DURGA – The Warrior Goddess

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She is one of the most popular and impressive Goddess of the Hindu

Pantheon. Her primary mythological function is to combat demons who

threaten the stability of the cosmos. She is the great battle queen,

with many arms, each with weapons, and she rides on a fierce lion.

Also describe as irresistible in battle.

 

Historical association

1) becomes very popular after the sixth century B.C.

2) Roots seems to be among the indigenous cultures especially

the tribal and peasant culture of India.

Other accounts of Durga origin :

a) Said to arise from Vishnu's as the power that makes him sleep

or as his magical, creative power.

b) In Vishnu purana, Vishnu is said to enlist her help to delude

a demon king who is threatening the infant child Krishna.

c) In Devi Mahatmaya, she comes to the aid of Brahma and Vishnu,

when Brahma invoke her to leave the slumbering Vishnu so that Vishnu

will awaken and fight the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.

d) In Skanda Purana, states that there was once a demon called

durga threatening the world. Siva requested Parvati to slay the

demon, who took the form of a buffalo. Thereafter Parvati is known as

Durga.

e) Another account but similar to Skanda Purana, in relation to

Sumbha and Nisumbha, Durga emerge from Parvati when she sheds her

outer sheath, which thereafter takes the identity of a warriors

goddess.

f) In the Mahisa myth, Durga created out of the a great mass of

light and strength emitted from the fiery energies of the male gods.

Her face from Siva, her hair from Yama, her arms from Vishnu and so

on. Simarly each of the male deities gave her weapons. Siva gave her

his trident, Vishnu his cakra, Vayu his bow and arrows and so on.

 

The creation of Goddess Durga takes place in the context of cosmic

crisis, brought about by a demon whom the male gods are unable to

defeat. She was created because the situation calls for a woman, a

superior warrior with a peculiar power with which the demon may be

deluded. In the battle field, she often create helpers such as Kali

and a group of ferocious deities called the Matrkas ( mothers ).

These goddess are ferocious, blood thirsty and uncontrolled. Durga

does not create male helpers and she fights without direct male

support against male demons, and she always wins.

 

Durga Played dual role of :

 

1) COSMIC QUEEN in which she acts to maintain or restore Cosmic

harmony and balance. The central theology underlying this role is

that :

a) She is said to underlie or pervade the cosmic, to create,

maintain and periodically destroy it according to the rhythmic

sequence of Hindu Cosmology.

b) She assure different forms from time to time when cosmic

balance is threatened by enemies of the lesser gods.

 

In Devi_Mahatmaya, it related Durga three cosmic intervention :

a) the battle with Madhu and Kaikabha

b) the battle with Mahisa and his army

c) the battle with Sumbha and Nisumbha and their generals :

Canda, Munda and Raktabija.

 

In the demon slaying myth of Durga, there's consistency in the

structure of the whole mythological story, with that of other Hindu

Mythology namely :

1) A demon gains great power through doing austerities, is

granted a boon as a reward and becomes nearly invincible.

2) The demon defeats the gods and takes over their position.

3) The gods prepare their revenge by creating a special being

who can defeat the demon despite the boon or they petition one of the

great deities namely Siva, Vishnu or a great goddess to intervene on

their behalf

4) The battle take place and ofter include the creation of

helpers by the goddess or god.

5) The demon is defeated, wither slain or made subservient to

the gods.

6) The gods praise the demon slayer.

 

In relation to durga, Madhu / Kaitabha and Sumbha and Nisumbha myth,

the goddess was petitioned by the gods, whereas in the Mahisa myth

she is specially crated by the gods. In Mahisa, Sumbha and Nisumbha

myths the goddess takes a direct, active part in the battle itself,

demonstrating her superior martial skills against her opponents. In

Sumbha and Nisumbha myth she also creates helpers in the form of

ferocious goddess. In all the three episode, all the gods

collectively praise Durga during and after she has defeated the

demons .

 

2) A PERSONAL SAVIOR

This is a complementary role of Durga in which she acts as a personal

comforter who intervenes on behalf of her devotees/

At the end of the Devi Mahatmaya, after the world being restored to

order, Durga herself says that she will responded to the pleas of her

devotees and that she may be petitioned in times of distress to help

those who worship her. She mention specifically : forest fires, wild

animals, robbers, imprisonment, execution, battles and threats.

