This book chronicles the rise and subsequent fortunes of Hindu goddess worship, or Śāktism, in the region of Bengal from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. The primary documents are lyrics directed to the goddesses Kālī and Umā, beginning with those of the first of the Śākta lyricist devotees, Rāmprasād Sen (ca. 1718–1775) and Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya (ca. 1769–1821), and continuing up through those of the gifted poet Kājī Najrul Islām (1899–1976). The author has used extensive research from primary historical texts as well as from secondary Bengali and English source material ... More

This book chronicles the rise and subsequent fortunes of Hindu goddess worship, or Śāktism, in the region of Bengal from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. The primary documents are lyrics directed to the goddesses Kālī and Umā, beginning with those of the first of the Śākta lyricist devotees, Rāmprasād Sen (ca. 1718–1775) and Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya (ca. 1769–1821), and continuing up through those of the gifted poet Kājī Najrul Islām (1899–1976). The author has used extensive research from primary historical texts as well as from secondary Bengali and English source materials. She places the advent of the Śākta lyric in its historical context and charts the vicissitudes over time of this form of goddess worship, including the nineteenth‐century resurgence of Śāktism in the cause of nationalist politics. The main theme of the book is the way in which the images of the two goddesses evolved over the centuries. Kālī is sweetened and democratized over time, and much of her fierce, wild, dangerous, and bloody character disappears as she is increasingly seen as a compassionate and loving divine mother to her children. Umā, for her part, is gradually transformed from the gentle and remote wife of Śhiva to the adored daughter of Bengali parents, increasingly humanized and colored with regional Bengali characteristics. The book is arranged in two main parts: I, The lives and contexts of Śākta poets; and II, The changing genre of Śākta poetry. The author's translations of the poems on which this book is based appear in Singing to the Goddess: Poems to Kālī and Umā from Bengal (OUP, 2000).