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Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire

Article in Feminist Theology · September 2007

DOI: 10.1177/0966735007082517

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 Feminist Theology
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Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire

Brenda Dobia
Feminist Theology 2007 16: 61
DOI: 10.1177/0966735007082517

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 Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications,
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore
http://FTH.sagepub.com
Vol. 16(1): 61-78
DOI: 10.1177/0966735007082517

Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire

Brenda Dobia
ab.dobia@uws.edu.au

ABSTRACT
Pre-eminent among Tantric Goddess temples in India is Kamakhya,
revered as the site where the generative organ of the Goddess is wor-
shipped. The name of the Goddess, Kamakhya, indicates that she is at
once the desired, the desiring and the granter of desires. This paper con-
siders the ways that desire was implicated in a collaborative feminist-
oriented pilgrimage made by six women scholars to the Kamakhya
temple in Assam. It examines problems associated with cross-cultural
desiring and describes how these were addressed. The place of desire
and the status of women in Tantric conceptions of the Goddess are
explored along with implications for feminist appreciations of God-
desses and Tantra.

Keywords: Desire, Goddess, Pilgrimage, Tantra, Women

Desire is a subtle subjective affect, demanding perhaps our subtlest cultural

elaborations. But we have confused desire with instinct and, in the name of this
FRQIXVLRQ UHSUHVVHG GHVLUH D VSHFLÀFDOO\ KXPDQ GLPHQVLRQ DQG VRXUFH RI RXU
greatest cultural wealth.1

The problem with desire, according to Indian philosophical tradi-

tions, is ‘attachment’. Classical yogic and Buddhist treatises warn
against the pursuit of pleasure-seeking, which they point out only
leads to escalating desire and continual dissatisfaction. A parallel for
this admonitory view of the detriments of desire has enjoyed growing
currency lately in ecological circles where the mounting consequences
RIWKH¶GHYHORSHG·ZRUOG·V¶DIÁXHQ]D·DUHDFDXVHIRUGLVPD\2 Though
much of Hindu philosophy shares this kind of cautionary attitude,
classical Hindu treatises nevertheless uphold a place for kama, desire,

1. Luce Irigaray, .H\:ULWLQJV(London: Continuum, 2004).

2. C. Hamilton and R. Denniss, $IÁXHQ]D:KHQ7RR0XFK,V1HYHU(QRXJK (Crows
Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2005).

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62 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

as the third of the four great aims of life.3 In the heterodox Tantric
tradition there is ‘an attempt to place kama, desire, in every sense of
the word, in the service of liberation’, as Madeleine Biardeau has so
aptly put it.4
Feminist philosophers, notably Luce Irigaray and Hélène Cixous,5
KDYH SDUWLFXODUL]HG DQG VH[HG WKH SUREOHP RI GHVLUH REVHUYLQJ WKH
tendency to appropriate not only material resources but also the
human female other as the fundamental ploy of patriarchy from
which women have to be liberated. A key to women’s success in
freeing themselves from the constraints of male desires consists of
UHFRJQL]LQJ DQG JLYLQJ YRLFH WR WKHLU RZQ ,ULJDUD\ KDV DGYRFDWHG
that women could more easily reclaim their own desires and re-envi-
sion their becoming through cultivating female divinity: ‘This margin
of freedom and potency (puissance) that gives us the authority yet to
JURZ WR DIÀUP DQG IXOÀO RXUVHOYHV DV LQGLYLGXDOV DQG PHPEHUV RI
a community, can be ours only if a God in the feminine gender can
GHÀQHLWDQGNHHSLWIRUXV·6
In this paper I aim to elucidate the way women’s desires informed
our orientation to female divinity and to one another within the
cross-cultural context of a collaborative feminist-oriented pilgrim-
age to the Kamakhya temple in Assam. I will examine the problems
associated with cross-cultural desiring in the service of developing a
feminist spirituality, and explore how the methodology adopted in
this instance sought to address them. Based on a consideration of the
texts and traditions of Kamakhya, the Hindu Goddess of Desire,7 I
ZLOO UHÁHFW RQ WKH SODFH RI GHVLUH LQ 7DQWULF FRQFHSWLRQV DQG RQ WKH
implications and complications that arise for feminist appreciations
of Goddesses and Tantra.

3. It follows dharma, moral or religious purpose, and artha, material success, and
precedes moksha, liberation.
4. Cited in A. Padoux, ‘Tantrism’, in M. Eliade (ed.), (QF\FORSHGLDRI5HOLJLRQV, 14:
(New York: Macmillan, 1986), pp. 272-76 (273).
5. Luce Irigaray, 7KLV6H[:KLFKLV1RW2QH(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
1985); H. Cixous and C. Clément, 7KH1HZO\%RUQ:RPDQ (Manchester: Manchester Uni-
versity Press, 1986).
6. Luce Irigaray, ,/RYHWR<RX(New York; London: Routledge, 1996), p. 72.
7. While there are indeed many Hindu goddesses, they are widely held to sym-
EROL]HGLIIHUHQWHPDQDWLRQVRULQFDUQDWLRQVRIDSULPRUGLDOIHPDOHGLYLQHSRZHU0\
XVHRIWKHFDSLWDOL]HG*RGGHVVLQWHQGVWRFRQYH\WKDWWKHLQGLYLGXDOIHPDOHGHLW\XQGHU
discussion is understood as an instantiation of this primordial power. Thus, while
Kamakhya is the local deity of the temple named for her in Assam, she is simultane-
ously viewed in Hindu Tantra as an incarnation of primordial Goddess power (Shakti),
and as an alternate form of Kali.

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 Dobia Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire 63

*RGGHVVRIWKH<RQL
Although many Western feminists with an interest in spirituality concur
with the need to move ‘beyond God the Father’,8 questions of whether
an explicitly thealogical project is needed and, if so, how to conceive of
a Goddess remain controversial. Not all women who question the patri-
archal authority of Abrahamic conceptions of divinity are persuaded
that there is wisdom in deifying either gender. However, in Hindu
and Buddhist South Asia, where goddesses unreservedly abound, the
context for thealogical considerations is clearly very different.
One of the reasons for the appeal of South Asian goddesses is their
perceived accessibility, which results from their interest in the affairs
of devotees. According to Madhu Khanna, one of my Indian collabora-
tors, ‘The Goddess is popular in India because she gives both bhoga and
moksha. That is a very special thing about Goddess worship, that she’s
interested in worldly welfare as well as enlightenment’.9
My own introduction to the Hindu Goddess, during a trip to India
came about spontaneously and unexpectedly rather than through any
deliberate endeavour to engage a feminist thealogical imaginary.10 In
subsequent attempts to make sense of my attraction I explored ele-
ments of Hindu Goddess iconography, mythology, philosophy and
ritual practice that eventually coalesced in the collaborative pilgrimage
developed for my doctoral research project.11 Amongst various sources
I found a reference by Ajit Mookerjee particularly enticing:
A famous temple at Kamakhya near Gauhati in Assam is dedicated to
yoni-worship… It contains no image of the goddess but in the depths of the
shrine there is a yoni-shaped cleft in the rock, adored as the Yoni of Shakti.
A natural spring within the cave keeps the cleft moist. During Ambuva-
FKLDIWHUWKHÀUVWEXUVWRIWKHPRQVRRQDJUHDWFHUHPRQ\WDNHVSODFHIRU
the water runs red with iron-oxide, and the ritual drink is symbolic of the
rajas or ritu of the Devi, her menstrual blood.12

