Pilgrimage and Politics in Colonial Bengal: The Myth of the Goddess Sati

Cover — Half Title — Title Page — Copyright Page — Table of Contents — List of figures — List of plates — Acknowledgements — Introduction — A myth of dismemberment — Sati and her rise as a patriotic icon — The formation of Hindu identity: from cultural to revolutionary nationalism — Layout of the book — 1 Kalighat souvenirs and the creation of Sati’s iconography — Sati’s place in the visual rhetoric of motherland — Sati’s portrayal in Kalighat pilgrimage souvenirs — The invocation and reinvention of Sati — The romanticisation of martyrdom — Subverting Christian iconography — Shiva, asceticism and Bengali masculinity — Sati, suttee and the story of Padmini — The enduring power of Sati — 2 Kamakhya’s erotic-apotropaic potency and the forging of sacred geography — Martial and maternal: Kamakhya’s sculptures — The promotion of fertility and protection: Kamakhya’s female archer — Subversive sexuality: the reception of Kamakhya during the colonial period — Colonial mapping versus sacred geography — Bengal’s love affair with Kamakhya: pilgrimage as a nationalist device — 3 Tantra’s revolutionary potential: Tarapith and Bamakhepa’s visualisation of Tara — Understanding Tara — Understanding Tantric ritual through Tara — Bamakhepa, Tantra and revolutionary potential — Terrifying and benevolent: visions of Tara — The sweetening of death — 4 Contesting the colonial gaze: Image worship debates in nineteenth centuryBengal — Murtipuja, darshan and rituals of consecration — Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj movement — ‘Inconsistent with the moral order of the universe’: the Reverend Hastie’s views on murtipuja — The backlash: Bengali responses to Hastie — The Saligram idol case: murti and artefact — The Attahas and Khirogram Pithas: the charisma of antique murtis — Conclusion