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Kali is a form of Durga, she is black and has a different identity in which she is portrayed with one of the more fiercest symblos that no other Hindu Goddess have. She is portrayed wearing a girdle of severed human hands, a garland of human skull heads representing the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet or a garland or flowers, for her clothing, she wears tiger skin like Lord Shiva. She now has three eyes that symbolizes past, present and future and sometimes, when she gets too furious, her eyes looked bright red. She has two dead heads for her earrings. According to another tale, when Kali was so hyper on her demon-destroying spree, Lord Shiva then came and laid down on her path. When Kali put her right foot on Shiva, she stuck out her tongue to show the world how much blood she drank from the demons. She is often shown having four hands holding scimitar, demon head, trident and container, and often trident, sword or iron weapon and thorn like weapon made out of thorns, often she is portrayed having four hands holding scimitar or sword in the left hands and a severed demon head in upper and lower left hands while the remaining two on the right are the hand gestures of boon-conferrings and fear-dispellings. According to one story, Durga summoned Kali to destroy a great demon named Raktabeej for an extremely big bloodshed war of demons, he had clones to mutiply his blood from falling on a ground and creating a new duplicate of Raktabeej. This problem was solved when one of the Goddesses killed Raktabeej and Kali drank his blood. Kali is the consort of Lord Shiva, she sits beside him and has two hands often wearing ornaments and often a crown. While Shiva's complexion is pure gold, Kali's complexion is light blue. Kali has disheveled hair flowing wildly while Shiva's hair is locked. She is nice to good and wrathful to evil and she has fierce protruding teeth and two tusks protruding from her mouth. |
Kali is a form of Durga, she is black and has a different identity in which she is portrayed with one of the more fiercest symblos that no other Hindu Goddess have. She is portrayed wearing a girdle of severed human hands, a garland of human skull heads representing the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet or a garland or flowers, for her clothing, she wears tiger skin like Lord Shiva. She now has three eyes that symbolizes past, present and future and sometimes, when she gets too furious, her eyes looked bright red. She has two dead heads for her earrings. According to another tale, when Kali was so hyper on her demon-destroying spree, Lord Shiva then came and laid down on her path. When Kali put her right foot on Shiva, she stuck out her tongue to show the world how much blood she drank from the demons. She is often shown having four hands holding scimitar, demon head, trident and container, and often trident, sword or iron weapon and thorn like weapon made out of thorns, often she is portrayed having four hands holding scimitar or sword in the left hands and a severed demon head in upper and lower left hands while the remaining two on the right are the hand gestures of boon-conferrings and fear-dispellings. According to one story, Durga summoned Kali to destroy a great demon named Raktabeej for an extremely big bloodshed war of demons, he had clones to mutiply his blood from falling on a ground and creating a new duplicate of Raktabeej. This problem was solved when one of the Goddesses killed Raktabeej and Kali drank his blood. Kali is the consort of Lord Shiva, she sits beside him and has two hands often wearing ornaments and often a crown. While Shiva's complexion is pure gold, Kali's complexion is light blue. Kali has disheveled hair flowing wildly while Shiva's hair is locked. She is nice to good and wrathful to evil and she has fierce protruding teeth and two tusks protruding from her mouth. |
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==Forms of Durga== |
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The forms of Durga are Kali, Tara Devi, Shitala Devi, Kaushiki, Satakshi, Shakambhari, Shanta Durga, Muthyalamma, Rudrani, Kaal Ratri, Katyayani, Bhairavi, Maha Gauri, Chandi, Bhadrakali, Shivadooti, Chamundeshwari, Ekanamsha, Chandraghanta, Harsiddhi, Aparajita, Maha Durga, Modeshwari and Vindhyavasini. |
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==Worship== |
==Worship== |
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{{Main|Durga Puja}} |
{{Main|Durga Puja}} |
Revision as of 03:46, 22 September 2013
Durga | |
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Devanagari | दुर्गा |
