Durga - Narrative Art of an 'Independent' Warrior Goddess

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Durga - Narrative Art of an 'Independent' Warrior Goddess

Article of the Month - April 2001

 

One of the most invoked forms of the Great Goddess is her manifestation as the

youthful, multi-armed deity who successfully battles the mighty buffalo demon

that symbolizes among other things, the elemental powers of brutish ignorance.

In her this incarnation she is referred to as Durga, the 'unattainable'.

The Great Goddess Durga was born from the energies of the male divinities when

the gods lost the long drawn-out battle with the asuras (demons). All the

energies of the gods united and became supernova, throwing out flames in all

directions. Then that unique light, pervading the Three Worlds with its luster,

combined into one, and became a female form.

The Devi projected an overwhelming omnipotence. The awesome three-eyed Goddess

was adorned with the crescent moon. Her multiple arms held auspicious weapons

and emblems, jewels and ornaments, garments and utensils, garlands and rosaries

of beads, all offered by the gods. With her golden body blazing with the

splendor of a thousand suns, seated on her lion or tiger vehicle, Durga is one

of the most spectacular of all personifications of Cosmic Energy. The

tremendous power of the Goddess was poised ready for the grim battle to wipe

out demonic forces, the asuras whose exaggerated ego-sense was destroying the

balance of the universe, and whose sole purpose was to dominate and control. It

was the universal war between knowledge and ignorance, truth and falsehood, the

oppressor and the oppressed.

 

The world shook and the seas trembled as the Goddess engaged the Great Demon

Mahisasura and his hosts in fierce battle, creating her own female battalions

from her sighs breathed during the fighting.

 

 

The Great Goddess first annihilated the army of the titan. Then she roped his

own mighty buffalo-form with a noose. The demon escaped, however, emerging from

the buffalo body in the form of a lion. Immediately, the Goddess beheaded the

lion, whereupon Mahisa, by virtue of his Maya-energy of self-transformation,

escaped again, now in the form of a hero with a sword. Ruthlessly the Goddess

riddled this new embodiment with a shower of arrows. But then the demon stood

before her as an elephant, and with his trunk reached out and seized her. He

dragged her towards him, but she severed the trunk with the stroke of a sword.

The demon returned, now, to his favorite shape-that of the giant buffalo

shaking the universe with the stamping of its hoofs. But the Goddess scornfully

laughed, and again roared with a loud voice of laughter at all his tricks and

devices. Pausing a moment, in full wrath, she lifted to her lips, serenely, a

bowl filled with the inebriating, invigorating, liquor of the divine-life

force, and while she sipped the matchless drink, her eyes turned red.

The buffalo-demon, uprooting mountains with his horns, was flinging them

against her, shouting defiantly at her the while, but with her arrows she was

shattering them to dust. She called out to the shouting monster: "Shout on! Go

on shouting one moment more, you fool, while I sip my fill of this delicious

brew. The gods soon will be crying out for joy, and you shall lie murdered at

my feet. Even while she spoke, the Goddess leapt into the air, and from above

came down on the demon's neck. She dashed him to the earth and sent the trident

through his neck. The adversary attempted once again to abandon the

buffalo-body, issuing from its mouth in the shape of a hero with a sword; but

he had only half emerged when he was caught. He was half inside the buffalo and

half outside, when the Goddess, with a swift and terrific stroke, beheaded him,

and he died. The chief demon Mahisasura was thus dead, and the gods praised the

Goddess, joyfully worshipping her with flowers, incense and fragrant paste:

Thou Ambika [a name of Durga] dost overspread the universe with thy power.

The power of all divine beings is drawn into Thy from.

Thou art Great Mother, worshipped by all divine beings and Sages.

We bow ourselves in devotion to Thee.

