Forest Paradigms in Vrat Kathas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i2.139Keywords:
Hinduism, ritual, women, vratAbstract
Vrat kathas (Hindu women’s domestic literature) present the forest as a place for the reception of religious knowledge. These stories place themselves on par with divinely revealed texts by emulating certain themes found there. The vrat kathas, moreover, present women as ritualists whose actions are more effective than are men’s. While the vrat kathas do seem to “emulate” the male models, they also posit superiority of both the woman as a ritualist and the vrat as a ritual. Thus, the vrat kathas posit the superiority of vrat rituals, vrat stories, and vrat performers as superior to the “elite” male forms they are ostensibly emulating.References
Sanskrit Texts and Translations
Valm?ki Ramayana. 1962–82. Critical Edition (Baroda: Baroda Oriental Research Institute).
Goldman, Robert P. (trans.). 1984. The Ramayana of Valm?ki. Vol. 1, Balakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Lefeber, Rosalind. (trans.). 1994. The Ramayana of Valm?ki. Vol. 4, Kiskindhakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Mahabharata. 1933–72. Critical Edition (ed. Vishnu S. Sukthankar; Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute).
Mahabharata. 1964–69. Trans. Mahityacarya Pandit Ramnarayana Datt Sastri Pandey (Gorakhpur, India: Gita Press).
Pollock, Sheldon I. (trans.). 1986. The Ramayana of Valm?ki. Vol. 2, Ayodhyakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
———. (trans.). 1991. The Ramayana of Valm?ki. Vol. 3, Aranyakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
van Buitenen, J.A.B. (trans. and ed). 1973. Mahabharata. Vol. 1, The Book of the Beginning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
———. (trans. and ed.). 1975. Mahabharata. Vol. 2, The Book of the Assembly Hall; The Book of the Forest (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Hindi Vrat Kathas
‘The Exiled Queen’, in Saptvar Vrat (Haridwar, India: Ranadh?r Prakasan).
‘The Gift of Hanuman’, in Saptvar Vrat (Haridwar, India: Ranadh?r Prakasan).
‘How Parvat? Gained Siva as a Husband’, in Hinduon ke Vrat aur Tyauhar (Delhi: Laksm? Prakasan): 65-67.
‘King Subhadra and the Wet-Nurse’, in Halasasth? Vrat Katha (Banaras, India: Tihakur Prasad Pustak Bhandar).
‘King Subhadra and the Wet-Nurse’, in Halasasth? Vrat Katha (Mathura, India: Govardan Pustakalaya).
‘King Subhadra and the Wet-Nurse’, in Halasasth? Vrat Katha (Haridwar, India: Ranadh?r Book Sales).
‘Parvat?’s Secret Worship’, in Hinduon ke Vrat aur Tyauhar (Delhi: Laksm? Prakasan): 13-17.
Santos? Ma Vrat Katha (Banaras, India: Tihakur Prasad Pustak Bhandar).
Satyanarayan Vrat Katha (Banaras, India: Tihakur Prasad Pustak Bhandar).
VatSavitr? Vrat Katha (Haridwar, India: Ranadh?r Prakasan).
Secondary Literature
Blackburn, Stuart H., and Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger (eds.). 1989. Oral Epics in India (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Brown, W. Norman. 1978. ‘The Pañcatantra in Modern Indian Folkore’, in Rosane Rocher (ed.), India and Indology: Selected Articles (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass): 128-47.
Das, Veena. 1981. ‘The Mythological Film and its Framework of Meaning: An Analysis of Jai Santoshi Ma’, India International Centre Quarterly 8.1: 43-55.
Dove, Michael R. 1992. ‘The Dialectical History of “Jungle” in Pakistan: An Examination of the Relationship between Nature and Culture’, Journal of Anthropological Research 48.3: 231-53.
Freeman, James M. 1980. ‘The Ladies of Lord Krishna: Rituals of Middle-Aged Women in Eastern India’, in Nancy Auer Falk and Rita M. Gross (eds.), Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives in Non-Western Cultures (San Francisco: Harper & Row): 110-26.
Fruzzetti, Lina. 1982. The Gift of a Virgin: Women, Marriage and Ritual in a Bengali Society (Delhi: Oxford University Press, India, 2nd edn).
Gold, Ann Grodzins. 1994. ‘Gender, Violence and Power: Rajasthani Stories of Shakti’, in Nita Kumar (ed.), Women as Subjects: South Asian Histories (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia): 26-48.
———. 1995. ‘The “Jungli Ranni” and Other Troubled Wives in Rajasthani Oral Traditions’, in Lindsey Harlan and Paul Courtright (eds.), From the Margins of Hindu Marriage (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 119-36.
Gupta, Samjukta Gombrich. 2000. ‘The Goddess, Women, and their Rituals in Hinduism’, in Mandakranta Bose (ed.), Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 87-106.
Harlan, Lindsey. 2000. ‘Battles, Brides and Sacrifice: Rajput Kuldevis in Rajasthan’, in Alf Hiltebeitel and Kathleen M. Erndl (eds.), Is the Goddess a Feminist? The Politics of South Asian Goddesses (New York: New York University Press): 69-90.