Goddess Durga (Hindustani pronunciation: [d̪uːrgaː]; Sanskrit: दुर्गा), meaning "the inaccessible"[1] or "the invincible"; durga) is the most popular incarnation of Devi and one of the forms of Goddess Shakti, a partial incarnation of Parvati. For Shaivas Durga is the wife of Shiva, for Vaishnavas and Shaktas Durga is another form of Uma or Parvati. Durga is often known as the Mother of the universe and believed to be the power behind the work of creation, preservation, and destruction of the world. Since time immemorial she has been worshipped as the supreme power of the Supreme Being and has been mentioned in many scriptures - Yajur Ved, Vajasaneyi Samhita and Taittareya Brahman. The word Durga in Sanskrit means a fort, or a place which is difficult to overrun. Another meaning of Durga is Durgatinashini, which literally translates into the one who eliminates sufferings and the name Durga means invincible in Sanskrit. the syllable Du is synominous with the four devils of poverty, sufferings, famine and evil habits. The R refers to diseases and the Ga is the destroyer of sins, injustice, irreligion, cruelty and laziness. Thus, Hindus believe that Goddess Durga protects her devotees from the evils of the world and at the same time removes their miseries. There are several incarnations/forms of Durga: Kali, Tara Devi, Shitala Devi, Kaushiki, Satakshi, Shakambhari, Shanta Durga, Muthyalamma, Rudrani, Kaal Ratri, Katyayani, Bhairavi, Maha Gauri, Chandi, Bhadrakali, Shivadooti, Chamundeshwari, Ekanamsha, Chandraghanta, Harsiddhi, Aparajita, Maha Durga, Modeshwari and Vindhyavasini. The Hindu Goddess Durga manifested herself as when evil forces threatened the very existence of all the Gods. To destroy these demons, the united power of all the Gods, who offered her the required physical attributes to her creation and each formed a part of Durga's body. Durga also obtained very powerful weapons such as a conch shell in Durga's hand symbolizes the Pranav or the spritual word Om, which indicates her holding on to God in the form of sound. The bow and arrows represent energy. By holding both the bow and arrows in one hand Mother Goddess Durga is indicating her control over both aspects of energy - potential and kinetic. The thunderbolt signifies firmness. The devotee of Mother Durga must be firm like thunderbolt in one's convictions. Like the thunderbolt that can break anything against which it strikes, without being affected itself, the devotee needs to attack a challenge without losing his confidence. The lotus in Durga's hand is not in fully bloomed, It symbolizing certainty of success but not finality. The lotus in Sanskrit is called pankaj which means born of mud. Thus, lotus stands for the continuous evolution of the spiritual quality of devotees amidst the worldly mud of lust and greed. The beautiful discus, which spins around the index finger of the Goddess, while not touching it, signifies that the entire world is subservient to the will of Durga and is at her command. She uses this unfailing weapon to destroy evil and produce an environment conducive to the growth of righteousness. The sword that Durga holds in one of her hands symbolizes knowledge, which has the sharpness of a sword. Knowledge which is free from all doubts, is symbolized by the shine of the sword. Durga's trident is a symbol of three qualities- Sattva (inactivity), Rajas (activity) and Tamas (non-activity)- and she is remover of all the three types of miseries- physical, mental and mystical, the mace has a pointy end at the top and it is extremely golden, the battle-axe she holds is used to chop demon heads off, the scimitar is also symbolized as knowledge with a pointy top on the end to chop demon heads off as well, the bell she holds is used to ring in many directions to call the demons, the elephant goad she holds symbolizes her son Ganesh with a pointy top on the end, the container she holds is extremely golden, the shield she holds is extremely gold as well but sometimes dark, the baton she holds is to smack demons in the face, the lasso or noose that she holds is to tie the demons up, the spear she holds symbolizes sharpness and the snake that she holds does not harm Goddess Durga, the snake is also the energy of Lord Shiva and Mother Durga. She also destroyed Mahishasur and his fellow demons. Demonic forces are self-destructive but very powerful. Divine forces are constructive but slow and efficent. When demonic forces create imbalance, all Gods unite, becoming one divine force called Shakti or Durga. Her nine forms are Kushmanda, Shailputri, Brahmacharini, Skand Mata, Maha Gauri, Chandraghanta, Kaal Ratri, Katyayani and Siddhidatri. Durga is depicted as having eight hands, ten hands or eighteen hands. These represent eight quadrants, ten or even eighteen directions in Hinduism. This suggests that she protects the devotees from all directions. Like Lord Shiva, Ma Durga is also referred to as Triyambike meaning the three eyed Goddess. The left eye represents desire (the moon), the right eye represents action (the sun), and the central eye knowledge (fire). The lion/tiger represents power, will and determination. Maa Durga riding the lion/tiger symbolises her mastery over all these qualities. This suggests to the devotee that one has to possess all these qualities to get over the demon of ego. Mata Durga stands on a lion/tiger in a fearless pose.
Origins and evolution
Ramprasad Chanda writes the following about the evolution of Durga from primitive goddess to her current form.[2]
- "...it is possible to distinguish two different strata — one primitive and the other advanced. The primitive form of Durga is the result of syncretism of a mountain-goddess worshiped by the dwellers of the Himalaya and the Vindhyas, a goddess worshiped by the nomadic Abhira shepherd, the vegetation spirit conceived as a female, and a war-goddess. As her votaries advanced in civilization the primitive war-goddess was transformed into the personification of the all-destroying time (Kali), the vegetation spirit into the primordial energy (Adya Sakti) and the saviouress from “samsara” (cycle of rebirths) , and gradually brought into line with the Brahmanic mythology and philosophy."
