The Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth Power, Preservation and Mirrored Mahatmyas in the Markandeya Purana - Routledge Hindu Studies Series

In analyzing the parallels between myths glorifying the Indian Great Goddess, Durga, and those glorifying the Sun, Surya, found in the Markaṇḍeya Puraṇa, this book argues for an ideological ecosystem at work in the Markaṇḍeya Puraṇa privileging worldly values, of which Indian kings, the Goddess (Devi), the Sun (Surya), Manu and Markaṇḍeya himself are paragons.

This book features a salient discovery in Sanskrit narrative text: just as the Markaṇḍeya Puraṇa houses the Devi Mahatmya glorifying the supremacy of the Indian Great Goddess, Durga, it also houses a Surya Mahatmya, glorifying the supremacy of the Sun, Surya, in much the same manner. This book argues that these mahatmyas were meaningfully and purposefully positioned in the Markaṇḍeya Puraṇa, while previous scholarship has considered this haphazard interpolation for sectarian aims. The book demonstrates that deliberate compositional strategies make up the Saura-Sakta symbiosis found in these mirrored mahatmyas. Moreover, the author explores what he calls the "dharmic double helix" of Brahmanism, most explicitly articulated by the structural opposition between pravṛtti (worldly) and nivṛtti (other-worldy) dharmas.

As the first narrative study of the Surya Mahatmya, along with the first study of the Markaṇḍeya Puraṇa (or any Puraṇa), as a narrative whole, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Religion, Hindu Studies, South Asian Studies, Goddess Studies, Narrative Theory and Comparative Mythology.