Heroic Shāktism

Heroic Śāktism is the belief that a good king and a true warrior must worship the goddess Durgā, the form and substance of kingship. This belief formed the bedrock of ancient Indian practices of cultivating political power. Wildly dangerous and serenely benevolent at one and the same time, the goddess's charismatic split nature promised rewards for a hero and king and success in risky ventures. This book is the first expansive historical treatment of the cult of Durgā and the role it played in shaping ideas and rituals of heroism in India between the 3rd and the 12th centuries CE. Within the story of ancient Indian kingship, two critical transitions overlapped with the rise of heroic Śāktism: the decline of the war-god Skanda-Mahāsena as a military symbol, and the concomitant rise of the early Indian kingdom. As the rhetoric of kingship once strongly linked to theolder war god shifted to the cultural narratives of the goddess, her political imagery broadened in its cultural resonance. And indigenous territorial deities became associated with Durgā as smaller states unified into a broader conception of civilization. By assessing the available epigraphic, literary and scriptural sources in Sanskrit, and anthropological studies on politics and ritual, Bihani Sarkar demonstrates that the association between Indian kingship and the cult's belief-systems was an ancient one based on efforts to augment worldly power.

This book's eclecticism offers something to every scholar interested in the goddess tradition... Sarkar's book considerably enhances our historical ability to recognise the goddesses at the heart of both households and state-formations in the early subcontinent., a paradigm-shifting work that forces scholars of South Asian religions, history, and goddess traditions rethink the role of royal goddesses and kings' devotion in the broader shifts of the political process. It is essential for anyone interested in religion and kingship in Gupta/post-Gupta India., [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., Heroic Shāktism is a paradigm-shifting work that forces scholars of South Asian religions, history, and goddess traditions rethink the role of royal goddesses and kings' devotion in the broader shifts of the political process. It is essential for anyone interested in religion and kingship in Gupta/post-Gupta India. Portions might be useful for advanced undergraduate readers, but it is primarily geared toward specialists.

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 kāvyaand 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 andminding narrative conventions in the classical period. She is currently working on the depiction and history of the tragic in classical Sanskrit literature.