History
The word Durga literally means 'inaccessible'. Durga according to the Rig Veda, is the Primodial source of energy, who has produced the universe, even the substratum above the Supreme 'Brahman' and is actually a manifestation of 'Brahman' himself. Her energy pervades the entire universe and moves along with 12 Adityas, 11 Rudras and 8 Vasus (who are the primary Gods of the universe). Durga, is the Goddess, the mother of the creation and the giver of boons of all kinds. Such description of the Goddess, or her "Atma-Parichay" is found in the 10th Mandal of the Rig Veda. According to Devi Mahatmyam in Markandeya Puran, composed by the great poet-sage Ved-Vyasa, himself, there is the entire account of the physical expression of the "Formless Energy" or Adi Shakti from the combined powers of the Trinity and all other Gods and the annihilation of demonic forces disrupting natural functioning of the cosmos. The account starts with the cosmic man - Lord Vishnu, lying motionless on his Sheshnaag bed during apocalypse. Slowly the creator Brahma emerged from his navel but was immediately challenged by two demons Madhu and Kaitabh, who emerged from the earwax of Lord Vishnu's ears. Brahma, seeing the Supreme God sleeping, under the spell of his own energy 'Mahamaya', prayed to the Goddess to leave Narayan's body and awaken him. Hearing his prayers, the Goddess left the body of Lord Vishnu, who in turn, severed the heads of the demons and thus Brahma began the process of creation. The second phase begins with Mahishasur, a wicked Demon King, receiving boons of Form-shifting from Brahma. With these magical powers he manages to defeat Indra's army and capture the heavens. Defeated Indra, along with all other deities of Fire, Sun, Waters and Earth approached Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh, the Supreme Trinity, who are manifestations of the Supreme God, engaged in creating, preserving, destroying and recreating the cosmos. The Trinity, were also discussing the reign of terror of the tyrant Mahishasur, seated in Vaikunth, the Supreme Abode, when the helpless deities approached them. The Trinity, got enraged thus and emitted all their energy. Similarly solar deities, deities of Fire and Water, deities of Earth and Death and all other Gods emitted fierce beams of energy. All the emitted Energies pervaded the entire universe like a mountain of light and coalesced to give form to the Primodial source of energy, Maha Shakti or Durga. The Almighty Goddess thus evolved received gifts of weapons from the Gods and roared in laughter. The earth shook, clouds struck lightning that caused storms and forest fires. Mahishasur understood that his time of death had come and gathered all his army to fight the Goddess. The Almighty Goddess appeared in a fierce beam of light and breathed an army of divine warriors, who gave the army of Mahishasur tough fight. The Goddess hurled her weapons on the demonic forces, and then rode fiercely on her vehicle Lion, killing demons in all directions. She hurled mountains and stones on the generals Chiksur, Chamar, Baskal etc and mutilated them with her trident. Mahishasur changed forms and attacked the Goddess, in forms of buffalo, elephant, wicked man and lion and each time Durga defeated him. However, Mahishasur's arrogance angered her and she roared "Roar, Oh ignorant demon, till I drink my potion, once I'm done, I'll bring your end and the Gods then would roar similarly." While saying this, she pounced on buffalo demon, subdued his neck with her feet and hurled her trident at him. Stunned by the terrible energy of the almighty, the demon unable to bear her feet on his neck, started emerging from the mouth of the buffalo. The Goddess immediately chopped his head off with a scimitar and he fell dead. Thus, Durga freed Mahishasur and his accomplices from the sin of tyranny and cleansed them with her weapons. The third phase narrates, how King of Gods, Indra being defeated by demons Shumbh and Nishumbh approached Shiva and Parvati, the parents of the universe and Goddess Parvati, an incarnation of the Supreme Goddess herself, gave birth to Goddess Ambika or Kaushiki from her body cell. The Goddess Durga thus took form as Ambika, the beautiful divine energy. Lured by her celestial beauty, demons Shumbh and Nishumbh, send a marriage proposal to her, to which she replied, "Only a man who can defeat me in war will be accepted by me as my Husband." The demons, enraged sent General Dhumralochan, who could emit chocking fumes, to capture and bring the Goddess. The Goddess breathed fire and charred the general and her vehicle, the giant Lion killed and devoured the demonic army. The demon Kings now sent, wicked demons Chand-Mund, to capture the Goddess, who in turn, transformed into dark energy, Kali and started devouring the demons, with their vehicles, and beheaded Chand-Mund. Raktabeej, a magical giant, was sent to capture the Goddess. The Goddess transformed herself into multiple forms, Brahmani, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrani, Narasinghi, Shivadooti and Chamunda. They all started devouring the demonic armies. Raktabeej challenged the Goddesses and a terrible fight started. The magical demon had the capacity to regenerate from his own blood. So Goddess Ambika requested Goddess Chamunda to devour the demon's blood along with the regenerated demons. Thus all were killed and Shumbh-Nishumbh were alone left to fight the Goddesses. Goddesses combined again into one Ambika and she fought and killed the demon kings with her trident. The deities thanked the Goddess and she promised that she will re-incarnate whenever there is a disturbance due to demonic forces in the cosmos.