8. M. Daly, %H\RQG*RGWKH)DWKHU7RZDUGD3KLORVRSK\RI :RPHQ·V/LEHUDWLRQ (Boston:

Beacon Press, 1973).
9. In conversation, Delhi 1994, cited in Dobia, 6KDNWL<DWUD$:RPHQ·V3LOJULPDJHWR
.DPDNK\D(Doctoral thesis: University of Western Sydney, forthcoming).
10. Brenda Dobia, ‘Seeking Ma, Seeking Me’, in A. Hiltebeitel and K.M. Erndl
(eds.), ,VWKH*RGGHVVD)HPLQLVW"7KH3ROLWLFVRI6RXWK$VLDQ*RGGHVVHV 6KHIÀHOG6KHIÀHOG
Academic Press, 2000).
11. ,DPPRVWJUDWHIXOIRUWKHÀQDQFLDODVVLVWDQFHSURYLGHGIRUWKLVSURMHFWE\WKH
Spalding Trust, UK.
12. A. Mookerjee, Kali the Feminine Force (New York: Destiny Books, 1988), p. 30.
Shakti connotes the role and power of the Goddess as the source of all cosmic energy.
Shakti is also a generic name for the Goddess in Hindu traditions of Goddess worship
(6KDNWLVP). Devi is an alternate term for ‘Goddess’.

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64 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

While sometimes translated simply as ‘vulva’, the Sanskrit term

\RQLhas always seemed to me to be better, if more decorously, trans-
lated by the phrase many Indian scholars use: ‘the generative organ
RI WKH *RGGHVV· $SWH SURYLGHV WKH IROORZLQJ WUDQVODWLRQV WKH ÀUVW
two of several related meanings): ‘1 Womb, uterus, vulva, the female
organ of generation; 2 Any place of birth or origin, generating cause,
spring, fountain’.13 To me, having been brought up in the absence of
DQ\ V\PEROV RI IHPDOH GLYLQLW\ WKH KRPRORJL]DWLRQ DW .DPDNK\D RI
the female body and its birth-giving power with the Goddess and the
Earth’s powers of generation suggested extraordinary potency. My
desire to experience this*RGGHVVZDVFRQVHTXHQWO\LQÁDPHG
The anticipated encounter was, however, delayed due to modern
geo-political tensions in India’s north-eastern region which limit access
to foreigners.14 One of the consequences of this was that it provided
gestation time for a research approach that I hoped would allow the
development of my understanding of Hindu Shaktism in relation to
the perspectives of other women. Apart from being attracted to the pos-
sibility of feminist collaboration, I was acutely aware of the discrepancy
between my own attraction to the Goddess and the richly embedded
experience that Indian women could bring to the research undertaking.
It seemed inconceivable that I could produce a text on female divin-
ity in India without cultivating a respectful and reciprocal relationship
with women whose cultural inheritance I found so compelling. In what
I have managed to learn about Shaktism and the Hindu Goddess I am
consequently indebted to the generosity and adventurousness of my
Indian collaborators, Minati Kar, Madhu Khanna and Rita Ray, as well
as to our co-pilgrims from the US, Kathleen Erndl and Elinor Gadon.

&URVVLQJ&XOWXUHV([RWLFL]LQJ'HVLUHV
Though acknowledging differing access to Indian cultural resources
PD\VRXQGREYLRXVWRWKHSRLQWRIEDQDOLW\WKHUHDUHVLJQLÀFDQWUDPLÀ-
cations for establishing a cross-cultural interface in research on spiritu-
ality and feminism. Epistemological and ethical questions concerning
ZKHWKHU ZH FDQ UHDOO\ NQRZ DQ RWKHU GHPDQG D VHOIUHÁH[LYH IRFXV
especially in light of postcolonial insights into orientalism. Imposing
its own knowledge categories on ‘the East’, Western scholarship has
typically measured other cultures’ legitimacy in terms of their instru-

13. S.A. Apte, 7KH3UDFWLFDO6DQVNULW(QJOLVK'LFWLRQDU\(Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,

1989), p. 789.
14. See S. Baruah, ,QGLD$JDLQVW,WVHOI$VVDPDQGWKH3ROLWLFVRI1DWLRQDOLW\ (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 1999) for background to the issues of identity and nationality
in Assam.

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 Dobia Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire 65

mental value as objects of analysis rather than as knowledge systems in

their own right.15 This encourages an attitude of selective appropriation
rather than one of mutual engagement.
Western scholarship on the other has always been to know about the other,
but never to know from the other and with the other. In that positioning of
knowing about the other is an imperialist stance. It’s not our knowledge.
It is knowledge. We can know about everybody. But it’s being blind about
where one is standing.16

The history of the ‘feminist-as-imperialist’17 in India has both an old

and a recent trajectory, ranging from enlistment in the colonial project of
rescuing women from the ‘backwardness’ of Indian culture to romantic
exaltation of Indian spiritualism and its (mis)appropriation for egocen-
WULF DQG XQLYHUVDOL]LQJ HQGV18 For the purposes of this paper I shall
IRFXVEULHÁ\RQUHFHQWLVVXHVDVVRFLDWHGZLWKWKHODWWHURIWKHVHSRVL-
tions, perhaps most noticeable and also most problematic in Western
representations of Tantra.
The ‘New Age’ has brought about a Western revival of admiring fas-
cination with Tantra, a tradition that not very long ago bore much of the
weight of British imperial condemnation for India’s declared deprav-
ity. For a host of reasons, not unrelated in feminist circles to efforts by
many women to recover their own desires, and encouraged by an array
of ‘tantric’ teachers, images of erotic gods and goddesses have become
DQLQVSLUDWLRQIRUSXUVXLQJVH[XDOIXOÀOOPHQW:KDWLVRYHUORRNHGRU
simply dismissed out of hand (as described in Velayutham and Wise
 DUHWKHHIIHFWVRIH[RWLFL]LQJDQGDSSURSULDWLQJHURWLFHOHPHQWV
RI 7DQWULF V\PEROLVP DQG SUDFWLFH DQG RI GHFRQWH[WXDOL]LQJ WKHP
from their ritualistic role in the larger system of authentic and esoteric
Tantric teachings. The result in some circles has been to come up with
‘new and improved’19 versions of goddesses that not only—following

