The weight of words, the impact of photographs: Short texts supported by about 530 illustrations mainly in color. The author takes a fresh look on the museum antique pieces to follow the footsteps of the fertility goddess Lajja Gauri from the first centuries ac. until the earliest Prehistoric testimonies.The complete design of the goddess in Lajja Gauri attitude, her symbol ?M+V? and the swastika appear at Mezin, Ukraine, towards 10.000 bc. The migration of these symbols from the Black Sea cultures will reach all the Ancient World: Prehistoric Egypt, Neolithic Western China, Near East, Indus valley, Western Europe, ? until Easter island. The theories of the author, illustrated by his interpretation of the antique pieces, bring a fresh reading on many topics of history of ancient civilizations and on the iconographic origin of the universal goddess of sexuality.

The artists creating images of Lajja Gauri drew on various ancient symbols of fortune, fertility, and life-force to communicate her power through their rich heritage of meanings. Because there are no texts to explain the figure, the study proceeds from the basis of the objects to derive their meaning. Carol Bolon charts the changes in the goddess`s form over a period of more than four centuries, including its possible adoption from tribal worship into Hindu temples, and brings a new appreciation of Lajja Gauri`s rich symbolic meaning and cultural context.

Striking images of a certain Indian goddess have been variously referred to as the "shameless woman" the "nude squatting goddess," the "mother goddess," or, because her historical name remains unknown, more than twenty-five names, among them Aditi, Lajjā Gaurī, Renukā, and Nagna Kabambdha. The best-known images of this goddess have a female torso and a lotus flower in place of a head, while her legs are bent up at the knees and drawn up to each side in a position that has been described as one of "giving birth" or "self-display." This type of goddess figure is explained as part of a long, highly sophisticated tradition of expressing fertility and well-being in Indian art. The artists creating images of Lajjā Gaurī drew on various ancient symbols of fortune, fertility, and life-force to communicate her power through their rich heritage of meanings. As these historical-religious symbols and images were constantly reused and reincorporated, they formed a new and enriched religious context. In the process of recycling they became empowered cultural metaphors, visual morphemes in the language of Indian art. Because there are no texts to explain the figure, the study proceeds from the basis of the objects to derive their meaning. Carol Bolon charts the changes in the goddess's form over a period of more than four centuries, including its possible adoption from tribal worship into Hindu temples, and brings a new appreciation of Lajjā Gaurī's rich symbolic meanings and cultural context.

Lajjagauri is perhaps one of India's oldest goddesses with images of her in South Asia dating back to the Indus Civilisation c. 3,000 to 1,500 BC. Her devotees can be traced back even earlier to the Ukraine c. 10,000 BCE. In India, new finds continue to expand the geographical spread of Lajjagauri's devotees, most recently to Odisa. Dhere's work on Lajjagauri is based on a tireless pursuit of her image throughout western India. In contrast to the other thousands of Indian goddesses whose images are super abundant, Lajjagauri has become more reclusive as other deities have risen. This work by the towering Marathi cultural specialist Ramcandra Cintaman Dhere is a unique and important study, painstakingly and lovingly translated here by Dr Jayant Bapat.

About the Book A CLASSIC GUIDE TO THE LIVES AND LEGENDS OF THE MANY GODDESSES WHO INHABIT THE HINDU IMAGINATION Lakshmi massages Vishnu’s feet. Is this male domination? Kali stands on Shiva’s chest. Is this female domination? Shiva is half a woman. Is this gender quality? Why then is Shakti never half a man? Taken literally, stories, symbols and rituals of Hindu mythology have much to say about gender relationships. Taken symbolically, they reveal many more things about humanity and nature. Which is the correct reading? The third title in the bestselling ‘Hindu Trinity’ series focuses on the Goddess and respected mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik tries to unravel the secrets locked within her stories, symbols and rituals.

Menstruation across Cultures attempts to provide a detailed review of menstruation notions prevalent in India and in cultures from across the world. The world cultures covered in the book include Indic traditions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism; ancient civilisations like Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia and Egypt; and Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Two themes of special focus in the book are: Impurity and Sacrality. While they are often understood as being opposed to each other, the book examines how they are treated as two sides of the same coin, when it comes to menstruation. This is especially true in Indic traditions and pre-Christian polytheistic traditions like Greco-Roman, Mesopotamian and Egyptian. Impurity and Sacrality complement each other to form a comprehensive worldview in these cultures. The book also examines how the understanding of impurity in Abrahamic religions differs from those of polytheistic cultures. As part of the examination of the sacrality attached to menstruation, a special focus has also been given to the deities of menstruation in polytheistic cultures and to what Ayurveda and Yoga say about this essential function in a woman’s physiology. Finally, a comparative study of menstrual notions prevalent in modernity is presented, along with a Do and Don’t dossier.

"Leslene della-Madre’s book, She Who Spins Creation: Sacred Female Cosmology in the Electric PlasMA Universe, is essential medicine and a much-needed balm for the spirit in these perilous times of toxic masculinity, toxic capitalism, toxic patriarchy, and the perpetuation of the annihilation of women’s wisdom and power (also known as the Inquisition) in which female-embodied existence and wisdom continue to be silenced and every attempt to eradicate us, deny our culture, belittle and erase our knowledge continues to unfold. It is also a master class in how to excavate and reclaim female-embodied experience, wisdom, empowerment, and sovereignty. Della-Madre exposes the misogyny inherent in patriarchal myth and science—from physics to molecular biology—delving into the mysteries of matter, the mammalian egg, mythologies of female origins, the Electric Universe, plasMA cosmology, and much, much more. She invites us to awaken to the reality of a truly female cosmology that has always reflected “as above, so below”—and always will—but that has been denied and subjected to nearly complete erasure in numerous ways by male-dominated realities. In doing so, she invokes us to challenge the amnesia of the ages, question all we have been told about who we are, where we come from, and who we can become. She implores us to “feel our horns and wings again”, and reclaim a world in which we understand that we are all “electric plasMA beings”, intertwined and interconnected, “in tune with the cosmos, the greater organism.” This is the way to heal the violence that has been done to the Earth, Nature, and women by thousands of years of patriarchal colonization. This book is also a clarion call for action—for women to “re-member our magic and to seek guidance from the ancestral realms to help restore us to whole (holy)ness.” This profound book should be made into a documentary series." Mary Saracino, author, LAMBDA award finalist