Origin of Durga/Mahishasur Vadh
After the death of Tarakasur by Shiva's son Kartikeya, the demon brothers Rambh and Karambh came on the throne of the netherlands. Their Mother Danu instructed them to do penance and obtain desired boons. Hence, Rambh and Karambh did penance to please Agni and Varun (Fire/Water) respectively. Rambh started doing penance in Agni chakra whereas Karambh was being half immersed in river water while doing penance. Lord Indra took disguise of a crocodile and killed Karambh while Rambh successfully comepletely his penance and got a boon from Agni that he will obtain a extremely powerful son, who will rule over the three worlds in this universe. Rambh fell in love with Mahishi (buffalo woman) and got married to her. Mahishi soon got pregnant by Rambh. once her lover, a Mahish, tried to abduct her. Rambh came in forefront to protect his wife. It happened so that Rambh got killed by the Mahish. In the cremation process of Rambh, Mahishi jumped into the fire, to sacrifice her life to express her love for her husband. Hence, Yama was stopped from taking away the soul of Rambh. Hence, Rambh got retained into the womb of Mahishi. Hence, from cremation fire, emerged two demons namely Raktabeej (rebirth of Rambh) and Mahishasur (the child of Rambh). Mahishasur also did penance and obtained a boon from Lord Brahma, that he won't be killed by any man. Mahishasur thought that he has obtained immortality indirectly by this boon as according to him, a lady would never be able to kill a powerful demon like him. At the same time, while Mahishasur was doing penance, Parvati too started with a penance to get rid of her dark complexion, which was developed over her fair skin, due the penance she had done to obtain Lord Shiva as her husband. While she was engrossed in her penance, Shiva came upto her and washed off her face with the water of Ganga (Ganges), due to which, Parvati's dark complexion shedded from her and got accumulalted over the plants present there. In this way, Parvati justified her name Maha Gauri. The very place where she had shedded her dark complexion was the place, where Rishi Katyayan's wife used to do gardening and used the same plantations for cooking purpose. In course of time, Narayani got pregnant. At the same time, Mahishasur reached the peak of evilness by mercilessly killing human beings, who doing worship of gods. All the Gods including Indra, Varun, etc and also Shiva and Brahma gathered at the Vishnu's realm to seek help from the protector of the world as to what could be done. Lord Vishnu (protector) instructed all the gods to combine their powers. The combination of the powers of all Gods including Trinity, Indra, etc fell upon Mars. The planet Mars directed that combination of that powers to Katyayan's child who was about to take birth, as it's ruling planet was Mars. Narayani gave birth to a girl who was named as Katyayani being the daughter of sage Katyayan. She was the incarnation of Mahalakshmi as she had the powers of all Gods and those powers were nothing but brightness and the beej mantra was 'Hreem'. She was so powerful and independent that as she grew up, she started living in the forest Madamba Kadamba. The only thing that was missing was beauty as she was born from the dark cell of Parvati. But as she grew up, all the Gods started praying to her (Mahalakshmi) and gathered near her. The Sea God presented her various ornaments, jewelleries, beautiful look, a beautiful crown to wear. All the Gods presented her with the clone of therr weapons like Lord Vishnu gave a clone of his discus, Lord Shiva gave trident, etc. In this way, she had to develop eighteen hands to hold all the weapons presented by various male Gods. Hence, she came to be known as eighteen-handed Mahalakshmi. Himavan, father of Parvati, present a Lion to Goddess Katyayani to ride upon. Soon the battle between Goddess Katyayani and demons army started. She created the same number of female warriors to fight the male demons army. Finally, her army won over the demon army and Katyayani herself killed many demons like Shichsur, Asiloma, Vidhan, Vashkaal, Ugrasen, Ramchandi etc. Finally, Mahishasur came in forefront to battle the Goddess. Mahishasur failed to battle with the Goddess without using his supernatural powers, which he had to use. Finally he kept changing form from lion to elephant to buffalo. At last, Goddess removed ornaments, removed all pure attributes and transformed into Chandi (with ten arms, not eighteen) and killed Mahishasur. She promised all the Gods mainly Indra that she will reappear at the time, when they needed her again. Afterwhich, she fused back into Parvati's body.
