Goddess of the Week: LAJJA GAURI

[Guest guest]

Lajja Gauri is a form of Devi who is known by many other names as

well -- in the Rig Veda, She is Aditi, the Primal Mother of the Gods

and Goddesses, of the Universe, and of all that lives. Some of Her

most famous images are from Kudavelli's Sangameshvara Temple in

Andhra Pradesh (that's our homepage picture; now in the Alampur

Museum); the Naganatha Temple in Karnataka (now in the Badami

Museum); and the world-famous Rameshvara rock-cut temple at Ellora.

Many of Her images still receive active worship.

 

This mysterious, lotus-headed form of Devi is usually portrayed with

legs opened and raised in a manner ambiguously suggesting either

childbirth or sexual receptivity. The image is undoubtedly rooted in

India's remote prehistory -- perhaps orginating in the Neolithic

Indus Valley culture, perhaps earlier. After all, remember that the

oldest known sculpture crafted by a human being -- Europe's

Willendorf Goddess or "Venus," c. 30,000-40,000 BCE -- also depicts a

nude female deity with a flower for a head.

 

Even today, Lajja Gauri is actively venerated as a "fertility

goddess" in some remote, rural locales. But during the 6th to 12th

centuries CE, Her popularly peaked, with images proliferating across

central India -- both in small terra cotta figures for use in home

shrines, and in life-size, royally endowed stone sculptures for

richly endowed temples. By the 13th century, however, Lajja's cult

began a long slide into obscurity. Scholars partially attribute the

decline to India's Muslim and later British Christian rulers and

their intolerant attitude toward portrayals of human (and

particularly female) nudity and sexuality. Another possible factor

was the rise of Tantric Goddess worship, which developed subtler,

more abstract ways of depicting the primal Yoni, the all-powerful

creative force of the Divine Feminine.

 

HER STORY

 

No written records exist of Lajja Gauri's original meaning, but the

iconographical evidence is clear. Her frequent juxtaposition with the

Shiva linga (an aniconic, phallic form of the Divine Masculine

Principle), and Her iconographic associations with lion mounts and

the god Ganesh, suggest beyond a doubt that She was considered a

manifestation of the Supreme Devi, specifically Parvati (who is also

called Gauri). Her size (always equal to Shiva's), and the prominent

display of Her full breasts (suggesting life-giving nurture and

sustenance) and yoni (vulva, womb; suggesting generative, creative

power) indicate that She probably served as a Feminine counterpart to

the Masculine linga.

 

Several myths exist concerning Lajja Gauri, but scholars consider

them to be inauthentic, late attempts to replace the Goddess's

original, forgotten lore. Many of these tales involve a dominant Lord

Shiva testing his wife's modesty by publicly disrobing Her, whereupon

Her head either falls off or sinks into Her body from shame, thereby

proving Her purity -- and providing a Shiva-centered explanation of

how such a boldly self-displaying Goddess got a name like "Lajja

Gauri" -- literally, "Modest Parvati" or "Ashamed Parvati."

 

More useful clues to Her actual meaning may be found in the oral

folktales that still circulate about Her in rural India. For example,

as noted above, She is often referred to as Maatangi, who is

the "Outcaste Goddess" form of Parvati, known for ignoring and

flaunting society's rules, hierarchies and conventions. Elsewhere,

She is called Renuka, an outcaste woman beheaded by a high-caste man.

Rather than dying, she grew a lotus in place of her head and became a

Goddess. These stories -- both involving the deification of an

outcaste woman -- seem to suggest the irrepressibility of the

Feminine Principle, its transcendence of and ultimate superiority

over any manmade social systems that would attempt to contain or

control the pure force of feminine creative power.

Her Iconography

 

Whatever Lajja Gauri's ultimate origins, She is clearly a very

auspicious Goddess. Everything about Her suggests life, creativity,

and abundance. Her images are almost always associated with springs,

waterfalls and other sources of running water -- vivid symbols of

life-giving sustenance. Her belly usually protrudes, suggesting

fullness and/or pregnancy; in earlier sculptures, Her torso was often

portrayed as an actual pot, another ancient symbol of wealth and

abundance. Lajja Gauri's head is usually a lotus flower, an extremely

powerful, elemental symbol of both material and spiritual well-being.

(Interestingly, today's images of the popular Goddess Lakshmi --

patroness of wealth and material fulfillment -- are also rife with

water, pots and lotuses.) The often vine-like portrayal of Lajja

Gauri's limbs suggests a further creative association -- the life-

giving sap of the plant world; She is vegetative as well as human

abundance. Her images are virtually always prone, laying at or below

floor level in her characteristic uttanapad posture, as though rising

from the Earth itself, a manifestation of the primordial Yoni from

which all life springs. Indeed, Her birth/sexual posture

unambiguously denotes fertility and reproductive power. This is Devi

as the Creatress, as Mother of the Universe, as the Life-Giving Force

of Nature, in a bold, uncompromising display of the Divine Feminine

Principle.

 

For those interested in learning more, the most useful sourcebook I

know of is Carol Radcliffe Bolon's "Forms of the Goddess Lajja Gauri

in Indian Art," Pennsylvania Statae University Press, 1992. There are

also a number of Indian publications about Her, many of which are

listed in Bolon's comprehensive bibliography.

 

Aum Maatangyai Namahe

[Guest guest]

If you like our current Goddess of the Week, it turns out you can

take her home for your very own altar! Many thanks to Yeshe_O, who

forwarded me the following link to an online store called Sacred

Source, which bills itself as "your source for Goddess statues and

deity images."

 

This Group, I want to stress, has no affiliation with the Sacred

Source store! This isn't a commercial pitch! But since I help

moderate this Goddess-focused Group, and since these folks are

apparently offering around "500 multicultural Goddesses and Gods,

perfect for ritual, display, teaching, and gifts" -- I felt that some

of you folks might by chance be interested!

 

Here's their blurb on Lajja Gauri:

 

"This plaque shows the Goddess as the primordial ground of being from

which all existence arises. Her shape evokes the mountains, rivers,

and valleys of the earth Herself. ... As a source of pleasure,

fertility, and protection, her sacred yoni is displayed with

authority and pride. Treat with sealant before performing Yoni Puja.

[From a temple carving in India, 1000 c.e.] Gypsumstone." The asking

price is US$29.

 

And here's the link:

http://www3.mailordercentral.com/sacredsource/prodinfo.asp?

number=ADY&variation=&aitem=9&mitem=554

[Guest PRAVIN JADHAV]

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