Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage

Explores ideas on women and sexuality presented in the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. The Hindu tradition has held conflicting views on womanhood from its earliest texts-holding women aloft as goddesses to be worshipped on the one hand and remaining deeply suspicious about women's sexuality on the other. In Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage, Arti Dhand examines the religious premises upon which Hindu ideas of sexuality and women are constructed. The work focuses on the great Hindu epic, the Mahāb