The method of chanting the name of durga and the benefits of chanting it according to the rudra yamala tantra as said by lord shiva to parvati.

Durga, as this powerful warrior-goddess is known, Has nine special forms-each one unique, not just a clone. Shailaputri, Brahmacharini and Chandraghanta, Kushmanda and Skandamata, Katyayani and Kaalratri, Maha Gauri and Siddhidatri . . . They are the Nava Durga, Worshipped during Navaratri, The festival of nine nights and nine days That's celebrated across India and the world in myriad ways To praise the goddesses and their glory. This is their story!

Each year, Kolkata's Durga Puja scales new heights as the most spectacular and extravagant event in the city's calendar. From the turn of the twenty-first century, the festival has taken on a particular artistic dispensation that is unique to the contemporary city, demanding a new order of attention and analysis. Based on field-research conducted between 2002 and 2012, this book unravels the anatomy of this newly-congured 'art' event, by tracking the new production processes, the mounting trends of publicity and sponsorship as well as the practices of mass spectatorship that make for the transformed visual culture of the festival. This new visual aesthetic, it is argued, has become the most important marker of the rapidly mutating identity of today's Durga Puja in Kolkata, bringing into the fray new categories of artists and designers, new genres of public art, and new spaces for art production and reception in the city. The book's central concern lies in conceptualizing a specically contemporary and artistic history of the urban festival. In keeping with its title, the book examines the diversity of images and practices - from the consumerist spectacle and the bonanza of awards to the efflorescence of public installations and art and craft productions - that unfurls in this season 'in the name of the goddess'. While proling the Durga Pujas as Kolkata's biggest public art event, the book also addresses the ambivalence of the designations of 'art' and 'artist' in this eld of production and viewership. One of the main aims of this study has been to lay open the claims of 'art' in this festival both as a set of insistent projections as well as a mesh of incomplete formations. The new artistic nomenclature of the festival, it is shown, is not easily secured and has to struggle to assert itself within the body of the religious event and the ephemeral mass spectacle.

The basic dynamism of God has been defined in Indian philosophy as nature or Prakriti which is supposed to be Primeval Power that has been visualized from time immemorial as 'Adyashakti' by seers and thinkers.'Adyashakti' is again the integral active form of God keeping the entire cosmos in control while Her manifestation has been portrayed by the artists and sculptors of ancient India as the Supreme Goddess Mahamaya, the creative force of the Universe. That is why She is also known as Brahmani which is an epithet of Durga. The genesis of the concept of the Supreme Goddess Mahamaya is to be found in the prevailing faith of a great number of people on the supremacy of matriarchal culture. Mahamaya or Brahmani is also known as Durga, Chamunda, Chanda, Kali, Amba and Mahishasurmardini. These violent forms of Mahamaya denote her victory over the vicious and sinful elements. She is represented on these various violent forms as a slayer of demons and sinners. She is also represented as Maha Sarasvati, the great Goddess of learning and absolute Knowledge. She is as well represented as MahaLakshmi, the great Goddess of wealth, beauty and Bliss. Like the Triad of Brahma, the God of Creation, Vishnu the God of Protection and Mahesh the God of Destruction, Mahamaya also assumes the role of Creation, Protection and Destruction. Durga or MahaKali destroys the wicked while Maha Lakshmi and Maha Sarasvati uphold Virtue, spread enlightenment and grant power and prosperity while offering protection. In this volume we present select stories about Durga. The stories allegorically describe struggles between gods and demons and teach the human race to hope that eventually truth and justice prevail. The stories are designed for children and are accompanied with beautiful illustrations.

One of the most comprehensive baby name reference guides available, featuring more than 30,000 baby names, has been revised and expanded. Each chapter focuses on names from specific countries, regions, and ethnicities, including details about traditional naming customs. Each entry contains various spellings and pronunciations, as well as the name's meaning, history, etymology, and derivations.

This book examines the making of the Goddess Durga both as an art and as part of the intangible heritage of Bengal. As the ‘original site of production’ of unbaked clay idols of the Hindu Goddess Durga and other Gods and Goddesses, Kumartuli remains at the centre of such art and heritage. The art and heritage of Kumartuli have been facing challenges in a rapidly globalizing world that demands constant redefinition of ‘art’ with the invasion of market forces and migration of idol makers. As such, the book includes chapters on the evolution of idols, iconographic transformations, popular culture and how the public is constituted by the production and consumption of the works of art and heritage and finally the continuous shaping and reshaping of urban imaginaries and contestations over public space. It also investigates the caste group of Kumbhakars (Kumars or the idol makers), reflecting on the complex relation between inherited skill and artistry. Further, it explores how the social construction of art as ‘art’ introduces a tangled web of power asymmetries between ‘art’ and ‘craft’, between an ‘artist’ and an ‘artisan’, and between ‘appreciation’ and ‘consumption’, along with their implications for the articulation of market in particular and social relations in general. Since little has been written on this heritage hub beyond popular pamphlets, documents on town planning and travelogues, the book, written by authors from various fields, opens up cross-disciplinary conversations, situating itself at the interface between art history, sociology of aesthetics, politics and government, social history, cultural studies, social anthropology and archaeology. The book is aimed at a wide readership, including students, scholars, town planners, heritage preservationists, lawmakers and readers interested in heritage in general and Kumartuli in particular.

This book of essays has no agenda - either gender or religious - but discusses the many facets of the Goddess Durga's images and worship on the Indian subcontinent. The nine authors (in keeping with Navaratri) belong to both the East and West, and to four religions: Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian. The ten essays like the ten armsof the great goddess in her Bengali manifestation cannot possibly be all-encompassing but does cover the physical geography of the subscontinent by including discussions of her presence and prevalence in Nepal and Kashmir, in Baluchistan, TamilNadu and Keral, and of course, in West Bengal, especially Kolkata, where her autumn festival is celebrated annualy.