Killer of Shumbh and Nishumbh
After the death of Mahishasur, Shumbh and Nishumbh did penance to Lord Brahma, Brahma blessed them the boon of being killed by a woman, Shumbh and Nishumbh were crowned Kings and have attained supernatural powers and have also created an army. Lord Indra knew about Shumbh and Nishumbh's powers and has also sent in a large army against Shumbh and Nishumbh's army. The battle commenced between the demon brothers and Lord Indra who was fighting all alone with the demon brothers. Meanwhile, the demon army has destroyed all of the armies of Lord Indra. The Gods then gave the heavens to the demons, especially Shumbh and Nishumbh. The Gods then went to the Kailash Mountains and prayed to Parvati to destroy Shumbh and Nishumbh, Parvati became furious and she created an all-powerful Goddess by the name of Ambika, she has eight hands holding weapons and promises the Gods that she will destroy Shumbh and Nishumbh. Shumbh and Nishumbh were also associated by other demons like Dhumralochan, Chand-Mund, Raktabeej and Demon Messenger Sugriv. Goddess Parvati promises Ambika that later she will have to kill an endless army, other Goddesses will be assisting her. Ambika went to the forest and made trouble for the demons up in the heavens, Shumbh sent Demon-Messenger Sugriv to go see who's making trouble for Shumbh and Nishumbh. Sugriv came to the forest and saw Ambika, he was mesmerized by her beauty and asked her politely, in a kind, respectful and sweet voice to come to Shumbh and Nishumbh at the heavens. Ambika told him that she will marry the one who defeats her in a war. Sugriv understands, he tries to make her understand and convinces her but he fails. Sugriv conveys this to Shumbh and Nishumbh back at heaven, they were very angry and sent Dhumralochan and his army to get Ambika at heaven with force. Later, the demon soldiers of Dhumralochan were singing his praises. Ambika heard this, she took her warrior form having the same wearing a red saree and has eight hands holding weapons. She came to the battlefield and spotted Dhumralochan and his army. Dhumralochan's army attacked Ambika with their weapons. Ambika attacked them back with their own. Until it was finally time when Ambika was very angry and from the flames of her anger of her mouth and her third eye incinerated Dhumralochan and his army. The Gods congratulated Ambika on killing Dhumralochan and his army. Shumbh and Nishumbh came to know about Dhumralochan's death and, they were angry at this and sent Chand and Mund to kill Ambika. Chand is the brother of Mund, who has his head always banging from right to left and left to right. Meanwhile, the saints and Gods did prayers to Ambika to kill the demons and to give back Indra's heaven. The demons of Shumbh and Nishumbh reached earth and tried to kill the Gods and saints. Ambika appeared in her warrior form and killed the sent demons of Shumbh and Nishumbh. Chand and Mund came to Ambika with their soldiers. On seeing the uncountable number of soldiers, Ambika called upon Parvati to assist her on the battlefield and she appeared on the battlefield in the form of Jagadamba, their third eyes started to emit fire and took the shape of a new Goddess. The newborn Goddess had terrible appearance, which is: She is portrayed wearing a girdle of severed human hands, a garland of human skull heads representing the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet or a garland or flowers, for her clothing, she wears tiger skin like Lord Shiva. She has three eyes that symbolizes past, present and future and sometimes, when she gets too furious, her eyes looked bright red. She has two dead heads for her earrings. She is often shown having four hands holding scimitar, demon head, trident and container, and often trident, sword or iron weapon and thorn like weapon made out of thorns, often she is portrayed having four hands holding scimitar or sword in the left hands and a severed demon head in upper and lower left hands while the remaining two on the right are the hand gestures of boon-conferrings and fear-dispellings. And now she has sharp claws like a lioness. She started to attack the demons by blowing a storm out of her mouth, turning them into ashes (burning them alive), beheading their heads, decapitating them by eating their skin alive, eating them alive, scratching them, choking them, stabbing their chests, drinking their blood, breaking their bones, breaking their necks, twisting their hands and legs and swinging them away. When Chand and Mund's army was gone, she beheaded them and presented them to Ambika and Jagadamba. They both gave the Goddess's name as Kali Chamunda now because she killed Chand and Mund. Shumbh and Nishumbh has gotten new news about the killing of Chand and Mund and their army. They were very angry and sent a new demon called Raktabeej, he has accumulated from the Gods. Meanwhile, Goddess Durga appeared to Jagadamba, Kali and Ambika. She learnt about Raktabeej and there is a big war of bloodshed, to provide the Goddesses extra power, she created nine Goddesses by the names of Brahmani, Maheshwari, Kumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Narasinghi, Indrani, Shivadooti (Ambika) and Chamunda. All holding weapons or not holding weapons, riding a swan, bull, peacock, eagle, ram, lion, jackal, lion, tiger, owl or corpse. Durga created one more Goddess, by the name of Chandika. When Raktabeej came with his army, he was terrified seeing the 14 Goddesses, so was his army. Kumari cut off Raktabeej's head, but whatever the drop of Raktabeej's blood falls to the ground, another new Raktabeej arose, the 12 other Goddesses, even Durga and Ambika tried but no use. Jagadamba assigned Kali to drink the blood of Raktabeej prohibiting it from falling on the ground. Jagadamba pierced her trident in his chest and Kali widened her tongue to an incredible size and ate the demons and Raktabeej up. All other Goddesses praised her. Jagadamba retransformed herself into Parvati. She told the Matrikas to go inside Ambika's body then inside Chandika into Durga's body and then Durga's into Parvati's after the death of Shumbh and Nishumbh. Back at heaven, Shumbh was having a nightmare in which Dhumralochan, Chand-Mund and Raktabeej kidnapped a beauty. The beauty became Parvati and choked Shumbh's neck so hard. Nishumbh was in control of the throne and got the news of Raktabeej's death. Later, after Shumbh's naptime, Ambika and Kali were on their own. Shumbh and Nishumbh came with a final large army. Kali killed the army and Ambika killed Shumbh and Nishumbh. The Gods were very happy and expressed their gratitude.
