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This chapter explores questions of Hindu women's power in connection with goddess possession rituals in the Kangra Valley area of Himachal Pradesh, North India. In Kangra, it is not uncommon for women to become possessed by a goddess, to speak with her voice, and to act as healers and mediums in their communities. Possession grants householder women opportunities to travel beyond their domiciles and form a female community with other women, however temporary. This in turn may provide women access to advice, support, or even material assistance. These ritual spaces are “cracks” in a patriarchal system that cannot be completely controlled by patriarchal norms and that provide outlets for women's creativity and interconnection.

This chapter studies the consolidation of the Punjab, starting with the capture of Kangra and the removal of the Gurkhas. It is followed by an account of how the Punjab was unified, including the reduction of the Baluch tribes. It also mentions that Maharajah Ranjit Singh's generals busied themselves with bringing the scattered territories under the authority and protection of the Dunbar. One section looks at the arrival of Shah Shuja, and provides some information on the politics of Afghanistan. The chapter includes discussions on the Koh-i-noor episode, which involved the maharajah demanding the Koh-i-noor diamond from the Afghans, and the battle of Attock. This battle is significant, since it marks the first victory of the Punjabi over the Afghans.

This chapter looks more closely at Kangra as a distinctive cultural region and offers an overview on songs. As a way to introduce ideal life stages and associated fears of what might go wrong, the author presents three genres that have most preoccupied her through the years. The first is Pahari songs, or “old women's songs” that encompass songs about women's experience in the historical past and songs retelling stories from the Sanskrit Puranas, the “old books” that are compendiums of Hindu mythology. The second is “Suhāg”, which refers to the auspicious happiness of a married woman. Songs of this genre are especially chorused around a bride at weddings, including the weddings of goddesses. The third is pakhaṛu or “songs that are long and tell a story,” “songs about suffering,” and even “our life stories”.

This chapter focuses on one of the author's mentors, Jagadamba Mataji. From the very first time they met, Jagadamba Mataji met the author's wish to learn with an exuberant willingness to teach. Many of the songs that the author recorded, and that Jagadamba Mataji oversaw, were about Krishna. While the stories carried in the Kangra songs echo the Sanskrit retellings in the Bhagavata Purana, as vernacular, regionally based appropriations by women, these were distinctive reimaginings of Krishna. The author claims that whenever she encountered the poetry in Kangra songs, she often felt like she was being transported through the colored borders of miniature paintings. Krishna became present: blue skinned, curly black haired, wearing his distinctive saffron-yellow garments, and very often surrounded by delicate- featured adoring women.