num_pages: 376
description:  English 402 (8 Color and 17 B/W Illustrations)About the AuthorJeffrey S. Lidke is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Berry College in Rome Georgia. He earned his doctorate in Sanskrit and South Asian Religions from the University of California Santa Barbara under the tutelage of David Gordon White Gerald James Larson Ninian Smart and Barbara Holdrege. His first book Vishvarupa A Study of Changu Narayan Nepal's Most Ancient Temple drew international recognition as a significant contribution to scholarship on Asian architecture and religion. His numerous subsequent essays and chapters cover topics ranging from Kashmir Saivism Sakta Tantra and Indian aesthetics to synesthesia and the neuroscience of contemplative practice. Dr. Lidke is a senior steering committee member of the Society for Tantric Studies.About the BookIn this groundbreaking study on Sarvamnaya Sakta Tantra in Nepal Jeffrey S. Lidke combines the study of primary sources with the investigation of living interpretations of these sources by contemporary Nepalese practitioners. Lidke focuses his twenty-year analysis on a specific Tantric tradition - Sri Vidya - a specific deity - Tripurasundari - a specific text Nitytasikarnava. - and a specific set of initiates within a specific locale - the Kathmandu Valley.This emphasis on specificity enables the author to contextualize his study within the unique Nepalese historical and sociocultural context and thereby to represent Sarvamnaya Sakta Tantra not as a static universal ism present in a single form throughout the subcontinent but as a dynamic place-specific tradition reflecting the nuanced ways that peoples and institutions shape their religious traditions according to the power negotiations that arise in
language: English
title: The Goddess within and Beyond the Three Cities
publisher: D. K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.