At the end of the Devi Mahatmaya, after being petitioned by two of

her devotees, to one she returns his wealth and kingdom, and the

other she grants ultimate liberation.

 

Another aspect of Durga is her distinctive nature which is associated

with the Hindu Philisophical ideas. In many of the texts, including

Devi Mahatmaya, she is associated with Sakti, Maya and Prakrti.

 

SAKTI ( the basis )

a) always understood to be the underlying power of the divine,

the aspects of the divine that permits and provokes creative activity.

b) Always understood as creative force

c) As concrete form, usually personified as goddess.

 

MAYA ( the basis )

a) Delusions : it's the power that deluded an individuals into

thinking themselves to be the center of the world, the power that

prevents individuals from seeing things as they really are.

b) It impels individuals into self centered, egotistical

actions. These clouds the underlying unity of reality and masks one

essential identity with Brahman.

c) It can be understood as either positive or negative energy.

 

PRAKRTI is

a) the physical world as well as he inherent rhythms within this

world that impel nature to gratify and provide itself in its manifold

species.

b) Is both primordial matter from which all material things come

and the living instincts and patterns that imbue the material world

with its proclinities to sustain and recreate itself in individual

beings.

 

DURGA as Shakti : the male gods contribute their strength and rigor

to the goddess, wo epitomize power, action and strength in the battle

with the demon. Durga is action and power personified and as such is

a fitting representation of the idea of shakti.

 

DURGA as Maya : In madhu and Kaitabha, she deludes the demons so that

Vishnu can slay them. In Mahisa, she enters into the battle more of

divine play `lila', fighting with the demons because it

pleases her,

not our of sense of compulsion.

 

DURGA as Prakrti : In Devi Mahatmaya it states that

a) Durga is the world, and as the earth itself, she conveys

cosmic stabililty.

b) She is Sakambhari : she who provides the world with food from

her own body.

c) She is the foundation of all creatures and that which

nourishes all creatures.

 

In her role as cosmic queen, warrior goddess and demon slayer, Durga

in effect protects herself in her aspect as the earth itself.

 

 

 

Durga basic characteristics or distinctive nature are :

 

a) She violates the model of Hindu Woman

· She is not submissive

· She is not subordinated to a male deity

· She does not fulfill household duties

· She excels at what is traditionally a male function :-

fighting battle.

 

b) She reverse the normal role for female

· She does not lead her power or sakti to a male consort but

rather takes power from the male gods in order to perform her own

heroic exploits. They gave up their inner strength, fire and heat to

create her, and in doing so surrender their potency to her.

· Her rejection of the male antagonist who wanted to marry

instead of fighting her. In Devi Bhagavat purana, the demon mahisa

insist that as a woman the goddess is to delicate and beautiful for

anything but love play and that she should come under the protection

and guidance of a man in order to fulfill her place in the society.

This lead to Mahisa own humiliation and eventually destruction.

· All forms of Durga mythical exploits portrays her as

independent from male support and relationship yet she is extremely

powerful. She is beautiful and seductive but her beauty does not

serve its normal function which is to attract husband. It serves to

persuade or attract her victims into fatal battle.

 

c) her favourite habitat and habits.

· Almost all her myth associate her with mountains : the

Himalayas or the Vindhyas. One of her common names is

Vindhyavasini :'She who dwells in the Vindhya mountains "

 

About Vindhya mountains :

1) it is a mountainous region, far away from society and

inaccessible except through heroic effect.

2) Dangerous and hostile because that is where the tribal people

dwells there. In many myths Durga is said to be worshiped by tribal

groups such as the Sabaras.

· In Devi Mahatmaya, Durga is said to drink wine during her

battle with Mahisa. And being worship by the tribal society, it is

said that she receive and enjoy meat and blood as offerings.

· Durga is also said to have an association with negative or

inauspicious qualities such as sleep, hunger and Maya ( delusion ).

She is called `whose form is sleep', she whose form is

hunger', "she

whose form is shadow' and `she whose form is thirst'. In

the myth of

Madhu and Kaitabha, Brahman appeals to the goddess in a form of sleep

to come forth from Vishnu so that he will awaken and slay the demons.

Vishnu is only able to slay the demons, because Durga deludes them.

She is called the Mahamaya, the power that throws people into bondage

of delusions and attachment.

 

OM ParaShaktiye Namaha