Nine Nights of Power

The Great Goddess—namely, Devi—is understood as a potent figure in the minds of Indians. The book is a part of the SUNY Series in Hindu Studies edited by Wendy Doniger. The majority of the chapters in this volume were presented as papers in 2016 during a Navaratri-themed session at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Antonio and at a workshop at the University of Texas at Austin. The present collection is also the successor of a previous volume published by SUNY Press in 2018 titled Nine Nights of the Goddess: The Navaratri Festival in South Asia, edited by Caleb Simmons, Moumita Sen, and Hillary Rodrigues.The Navaratri festival, also known as Durga Puja in some regions, is celebrated four times a year according to the Hindu calendar. However, the book recognizes only its spring and autumnal edition. Nav means “nine” and ratri refers to night. Hence, Navaratri stands for the nine-night-long worship of the goddess Durga. Navaratri ends with Vijayadashami (“victory”) on the tenth day to celebrate the victory of Durga over the buffalo demon Mahisasura and also Lord Rama's victory over Ravana. As pan-Hindu and local stories and performances are discovered to be interconnected and blended through material culture and ideas, the practice of worship itself transforms into a creative space in India, South Asia, and beyond. The volume successfully demonstrates how the history and practice of Hindu traditions are reflected in the festival of Navaratri and its rituals, performances, and worship of Durga, Rama, and other regional deities.Nine Nights of Power focuses on how devotees transform as a result of their material, physical, emotional, ritual, and spiritual participation in the worship of Navaratri, which is constantly renewed by stories and diverse traditions. Additionally, the book focuses on gendered identities and the interplay of creativity and propriety in Navaratri. The volume contains numerous images of the enactment and efficacy of Navaratri as “the intermediality produced by the close interlocking of the images and the texts brings the field alive” (4). Hence, the work of the worship is communicated through the ritual action captured through the visual imagery which gives a creative touch to the data presented from the field.The volume taps into the transformative quality of Navaratri. The introduction gives a discussion of the Navaratri celebration through scholarship focusing on its royal aspects and village contexts. As stated in chapter 1 by Hillary Rodrigues, the ritual practices in Durga Puja are performed in what is understood as a sacred time and transform the devotees. Such worship and festivals give a sense of cultural stability throughout the year. The creative potential of the worship is such that “no two Durga Pujas are ever absolutely identical” (38). In chapter 2, Neelima Shukla-Bhatt demonstrates the transformation of the Garbo dance, which is “the worship dance performed by Hindu women of Gujarat around a festival image of the Great Goddess at night” (41) during Navaratri. Navaratri celebration also is a site of play that gives space to get shaped by and resist sociopolitical and cultural changes. In discussing the politicization and secularization of Durga P in West Bengal in chapter 3, Moumita Sen analyzes the pandals (ritual tents) in Kolkata that took Mamata Banerjee (chief minister of West Bengal) as their theme. Chapters 4 and 7, by Ute Hüsken and Ina Marie Lunde Ilkama, respectively, demonstrate how the festival in South India gained significant traction by introducing its traditional kolu doll in public displays. Such cultural productions are noted as illustrating the tension between commercialization and traditional practices as kolu dolls are mass-produced by corporate entities for public displays, which as a practice is different from its traditional worship in home spaces.In chapter 5, Jeremy Saul's ethnographic research at temples of Balaji, another name for Hanuman, located in Rajasthan and Haryana takes an approach that diverges from the focus on the feminine form of Durga seen elsewhere in the volume. Here, he reveals that Hanuman worship during the Navaratri festival exemplifies “male asceticism as a moral way of being to be emulated among young men” (115). Similarly, chapter 8, by Astrid Zotter, examines the role of agency in the killing of buffalo during the Nepalese Dasai festival as a way of elucidating the role of men in festival logistics. Uwe Skoda in chapter 10 traces the dynamics of two types of Durga Puja in a former princely state in northwestern Odisha. One is performed per the older tradition in the raja's (king's) fort, where goddesses have iron swords and a permanent seat. Another focus is on worshipping temporary images in the marketplace, a practice that sometimes supersedes the older tradition.In essence, Nine Nights of Power vividly demonstrates how religious practices are often entangled with and correspond to politics, consumption, and agency. Luke Whitmore refers to this mingling of ideas and values that link deities and the environment as “eco-sociality.”1 During Navaratri, the consumption of dolls and idols and “commercially sponsored” (3) worship spaces is seen as a display of power and wealth, but it is also criticized as being overly commercialized by devotees through the involvement of corporate ventures in the mass production of kolu figures.Navaratri is a dynamic worship practice that occurs over the course of nine nights, and its broader significance and depth should not be overlooked. Navaratri remains meaningful, as it allows for a Lila (play) in arranging and rearranging space, place, worship, and celebration. A more thorough examination of Navaratri beyond its status as a mere “festival” might have added greater depth and insight to the book. Nevertheless, the volume will be an invaluable source for readers, scholars, and students interested in South Asian religion, Indology, Hindu traditions, Hindu goddesses, and cultural studies

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