Origin of Satakshi/Shakambhari, Killer of Durgasur
In Hinduism, Satakshi/Shakambhari is an incarnation of Ishwari (Goddess Durga), consort to Lord Shiva. She is the divine mother, called "The Bearer of the Waters and Greens." In Hinduism any vegetarian item is considered as the Prasad of Shakambhari Devi. Shakam means food and Bhari means nourish. The demon Durgasur had acquired all four books of total knowledge (The Vedas - Rig, Yajur, Atharva, Sam) from Lord Brahma through penance and the three worlds. He also received a boon from Lord Brahma that caused all the worships, rituals, prayers, venerations, offerings and oblations that were offered to the Gods to reach him instead, making him invincible. Durgasur became very arrogant and started tormenting the whole world. As a consequence, it did not rain for one hundred years and the whole world was hit by a very severe drought. Durgasur took away all the foods and the world became barren. The took refuge in the caves of the Himavan, and meditated upon the Supreme Goddess, Parvati. She appeared in front of them bearing such a wonderful and unbelievable form. She had countless eyes that gave her the name Satakshi, and was carrying grains, cereals, vegetables, greens, fruits, herbs etc and because of this, she was being called by a second name Shakambhari. The Goddess was so moved by their plight that tears rolled down from her eyes for nine continuous days and nights. The tears became a river, which ended the drought, she presented grains, cereals, vegetables, greens, fruits and herbs that grew in seconds. The Gods, saints, sages, celestial beings, Yakshs, Yakshinis, men, women and children then requested her to recover the Vedas, which were in possession of Durgasur. Durgasur discovered through his messengers that people were living happily and immediately sent in a very large army. The Goddess protected the Gods, saints, sages, celestial beings, Yakshs, Yakshinis, men, women and children by putting up a huge wall of fire around them, and then let her discus hover around it. There ensued a tremendous battle between the Goddess and Durgasur. Goddess Satakshi/Shakambhari took the form of Goddess Durga, the nine Matrikas appeared from her, namely Brahmani, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Narasinghi, Indrani, Shivadooti and Chamunda, for extra help, the Nava Durgas also appeared from her namely Shailputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skand Mata, Katyayani, Kaal Ratri, Maha Gauri and Siddhidatri, Goddess Lakshmi knew about this and created eight Goddesses of her own namely Adi Lakshmi, Dhan Lakshmi, Dhanya Lakshmi, Gaj Lakshmi, Santan Lakshmi, Veer Lakshmi, Vidya Lakshmi and Vijay Lakshmi. Again, the ten wisdoms appeared from Durga again namely Kali (Mahavidya), Tara (Devi), Shodashi (Lalita-Tripur Sundari), Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagla Mukhi, Matangi and Kamala. There were four groups of each form groups like the Mahavidyas co-operating with the Nava Durga, so that's two, the Matrikas co-operating with the Ashta Lakshmis so that's another two, the 36 Goddesses in mixed-up two co-operating groups fought the huge army of Durgasur, Goddess Saraswati came to know about this and appeared in her warrior form as Maha Saraswati to help which makes a total of 37 war Goddesses. The Gods, saints, sages, celestial beings, Yakshs, Yakshinis, men, women and children watched ashtonished during the furious war between the army of Durgasur and the spiritual groups of Goddess armies, Matrikas, Nava Durgas, Ashta Lakshmi and Mahavidyas together destroyed the huge armies of Durgasur. The Matrikas, Mahavidyas and Nava Durgas went back into Durga's body and the Ashta Lakshmi went back into Lakshmi and she vanished away with Saraswati. Goddess Durga fought with Durgasur and killed him with her trident and recovered the Vedas from his possession. At that very moment all the chants and japas that the Gods, saints, sages, celestial beings, Yakshs, Yakshinis, men, women and children had performed earlier but had been absorbed by the demon. Durgasur transformed into the bright light of a 10,000 suns and entered the Devi. She then handed over the Vedas to the deities. Ishwari is also known as Durga because she killed the demon Durgasur. The story of Satakshi/Shakambhari is told in Chapter 28 of the Devi Bhagawati Puran, titled, "On the glory of Satakshi/Shakambhari Devi". Also, in the Devi Mahatmyam, her story is told in Chapter 11and in the secret of the manifestations an addendum to the Devi Mahatmyam.