Hiltebeitel, Alf. 1999. Rethinking India’s Oral and Classical Epics: Draupad? Among Rajputs, Mulsims and Dalits (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Jamison, Stephanie. 1996. Sacrificed Wife/Sacrificer’s Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hospitality in Ancient India (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Kelting, M. Whitney. 2001. Singing to the Jinas: Laywomen, Mandal Singing, and the Negotiations of Jain Devotion (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Khandelwal, Meena. 2004. Women in Ochre Robes: Gendering Hindu Renunciation (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Kurtz, Stanley M. 1992. All the Mothers are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis (New York: Columbia University Press).
Lubin, Timothy Norman. 1994. ‘Consecration and Acetical Regimen: A History of Hindu Vrata, Diksa, Upanayana and Brahmacarya’ (PhD Dissertation, Columbia University).
Malamoud, Charles. 1996. Cooking the World: Ritual and Thought in Ancient India (trans. David White; Oxford: Oxford University Press).
McGee, Mary. 1987. ‘Feasting and Fasting: The Vrata Tradition and its Significance for Hindu Women’ (ThD Dissertation, Harvard University).
———. 2002. ‘Ritual Rights: Some Gender Implications of Adhikara’, in Laurie L. Patton (ed.), Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 32-50.
Menzies, Robert. 1991. ‘The Visnu Purana as Sruti’ (MA Dissertation, University of Manitoba).
———. 2004. ‘Symbols of Suhag: Paradigms of Women’s Empowerment in Hindu Domestic Ritual Stories’ (PhD Dissertation, University of Iowa).
———. 2008. ‘Ritual Precision in Vrat Kathas’, in Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay (ed.), Asia: Local and Global Perspectives: Selected articles from the Conference of the Canadian Association of South Asian Studies, 2006 (Montreal: Canadian South Asian Society): 171-83.
———. 2009. ‘Fecund Celibacy: Pativrata as Domestic Ascetic in Vrat Katha’ (paper presented at Dharma Association of North America Annual Meeting).
Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1991. ‘Hindu Medicine and the Aroma of Structuralism’, Journal of Religion 71.3: 419-25. doi:10.1086/488665.
Olivelle, Patrick (trans.). 1992. Samnyasa Upanisads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Ortner, Sherry. 1989. High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Pearson, Anne. 1996. ‘Because it Gives me Peace of Mind’: Ritual Fasts in the Religious Lives of Hindu Women (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Ramanujan, A.K. 1989. ‘Where Mirrors Are Windows: Toward an Anthology of Reflections’, History of Religions 28.3: 187-216. doi:10.1086/463158.
Smith, Brian K. 1989. Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
———. 1994. Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varna System and the Origins of Caste (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Zimmermann, Francis. 1982. The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats: An Ecological Theme in Hindu Medicine (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Valm?ki Ramayana. 1962–82. Critical Edition (Baroda: Baroda Oriental Research Institute).
Goldman, Robert P. (trans.). 1984. The Ramayana of Valm?ki. Vol. 1, Balakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Lefeber, Rosalind. (trans.). 1994. The Ramayana of Valm?ki. Vol. 4, Kiskindhakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Mahabharata. 1933–72. Critical Edition (ed. Vishnu S. Sukthankar; Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute).
Mahabharata. 1964–69. Trans. Mahityacarya Pandit Ramnarayana Datt Sastri Pandey (Gorakhpur, India: Gita Press).
Pollock, Sheldon I. (trans.). 1986. The Ramayana of Valm?ki. Vol. 2, Ayodhyakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
———. (trans.). 1991. The Ramayana of Valm?ki. Vol. 3, Aranyakanda (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
van Buitenen, J.A.B. (trans. and ed). 1973. Mahabharata. Vol. 1, The Book of the Beginning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
———. (trans. and ed.). 1975. Mahabharata. Vol. 2, The Book of the Assembly Hall; The Book of the Forest (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Hindi Vrat Kathas
‘The Exiled Queen’, in Saptvar Vrat (Haridwar, India: Ranadh?r Prakasan).
‘The Gift of Hanuman’, in Saptvar Vrat (Haridwar, India: Ranadh?r Prakasan).
‘How Parvat? Gained Siva as a Husband’, in Hinduon ke Vrat aur Tyauhar (Delhi: Laksm? Prakasan): 65-67.
‘King Subhadra and the Wet-Nurse’, in Halasasth? Vrat Katha (Banaras, India: Tihakur Prasad Pustak Bhandar).
‘King Subhadra and the Wet-Nurse’, in Halasasth? Vrat Katha (Mathura, India: Govardan Pustakalaya).
‘King Subhadra and the Wet-Nurse’, in Halasasth? Vrat Katha (Haridwar, India: Ranadh?r Book Sales).
‘Parvat?’s Secret Worship’, in Hinduon ke Vrat aur Tyauhar (Delhi: Laksm? Prakasan): 13-17.
Santos? Ma Vrat Katha (Banaras, India: Tihakur Prasad Pustak Bhandar).
Satyanarayan Vrat Katha (Banaras, India: Tihakur Prasad Pustak Bhandar).
