Women in Hindu Traditions

Emilia Bachrach (Author) Emilia Bachrach is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion and in the Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Program at Oberlin College and author of Religious Reading and Everyday Lives in Devotional Hinduism and In the Service of Krishna Illustrating the Lives of Eighty-four Vaishnavas from a 1702 Manuscript. Jennifer D. Ortegren (Author) Jennifer D. Ortegren is Associate Professor in the Religion Department at Middlebury College and author of Middle-Class Dharma: Women, Aspiration, and the Making of Contemporary Hinduism. Sohini Sarah Pillai (Author) Sohini Sarah Pillai is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion and Director of Film and Media Studies at Kalamazoo College and author of Krishna's Mahabharatas: Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative.

"These authors turn the conventional textbook approach to Hinduism on its head. And that's good! To disrupt millennia of male-centered religious histories, practices, concepts and categories, they have to surprise, disorient, and refresh both new readers and experts. Starting with women-centered rituals instead of ancient texts; spotlighting Hindu women in diaspora, which is where most students can meet them; centering women poets in devotional worlds; tacking deftly between traditional epics and the creative ways in which women have tackled their presentation of gender, caste, and class; and writing the whole book collaboratively! Students, teachers, women, men, gender nonconforming, and all who want to learn about Hinduism will do well to read and reflect on this book."--Linda Hess, author of Bodies of Song "Offers an innovative, accessible examination of women's contributions to Hindu traditions across historical and geographical contexts. Integrating diverse sources--religious texts, rituals, artistic representations, and everyday practice--it reorients the field by centering women's voices, prompting a critical, self-reflexive approach to the study of religion."--Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, author of Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance "Drawing on the expertise of each of its co-authors, Women in Hindu Traditions is a welcomed interdisciplinary textbook that incorporates ethnographic, textual, and media studies. Importantly, it includes Hindu women's experiences, leadership, and television representation in North America. The book models the ways in which the answers to questions about women in Hindu traditions are shaped by who is asking and answering them and thus will be multiple and shifting according to social and historical contexts. "--Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, Professor Emerit of Religion at Emory University