15. V. Das, &ULWLFDO (YHQWV $Q $QWKURSRORJLFDO 3HUVSHFWLYH RQ &RQWHPSRUDU\ ,QGLD
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995).
16. Frédérique Marglin in conversation, Maine 1994, cited in Dobia 6KDNWL <DWUD,
see n. 9 above. Through extended planning discussions Frédérique Marglin and Lisa
Hallstrom contributed critical inspiration to the project.
17. L. Gandhi, 3RVWFRORQLDO7KHRU\$&ULWLFDO,QWURGXFWLRQ (Crows Nest, NSW: Allan
& Unwin, 1998), p. 83.
18. See U. Chakravarti, ‘Whatever Happened to the Vedi Dasi?’, in K. Sangari and
S. Vaid (eds.), 5HFDVWLQJ:RPHQ(VVD\VLQ&RORQLDO+LVWRU\(New Delhi: Kali for Women,
1989); G.C. Spivak, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in P. William and L. Chrisman (eds.),
&RORQLDO 'LVFRXUVH DQG 3RVWFRORQLDO 7KHRU\ $ 5HDGHU (Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheat-
sheaf, 1993); K. Jayawardena, 7KH:KLWH:RPDQ·V2WKHU%XUGHQ:HVWHUQ:RPHQDQG6RXWK
$VLD'XULQJ%ULWLVK5XOH(New York; London: Routledge, 1995); U. Narayan, Dislocating
&XOWXUHV,GHQWLWLHV7UDGLWLRQVDQG7KLUG:RUOG)HPLQLVP(Routledge: New York, 1997).
19. Tanisha Ramachandran, ‘New and Improved! The Appropriation of the Hindu

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66 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

Irigaray—confuse instinct with spiritual desire, but cause offence to

Hindu communities and engender erroneous and unwelcome stereo-
typing of South Asian women.
Tanisha Ramachandran blames the misuse of Hindu goddess
imagery on Rita Gross’s call for Western women to view Hindu god-
desses as ‘resource[s] for the contemporary rediscovery of the goddess’.20
While a fairer attribution for the most blatant misappropriations dis-
FXVVHG ZRXOG LQ P\ RSLQLRQ UHFRJQL]H WKH LPSDFWV RI WKH GLJLWL]HG
global marketplace and its subscription to unbridled ‘free trade’ in cul-
tural artifacts, Ramachandran’s critique nonetheless brings questions
of desire and appropriation to a head. A distinction can and should be
made between blatant cultural predation sanctioned by a ‘free market’
ethic and Gross’s far more respectful plea for Western feminist scholars
to approach other religions and their symbols as being ‘good to think
with’.21 Yet, while the polysemic nature of religious symbols makes an
array of interpretation possible, even well-intentioned cultural borrow-
ing for the purpose of resourcing Western feminists can recapitulate the
imperialist position of ‘bringing booty back from the colonies’.22 Com-
PRGLÀFDWLRQHDVLO\UHVXOWVIURPVXFKERUURZLQJZKHQLWLVFRQGXFWHG
DVDXQLODWHUDOWUDQVDFWLRQWKDWVHHNVWRDSSURSULDWHDQH[RWLFL]HGRWKHU
for one’s own ends without requiring any dialogue or negotiation with
those whose symbols are being claimed for such purposes.23
 ,VVXHVVXFKDVWKHVHUHÁHFWWKHTXHVWLRQRIGHVLUHDQGWKHGLVWLQF-
tion (which remains quite knotty in practice) between its material and
spiritual manifestations. Irigaray approaches this distinction in Between
(DVWDQG:HVW:
Our manner of reasoning, even our manner of loving, corresponds to an
appropriation… We do not see that this gesture transforms the life of the
ZRUOGLQWRVRPHWKLQJÀQLVKHGGHDGEHFDXVHWKHZRUOGWKXVORVHVLWVRZQ
life, a life always foreign to us, exterior to us, other than us.24

Goddess by Western Feminism’, paper delivered at 33rd Annual Conference on South

Asia, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2004. Annie Sprinkle’s marketing image of
herself as a many-armed goddess equipped with sex aids is one such especially offen-
sive example that Tanisha Ramachandran’s work drew my attention to.
20. R.M. Gross, ‘Hindu Female Deities as a Resource for the Contemporary Redis-
covery of the Goddess’, in C. Olson (ed.), 7KH%RRNRIWKH*RGGHVV3DVWDQG3UHVHQW(New
York: Crossroad, 1983), p. 218.
21. R.M. Gross, )HPLQLVPDQG5HOLJLRQ$Q,QWURGXFWLRQ(Boston: Beacon Press, 1996),
p. 104.
22. K. Ram, ‘Modernist Anthropology and the Construction of Indian Identity’,
0HDQMLQ 51.3 (1992), pp. 589-614 (609).
23. M. Mies and V. Shiva, (FRIHPLQLVP(New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1993), p. 19.
24. Luce Irigaray, %HWZHHQ (DVW DQG :HVW (New York: Columbia University Press,
2002), pp. 121-22.

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 Dobia Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire 67

6SLULWXDOL]HG GHVLUH LV E\ FRQWUDVW HQOLYHQLQJ ¶$OUHDG\ GHVLUH LWVHOI

awakens us to a life generally asleep in us. To desire really represents
an awakening’.25 For the most part Irigaray orients her deliberations on
desire towards a reformulation of male-female relationships, particu-
ODUO\ LQ WKHLU FDUQDO DVSHFW ,QWLPDWLRQV RI WKH JHQHUDOL]DELOLW\ RI KHU
insights to other forms of relationship do, however, occur—for example,
when she advocates ‘accepting that the subject is not the whole, that the
subject represents only one part of reality and of truth, that the other
is forever a QRW,QRUPHQRUPLQHand not a: QRW\HW,QRW\HWPLQH to
integrate into me or into us’.26 This perspective, which joins Irigaray’s
spiritual insights with her philosophical and political commitment to
difference, clearly points to a non-appropriative form of desire that
respects the integrity of the other. Ironically however, Irigaray’s own
cultural borrowing in coming to her conclusions has stirred questions
of orientalism27DQGKDVEHHQFULWLTXHGIRULQVXIÀFLHQWDWWHQWLRQWRRULJ-
inal sources from the Eastern traditions she invokes, as well as lack of
engagement with contemporary scholarship by Indian women.28

Collaborative Focus
Having raised the dilemmas entailed in spiritual culture-crossing, I
shall attempt to sketch how the methodology developed for our 6KDNWL
<DWUD (Goddess pilgrimage) project sought to address them. The broad
academic question for our inquiry had to do with eliciting a feminist
reading of Shaktism in general, and Kamakhya in particular, but the
question of process was also central. To help meet these aspirations I
sought collaborators who would share both a personal and scholarly
attraction to the Goddess in addition to a sense of her particular rel-
evance for women.
Initial discussions with US colleagues helped to frame the attitude
of collaboration we hoped to achieve with Indian counterparts through
DQHPSKDVLVRQUHFRJQL]LQJPXWXDOLW\DQGOHDUQLQJZLWKRQHDQRWKHU
in relationship. Going on pilgrimage together would provide the vital
experiential dimension through which our relationships could develop,
LQ HIIHFW ERWK ¶YHUWLFDOO\· LQ UHODWLRQ WR WKH *RGGHVV DQG ¶KRUL]RQ-

