SOCIAL SCIENTIST having three chapters of varying lengths. Part I - Hindu Goddesses in Texts. Part II-Goddess Festivals in Contexts and Part III - Gender and Sexuality in Rural India. M. Tachikawa's article, 'Hindu Thinking on Sakti: A Historical Perspective', is a very brief one. It claims to be a historical perspective to enable readers to understand the development of the goddess cults or the concept of Sakti. In actuality it is a somewhat facile, sketchy and rather inept preliminary introduction to Hinduism. Tachikawa utilizes material from Nepal, thereby probably justifying the usage of "South Asia" in the title of a volume that is otherwise dealing for the most part with different parts of India. Provided are details of certain temples and representations of Visnu, Siva and the goddess in different parts of Katmandu. There are the infrequent insights, which could have benefited by some elaboration. For example, the observation that the image of a "divine family" is stronger in the Saivite temples than in the Vaisnava temples (p.24). Or even the comment that Visnu's wives don't appear to be particularly "motherly" in nature. This is, however, vitiated by loose and erroneous statements like Rama, the deity, does not have any children by his wife Sita, (p.24) thereby completely overlooking the well-known tradition of Lava and Kusha. The next article by S. Einoo, 'The Autumn Goddess Festival: Described in the Puranas', deals with the multi-layered origins of a goddess festival well known in contemporary India as Dasara, Durga Puja or Navaratri. Based on a detailed analysis of eleven Puranas and twenty-six accounts, he points out four possible origins of these festivals. He has provided detailed tables consisting of references from the Puranas, the nature of worship, the period and the requirements of the ritual. These indicate links and gives scope for comparisons. The rituals center on different subjects such as the worship of the goddess, the honoring of young girls or the worship of weapons. He concludes that since each group shows evidence of separate configurations and distinctive ritual elements, the monolithic idea that had prevailed so far, may be questioned. The detailed explanatory notes are very comprehensive. It would have been worthwhile attempting to geographically locate some portions of the Puranas. This might explain the preponderance of animal sacrifice in some areas or the importance of the young girls in another. Yet it is an interesting account and specifically efficacious for those who would like to study and chart the development of a particularly popular festival over the centuries within parallel traditions.