hamburg University, Germany and then a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Oriental Institute, Oxford University in 2014. She has written on the Navarātra and its history, on dualisms in Durgā's conception in classical kāvya and on the interdependence between conceptions in Indian philosophy and aspects of Durgā's mythological depiction in the classical period. She has also written about classical Sanskrit literature, for example, about the ethics of poetic practice in 13th century Gujarat and the interplay between poetic licence and minding narrative conventions in the classical period. She is currently working on the depiction and history of the tragic in classical Sanskrit literature.

• IntroductionPART 1: Beginnings1: The cult of Nidrā-Kālarātri, Goddess of Sleep, Swoon, Death and the Night (c. 3rd- century CE-5th century CE)2: Caṇḍikā, Pārvatī's Unwanted Self (c. 5th-7th centuries CE)3: Taking over Skanda (c. 6th century CE-7th century CE)4: Patronage, the civilizational process and the spread of heroic Śāktism (c. 7th century CE-11th century CE)PART 2: Synthesis5: The Regional Cults of Goddesses Merged with DurgāPART 3: Belief systems and rituals6: Heroic Śāktism and the Myths of Civilization7: Navarātra: The Festival of the Nine NightsConclusion: Durgā and the making of early Indian Civilization

[an] interesting and absorbing book ... the result of 10 years of research, is the first detailed historical study of the evolution of the cult of Durgā and the role it played in shaping civilizational ideals in India.