25. Irigaray, %HWZHHQ(DVWDQG:HVW, p. 82.

26. Irigaray, %HWZHHQ(DVWDQG:HVW, p. 127.
27. M.A. Roy, ‘Women and Spirituality in the Writings of Luce Irigaray’, in M. Joy,
K. O’Grady and J.L. Poxon (eds.), 5HOLJLRQLQ)UHQFK)HPLQLVW7KRXJKW&ULWLFDO3HUVSHFWLYHV
(London and New York: Routledge, 2003).
28. M. Joy, ‘Irigaray’s Eastern Explorations’, in M. Joy, K. O’Grady and J.L. Poxon
(eds.), 5HOLJLRQLQ)UHQFK)HPLQLVW7KRXJKW&ULWLFDO3HUVSHFWLYHV (London and New York:
Routledge, 2003).

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68 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

tally’, with one another.29 We took our cues not only from our com-
bined interest in feminist spirituality and postcolonial perspectives, but
inspired especially by the 6KDNWD tradition’s own acknowledgement of
the special link between the Goddess and women, as portrayed in this
selection from its most celebrated text: ‘All the various knowledges, O
Goddess, are portions of you, as is each and every woman in the various
worlds’.30 This underpinned the rationale I presented with my invita-
tions in turn to Tantric scholar Madhu Khanna, Sanskrit scholar Minati
Kar and sociologist Rita Ray. Happily, each one of them expressed an
interest.
For Madhu the interactive and personal dimensions of the project
ZHUH NH\ DORQJ ZLWK LWV FURVVFXOWXUDO QDWXUH ¶,W·V D SHUVRQDOL]HG
approach and also the fact that here you’re trying to bring together two
cultures, East and West, and you’re trying to build bridges’.31 Minati
explained the appeal of pilgrimage from her perspective as a Sanskrit-
ist, illuminating in her account the importance of desire to meet the
deity and the sense of community that enhances the experience:
Actually in pilgrimage, WLUWKD\DWUDÀUVWO\\RXKDYHWKHJUHDWLQFOLQDWLRQ
and you are together with some other people who have the same inclina-
tion and you go to that place… You also become a part of the group with
whom you are going and also you have their feeling. You become another
family with those people, staying together or exchanging views.32

Rita highlighted the importance of the relationship with the Goddess to

the endeavour, capturing with her description the position of Devi as
simultaneously transcendent and immanent, the Mother whom we can
reach if only our desire is sincere and complete:
Unless Devi wants us we will never be able to reach there also. If we are
with her we’ll reach. No matter how much you are prepared, establish
rapport, nothing can be done… If we really need her and she knows we
need her, she will take us… It’s like if you have not seen your mother for
a long time and you are staying at a distance you feel like seeing her. You
don’t know what is happening. You just want to see your mother once
and hug her.33

In short, the desires with which (by negotiation) we embarked on

the project and which underpinned our approach included the desire

29. Cf. Luce Irigaray, 7R %H 7ZR (London and New York: Athlone-Routledge,
2001).
30. 'HYL0DKDWP\D 11.5, in T. B. Coburn, (QFRXQWHULQJWKH*RGGHVV$7UDQVODWLRQRI
WKH'HYL0DKDWP\DDQGD6WXG\RILWV,QWHUSUHWDWLRQ (Albany, NY: State University of New
York Press, 1991), p. 74.
31. In conversation, Delhi 1995, cited in Dobia, 6KDNWL<DWUD.
32. In conversation, Kolkata 1995, cited in Dobia, 6KDNWL<DWUD.
33. In conversation, Bhubaneswar 1995, cited in Dobia, 6KDNWL<DWUD.

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 Dobia Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire 69

to meet the Goddess, to have our seeking be not only intellectual in its
feminist orientation but experiential and personal, and to accentuate
all these elements through our collaboration as women. Joining with
XVÀQDOO\LQ$VVDP.DWKOHHQ(UQGOFRQWULEXWHGKHUSHUVSHFWLYHRQWKH
VLJQLÀFDQFHRIRXUPHWKRGRORJ\
.DWKOHHQ I’m really interested in more creative and experimental
approaches to ethnography in which the ethnographer is not only partici-
pating but is being transformed by the experience, and especially I found
really attractive the idea of doing this in a group in which we’re all going
WKURXJKWKLVH[SHULHQFHWRJHWKHUUHÁHFWLQJRQLWWRJHWKHUDQGLQZKLFKQR
one of us is the ethnographer with the others being the objects. We’re all
subject and object, both.34

The desire—and willingness—to be transformed by the experience was,

I think, fundamental not only to the spiritual dimension of the project
EXWWRWKHFROODERUDWLYHSURFHVVKDVSRLQWHGRXWWKDWLQRUGHUWRIXOÀO
our humanity in its religious dimension, ‘It would be desirable that
personal becoming accompany the becoming of the other’. Our efforts
in this regard were doubtless imperfect, but nevertheless fruitful.35

Goddess of Desire
In pilgrimage not only is the deity revered, but the sacredness attributed
to the physical site also exerts an attraction. Kamakhya’s power of place
is associated with its reputation as a pithasthana, ‘an energised sacred
centre where the shakti of the Goddess is manifest, not just latent’.36 Its
pre-eminence as the most revered site for worshippers of the Goddess
is underscored in the following quote from the 'HYL%KDJDYDWD3XUDQD:
in Kamakhya-yonimandala, …the goddess…dwells forever, the site being
the jewel of all the holy places. No sacred place can excel this one in which
the goddess is seen menstruating every month… It will not be an exagger-
DWLRQLILWEHVDLGWKDWWKRXJKWKHZLVHSHUVRQVKDYHLGHQWLÀHGWKHHQWLUH
world with the body of the goddess, the said Kamakhya-yonimandala has
QRVHFRQGLQUHÁHFWLQJKHUUHDOJORU\37

Designation as the \RQL PDQGDOD (\RQL circle) or \RQL SLWKD (\RQL ‘seat’)
ÁRZVIURPVHYHUDOP\WKLFRULJLQVWKHEHVWNQRZQEHLQJWKDWRI'DN-
VKD·V VDFULÀFH 7KH *RGGHVV KDG FRQVHQWHG WR EH ERUQ DV 'DNVKD·V

34. In conversation, Gauhati 1996, cited in Dobia, 6KDNWL<DWUD.

35. Luce Irigaray, .H\:ULWLQJV(London: Continuum, 2004), p. 88.
36. M. Khanna, ‘The Goddess-Woman Equation in Shakta Tantras’, in D. Ahmed
(ed.), *HQGHULQJ WKH 6SLULW :RPHQ 5HOLJLRQ DQG WKH 3RVW&RORQLDO 5HVSRQVH (London and
New York: Zed Books, 2002), cited in Dobia, 6KDNWL<DWUD.
37. 'HYL%KDJDYDWD3XUDQD, 8.38.15-18 trans. follows N.N. Bhattacharyya, 7KH,QGLDQ
0RWKHU*RGGHVV(New Delhi: Manohar, 3rd edn, 1999).