Bless us with all that is good for us. We bow before Thee, O Devi,

Thou who art the good fortune of the virtuous,

Ill-fortune in the house of the evil,

Intelligence in the minds of the learned,

Faiths in the hearts of the good,

The modesty of the high born. - Devi Mahatmya The world was at peace again. The

skies cleared, the rivers kept their courses, there was sweet singing and

dancing. The winds blew softly, the sun shone brilliantly, the sacred fires

burned steadily. Strange sounds that had arisen in the various quarters died

away. The departing Durga offered the gods a boon. She promised that as

'Sakambhari' she would nourish the world in time of need with the vegetation

grown from her own body, and that in her 'terrible' form she would deliver her

worshippers from their enemies, and bless them. Then she vanished from the very

spot on which the gods were gazing. Thus the reveries of Mahisa are

exterminated. Into this wondrous male fantasy intrudes the Mother Goddess. She

lures and entices him and, because she represents the power of the unconscious

and the pull downward and backward into the protective womb, the demon

unwittingly plunges into her dangerous orbit. In a throwback to reciprocal

animal mating postures, they dance in mutual desire and dread. Mahisa is forced

into sacred, single combat with the fascinating but enigmatic, dangerous

creature. On the battle stage the disguise of each is penetrated; then the

demon and the Goddess are reduced to their true nature; in the last analysis

they are alike. Finally, like the ancient bull-kings who were themselves royal

sacrifices, fecundators of the earth, bearers of vicarious guilt, hero is

transformed into victim and, having lost his position in heaven, now Mahisa

loses his very life. He is decapitated by the Mother Goddess, and on earth,

paradise is restored, but only temporarily, for the demon inevitably returns to

earth for the eternal cyclical repetition of the entire life process. The myth

is saturated with the potential for violence inherent in the male-female

oppositions. As the story unfolds, the relationship between Mahisa and the

goddess is manifested at many levels: psychologically both demon and goddess

become what the other is, both behave like ferocious animals and one never

knows what will happen in the next instant, as the constant alternations, which

range from the bestial to the divine, are the only reality. Thus each of the

antagonists can be symbolically interpreted as now the monster/dragon, now with

feminine or with masculine attributes. Each can represent justice and power or

evil and danger; and each contributes to the orgiastic disorder necessary for

recreation. The myth thus transcends the male-female alternative, signifying

psychic totality. The condition of the contemporary urban dweller who howls in

fear in the dark as he confronts the bad animal of his nightmare differs little

from the fright syndrome of the jungle dweller, forced into struggle with a live

animal. Until the dreamer awakes, he is in the same situation as his prehistoric

ancestors were. Pervading the deepest levels of the psyche, ready to spring at

random, the residual animal, source of human energies, seeks recognition. The

unfocused, floating primordial imagery, rooted in the biological heritage, is

stabilized in culture. Externalized projections, first structured into dance,

cultish animal rites, orgiastic fertility ceremonies and much later into

literature, art, myth and ritual, provide the camouflage of human

respectability and channel the anxiety into an acceptable form. Left to itself

without organization, animal nature will surely erupt. When left unrecognized

and unattended, under stressful conditions, animal impulses break through in

random fashion, and blind fury re-emerges in full force. As repository for the

archaic residue, Mahisamardini, the Goddess who slays the buffalo, is a

therapeutic symbol. Durga's name literally means "Beyond Reach". This is an

echo of the woman warrior's fierce, virginal autonomy. In fact many of the

figures associated with her are officially virgin. This is not meant in the

limiting sense understood by the patriarchal order, but rather in Esther

Harding's sense: she is "one-in-herself", or as Nor Hall puts it,

"Belonging-to-no-man". As Harding further observed of 'The Virgin Goddess':

'Her divine power does not depend on her relation to a husband-god, and thus

her actions are not dependent on the need to conciliate such a one or to accord

with his qualities and attitudes. For she bears her identity through her own

right.' The disappearance of Durga from the battlefield after the victory over

aggression expressed one of the deepest truths of the episode, for the feminine

action in the cosmic drama is without retentive, ego-seeking ambition. Durga

is linked also with some of the oldest known prayers for humankind's

protection. In the Ramayana, Rama went to Lanka to rescue his abducted wife,

Sita, from the grip of Ravana, the Emperor of Lanka. Before starting for his

battle, Rama aspired for the blessings of Goddess Durga . He came to know that

the Goddess would be pleased if offered one hundred blue lotuses. But after

traversing the whole world, he could gather only ninety-nine. Rama finally

decided to offer one of his own eyes, which resembled blue lotuses. Durga,

being pleased with the devotion of Rama, appeared before him, stopped him from

committing this act and blessed him. In the fierce battle that followed, Rama

was able to annihilate Ravana, thus again triumphed good over evil. To this

day, this day is celebrated as Vijaydashmi (Day of Victory), and Goddess Durga

worshipped all over India. Indeed the Mother Goddess, it is believed, controls

the fate of all. But even though she makes her appearance when the male deities

conglomerate their respective energies, she is, in fact, not 'created' by them.

All her incarnations are the result of her will to be in the world for the

benefit of mankind; she chooses when and how to effect her lilas (play of the

Goddess in the world). In this situation her sudden arrival spells doom for

Mahisa, but only after a protracted interaction during which the confrontations

between animal/demon and Goddess, male and female, son and mother, lover and

beloved, equal combatants, victim and sacrificer, hero and deliverer, are given

due attention as an exploratory venture into the dynamics of the laws of

opposites. Their combat is, in the final analysis, an enactment of a

many-aspected reality, reflecting a mode of thought which perceives seeming

opposites as mere stages in a graduated spectrum of reality which has a minimum

of definite boundaries.

We hope you have enjoyed

reading the article. Any comments or feedback that you

may have will be greatly appreciated. Please send your

feedback to feedback (AT) exoticindia (DOT) com.

This article by Nitin Kumar

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ARTICLE REVIEWS

Thanks for posting the article to my group, Lady of the Bay! Your lesson was

greatly appreciated!- Jennifer B.

Review this article

It was an interesting article in content. Reading other mythological books

certian content seems different and may or may not be true.However the feed

back will become very interesting if you invite readers' experiences in

believing in one of the godesses and thencomparing with the articles'

contents.I for one have believed in Saraswati all my life and is my Ishta Devi.

I have had great bliss from the godess and she has bestowed many boons and near

miracle experiences. Becoause of her my life has been very peaceful, happy and

full. I would llike to hear other experiences.Needless to say whomsoever one

believes it appears that God is one, choose whatever name and form- S.Shah

Review this article

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