A living, vibrant tradition of goddess worship is at the heart of the Hindu religion; many goddesses are worshipped on a daily basis throughout India and the Hindu world, although most individual goddesses are seen as a manifestation of one Great Goddess (Flood 174). The Goddess is an ubiquitous figure in popular media, devotion, and academic study. In 1975, an Indian movie called Jai Santoshi Maa (“Hail to the Mother of Satisfaction”) with a small budget, largely unknown cast, cheesy, almost comical special effects, and second-rate sets became a runaway “superhit” that packed out theatres in large metropolitan areas, as well as those in smaller venues, and broke records by becoming one of the highest grossing movies of the year (Lutgendorf 11, 14). The popularity of this “cult classic” is illustrative, not only of the popular appeal of mythological movies in India, but also of the attractiveness of the Goddess. While the Sakta and Tantric traditions are the most well-known for the veneration of the Goddess, both Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism incorporate goddesses as consorts or energies, and in fact, “almost all Hindus will revere her in some capacity” (Flood 175; see also Choudhary 2).
The presence of multiple goddess figures is notable in the earliest literature of Hinduism, the Vedas. Although the Rig Veda is dominated a few major male gods with a cast of “second-string” male gods and no central goddess figure, there is also a very strong contingent of goddesses (Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses 6). Kinsley notes seven major Vedic goddesses, including Usas, Sarasvatī, and Aditi, and nearly twenty minor ones (Hindu Goddesses 7-17). The goddess Aditi is mentioned nearly eighty times in the Rig Veda alone (Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses 9). W...
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In India there are many religious rituals. Some are the same as in the United States of America. They have Muslim and Christian rituals. Some of these rituals the Muslim and Christians of the United States of America participate in. Religious rituals make a huge impact on India’s culture. India’s culture would not be the same without these religious rituals. (“Indian Culture”)
As we compare the traditional women versus modern women, we perceive differences and similarities. Prachi fights for a belief system that controls her meanwhile Ruhi struggles with self-identity and depends on the beauty pageant to empower her as an Indian woman. Prachi defends Hinduism but at the same time, is Hinduism that restrains her from becoming “modern.” Ruhi on the other hand considers herself a very modern girl and she values freedom therefor the pageant is a road to liberation for her. Both girls struggle in distinct ways but their goal is similar, to shape their countries future.
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“For thousands of years people have associated objects in the sky, the Earth, and aspects of their physical world with the gods and goddesses of their culture” (Windows Team, 2000, Mythology). The Hindu culture is no different with the association of several gods and goddesses acknowledged through their traditional worship. Worshipping the many gods and goddesses makes Hinduism difficult to comprehend the many elements of the tradition. The worship of many gods and goddesses is rooted in henotheism. “Belief in one god without denying the existence of others” (Yahooligans! Reference, 2000). This way of worship is what makes Hinduism complex and hard to understand.
It is observed that even the spiritual heritage of India has lost its glory in Jhabvala’s world of fictional India because the spiritual and aesthetic seekers also face traumatic experiences. No doubts since antiquity the Indian spiritualism has been shining far above the philosophic deliberations of the
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