Durga : Narrative Art of an 'Independent' Warrior Goddess

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Durga : Narrative Art of an 'Independent' Warrior Goddess

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One of the most invoked forms of the Great Goddess is her

manifestation as the youthful, multi-armed deity who successfully

battles the mighty buffalo demon that symbolizes among other

things, the elemental powers of brutish ignorance. In her this

incarnation she is referred to as Durga, the 'unattainable'.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/artimages/ba48.jpg

 

The Great Goddess Durga was born from the energies of the male

divinities when the gods lost the long drawn-out battle with the

asuras (demons). All the energies of the gods united and became

supernova, throwing out flames in all directions. Then that

unique light, pervading the Three Worlds with its luster,

combined into one, and became a female form.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/hindu/ha50sm.jpg

 

The Devi projected an overwhelming omnipotence. The awesome

three-eyed Goddess was adorned with the crescent moon. Her

multiple arms held auspicious weapons and emblems, jewels and

ornaments, garments and utensils, garlands and rosaries of beads,

all offered by the gods. With her golden body blazing with the

splendor of a thousand suns, seated on her lion or tiger vehicle,

Durga is one of the most spectacular of all personifications of

Cosmic Energy.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/jewelry/ja56.jpg

 

The tremendous power of the Goddess was poised ready for the grim

battle to wipe out demonic forces, the asuras whose exaggerated

ego-sense was destroying the balance of the universe, and whose

sole purpose was to dominate and control. It was the universal

war between knowledge and ignorance, truth and falsehood, the

oppressor and the oppressed.

 

The world shook and the seas trembled as the Goddess engaged the

Great Demon Mahisasura and his hosts in fierce battle, creating

her own female battalions from her sighs breathed during the

fighting.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/hindu/ha14sm.jpg

 

The Great Goddess first annihilated the army of the titan. Then

she roped his own mighty buffalo-form with a noose. The demon

escaped, however, emerging from the buffalo body in the form of a

lion. Immediately, the Goddess beheaded the lion, whereupon

Mahisa, by virtue of his Maya-energy of self-transformation,

escaped again, now in the form of a hero with a sword.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/artimages/za87.jpg

 

Ruthlessly the Goddess riddled this new embodiment with a shower

of arrows. But then the demon stood before her as an elephant,

and with his trunk reached out and seized her. He dragged her

towards him, but she severed the trunk with the stroke of a

sword. The demon returned, now, to his favorite shape-that of the

giant buffalo shaking the universe with the stamping of its

hoofs. But the Goddess scornfully laughed, and again roared with

a loud voice of laughter at all his tricks and devices. Pausing a

moment, in full wrath, she lifted to her lips, serenely, a bowl

filled with the inebriating, invigorating, liquor of the

divine-life force, and while she sipped the matchless drink, her

eyes turned red. The buffalo-demon, uprooting mountains with his

horns, was flinging them against her, shouting defiantly at her

the while, but with her arrows she was shattering them to dust.

She called out to the shouting monster: "Shout on! Go on shouting

one moment more, you fool, while I sip my fill of this delicious

brew. The gods soon will be crying out for joy, and you shall lie

murdered at my feet.

 

Even while she spoke, the Goddess leapt into the air, and from

above came down on the demon's neck. She dashed him to the earth

and sent the trident through his neck. The adversary attempted

once again to abandon the buffalo-body, issuing from its mouth in

the shape of a hero with a sword; but he had only half emerged

when he was caught. He was half inside the buffalo and half

outside, when the Goddess, with a swift and terrific stroke,

beheaded him, and he died.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/artimages/ha48.jpg

 

The chief demon Mahisasura was thus dead, and the gods praised

the Goddess, joyfully worshipping her with flowers, incense and

fragrant paste:

 

Thou Ambika [a name of Durga] dost overspread the universe with

thy power.

The power of all divine beings is drawn into Thy from.

Thou art Great Mother, worshipped by all divine beings and Sages.

We bow ourselves in devotion to Thee.

Bless us with all that is good for us.

 

We bow before Thee, O Devi,

Thou who art the good fortune of the virtuous,

Ill-fortune in the house of the evil,

Intelligence in the minds of the learned,

Faiths in the hearts of the good,

The modesty of the high born.

 

--------------Devi Mahatmya.

 

The world was at peace again. The skies cleared, the rivers kept

their courses, there was sweet singing and dancing. The winds

blew softly, the sun shone brilliantly, the sacred fires burned

steadily. Strange sounds that had arisen in the various quarters

died away.

 

The departing Durga offered the gods a boon. She promised that as

'Sakambhari' she would nourish the world in time of need with the

vegetation grown from her own body, and that in her 'terrible'

form she would deliver her worshippers from their enemies, and

bless them. Then she vanished from the very spot on which the

gods were gazing.

