The Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth

In analyzing the parallels between myths glorifying the Indian Great Goddess, Durga, and those glorifying the Sun, Surya, found in the Markaeya Puraa, this book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the Markaeya Puraa privileging worldly values, of which Indian kings, the Goddess (Devi), the Sun (Surya), Manu and Markaeya himself are paragons. This book features a salient discovery in Sanskrit narrative text: just as the Markaeya Puraa houses the Devi Mahatmya glorifying the supremacy of the Indian Great Goddess, Durga, it also houses a Surya Mahatmya, glorifying the supremacy of the Sun, Surya, in much the same manner. This book argues that these mahatmyas were meaningfully and purposefully positioned in the Markaeya Puraa, while previous scholarship has considered this haphazard interpolation for sectarian aims. The book demonstrates that deliberate compositional strategies make up the SauraSakta symbiosis found in these mirrored mahatmyas. Moreover, the author explores what he calls the "dharmic double helix" of Brahmanism, most explicitly articulated by the structural opposition between pravtti (worldly) and nivtti (other-worldy) dharmas. As the first narrative study of the Surya Mahatmya, along with the first study of the Markaeya Puraa (or any Puraa), as a narrative whole, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Religion, Hindu Studies, South Asian Studies, Goddess Studies, Narrative Theory and Comparative Mythology.