Shakti Sthal

-Purascharanollasa Tantra

FEISTY and fabulous, like the Goddess herself, the book Devi could well be the flavour of the year worldwide, if first month sales are any yardstick to go by. It's noteworthy that the book was conceptualised by Vidya Dehejia, associate director and chief curator of the Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington DC, as an extended catalogue to a unique exhibition: Devi, The Great Goddess.

Dehejia had been fashioning such a book in her mind for over two decades, while she researched different aspects of the female form and power, and examined the representations of the body of the Woman. An arresting tome, Devi would win "coffee table book of the year", were there such an award; but it can also engage the serious reader interested in issues regarding female divinity in Indian religion, art and life.

This monumental book is a labour of love by Dehejia and a panel of competent essayists who could very easily fill the pages of a Who's Who of south Asian scholars: Thomas B. Coburn, George Michell, Terence Mclnerney... the list goes on. Among them, several Indian women feature strongly by dint of their persuasive arguments and strong voices: Tapati Guha-Thakurta's provocative spin on Clothing the Goddess, feminist scholar Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's stirring essay, Moving Devi, and Vidya Dehejia and Sagaree Sen Gupta's riveting essay on Poetic Visions of the Goddess in Tamil Nadu and Bengal are particularly memorable.

Though this book is primarily part of the exhibition at The Smithsonian Museum, (on till September 6, this year), a cursory check at five stores in the US indicated the book was sold out. Punters in art circles predict this reader-friendly book on an obscure subject usually treated with academic snobbery, could hit the bestseller list on the Arts category this year. It's easy to see why.

Savage, yet benign; the idea of the Devi, the chakra and talwar-wielding consort of Shiva conjured to annihilate the asuras, is in itself a fascinating one. Myths and stories around her various avatars abound. She embodies the essential Woman-patient, loving, sacrificing and capable of deep penance as Parvati; elemental, inexorable, passionate, the vehicle of untrammelled energy as Kali. But it is not just the topic which is in itself riveting; what also makes the book under consideration stand out is that for once, a serious subject pivoting around female divinity has received the treatment it deserves. The writing is clear, there is humour and chutzpah in the scholarly pieces and the most complex issues of Shakti and Maya, Yoni and Lingam, Yogini and Rasa are explained with colour and clarity. Academia can be proud to have shaken off the burden of obscurity and got on with the issues-contemporary and antiquarian-of what the Goddess means to us, how interpretations of her have mutated over the years and how we perceive her today.

Says Dehejia: "My goal was very clear. I wanted a book/catalogue that would be written in a language understood by the lay reader, even draw him or her into debate." Luckily for her, the contributors understood her needs and were amenable to altering material. Add to this, a highly talented designer who's gone "wild with the palette" in the book, and a superb in-house Smithsonian support team, and Dehejia has come up with a magnificent publication.

This ambitious but stunning book records the exhibition and its impressive objects taken from 36 different collections (only 10 of which are at museums) and from 13 states in India, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and China. The 250 photographs, combined with the succinct words, images and excellent quality of paper and printing make Devi a real blessing.