Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz is Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. She has researched Hindu practices, literature, and women in Nepal since the late 1990s. Her earlier work, Reciting the Goddess: Narratives of Place and the Making of Hinduism in Nepal (OUP 2018), presents an archival and ethnographic study of Nepal's local goddess Svasthani, the widely read Svasthani Vrata Katha, and the role both goddess and text have played in the construction of Nepali Hindu identity and practice. Reciting the Goddess earned the American Academy of Religion's 2019 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion.Alaka Atreya Chudal is Senior Lecturer in Department of South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. Her research integrates anthropology, literary studies, history, religious studies, cultural studies, print culture, and intellectual history, with a focus on Nepal and India from the late nineteenth century to the present.

• List of Illustrations Foreword Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Note on Transliteration PART ONE / INTRODUCTION A Secret Vow to the Goddess PART TWO / The Swasthani Vrata Katha Synopsis of the Swasthani Vrata Katha Detailed Chapter Outline Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 PART THREE / RITUAL TEXTS AND PRAYERS The Swasthani Vrata Katha / Original Sanskrit Verses Pujavidhi / Ritual Instructions Devi Stuti / Hymn to the Goddess Pushpanjali / Concluding Floral Offerings and Mantras PART FOUR / TEXTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Swasthani Texts Consulted for This Translation Narrative Illustrations from Early Printed Swasthani Books Appendix A: Queen Mother Goma's Words of Advice Appendix B: Shakti Piths in the Swasthani Vrata Katha Glossary Index