 

Thus the reveries of Mahisa are exterminated. Into this wondrous

male fantasy intrudes the Mother Goddess. She lures and entices

him and, because she represents the power of the unconscious and

the pull downward and backward into the protective womb, the

demon unwittingly plunges into her dangerous orbit. In a

throwback to reciprocal animal mating postures, they dance in

mutual desire and dread. Mahisa is forced into sacred, single

combat with the fascinating but enigmatic, dangerous creature. On

the battle stage the disguise of each is penetrated; then the

demon and the Goddess are reduced to their true nature; in the

last analysis they are alike. Finally, like the ancient

bull-kings who were themselves royal sacrifices, fecundators of

the earth, bearers of vicarious guilt, hero is transformed into

victim and, having lost his position in heaven, now Mahisa loses

his very life. He is decapitated by the Mother Goddess, and on

earth, paradise is restored, but only temporarily, for the demon

inevitably returns to earth for the eternal cyclical repetition

of the entire life process.

 

The myth is saturated with the potential for violence inherent in

the male-female oppositions. As the story unfolds, the

relationship between Mahisa and the goddess is manifested at many

levels: psychologically both demon and goddess become what the

other is, both behave like ferocious animals and one never knows

what will happen in the next instant, as the constant

alternations, which range from the bestial to the divine, are the

only reality. Thus each of the antagonists can be symbolically

interpreted as now the monster/dragon, now with feminine or with

masculine attributes. Each can represent justice and power or

evil and danger; and each contributes to the orgiastic disorder

necessary for recreation. The myth thus transcends the

male-female alternative, signifying psychic totality.

 

The condition of the contemporary urban dweller who howls in fear

in the dark as he confronts the bad animal of his nightmare

differs little from the fright syndrome of the jungle dweller,

forced into struggle with a live animal. Until the dreamer

awakes, he is in the same situation as his prehistoric ancestors

were. Pervading the deepest levels of the psyche, ready to spring

at random, the residual animal, source of human energies, seeks

recognition. The unfocused, floating primordial imagery, rooted

in the biological heritage, is stabilized in culture.

Externalized projections, first structured into dance, cultish

animal rites, orgiastic fertility ceremonies and much later into

literature, art, myth and ritual, provide the camouflage of human

respectability and channel the anxiety into an acceptable form.

Left to itself without organization, animal nature will surely

erupt.

 

When left unrecognized and unattended, under stressful

conditions, animal impulses break through in random fashion, and

blind fury re-emerges in full force. As repository for the

archaic residue, Mahisamardini, the Goddess who slays the

buffalo, is a therapeutic symbol.

 

Durga's name literally means "Beyond Reach". This is an echo of

the woman warrior's fierce, virginal autonomy. In fact many of

the figures associated with her are officially virgin. This is

not meant in the limiting sense understood by the patriarchal

order, but rather in Esther Harding's sense: she is

"one-in-herself", or as Nor Hall puts it, "Belonging-to-no-man".

As Harding further observed of 'The Virgin Goddess': 'Her divine

power does not depend on her relation to a husband-god, and thus

her actions are not dependent on the need to conciliate such a

one or to accord with his qualities and attitudes. For she bears

her identity through her own right.'

 

The disappearance of Durga from the battlefield after the victory

over aggression expressed one of the deepest truths of the

episode, for the feminine action in the cosmic drama is without

retentive, ego-seeking ambition.

 

Durga is linked also with some of the oldest known prayers for

humankind's protection. In the Ramayana, Rama went to Lanka to

rescue his abducted wife, Sita, from the grip of Ravana, the

Emperor of Lanka. Before starting for his battle, Rama aspired

for the blessings of Goddess Durga . He came to know that the

Goddess would be pleased if offered one hundred blue lotuses. But

after traversing the whole world, he could gather only

ninety-nine. Rama finally decided to offer one of his own eyes,

which resembled blue lotuses. Durga, being pleased with the

devotion of Rama, appeared before him, stopped him from

committing this act and blessed him. In the fierce battle that

followed, Rama was able to annihilate Ravana, thus again

triumphed good over evil. To this day, this day is celebrated as

Vijaydashmi (Day of Victory), and Goddess Durga worshipped all

over India.

 

Illustration :

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/artimages/ha37.jpg

 

Indeed the Mother Goddess, it is believed, controls the fate of

all. But even though she makes her appearance when the male

deities conglomerate their respective energies, she is, in fact,

not 'created' by them. All her incarnations are the result of her

will to be in the world for the benefit of mankind; she chooses

when and how to effect her lilas (play of the Goddess in the

world). In this situation her sudden arrival spells doom for

Mahisa, but only after a protracted interaction during which the

confrontations between animal/demon and Goddess, male and female,

son and mother, lover and beloved, equal combatants, victim and

sacrificer, hero and deliverer, are given due attention as an

exploratory venture into the dynamics of the laws of opposites.

Their combat is, in the final analysis, an enactment of a

many-aspected reality, reflecting a mode of thought which

perceives seeming opposites as mere stages in a graduated

spectrum of reality which has a minimum of definite b!

oundaries.

 

This article was sent as a newsletter from the website

http://www.exoticindiaart.com

 

To view the illustrations along with the text, you can read the

HTML version at:

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Nitin G.