Supreme Refuge

Hillary P. Rodrigues is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Lethbridge. His previous books include Ritual Worship of the Great Goddess: The Liturgy of the Durgā Pūjā with Interpretations and, coedited with Caleb Simmons and Moumita Sen, Nine Nights of the Goddess: The Navarātri Festival in South Asia, both published by SUNY Press.

"This is a tremendous contribution to the fields of South Asian and religious studies, as it considers a massive amount of material from diverse sources across Asia to discuss the early development of the Great Goddess Durgā within the South Asian context. By placing Durgā at the center of this work, it does something that no other book has done to date, which is to evaluate the literary and textual traditions along with the extant imagery and co-relating the two, which is a very difficult task." — Madhuvanti Ghose, Art Institute of Chicago

• List of Illustrations Preface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations A Note on Transliteration A Note on AbbreviationsIntroduction 1. Durgā in Pre-Epic Literature 2. Durgā in Epic Literature 3. Proto-Durgās in the Earliest Material Evidence 4. The Earliest Buffalo-Subduing Goddess Images 5. The Wondrous Diadem 6. The Peacock Standard 7. The Rise of Durgā Mahiṣāsuramardinī 8. Durgā in the Devī Māhātmya 9. Analyzing the Predicted Manifestations 10. Koavai and Victorious Goddess Imagery 11. The Shape-Shifting and Emerging Demon Imagery 12. Durgā in the Early Purāṇas 13. Durgā Triumphant Appendix I: The Rātrī Sūkta Appendix II: A Powerful Queen Defeats an Arrogant Emperor Appendix III: Peacock Angel Worship Among the Yezidis Timeline of Pertinent Events Notes Bibliography Index