Woman As Fire, Woman As Sage: Sexual Ideology in the Mahabharata

266 Pages·2008·2.39 MB·English

by  Arti Dhand

Woman as Fire,
Woman as Sage
Sexual Ideology
in the Mahbhrata
Arti Dhand
WomanasFire,WomanasSage
SUNYseries in Religious Studies
Harold Coward, editor
WomanasFire,WomanasSage
Sexual Ideology in the Mah(cid:2)bh(cid:2)rata
Arti Dhand
(cid:2)
State University of New York Press
Publishedby
StateUniversityofNewYorkPress,Albany
©2008StateUniversityofNewYorkPress
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LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Dhand,Arti1966–
Womanasfire,womanassage:sexualideologyintheMahabharata/ArtiDhand.
p. cm.—(SUNYseriesinreligiousstudies)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-7914-7139-5(hardcover:alk.paper) 1.Mahabharata—Criticism,
interpretation,etc. 2.WomeninHinduism. 3.Sex—Religiousaspects—Hinduism.
I.Title.
BL1138.27.D425 2007
294.5'923048—dc22
2006101104
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my two little princes
Rahul and Kai

Contents
(cid:2)
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. ReligionintheMah(cid:3)bh(cid:3)rata 21
2. Nivr(cid:2)ttiDharma:TheSearchfortheHighest 55
3. WeddingandBeddinginPravr(cid:4)ttiDharma 95
4. TheUnrulyDesireofWomen 127
5. DiscipliningDesire 151
6. (cid:5)paddharma 181
Conclusion 199
Notes 205
SelectedBibliography 237
Index 253
vii

Acknowledgments
(cid:2)
This work has benefited from the assistance of numerous people. In particu-
lar, I owe my thanks to Katherine Young at McGill University, and to my
excellent research assistants, John McGee, Patrick McGee, and Maithili
Thayanithy.
ix