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70 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

daughter, Sati, in order to marry the God Shiva and thus ensure his
worldly propitiousness. However, she decides the time has come to
FDVWRIIKHUERG\ZKHQ'DNVKDIDLOVWRLQYLWH6KLYDWRKLVJUHDWVDFULÀFH
and subsequently dishonours her. On discovering what has happened
Shiva clasps Sati’s charred body to him and begins dancing uncontrol-
lably. His mad and earth-shaking dance can be stopped only by having
the corpse cut from his arms piece by piece, whereupon the dismem-
bered parts are strewn all over India, each giving rise to a particular holy
*RGGHVVVLWHDQGVDFUDOL]LQJWKHZKROHUHJLRQ+HU\RQL fell to earth on
a hill in the area known as Kamarupa (located in modern Assam and
beyond) and she re-emerged there as the Goddess Kamakhya.
Through her association with kamaZKLFKVLJQLÀHVGHVLUHLQERWK
a general and an erotic sense, Kamakhya is the Goddess of love. The
erotic connotation is well developed in the .DOLND3XUDQD, a text com-
posed in Assam between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.
As the Goddess has come to the great mountain Nilakuta to have the
sexual enjoyment with me, she is called the (goddess) Kamakhya who
resides there in secret. Since she gives love, is a loving female, is embodi-
ment of love, the beloved, …she is called Kamakhya.38

There is no suggestion in this of her subordination—whatever might

KDYH EHHQ WKH WH[W·V RULJLQDO SUREDEO\ PDOH  DXWKRULDO JD]H 6KH
not only embodies love as Kamakhya, but is its ‘Lord’—in the femi-
nine39—Kameshvari, alternately adorning herself with a garland for
love-making or wielding a sword when she is no longer in an amorous
mood. Further, ‘She stands on a red lotus placed on Shiva, who is in
the form of a corpse, and when free from the sex desire she stands on
a white ghost’.40
Symbolism depicting Kali’s ascendancy over a corpse-like Shiva
has often been (mis)interpreted as an indication of her dominance and
aggression. But at Kamakhya (as in most Goddess temples in India)
Shiva’s presence as her counterpart, Kameshvara, complements and
enhances her role as the Supreme Goddess. In the Tantric worldview it
is the joint kama of God and Goddess that gives rise to the world and is
therefore celebrated in art and temple architecture.41

38. .DOLND3XUDQD, in .DOLND3XUDQD,,,,(trans. B.S. Shastri Delhi; Nag Publish-

ers, 1991), p. 905.
39. Tellingly, there is no equivalent feminine term in English for the Sanskrit
‘,VKYDUL’.
40. .DOLND3XUDQD58.58, trans. Shastri, p. 842.
41. The present Kamakhya temple was rebuilt in the sixteenth century after its
destruction, possibly by an earthquake (Shastri, 1979). While it does currently house
several erotic sculptures it does not match the ornate eroticism of other, earlier temples
such as that of Konarak in Orissa.

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 Dobia Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire 71

Shiva is manifest as the great linga [phallus], Shakti’s essential form is the
\RQL. By their interaction, the entire world comes into being; this is called
the activity of kama.42

It is this motif, along with Kamakhya’s original and ongoing history of

matrilineal Adivasi (Indigenous) worship,43 that provides a synthesis of
erotic and maternal aspects in the Goddess of the \RQLSLWKD. The cosmic
VLJQLÀFDQFH RI WKH \RQL ZDV HPSKDVL]HG E\ D VHQLRU WHPSOH pandit
ZKRPZHLQWHUYLHZHG+HUHSHDWHGO\DIÀUPHGWKH\RQL’s fundamental
role in srishti, creation, and elaborated Kamakhya’s central importance
as the \RQLRIWKH(DUWKLWVHOI6LJQLÀFDQWO\WKHDQQXDOAmbuvaci festi-
val which celebrates the menses of the Goddess involves a ritual re-
membering and replenishment of her powers, with Tantric adherents
from Goddess sites all over the sub-continent converging there. Julia
Jean44 reports that the regeneration of both the Earth and the devotees
at this time is understood to derive from the shakti (power/energy) in
the menstrual blood of the Goddess.
With regard to the status given here to Tantric \RQL worship involv-
ing explicit sexual rites, one initiate explained matter-of-factly: ‘Here sex
is understood as pleasurable and a valid means for samadhi.’ However
to qualify for initiation one must demonstrate suitability for this partic-
ular practice. Our panditZDVH[SOLFLWDERXWWKHTXDOLÀFDWLRQVDQGDOVR
more cautionary about its merits. The \RQLVDGKDQD45, he explained, is the
PRVWGLIÀFXOWDQGRQO\DIHZKDYHDXWKRULW\WRSUDFWLVHLW7RTXDOLI\
the practitioner must have conquered anger, drunkenness, greed and
even desire itself, kama.
This highlights the location of \RQLVDGKDQD, with its sexual rites,
as only one non-compulsory element amongst the Tantric system’s
DUUD\ RI VSLULWXDOO\RULHQWHG ULWXDOV ZKRVH DLPV ZKLOH DIÀUPLQJ
worldly embodiment, remain focused on achieving spiritual libera-
WLRQ7KHLGHDWKDWRQHPXVWKDYHÀUVWRYHUFRPHkama recalls the for-
mulation of the Bhagavad Gita, which announces that ‘the unsteady
man who is attached to fruits of actions, being impelled by desire, is

42. 6KLOSD 3UDNDVKD , M.D. Rabe, ‘Secret Yantras and Erotic Display for Hindu
Temples’, in D.G. White (ed.), 7DQWUD LQ 3UDFWLFH (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 2000), p. 442.
43. N.N. Bhattacharyya, 5HOLJLRXV &XOWXUH RI 1RUWK(DVWHUQ ,QGLD (New Delhi:
Manohar, 1995).
44. F. Apffel-Marglin, and J.A. Jean, ‘Weaving the Body and the Cosmos: <DQWULF
Homologies at a Goddess Temple in Northeastern India’, in M. Khanna (ed.), 6KDNWLND
RQWKH$VFHQW5HIUDPLQJ*HQGHULQWKH&RQWH[WRI&XOWXUHRI,QGLD(Delhi: Oxford University
Press, forthcoming).
45. 6DGKDQD refers to ongoing spiritual practice.

