The Indian Theogony

SUKUMARI BHATTACHARJI was a professor of English Literature at Brabourne College, and Comparative Literature as a Jadavpur University student. Her monographs have covered many aspects of Hindu mythology, ancient India, and other topics. She also wrote a number articles in Bengali about current political issues. Recently, she was awarded the Bankim Puroskar Literature Award. Sukumari Bhattacharji served as Vice President of Asiatic Society. She resides in Calcutta.
This book is the product of ten years of research on the topic of Indian mythology’s historical development and connection to parallel mythologies in other countries. The first part focuses on the Vedic-Brahmanical, epic-puranic and Siva-Brahmanical components of Siva and Varuna, Yama and Nirti, Kala, the mother deity, Karttikeya Ganapati, Kama, and Pusan. Part II focuses on the rise of Visnu. Analyzing the component gods, the Vedic solar gods Surya and Vivasvat as well as Indra, Bhaga, Amsa and Daksa, Martanda and Indra together with epic-Puranic incarnations (with their Vedic predecessors), of Visnu are done. The picture with Brahman (Part III), is very different. The Vedic-Brahmanical gods Brahmanaspati (Brhaspati), Brahmanaspati and Prajapati-are not very tangibal figures, much less those of a sectarian God. They merge into the Brahman or Prajapati or Pitamaha in the epic-Puranic literature but do not answer the question of whether they are sectarian gods. Therefore, no cult is formed around the image. Part IV examines the main characteristics of the Puranic pantheon. On the one hand, you will find many regional, functional divinities and tutelary goddesses, as well as village- or disease-gods and gods for various occasions in your life. While on the other, the Triad is often described to be the supreme being, due to its predominance in philosophy.