van Brussel, N. (2013),    Bhadrakali: de godin met de vele gezichten. Literaire tradities in de Kodungallur Bhagavati tempel, Kerala. In: De                                          Clercq, E. & S. Verbeke (eds.), India: een wereld van verhalen, Gent: Academia Press.

van Brussel, N. (2016)  'Revenge, hatred, love and regret: the employment of narrative empathy in a regional purāṇa'. In: Religions of                                         South Asia (10:2). Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.

van Brussel, N. (2018) Andrijanić Ivan and Sven Sellmer (eds.). On the growth and composition of the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas:                                       Relationship to Kāvya. Social and economic context: Proceedings of the Fifth Dubrovnik International Conference                                          on the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas, August 2008' (book review). Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics                                           5:2 pp 245-54. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.

van Brussel, N. & M. Pasty- Abdul Wahid (2019). "Kali". In Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism. Ed. Tracy Coleman. New York: Oxford                                        University Press.

van Brussel, N. (2020). Tales of Endings and Beginnings: Cycles of Violence as a Leitmotif in the Narrative Structure of the                                             Bhadrakāḷīmāhātmya. Religions 11: 119.

van Brussel, N. (2020). Bhadrakāḷī: Slaying the Demon in the Backwaters. In: Slouber, M. (ed.), A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses. Oakland:                                        University of California Press.

Forthcoming:

-van Brussel, N. (under review). The Bhadrakalimahatmya: a translation of the second adhyaya. Chapter for 'The Purana Reader' by Deven Patel, Dheepa Sundaram and Travis Smith (eds.)

van Brussel, N., (under review). From regional purana to ritual performance: the puranic Bhadrotpatti and its ties to the narrative tradition of the Darikavadham in Kerala (DICSEP 7)

van Brussel, N. & R. Balkaran (accepted with revisions by International Journal of Hindu Studies). Mother of compassion, mother of wrath: visions of the Hindu Goddess in the Bhadrakalimahatmya and the Devimahatmya: a comparative study (working title).

van Brussel, N. (in preparation) Once upon a time in the Dandaka forest: Ring composition and strategic authority in the Bhadrakalimahatmya. In: Taylor, M. & R. Balkaran. Visions and Revisions of Sanskrit Narratives: Studies in India’s Epics and Purāṇas. (working title). Open access for ANU Press.

van Brussel, N. (2013), Bhadrakali: de godin met de vele gezichten. Literaire tradities in de Kodungallur Bhagavati tempel, Kerala. In: De Clercq, E. & S. Verbeke (eds.), India: een wereld van verhalen, Gent: Academia Press.

In dit hoofdstuk concentreren we ons op het zuiden van India, namelijk de deelstaat Kerala, waar er een sterke godinnencultuur heerst. We maken de brug van wereldreligie naar lokale traditie door onze argumentering op te bouwen rond een sterk lokaal verankerde godin: Bhadrakali. Zij staat als het ware symbool voor de unieke versmelting van allerhande invloeden die zich doorheen de Keralese geschiedenis voltrok. Aan de hand van de verhaalliteratuur die deze godin omhult, proberen we verschillende cruciale stromingen te onderscheiden die Bhadrakali door de eeuwen heen mee vorm hebben gegeven. Op die manier ontdekken we hoezeer de godin is opgebouwd uit verschillende laagjes en op welke manier die worden weergegeven in mythologie. Orthodoxie en folklore blijken geen onverzoenbare begrippen, in tegendeel, elk drukten ze evenzeer hun stempel op Bhadrakali en haar cultus. Religie op lokaal niveau blijkt aldus een zeer dynamisch proces te zijn, waar goden geherinterpreteerd worden naar gelang de veranderende context.

van Brussel, N. (2016), 'Revenge, hatred, love and regret: the employment of narrative empathy in a regional purāṇa'. In: Religions of South Asia (10:2). Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.

