Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS    
Introduction

PART I. THE MAHAVIDYAS AS A GROUP
The Ten Mahavidyas; Typical Literary and Iconographic Contexts; The Mahavidyas as Forms of the Mahadevi;
Mahavidya Origin Myths; Interrelationships among the Mahavidyas; Worship of the Mahavidyas;
The Mahavidyas and Magical Powers; The Significance of the Term Mahavidya;
Concluding Observations

PART II. THE INDIVIDUAL MAHAVIDYAS
Kali: The Black Goddess    
Tara: The Goddess Who Guides through Troubles    
Tripura-sundari: She Who Is Lovely in the Three Worlds    
Bhuvanegvari: She Whose Body Is the World    
Chinnamasta: The Self-Decapitated Goddess
Bhairavi: The Fierce One    
Dharnavati: The Widow Goddess    
Bagalamukhi: The Paralyzer    
Matarigi: The Outcaste Goddess    
Kamald: The Lotus Goddess    

PART III. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS
Corpses and Cremation Grounds 233; Skulls and Severed Heads;
Sexuality and Awakened Consciousness; The Conjunction of Death and Sexual Imagery;
The Roles of Women and Reverence for Women; The Potentially Liberating Nature of Social Antimodels

NOTES    
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY    
INDEX

About the Author

David Kinsley is Professor of Religion at McMaster University, Canada. He is the author of Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition (California, 1985), and The Sword and the Flute: Kali and Krisna, Dark Visions of the Terrible and Sublime in Hindu Mythology (California, 1975).