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72 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

bound’.46 It also introduces the profoundly paradoxical suggestion

that, with the right discipline, one could achieve a state that may
EH FKDUDFWHUL]HG DV GHVLUHOHVV GHVLUH &HQWUDO WR WKH PDOH GHYRWHH·V
pursuit of such a state is that he views his female counterpart as Ma,
the Mother Goddess to whom he offers his worship. The ultimate
aim here, as in other forms of Tantric Goddess worship, is that She
ZLOOHQWHULQWRKLVEHLQJDQGHQDEOHDWRWDOLGHQWLÀFDWLRQZLWKKHU47
To achieve this, desire becomes the offering.48

7KH*RGGHVVDQG:RPHQ
Controversial to a feminist reading of such rituals are questions of
ZKHWKHU WKH GLYLQL]DWLRQ RI WKH ZRPDQ LQ WKLV ZD\ LV WR KHU EHQHÀW
or detriment. André Padoux49 concluded that the ritual’s emphasis
on harnessing female power for the male practitioner’s advancement
LQHYLWDEO\PHDQVWKDWWKHZRPDQLVLQVWUXPHQWDOL]HG7KHSHUIXQFWRU\
treatment of the woman’s role in many Tantric texts would seem to
support this position.50+RZHYHURWKHUUHIHUHQFHVDIÀUPWKHHVWHHPLQ
which the consummate female practitioner is held and her crucial role
in initiating males into the rites.51 To the extent that the woman gains
VSLULWXDOEHQHÀWVIURPVXFKSUDFWLFHVLWVHHPVOLNHO\WKDWWKLVUHTXLUHV
not only the genuine esteem of the males involved but also her own
DFWLYH VXEVFULSWLRQ WR D ¶WKHRORJ\ RI LGHQWLÀFDWLRQ·52 Julia Jean53 has
indicated what would seem to be a particular advantage of the \RQL

46. Bhagavad Gita 5.12, trans in Svami Adidevananda, 6UL 5DPDQXMD *LWD %KDV\D
(Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, n.d.), p. 197.
47. N.N. Bhattacharyya, +LVWRU\RIWKH7DQWULF7UDGLWLRQ$+LVWRULFDO5LWXDOLVWLFDQG
3KLORVRSKLFDO6WXG\(New Delhi: Manohar, 1982).
48. A. Bharati, 7DQWULF7UDGLWLRQV(Delhi: Hindustan Publishing Corporation, 1993).
49. A. Padoux, ‘La Puissance (shakti) dans les textes tantriques indiens: Une exalta-
tion masculine du féminin’, in H. Tambs-Lyche (ed.), 7KH)HPLQLQH6DFUHGLQ6RXWK$VLD
(New Delhi: Manohar, 1999), p. 43.
50. Cf. Bharati, 7DQWULF7UDGLWLRQV.
51. See L. Silburn, .XQGDOLQL7KH(QHUJ\RIWKH'HSWKV(Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press, 1988); M. Shaw, 3DVVLRQDWH(QOLJKWHQPHQW:RPHQLQ7DQWULF%XGGKLVP
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994); M. Khanna, ‘The Goddess-Woman
Equation in Shakta Tantras’, in D. Ahmed (ed.), *HQGHULQJWKH6SLULW:RPHQ5HOLJLRQDQG
WKH3RVW&RORQLDO5HVSRQVH(London and New York: Zed Books, 2002).
52. Sherma, ‘Sa Ham—I am She: Woman as Goddess’, in A. Hiltebeitel and K.M.
Erndl (eds.), ,VWKH*RGGHVVD)HPLQLVW", pp. 203-38.
53. F. Apffel-Marglin and J.A. Jean, ‘Weaving the Body and the Cosmos: <DQWULF
Homologies at a Goddess Temple in Northeastern India’, in M. Khanna (ed.), 6KDNWLND
RQWKH$VFHQW5HIUDPLQJ*HQGHULQWKH&RQWH[WRI&XOWXUHRI,QGLD(Delhi: Oxford University
Press, forthcoming).

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 Dobia Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire 73

Goddess in this regard, namely that the yogic practices undertaken by

ZRPHQLQWKHLULGHQWLÀFDWLRQZLWKWKH*RGGHVV.DPDNK\DDUHFHQWUHG
on their own inner anatomy as a source of shakti.
With such Tantric practices clearly occurring outside the public
domain and available only to established and proven initiates of this
particular lineage tradition, our direct purview during our pilgrimage
was limited to a far more exoteric level of engagement. At Kamakhya
all pilgrims are encouraged to undertake a ‘parikrama’, a propitiatory
circuit of the site which involves visiting not only the main temple but the
seven additional shrines dedicated the 0DKDYLG\DV, the Great Wisdom
Goddesses associated with Kali—and here with Kamakhya. Most
impressive in this to us all was a heightened experience of the profound
symbolism of this place, something we found palpable in the descent
into the cave sanctum, the garbha griha or ‘womb house’ of the main
temple and in our subsequent descents into each successive cave shrine
of the 0DKDYLG\DV, which encircle the hillside and the central Kamakhya
temple. Elinor described it as going ‘back to the primal source…feeling
that I was touched by something that was very very ancient…this is
the most sacred symbol and it’s both my body and it’s the cosmos’. In
Rita’s words, ‘I felt actually like the mother’s womb’; Madhu spoke of
emerging from ‘the darkness of the womb completely liberated and
rejuvenated’.54 As a result of these encounters with the primal body of
the Goddess we found that the homology with our own femaleness was
no longer merely imagined but visceral.
 +RZ VLJQLÀFDQW ZH ZRQGHUHG ZHUH VXFK DVVRFLDWLRQV IRU ORFDO
women? The results of our inquiries were notably ambivalent. Attempt-
ing to engage the women of the pandit’s household in conversation
about what shakti meant for them, we asked whether there was any
VSHFLDO VLJQLÀFDQFH IRU ZRPHQ GHULYLQJ IURP .DPDNK\D·V VWDWXV DV
the \RQL Goddess. Unfortunately, and for complex reasons discussed
elsewhere,55 our question was met with reticence and deferral to their
husbands. When I asked Nirmala Prabha, a well-known cultural histo-
rian and poet of Assam, what the Goddess meant to her she explained
that ‘0DKDSUDNUWL, Great Nature, symbolises the Mother Goddess.
Whenever you want anything to take root it’s always there’. Though
this was plainly consistent with our temple experience, Nirmala Prabha
GLGQRWÀQGLWLPSRUWDQWIRUKHURZQVHQVHRIVSLULWXDOHPSRZHUPHQW

54. In conversation, Gauhati 1996, cited in Dobia 6KDNWL<DWUD.

55. Dobia, ‘Power and Paradox—On relating shakta symbolism to ecofeminist
ethics’ presented at conference 6KDNWLNDRQWKH$VFHQW5HIUDPLQJ*HQGHULQWKH&RQWH[WRI
&XOWXUHRI,QGLD(Bhubaneswar: Utkal University and Indira Gandhi National Centre for
the Arts, 2003); Dobia, 6KDNWL<DWUD