This paper analyzes the character of the demon found in the Sanskrit Bhadrakālīmāhātmya. This regional Purāṇic text, pertaining to the narrative tradition of the Dārikavadham from Kerala, adopts a specific stance with regard to its main antagonist, the asura king Dārika. While the Bhadrakālīmāhātmya eagerly engages with various Mahāpurāṇas such as the Liṅga and the Mārkaṇḍeya, the demon that it depicts contrasts with the rather rigid image set out by his counterparts in those texts. Instead, the demon’s character is carefully drawn and led through an array of emotional states in a way that tempts the audience to empathize. In this paper I explore this strategic empathy. Perusing the narratives of the Bhadrakālīmāhātmya, I identify passages that are activated by strategies of affect and show how they construct the character of the demon. In the second part of the paper I attempt to unravel the motives for this alternative view of the demon, relying on frameworks stemming from contemporary studies of narrative empathy and classical Indian theories of aesthetics.

van Brussel, N. & M. Pasty- Abdul Wahid (2019). "Kali". In Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism. Ed. Tracy Coleman. New York: Oxford University Press.

The goddess Kālī is as much at home in the pan-Indian Brahmanical pantheon as she is in local, regional, and popular forms of worship. Her literary character emerges in the Mahābhārata, the Purāṇas, and tantric texts, while her iconic image can be found all over India, and abroad, both as a loving mother and as a fierce demon-slaying warrior. Kālī, literally “the black one,” is often a goddess of the margins. In her wild, unruly form, she does not entirely fit into the classical Hindu pantheon. She incarnates raw martial power, especially in the Purāṇic material, associates with evil spirits, and roams the burning grounds adorned with skulls. Just like her husband/father, Śiva, she engages with the liminal, chaotic side of life. In this form she became most popular in left-handed tantric traditions, her transgressive character becoming part of a way to gain insight into the cosmos by abolishing its boundaries. Yet at the same time she is extremely popular in her motherly form, as in the bhakti (devotion) poetry of the Bengali poets and mystics. This aspect of bhakti has significantly shaped the way the majority of devotees from North to South India, in neighboring South Asian countries, and in diaspora picture and worship Kālī. Their devotion is mainly targeted at a personalized incarnation of Kālī located in a specific temple and embodying context-specific religious, social, cultural, and even political traits. If the facets of her personality may then differ from place to place, for her devotees she is the mighty, sometimes ambivalent, but always nurturing mother who protects from evils and grants health and prosperity. Moving away from the context of Hindu worship to situations of human crisis, political conflicts, social agitation, or emancipation and spiritual movements, Kālī assumes new faces that often exacerbate, divert, and interpret selected traditional traits. For some she becomes an epitome of cruelty and perversion, for others a haven for the tormented, a role model for the oppressed, a champion of the engaged, an emblem for the children of a ravaged land, and a guide for liberation. There is probably not a single god in the diverse Hindu pantheon that evokes so many divergent views and ambivalent stances from devotees and researchers as Kālī does. This we have tried to represent in this entry in four overarching parts: I: Kālī as a Part of the Great Goddess Tradition; II: Kālī in Regional, Local, and Popular Worship; III: Kālī in Religious Art/Temple Iconography; and IV: Modern/Nonreligious Interpretations of Kālī. Considering the breadth and diversity of references available, this bibliography does not intend to be exhaustive, but rather to provide the reader with an overview of the major sources, works, aspects, and trends of Kālī studies in the fields of religious, literary, and folklore studies and anthropology.

van Brussel, N. (2020). Tales of Endings and Beginnings: Cycles of Violence as a Leitmotif in the Narrative Structure of the Bhadrakāḷīmāhātmya. Religions 11: 119.

The asura’s demise at the hands of the goddess is a theme frequently revisited in Hindu myth. It is the chronicle of a death foretold. So too is the Bhadrakāḷīmāhātmya, a sixteenth century regional purāṇa from Kerala, that narrates the tale of fierce goddess Bhadrakāḷī and her predestined triumph over asura king Dārika. Violence is ubiquitous in this narrative, which was designed with one goal in mind: glorifying the ultimate act of defeating the asura enemy. In its course the story exhibits many kinds of violence: self-harm, cosmic warfare, murder, etc. This paper argues that (1) violence comes to serve as a structural aspect in the text. Reappearing consistently at key moments in the narrative, violence both frames and structures the goddess’s tale. Yet, it is not only the violent act that dominates, it is its accompaniment by equal acts of regeneration that dictates the flow of the narrative, creating a pulsating course of endings and beginnings; (2) these cycles, that strategically occur throughout the narrative, come to serve as a Leitmotif referring to the cyclic tandem of destruction and regeneration that has dominated post-Vedic Hindu myth in many forms. The pulsating dynamic of death and revival thus becomes a specific narrative design that aims to embed the regional goddess within a grander framework of Time.

van Brussel, N. (2020). Bhadrakāḷī: Slaying the Demon in the Backwaters. In: Slouber, M. (ed.), A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses. Oakland: University of California Press.

