The Assertion of Femininity in Indian Thought (5)

[Guest guest]

10. KAMALA, THE LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST

 

Kamala as the tenth and last of the Wisdom Goddesses shows the full

unfoldment of the power of the Goddess into the material sphere. She

is both the beginning and the end of our worship of the goddess.

 

The canonical texts are quite specific regarding her iconography:

 

"She has a beautiful and golden complexion. She is being bathed by

four large elephants who pour jars of nectars over her. In her four

hands she holds two lotuses and makes the signs of granting boons and

giving assurance. She wears a resplendent crown and a silken dress."

 

The name Kamala means "she of the lotus" and is a common epithet of

Goddess Lakshmi. Indeed, Kamala is none other than the goddess

Lakshmi. Though listed as the last of the Mahavidyas, she is the best

known and most popular. Several annual festivals are given in her

honor. Of these, the Diwali festival is most widely celebrated. This

festival links Lakshmi to three important and interrelated themes:

prosperity and wealth, fertility and crops, and good luck during the

coming year.

 

The elephants pouring nectar onto her are symbols of sovereignty and

fertility. They convey Kamala's association with these highly

desirable qualities.

 

Though equivalent to Lakshmi, important differences exist when Kamala

is included in the group of Mahavidyas. Most strikingly, she is never

described or shown accompanying Vishnu, who otherwise is her constant

and dominating companion in all representations.

 

In this respect unlike Lakshmi, Kamala is almost entirely removed from

marital and domestic contexts. She does not play the role model of a

wife in any way, and her association with proper dharmic or social

behavior, either as an example of it or as the rewarder of it, is

not important in the Mahavidya context.

 

Here a premium seems to be put on the independence of the goddesses.

For the most part, the Mahavidyas are seen as powerful goddesses in

their own right. Their power and authority do not derive from

association with male deities. Rather, it is their power that pervades

the gods and enables them to perform their cosmic functions. When male

deities are shown, they are almost always in supporting roles

(literally as when they are shown supporting Shodashi's throne), and

are depicted as subsidiary figures.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

It is striking how female imagery and women are central to the

conception of the Mahavidyas. Iconographically, they are individually

shown dominating male deities. Kali and Tara are shown astride

Shiva, while others like Shodashi sit on the body of Shiva which in

turn rests upon a couch whose legs are four male deities! Most

significantly none of the Mahavidyas is shown as the traditional wife

or consort. Even Lakshmi, who is widely known for her position as

Vishnu's loyal wife is shown alone. It is also noteworthy that

the severed heads that decorate the goddess's bodies are male, as are

the corpses that lie beneath them.

 

Moreover, related Tantric texts often mention the importance of

revering women. The Kaulavali Tantra says that all women should be

looked upon as manifestations of Mahadevi (the Great Goddess). The

Nila-tantra says that one should desert one's parents, guru, and

even the deities before insulting a woman.

 

Finally the question remains: Why would one wish to worship a goddess

such as Kali, Chinnamasta, Dhumawati, Bhairavi, or a Matangi, each of

whom dramatically embodies marginal, polluting, or socially subversive

qualities? These goddesses are both frightening and dangerous.

They often threaten social order. In their strong associations with

death, violence, pollution, and despised marginal social roles, they

call into question such normative social "goods" as worldly comfort,

security, respect, and honor. The worship of these goddesses suggests

that the devotee experiences a refreshing and liberating spirituality

in all that is forbidden by established social orders.

 

The central aim here according to Tantric belief is to stretch one's

consciousness beyond the conventional, to break away from approved

social norms, roles, and expectations. By subverting, mocking, or

rejecting conventional social norms, the adept seeks to liberate his

or her consciousness from the inherited, imposed, and probably

inhibiting categories of proper and improper, good and bad, polluted

and pure.

 

Living one's life according to rules of purity and pollution and caste

and class that dictate how, where, and exactly in what manner every

bodily function may be exercised, and which people one may, or may

not, interact with socially, can create a sense of imprisonment from

which one might long to escape. Perhaps the more marginal, bizarre,

"outsider" goddesses among the Mahavidyas facilitate this escape. By

identifying with the forbidden or the marginalized, an adept

may acquire a new and refreshing perspective on the cage of

respectability and predictability. Indeed a mystical adventure,

without the experience of which, any spiritual quest would remain

incomplete.

 

---------------

 

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:

 

1. Danielou, Alain. The Myths and Gods of India: Vermont, 1991.

2. Frawley, David. Tantric Yoga and The Wisdom Goddesses: Delhi, 1999.

3. Jansen, Eva Rudy. The Book of Hindu Imagery, The Gods and their

Symbols: Holland, 1998.

4. Kinsley, David. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine:

New Delhi,1997.

5. Walker, Benjamin. Encyclopedia of Esoteric Man: London, 1977

 

ONLINE SOURCE:

 

http://www.exoticindia.com/article/mahavidyas/

 

(End)