Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women

by Julia Lesile

The considerable interest currently being expressed in women and religion has thrown down an important challenge; the need to see women not merely as the passive victims of an oppressive ideology but also perhaps primarily as the active agents of their own positive constructs. This book therefore aims to fill a notable gap in the literature. Twelve contributors study the role of women in Hindu religion by examining textual studies of the part played by women in a variety of religion rituals, both past and present, by exploring the socio-religious context of their various communites; and by using specialist material to draw on cross-cultural conclusions.

About The Author:

Julia Leslie has spent almost seven years in South Asia. Her academic work so far focuses on the implications of gender in Hindu religious ideology (The Perfect Wife, OUP 1989) and Sanskrit religious law (Rules and Remedies in Classical Indian Law, editor, Brill, in press). She is a Senior member of the Center for Cross-Cultural Research on Women at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford University, and has taught at the Universities of London, Oxford, Bristol and Harvard. In October 1990, she was appointed Lecturer in Hindu Stuides at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.