VatSavitr? Vrat Katha (Haridwar, India: Ranadh?r Prakasan).
Secondary Literature
Blackburn, Stuart H., and Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger (eds.). 1989. Oral Epics in India (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Brown, W. Norman. 1978. ‘The Pañcatantra in Modern Indian Folkore’, in Rosane Rocher (ed.), India and Indology: Selected Articles (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass): 128-47.
Das, Veena. 1981. ‘The Mythological Film and its Framework of Meaning: An Analysis of Jai Santoshi Ma’, India International Centre Quarterly 8.1: 43-55.
Dove, Michael R. 1992. ‘The Dialectical History of “Jungle” in Pakistan: An Examination of the Relationship between Nature and Culture’, Journal of Anthropological Research 48.3: 231-53.
Freeman, James M. 1980. ‘The Ladies of Lord Krishna: Rituals of Middle-Aged Women in Eastern India’, in Nancy Auer Falk and Rita M. Gross (eds.), Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives in Non-Western Cultures (San Francisco: Harper & Row): 110-26.
Fruzzetti, Lina. 1982. The Gift of a Virgin: Women, Marriage and Ritual in a Bengali Society (Delhi: Oxford University Press, India, 2nd edn).
Gold, Ann Grodzins. 1994. ‘Gender, Violence and Power: Rajasthani Stories of Shakti’, in Nita Kumar (ed.), Women as Subjects: South Asian Histories (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia): 26-48.
———. 1995. ‘The “Jungli Ranni” and Other Troubled Wives in Rajasthani Oral Traditions’, in Lindsey Harlan and Paul Courtright (eds.), From the Margins of Hindu Marriage (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 119-36.
Gupta, Samjukta Gombrich. 2000. ‘The Goddess, Women, and their Rituals in Hinduism’, in Mandakranta Bose (ed.), Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 87-106.
Harlan, Lindsey. 2000. ‘Battles, Brides and Sacrifice: Rajput Kuldevis in Rajasthan’, in Alf Hiltebeitel and Kathleen M. Erndl (eds.), Is the Goddess a Feminist? The Politics of South Asian Goddesses (New York: New York University Press): 69-90.
Hiltebeitel, Alf. 1999. Rethinking India’s Oral and Classical Epics: Draupad? Among Rajputs, Mulsims and Dalits (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Jamison, Stephanie. 1996. Sacrificed Wife/Sacrificer’s Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hospitality in Ancient India (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Kelting, M. Whitney. 2001. Singing to the Jinas: Laywomen, Mandal Singing, and the Negotiations of Jain Devotion (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Khandelwal, Meena. 2004. Women in Ochre Robes: Gendering Hindu Renunciation (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Kurtz, Stanley M. 1992. All the Mothers are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis (New York: Columbia University Press).
Lubin, Timothy Norman. 1994. ‘Consecration and Acetical Regimen: A History of Hindu Vrata, Diksa, Upanayana and Brahmacarya’ (PhD Dissertation, Columbia University).
Malamoud, Charles. 1996. Cooking the World: Ritual and Thought in Ancient India (trans. David White; Oxford: Oxford University Press).
McGee, Mary. 1987. ‘Feasting and Fasting: The Vrata Tradition and its Significance for Hindu Women’ (ThD Dissertation, Harvard University).
———. 2002. ‘Ritual Rights: Some Gender Implications of Adhikara’, in Laurie L. Patton (ed.), Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 32-50.
Menzies, Robert. 1991. ‘The Visnu Purana as Sruti’ (MA Dissertation, University of Manitoba).
———. 2004. ‘Symbols of Suhag: Paradigms of Women’s Empowerment in Hindu Domestic Ritual Stories’ (PhD Dissertation, University of Iowa).
———. 2008. ‘Ritual Precision in Vrat Kathas’, in Reeta Chowdhari Tremblay (ed.), Asia: Local and Global Perspectives: Selected articles from the Conference of the Canadian Association of South Asian Studies, 2006 (Montreal: Canadian South Asian Society): 171-83.
———. 2009. ‘Fecund Celibacy: Pativrata as Domestic Ascetic in Vrat Katha’ (paper presented at Dharma Association of North America Annual Meeting).
Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1991. ‘Hindu Medicine and the Aroma of Structuralism’, Journal of Religion 71.3: 419-25. doi:10.1086/488665.
Olivelle, Patrick (trans.). 1992. Samnyasa Upanisads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Ortner, Sherry. 1989. High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Pearson, Anne. 1996. ‘Because it Gives me Peace of Mind’: Ritual Fasts in the Religious Lives of Hindu Women (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Ramanujan, A.K. 1989. ‘Where Mirrors Are Windows: Toward an Anthology of Reflections’, History of Religions 28.3: 187-216. doi:10.1086/463158.
Smith, Brian K. 1989. Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
———. 1994. Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varna System and the Origins of Caste (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Zimmermann, Francis. 1982. The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats: An Ecological Theme in Hindu Medicine (Berkeley: University of California Press).
Published
2010-07-11
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Menzies, R. (2010). Forest Paradigms in Vrat Kathas. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 4(2), 139-158. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v4i2.139
