Making Śakti: Controlling (Natural) Impurity for Female (Cultural) Power

Abstract

This article examines the meanings embedded in the Hindu concept of sakti, often glossed as 'female energy/ power. " Hindus believe that such sakti energizes the universe. Women, as females, share in the sakti of Devi, the Great Goddess of Hinduism, and are thought to embody it. However, such embodiment does not, in and of itself, result in the ability to exercise power and authority in socially and culturally meaningful ways. For Hindu women to become powerful, it is necessary for them to remake their akti through culturally prescribed actions and transform the sakti given by nature into moral power and authority'a cultural artifact. Using three canonical stories from the temple town ofBhubaneswar, in Orissa, eastern India, the article explores the disjunction between natural female power and the subordinate social rank of women and the cultural mediations necessary for transforming such power into a moral force both awesome and irresistible.

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