Durga outwits a demon
Durga is one among the manifestations of Goddess Shakti. As Durga/Kali, she controls the Tamas Guna of the primodial matter and nature. Durga assumed the form of Yog Maya (Goddess presiding over primodial matter and nature). In the Dwapar Yug, when Lord Vishnu incarnated as Krishna, Yog Maya too manifested as Durga. It was Yog Maya who had transferred Shesh Naag (many snake-faced) from the womb of Devaki to the womb of Rohini, facilitating the descent of the Lord (as Krishna). The same Yog Maya then manifested bearing the name Durga (as the baby of Yashoda) when Lord Krishna had incarnated as the son of Devaki. Yog Maya (as the controller of the darkness and ignorance) had put the guards of Kansa to sleep or a state of trance (when Vasudev manifested as little Krishna in Kansa’s prison) to facilitate the safe passage of Vasudev (carrying little Krishna) towards Nandavraj! She (Durga in the baby form) was brought (from Nandavraj) to Devaki by Vasudev, replacing Krishna. Presuming her to be the eighth child of Devaki, Kansa rushed to thrash her against a rock! Escapingly, she sprang up to the sky! Assuming her eight-armed cosmic form; warned Kansa of his destruction, before she disappeared adding to the fears of Kansa. It is by this way Durga (a manifestation of Goddess Shakti) came to be known as Krishna’s sister! One can get into the sequence of this background from the readings of Shrimad Bhagavat Puran.
Relationship with Kali
Kali is a form of Durga, she is black and has a different identity in which she is portrayed with one of the more fiercest symblos that no other Hindu Goddess have. She is portrayed wearing a girdle of severed human hands, a garland of human skull heads representing the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet or a garland or flowers, for her clothing, she wears tiger skin like Lord Shiva. She now has three eyes that symbolizes past, present and future and sometimes, when she gets too furious, her eyes looked bright red. She has two dead heads for her earrings. According to another tale, when Kali was so hyper on her demon-destroying spree, Lord Shiva then came and laid down on her path. When Kali put her right foot on Shiva, she stuck out her tongue to show the world how much blood she drank from the demons. She is often shown having four hands holding scimitar, demon head, trident and container, and often trident, sword or iron weapon and thorn like weapon made out of thorns, often she is portrayed having four hands holding scimitar or sword in the left hands and a severed demon head in upper and lower left hands while the remaining two on the right are the hand gestures of boon-conferrings and fear-dispellings. According to one story, Durga summoned Kali to destroy a great demon named Raktabeej for an extremely big bloodshed war of demons, he had clones to mutiply his blood from falling on a ground and creating a new duplicate of Raktabeej. This problem was solved when one of the Goddesses killed Raktabeej and Kali drank his blood. Kali is the consort of Lord Shiva, she sits beside him and has two hands often wearing ornaments and often a crown. While Shiva's complexion is pure gold, Kali's complexion is light blue. Kali has disheveled hair flowing wildly while Shiva's hair is locked. She is nice to good and wrathful to evil and she has fierce protruding teeth and two tusks protruding from her mouth.
Forms of Durga
The forms of Durga are Kali, Tara Devi, Shitala Devi, Kaushiki, Satakshi, Shakambhari, Shanta Durga, Muthyalamma, Rudrani, Kaal Ratri, Katyayani, Bhairavi, Maha Gauri, Chandi, Bhadrakali, Shivadooti, Chamundeshwari, Ekanamsha, Chandraghanta, Harsiddhi, Aparajita, Maha Durga, Modeshwari and Vindhyavasini.
Worship
The four-day-long (Saptami to Dashami) Durga Puja is the biggest annual festival in Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Nepal, where it is known as Dashain. It is celebrated likewise with much fervour in various parts of India, especially the Himalayan region, but is celebrated in various forms throughout the Hindu universe.
The day of Durga's victory is celebrated as Vijayadashami (Bihar, Bengali), Dashain (Nepali) or Dussehra (Hindi) - these words literally mean "the Victory Tenth" (day).[3]
In Kashmir she is worshipped as shaarika (the main temple is in Hari Parbat in Srinagar).
The actual period of the worship however may be on the preceding nine days (Navaratri) followed by the last day called Vijayadashami in North India or five days in Bengal (from the sixth to tenth day of the waxing-moon fortnight). Nine aspects of Durga known as Navadurga are meditated upon, one by one during the nine-day festival by devout Shakti worshippers. In South India especially Andhra Pradesh Dussera Navaratri is also celebrated and the goddess is dressed each day as a different devi like Saraswati, Parvati, Laksmi etc. for the nine days.
In North India, the tenth day, is celebrated as Dussehra, the day Rama emerged victorious in his battle against the demon, Ravana - gigantic straw effigies of Ravana are burnt in designated open spaces (e.g. Delhi's Ram Lila grounds), watched by thousands of families and little children.
In Mysore (which originated from Mahishasooru) in Karnataka, she is worshiped as Chamundeshwari, the patron goddess of the city during Dussehra (Dasara).
