KATHMANDU: Prof Arun Gupto's debut book 'Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley' has been released here in Patan on Tuesday.

Coinciding with the International Women's Day, the book, which maps the diverse identities of goddesses through metaphors of grace, rage and knowledge, was jointly launched by the author and Prof Abhi Subedi passing a copy of it to the women members of audience at the book launch function in the Patan Museum premises.

The book offers an in-depth insight into femininity, sexual politics, ritual worships, religion, ecology and gender, and explores how the deity attributes in the Valley are expressed and embedded through anthropomorphic as well as inorganic forms of nature.

Commenting on the book, long-time journalist and academic Ajay Bhadra Khanal pointed out that Gupto has used an approach of intertextuality to explain theological aspects amid challenges of representation of reality in humanities research and writing.

Prof Subedi hailed Gupto's work and said he has successfully shed light on the rage of feminine power along with grace and knowledge.

Gupto's work is one of the books in the series under Nepal and Himalayan studies. Published by Routledge, it has five chapters excluding 43-page long introduction.

The book is priced IRs 895 in South Asia.