KATHMANDU: Prof Arun Gupto's debut book Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley was released in Patan on March 8, coinciding with the International Women's Day.

The book was jointly launched by the author and Prof Abhi Subedi — by passing a copy of it to the women members of audience present at the function held on Patan Museum premises.

The book maps diverse identities of goddesses through metaphors of grace, rage and knowledge. It offers an in-depth insight into femininity, sexual politics, ritual worships, religion, ecology and gender. It also 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, journalist and academic Ajay Bhadra Khanal pointed out that Prof 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.

Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley 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.