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74 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

to worship a Goddess, disclosing that her strongest calling had been

towards Jagannatha, an incarnation of the God Vishnu found in Orissa.
Few of the women with whom we spoke at a Gauhati University forum
considered the temple itself or its veneration of the \RQL an inspirational
resource. A number were uncomfortable with the continuing practice
DW WKH WHPSOH RI DQLPDO VDFULÀFH 7KH\ DOVR H[SUHVVHG DQJHU RYHU WKH
duplicity of men who espoused 6KDNWLVP but beat their wives.
Many Shakta texts are explicit about respecting women as represen-
tatives of the Goddess.56 Those who follow the shakta path should, as the
pandit explained, regard all women as incarnations of Ma. Our obser-
vations within the temple community suggested that, despite women’s
deference to their husbands, patriarchal constraints on their behav-
iour with male family members were less evident here than with most
other Brahman women in similar circumstances. This is underscored at
Kamakhya by the practice of endogamy which allows young women to
be married to eligible men from their own community rather than being
sent to distant villages as is usual elsewhere. Still more evident is the
status afforded to girls here. They are sought after by residents and visi-
tors alike for their blessings, which may be extended via a pat on the head
in response to propitiatory gestures of touching their feet and offering
gifts, or via the more elaborate but ubiquitous practice of NDQ\DSXMD, a
ritual in which girls are worshipped as the Goddess. Whatever religious
VLJQLÀFDQFH LV XQGHUVWRRG E\ WKHVH \RXQJ JLUOV WKH\ YHU\ REYLRXVO\
revel in the attention and sense of importance these customs bestow. It
would undoubtedly be very interesting to follow up on the long term
impacts on women who have been raised in this environment.
Against the support of6KDNWDWH[WVDQGWUDGLWLRQVIRUWKHVHDIÀUPD-
WLYHWUHQGVZLWQHVVHGDWWKHWHPSOHWKHLQÁXHQFHRIEURDGHUSDWULDUFKDO
QRUPV RQ LWV VRFLDO RUJDQL]DWLRQ57 and on the behaviour of its priests
appears nonetheless to be considerable. The reason given by some of the
young women we met at Gauhati University for avoiding going to the
temple was that they had been subjected to sexual harassment by some
temple priests. Thus, in spite of the Goddess’s proximity, desire and its
not-so-subtle manifestations evidently remain problematic here.

%HQHÀWV³DQG&RPSOLFDWLRQV
For such reasons many Indian feminists view the Hindu Goddess as
LQGHOLEO\SDWULDUFKDOKHULGHDOL]DWLRQRFFXUULQJRQO\DWWKHH[SHQVHRI

56. Khanna, ‘The Goddess-Woman Equation’.

57. N.R. Mishra, .DPDNK\D $ 6RFLR&XOWXUDO 6WXG\ (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld,
2004).

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 Dobia Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire 75

real women.58 Whereas Rajeswari Sunder Rajan and others advocate

secularism as an antidote to this problem, the alternative of approach-
ing the Hindu Goddess as a devotee from a spiritually-oriented femi-
nist vantage point can help to empower the challenge to patriarchal
authority. Lina Gupta59 celebrates Kali’s ability to create her own
reality; Vrinda Dalmiya writes of the ‘liberative fearlessness’60 that
accompanies devotion to Kali with her illimitable paradoxes; Neela
%KDWWDFKDU\D 6D[HQD HPSKDVL]HV WKH SRWHQWLDO RI .DOL.DPDNK\D WR
‘awaken women to their inherent divinity’.61
 7KHSRVVLELOLWLHVIRUVXFKLGHQWLÀFDWLRQDUHGLYHUVLÀHGDW.DPDNK\D
where the Goddess’s powers of desire are also manifested in her capac-
ity to change form at will, earning her the title Kamarupini. Her resultant
multiform appearance announces her ultimacy, as well as her appeal across
different lineages and traditions of worship. Belief in the ultimacy of Shakti
propels Tantric Goddess worship, especially its abundant and detailed
deployment of \DQWUD and mantra. While this engages in elaborate and pro-
found ways with her combined transcendence and immanence, Tantric
methods are primarily aimed at cultivating what, to use Irigaray’s meta-
phor, is essentially a vertical relationship with the deity, oriented toward
transcendence of the devotee’s limitations. Under this scenario spiritual
accomplishment is largely a matter of individual progress (though this may
be assisted by a skilful guru or even better by a gurvi—a female teacher62).
By contrast, as noted earlier, our pilgrimage sought to engage femi-
nist possibilities in relation to the Goddess through enlisting a more
KRUL]RQWDODSSURDFK7KRXJKHDFKRIRXU,QGLDQFRSLOJULPVKDGYLVLWHG
Kamakhya previously, they noted that the experience of our collabo-
ration resulted in a ‘spirit [that] was very different… The discussions
were lively… It was a grand experience’63 with both transformative and
JHQHUDWLYH HIIHFWV DQG SURYLGLQJ ¶D JUHDW VRXUFH RI FRQÀGHQFH DV DQ
academic and as an individual’.64

58. R. Sunder Rajan, ‘Real and Imagined Goddesses: A Debate’, in A. Hiltebeitel

and K.M. Erndl (eds.), ,V WKH *RGGHVV D )HPLQLVW" 7KH 3ROLWLFV RI 6RXWK $VLDQ *RGGHVVHV
6KHIÀHOG8.6KHIÀHOG$FDGHPLF3UHVV SS
59. L. Gupta, ‘Kali the Savior’, in P.M. Cooey, W. Eakin and J.B. McDaniel (eds.)
$IWHU 3DWULDUFK\ )HPLQLVW 7UDQVIRUPDWLRQ RI WKH :RUOG 5HOLJLRQV (Maryknoll NY: Orbis
Books, 1991), pp. 15-38.
60. V. Dalmiya, ‘Loving Paradoxes: A Feminist Reclamation of the Goddess Kali’,
+\SDWLD 15.1 (2000), pp. 125-50 (145).
61. N.B. Saxena, ,QWKH%HJLQQLQJ,6'HVLUH7UDFLQJ.DOL·V)RRWSULQWVLQ,QGLDQ/LWHUD
ture (New Delhi: Indialog, 2004), p. 45.
62. In Goddess-oriented tantra female teachers, gurvis, are held to be best.
63. Kar, in conversation Kolkata 1998, cited in Dobia 6KDNWL<DWUD
64. Ray, by mail 1998, cited in Dobia, 6KDNWL<DWUD$:RPHQ·V3LOJULPDJHWR .DPDNK\D
(Doctoral thesis, University of Western Sydney, forthcoming).

