The Cult of Draupadi, Volume 2: On Hindu Ritual and the Goddess (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226340487)

This is the first volume of a projected three-volume work on the little-known South Indian folk cult of the goddess Draupadi and on the classical epic, the Mahabharata, that the cult brings to life in mythic, ritual, and dramatic forms. Draupadi, the chief heroine of the Sanskrit Mahabharata, takes on many unexpected guises in her Tamil cult, but her dimensions as a folk goddess remain rooted in a rich interpretive vision of the great epic. By examining the ways that the cult of Draupadi commingles traditions about the goddess and the epic, Alf Hiltebeitel shows the cult to be singularly representative of the inner tensions and working dynamics of popular devotional Hinduism.


Author: Alf Hiltebeitel
ISBN-10: 0226340481
ISBN-13: 9780226340487
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 10/08/1991
Pages: 556
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 9.04h x 6.08w x 1.30d