Seeking Svasth@na : The Politics of Gender, Location, Iconography, and Identity in Hindu Nepal Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz* University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign *Corresponding author: jvanbirk@gmail.com Abstract: The goddess Svasth@na ’s textual-ritual complex is one of Nepal’s most popular traditions, celebrated ‘in every Hindu household in Nepal’. Yet, despite her ubiquity and popularity, Svasth@na is nearly invisible both within and outside of her own tradition. This article examines the elusive identity of this local goddess in an effort to understand where and in what form Svasth@na is and is not found and what this tells us about the politics of gender, location, iconography, and Hindu identity in Nepal. I argue that Svasth@na gradually transforms from an invisible, private, unfixed, indeter- minate goddess into a visible, public, fixed, specific, and local protector of place. In seeking to locate Svasth@na within both the pan-Hindu pantheon and Nepal’s regional divine and human populations, we are able to see the complexities of coming into being, of being female in Hindu thought and practice, and of being Hindu in medieval and modern Nepal. For eleven months of the year, the goddess Svasth@na, wrapped cosily in red cloth, is safely stored in the homes of Nepal’s Hindus, locked away in closets or cabinets or sometimes stashed (forgotten?) under a bed. During the twelfth month, the winter month of M@gh (mid-January to mid-February), Svasth@na is not only brought forth from these private, protected places but is also worshipped through- out Hindu Nepal as the local divine patroness of Nepal’s annual month-long reci- tation of the celebrated Svasth@na Vrata Kath@ (SVK), or The Story of the Ritual Vow to the Goddess Svasth@na , and the ritual observance based upon it, the Svasth@na vrat. The Svasth@na textual–ritual complex is one of Nepal’s most popular traditions and, according to most Nepalis, is celebrated ‘in every Hindu household in Nepal’. Yet, despite the ubiquity and popularity of the goddess Svasth@na, she is also remarkably elusive and nearly invisible outside of and even within her own trad- ition. She is historically absent from the public sphere and confined instead to the ß The Author 2013. Oxford University Press and The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oup.com The Journal of Hindu Studies 2013;6:198–227 doi:10.1093/jhs/hit026