Shakti 'Domesticated'

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So long as man lived in villages, in close touch with Nature, he

understood the interplay of creative and destructive forces. He

accepted the dynamism and diversity of the world around him as the

essence of the Goddess.

 

But then he began migrating and moving into cities, trying to escape

the vagaries of the natural world. Nature appeared more and more like

a chaotic force to be mastered.

 

The shift from nomadic to urban life made man turn away from the

Mother Goddess. He sought refuge in a wise, almighty Father God, a

divine warrior who would restrain the wildness of Nature and

domesticate it for the benefit of mankind.

 

And so the Mother Goddess, until then free, was given a lord, a

master, a husband. Marriage and maternity became tools to tame her.

 

Myths emerged of how powerful warrior gods forced wild goddesses into

submission. In Babylon, bards narrated with relish the story of how

Marduk killed the female monster Tiamat and created the Earth out of

her dead body. In Greece, the local goddesses of the plains and

valleys were reduced to nymphs whom the Olympian father god Zeus

seduced or raped.

 

Unattached, the Mother Goddess was feared. Her powers were considered

untamable, hence dangerous. She was invoked only to kill demons. But

as the consort of a male god, she was much more approachable. Her

powers were checked and put to good use.

 

The wild goddess, who continued to dwell outside human settlements,

was associated with disease, death and misfortune. She was warded

away as a demoness or transformed into an ogress, to be despised by

all.

 

This psychological shift was reflected in human society. Woman, once

worshipped for her ability to create new life, became a wife. Her

freedom was curtailed. Her faithfulness was touted as the hallmark of

all feminine virtue. She because subservient to her husband's will.

Like the Earth, she became man's property.

 

Material adapted from "Devi: An Introduction" by Devdutt

Pattanaik(Vakils, Feffer & Simns Ltd., Mumbai, 2000)

 

Aum Maatangyai Namaha