Article on Shaktism

[Guest guest]

Thanks prainbow! Great article. I am going to post it in full form

below so that it will always be in the Group archives as a resource

for members:

 

`Shakti worship manifestation of the Supreme Mother'

Tribune News Service

 

Panchkula, April 22 [2002] The philosophy behind Shakti worship in

the Hindu ethos has always regarded a woman as superior to a man

because the Shakti tradition regards womanhood as knowledge and

manifestation of the supreme mother. This was stated by Dr M.C.

Joshi, former Director-General of the Archeological Survey of India,

while delivering the keynote address at the two-day colloquium

on ``Worshipping Goddess — Mythology, Form and Ritual'', organised by

the Shri Mata Mansa Devi Shri Board at the Mansa Devi Temple complex

here today. Highlighting the forms and concepts of the Mother Goddess

in the Indian context through the ages, Dr Joshi pointed out Vedic

references to female deities like Aditi, Usha, Saraswati and Ratri.

Tracing the development of Shaktism in the light of growth of

iconography an associated symbols, he said during the early Christian

era, several foreign goddesses were also adopted for Shakti worship.

 

He said the greatest event pertaining to Shaktism was the composition

of Devi Mahatmya (Durga Saptshati) as an exclusive `Shakta' scripture

for the first time. It was this text which served as the core of

Shakti worship till today.

 

In his inaugural address, the Chief Secretary, Haryana, Mr L.M.

Goyal, said it had been a tradition of our country to go deeper in

the academic intellectualism of every aspect of life, including

religion. This was the reason that the cult of Goddess worship or

Shakti cult had evolved out of the cult of nature worship and

fertility worship. This had resulted into a ceaseless worship of Devi

in her various manifestations.

 

Mr Goyal said the association of Goddess with the mountains had a

special connotation. In mythology, she was the daughter of the

Himalayas; she was Parvati, the wife of Shiva, the Lord of mountains.

It was probably because of this that in the region comprising

Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh the shrines of the Goddess were

in abundance.

 

Mr Goyal said there were reasons to believe that a shrine of Mansa

Devi existed on the spot even before the construction of the present

temple. Goddess Mansa, originally associated with the serpent cult in

mythology, was not worshiped here in that form but as the desire-

fulfilling goddess. Dr Ashvini Agrawal, Professor and Chairman of the

Department of Ancient History, Panjab University, said in mythology

Mansa Devi was the daughter of Kashyapa and sister of serpent king

Ananta. She was the protectress of men from the venom of serpents. He

said it would not be out of place to mention that the Shivaliks,

where the Mansa Devi Temple was located, was known to be a snake-

infested area. The chief administrator of the Board and Deputy

Commissioner, Panchkula, Mrs Jyoti Arora, said the board had decided

to set up a museum to house archaeological material pertaining to the

Goddess. The museum would also be a centre of research for scholars

working on different aspects of the Goddess worship.