Imagining the divine as female is rare, even controversial, in most religions. Hinduism, by contrast, preserves a rich and continuous tradition of goddess worship. A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses captures the diversity of this tradition by bringing together a fresh array of captivating and largely overlooked Hindu goddess tales from different regions. As the first such anthology of goddess narratives in translation, it highlights a range of sources from ancient myths to modern lore. The goddesses in this book battle demons, perform miracles, and grant rare Tantric visions to their devotees. Each translation is paired with a short essay that explains the goddess’s historical and social context, demonstrating the ways religion changes over time.

Preface

Introduction

I Demons and Battle

1. Bhadrakāḷī: Slaying the Demon in the Backwaters — Noor van Brussel

2. Cāmuṇḍi and Uttanahaḷḷi: Sisters of the Mysuru Hills — Caleb Simmons

3. Kauśikī: The Virgin Demon-Slayer — Judit Törzsök

4. The Seven Mothers: Origin Tales from Two Early-Medieval Purāṇas — Shaman Hatley

II Miracles and Devotees

5. Svasthānī: Goddess of One’s Own Place — Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz

6. Kailā Devī: The Great Goddess as Local Avatar of Miracles — R. Jeremy Saul

7. Bahucarā Mātā: She Who Roams Widely — Darry Dinnell

8. Rāṣṭrasenā: Hawk Goddess of the Mewar Mountains — Adam Newman

III Tantras and Magic

9. Rangda in the Calon Arang: A Tale of Magic — Thomas M. Hunter and Ni Wayan Pasek Ariati

10. Tvaritā: The Swift Goddess — Michael Slouber

11. Kāmeśvarī: Visualizing the Goddess of Desire — Anna A. Golovkova

12. Avyapadeśyā: Indefinable Kālī — Olga Serbaeva

Glossary

List of Names (Deities and Characters)

Primary Sources

Bibliography

"Bhadrakali, de godin met de vele gezichten" - lecture as a part of the series 'India, een wereld van verhalen' at the University of Ghent, Belgium

"Feminisme in India: een inleiding" - lecture as a part of the Europalia India Festival at the library of Niel, Antwerp

"The Bhadrotpatti from Kerala: a narrative affiliation of the regional goddess Bhadrakali to the puranic tradition" - paper presentation at the Dubrovnik International Conference on Sanskrit Epics and Puranas, Dubrovnik, Croatia

"De positie van de vrouw in India: een inleiding" - lecture at an educational evening organized by BIVRO en vzw Balavikas, Antwerp, Belgium

01/07/2015

"From Ritual Performance to Regional Purana" - paper presentation at the World Sanskrit Conference, Bangkok, Thailand

27/02/2016

"Godinnen en hun verhaalliteratuur in Zuid-India" - lecture for the Elcker-Ik Centre, Antwerp, Belgium

22/03/2016

"Godinnen en demonen in een wereld van allusie: over het ontstaan en de vermenging van verhaaltradities in Zuid-India" - lecture as a part of the series 'Religious traditions of India', University of Ghent, Ghent, Gelgium

"Revenge, Hatred, Love, and Regret: the Employment of Narrative Empathy in a Regional Purana" - paper presentation at Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions, Cardiff, UK

"The demon and his play of shadows: multivocality and intertextual engagement in a regional purāṇa" - paper presentation at the EASAS PhD workshop, Lisbon, Portugal

"Thus spoke the asura: Multivocality and literary lithesomeness in the Bhadrakālīmāhātmya" - paper presentation at the Annual Conference on South Asia - Wisconsin University, Madison, USA

"A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses" - panel toward a sourcebook - paper presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, Texas, USA

20/09/2017

22/2/2018

"Cross-cultural Intelligence in an Academic Environment - Self-Assessment of a South Asia Studies Researcher" - presentation part of the Doctoral Schools Workshop 'Cross-cultural Intelligence in Academic Environments', Gent, Belgium