When the World Becomes Female: Guises of a South Indian Goddess

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WHEN THE WORLD BECOMES FEMALE This page intentionally left blank WHEN THE WORLD BECOMES FEMALE GU ISES O F A S O UTH I N D I A N G O D D ESS JOYCE BURKHALTER FLUECKIGER INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS This book is a publication of Indiana University Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931© 2013 by Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-inPublication Data Flueckiger, Joyce Burkhalter. When the world becomes female : guises of a South Indian goddess / Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-00952-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00956-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-00960-9 (e-book) 1. Gangamma (Hindu deity)—Cult—India— Tirupati. 2. Worship (Hinduism) 3. Tirupati (India)—Religion. I. Title. BL1225.G362F58 2013 294.5'2114—dc23 2012051547 1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13 For Velcheru Narayana Rao who introduced me to the imaginative worlds of Telugu and has been a constant conversation partner in this work This page intentionally left blank ...