The Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth

In analyzing the parallels between myths glorifying the Indian Great Goddess, Durg, and those glorifying the Sun, Srya, found in the Mrkaeya Pura, this book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the Mrkaeya Pura privileging worldly values, of which Indian kings, the Goddess (Dev), the Sun (Srya), Manu and Mrkaeya himself are paragons. This book features a salient discovery in Sanskrit narrative text: just as the Mrkaeya Pura houses the Dev Mhtmya glorifying the supremacy of the Indian Great Goddess, Durg, it also houses a Srya Mhtmya, glorifying the supremacy of the Sun, Srya, in much the same manner. This book argues that these mhtmyas were meaningfully and purposefully positioned in the Mrkaeya Pura, while previous scholarship has considered this haphazard interpolation for sectarian aims. The book demonstrates that deliberate compositional strategies make up the Saurakta symbiosis found in these mirrored mhtmyas. Moreover, the author explores what he calls the "dharmic double helix" of Brahmanism, most explicitly articulated by the structural opposition between pravtti (worldly) and nivtti (other-worldy) dharmas. As the first narrative study of the Srya Mhtmya, along with the first study of the Mrkaeya Pura (or any Pura), 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.