RT Article
T1 The Mātṛkā Dance: Conceptualizing the Dancing Body of the Goddess
JF Sophia
VO 63
IS 3
SP 571
OP 586
A1 Funes Maderey, Ana Laura
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1906640025
AB Conceptualizing the image of a dancing Supreme Goddess in the Hindu tradition presents a philosophical challenge because it demands a coherent rational reconciliation between her nature as continuously changing into multiple forms and the realm of pure, absolute, never-changing, formless being. Different strategies have been proposed in the history of philosophy in India. This paper analyzes the image of the dancing Goddess as it appears in the Devī Māhātmya and in the Tantric iconography of the Goddess Kālī. An argument is developed to show that Śākta philosophy resolves this tension through a radical non-dualist understanding of the role that a mental image (vikalpa) plays in accessing supreme reality.
K1 Dance
K1 Devī Māhātmya
K1 Goddess
K1 Kālī
K1 Mātṛkā
K1 Vikalpa
K1 Śāktism
DO 10.1007/s11841-023-00988-7