Feminine Multiplicity : A Study of Groups of Multiple Goddesses in India/Yoshinori Onishi. 1997, 166 p., $17.
Contents: Introduction. Part I: 1. The group of seven/six figures in the Indus valley civilization. 2. Vedic female heptads. 3. Aboriginal/Dravidian seven sisters/virgins. 4. The Saptamatrkas. 5. The letters (Matrkas). 6. The Yoginis. 7. Deities of the Sri-Cakra. 8. The twelve Kalis. 9. The nine Durgas. 10. The ten Mahavidyas. Part II: 11. Plan of part II. 12. Is feminine multiplicity demeaning? 13. Perception of women as powerful and complex beings--literary evidence. 14. Perception of women as powerful and complex beings--anthropological, psychoanalytical, and folklore-related evidence. 15. Supporting material for the idea that feminine power and complexity lead to her splitting and multiplying. 16. Actual human experience of having multiple mothers. Conclusion. Bibliography.
"The aim of this study is to examine into the meanings and significance of the multiplicity of the feminine in Indian subcontinent as exemplified by the 'Saptamatrkas', The 'nine Durgas the 'letters of the Sanskrit alphabet (matrkas, "little mothers" and so on. The author refer to female deities that seem to function almost always as a group. It is as a group that these deities are considered significant and expounded in the texts