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76 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

What we established in this project which I found to be its most outstand-

ing feature was that we created an atmosphere of satsanga, which normally
is created when you belong to the same sect and you’ve gone through ini-
tiation and then you believe in the same philosophy, but this was like a
cross-cultural satsanga of women going on a journey.65

,Q WHUPV RI WKH IHPLQLVW DQG DFDGHPLF KRUL]RQV RSHQHG WKURXJK WKLV
project, Elinor made the further observation that we had ‘sown the
seeds of a new kind of relational inquiry’, evoking ‘possibilities of a
collective shakti’. Our experiences highlight the possibility of reinvigo-
rating the link between Goddesses and women and of enlisting both
YHUWLFDO DQG KRUL]RQWDO GLPHQVLRQV RI WKLV UHODWLRQVKLS WR RYHUFRPH
constraints imposed by patriarchal intimations and projections.
It must also be acknowledged, in contradiction to this ideal, that
the notion of a collective shakti has, in an era of fundamentalist politics,
taken on a nightmarish tinge for some Indian feminists, due to the emer-
gence of powerful female Hindu nationalist leaders who invoke the
armed Goddess as a means of inciting women as well as men to attack
Muslims. This recent trend in the appropriation of 6KDNWDsymbolism for
QDWLRQDOLVWHQGVZRXOGDSSHDUWRKDYHLQWHQVLÀHGIHPLQLVWDQGVHFXODU-
ist mistrust of Hindu Goddesses as patriarchally and ethnocentrically
constructed.66 But a detailed investigation of the origins and develop-
ment of Tantric Goddesses and their symbolism—Kamakhya being
a case in point—reveals a richer and much more nuanced story than
either of these oppositions allow. Given the enduring popularity of the
Hindu Goddess, and her power, she seems to me, for political as well
DVVSLULWXDOUHDVRQVWRRLPSRUWDQWWREHOHIWWRWKHQDUURZHGGHÀQLWLRQV
being fashioned for her in the name of violent Hindu nationalism.67 It
therefore seems crucial to inquire whether there are ways in which the
spiritually liberative power of paradox in Tantric Goddess symbolism
can be re-valued as a means of interrupting her (mis)appropriation for
LQÁDPLQJSROLWLFDODJJUHVVLRQ

&RQFOXVLRQV³)HPLQLVW'HVLUHDQGWKH*RGGHVV
Desire may be a subjective effect as Irigaray contends, but it carries
far-reaching political as well as spiritual implications. Critique of

65. Khanna, in conversation Delhi 1998, cited in Dobia 6KDNWL<DWUD.6DWVDQJDrefers to

a community of spiritual truth-seekers whose company uplifts and inspires one another.
66. E.g. T. Sarkar and U. Bhutalia (eds.), :RPHQDQGWKH+LQGX5LJKW$&ROOHFWLRQRI
(VVD\V(New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1995).
67. Ashis Nandy, &UHDWLQJD1DWLRQDOLW\(New Delhi: United Nations Research Insti-
tute for Social Development, 1995), and others have demonstrated the determinative
intervention of Western modernity in shaping this new Hindu nationalism.

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 Dobia Approaching the Hindu Goddess of Desire 77

the patriarchal and nationalist politics that have sought to enlist the
Hindu Goddess for their own ends is necessary to a considered femi-
nist appraisal of Indian Shaktism. While the end point in this process
for some may be disillusionment with the system, with the Goddess
or with religion altogether, our experience of collaborating as feminist
pilgrims and scholars found that critiquing patriarchal practices in
relation to the Goddess and women in turn sharpened our apprecia-
tion of what we were seeking individually and collectively, and of
what might be available to support our desires in spite of the some-
times obfuscating trappings of patriarchy. Meeting the Goddess on
her own ground and engaging in ‘a sharing of speech’68 was, as noted
above, crucial to ensuring mutuality in the cross-cultural interface. In
short, for both spiritual and political reasons it seems wise as well as
respectful for Western feminists interested in Hindu Goddesses and
Tantra to seek an understanding of symbol and context in their own
complex terms rather than selectively accepting and appropriating
only what suits our preconceptions.
To my delight, I discovered that Kamakhya explicitly invites her
devotees to name their desires. In this capacity she is known as Kamada,
WKHRQHZKRIXOÀOVGHVLUHVDQGFDQEHIRXQG¶OHDQLQJRQDSLOODURIJHPV
… asking “What do you want?” ’.69 This must surely contribute to her
appeal for those who are more interested in the Goddess’s worldly inter-
ventions than with ultimate liberation. But what makes desire (in the
ordinary uninitiated sense) a spiritual pursuit and leads devotees to seek
the Goddess (rather than, say, a shopping mall where the rituals are less
demanding)? Perhaps desire is, as Susan Dormer and Bronwyn Davies
described, ‘a way of naming the possibilities of who we might be’.70
The role of the Goddess in helping women name and achieve such
possibilities depends to a great extent on what possibilities we would
KDYHKHU¶GHÀQH«DQGNHHSIRUXV·:KHQ.DPDNK\DDVNV¶:KDWGR\RX
want?’ it highlights the extent to which, in Hindu Tantra, ‘the author-
LW\«WRJURZWRDIÀUPDQGIXOÀORXUVHOYHVDVLQGLYLGXDOVDQGPHPEHUV
of a community’ 71 is understood to be determined by the reciprocal
JD]HEHWZHHQGHLW\DQGGHYRWHH7KLVUHFLSURFDOGHWHUPLQDWLRQH[WHQGV
WRWKHGHÀQLWLRQRIher authority and hence, via the desires one chooses
to lay before her, impacts on the particular kind of authority a devotee
might accrue through worship.

68. Irigaray, .H\:ULWLQJV, pp. 77-79.

69. .DOLND3XUDQD53.33 (trans. Shastri), p. 759.
70. S. Dormer and B. Davies, ‘Desiring Women and the (Im)possibility of Being’,
$XVWUDOLDQ3V\FKRORJLVW36.1 (2001), pp. 4-9.
71. Irigaray, ,/RYHWR<RX, p. 72.

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 78 )HPLQLVW7KHRORJ\

 8QGHUDIHPLQLVWJD]HDVLQRXUFDVHWKHOLEHUDWRU\SRWHQWLDORIWKH
Tantric Goddess came to the fore. For each of us in our own particular
ZD\VWKLVVHQVHRISRVVLELOLW\ZDVHQODUJHGDQGDIÀUPHGYLDWKHPXO-
tiple reciprocities of the relationships we created with each other and
with the Goddess. What the Goddess seems to offer to a feminist vision
of liberation is thus the chance to name our desires and the courage to
pursue them.
In celebrating desire the Tantric Goddess also poses a critical chal-
lenge—to differentiate desire from appropriation. This challenge is
implicated at every step in the inter-cultural exchange of religious tra-
ditions and symbols.

Downloaded from fth.sagepub.com at University of Western Sydney on March 14, 2012

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