1991, 1st edition. 235 pp. Every few decades, thousands of Hindu villagers in the Central Himalayas of North India carry their regional goddess Nanda devi in a bridal palanquin to her husband Shiva's home, walking barefoot over icebound mountain passes to a lake surrounded by human bones. This Royal Pilgrimage of Nanda devi is a ritual dramatization of the post-marital journeys of married women from their natal homes to their husbands' homes.
Mountain Goddess is an anthropological study of this pilgrimage and the cult of Nanda devi, especially as they relate to local women's lives. The author shows howNanda devi's appeal stems from the fact that her mythology parallels the life-courses of the local peasant women, and that her ritual procession imitates their annual journey to the village of their birth.