In Gujarat it is celebrated as the last day of Navaratri, during which the Garba dance is performed to celebrate the victory of Mahishasura-mardini, Durga.
The Goddess Durga is worshipped in her peaceful form as Maha Gauri, The Fair Lady, Shree Shantadurga also known as Santeri, is the patron Goddess of Goa. She is worshipped by all Goan Hindus.
In Maharashtra, Tulja Bhavani and Ambabai are worshipped as Mahishasur Mardini, who is the patron goddess of the land. Bhavani is known as Tulaja, Amba, Renuka, Yamai Saptshrungi and Jogai in different places of Maharashtra. She is the inspirational goddess of Raja Shivaji. As per legends, Bhavani appeared after Shivaji prayed to her and blessed him to be able to make Hindustan or the then India (ruled by the Mughals) independent - the kingdom he established eventually became the Hindu Pad Padshahi (sometimes also called the Maratha Empire), which comprised all the land ruled by the Mughals and brought India back under Hindu sovereignty.
In Bangladesh also, the four-day long Sharadiya Durga Puja (Bengali: শারদীয়া দুর্গা পুজো, ‘autumnal Durga worship’) is the biggest religious festivals for the Hindus and celebrated across the country with Vijayadashami being a national holiday.
Western references
Some early Western accounts refer to a deity known as Deumus, Demus or Deumo. Western (Portuguese) sailors first came face to face with the murti of Deumus at Calicut on the Malabar Coast and they concluded it to be the deity of Calicut. Deumus is sometimes interpreted as an aspect of Durga in Hindu mythology and sometimes as deva.
It is described that the ruler of Calicut (Zamorin) had a murti of Deumus in his temple inside his royal palace.[4][5] The temple was two paces wide in each of the four sides and three paces high, with a wooden door covered with gods carved in relief. At the centre of the temple, there was a metal idol of Deumus placed in a seat, which was also made of metal.
Western accounts also describe the ruler of Calicut worshiping an ultimate god called Tamerani ("Tamburan"). The accounts also describes a misunderstood form of the "hook-swinging" ritual once commonly performed as part of some popular Hindu religious festivals.
Notable temples of Durga
In India
- Shitla Mata temple at Patna Bihar
- Vindhyachal temple near Varanasi
- Kalka Mandir, near Nehru Place, New Delhi.
- Shitla Mata temple at Gurgaon Haryana
- Bala Sundari Temple Trilokpur in District Sirmaur Himachal Pradesh
- Shoolini devi temple at Solan Himachal Pradesh
- Bahu Fort Temple in Jammu
- Bala Sundri Temple in Billawar Jammu
- ChiChi Mata Temple in Jammu
- Kol Kandoli Temple in Jammu
- Mahamaya Temple in Jammu
- Sukrala Mata Temple in Jammu
- Vaishno Devi Temple in Katra Jammu
- Chamundeshwari Temple, Mysore Karnataka
- Kateel Durgaparameshwari Temple, near Mangalore, Karnataka
- Kollur Sri mookambika Temple, near Udupi, Karnataka
- Adichikkavu Sree Durga Devi Kshetram, Pandanad, Kerala
- Ammathiruvadi Temple, Thrissur, Kerala, India
- Vengoor Sree Durga Devi Temple, near Perumbavoor- Kerala[6]
- Biraja Temple, Jajpur, Odisha
- Durga Temple, Baideshwar, Odisha
- Katak Chandi Temple, Cuttack, Odisha
- Kichakeshwari Temple, Odisha
- Manikeshwari Temple, Bhawanipatna, Odisha.
- Ambika Mata Temple in the village of Jagat near Mount Abu in Rajasthan
- Shila Devi temple at Amber, Jaipur, Rajasthan
- Kanak Durga Temple, Chikligarh, Medinipur, West Bengal
- Nava Durga Temple, Kolkata, West Bengal[7]
- Tarakeswar, Hooghly District, West Bengal
- Tarapith, Birbhum, West Bengal
Outside India
- Dhakeshwari Temple in Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Prambanan Temple, Indonesia
- Sri Santha Durga Devi Army Camp in Sungai Petani, Malaysia
- Sri Thurgha Parameswary Amman Alayam, Kampung Tumbuk Pantai, Tanjong Sepat,in Selangor, Malaysia
In her aspect of Kali
Once, Durga took the form of Kali having a different indentity, which is a girdle of severed human hands, a garland of human skull heads representing the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet or a garland or flowers, for her clothing, she wears tiger skin like Lord Shiva. She now has three eyes that symbolizes past, present and future and sometimes, when she gets too furious, her eyes looked bright red. She has two dead heads for her earrings.
- Belur Math, Kolkata, West Bengal
- Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Kolkata, West Bengal
- Kalighat, Kolkata, West Bengal
See also
References
- ^ "Durga,". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved October 7, 2009.
- ^ McDaniel, June (2004). Offering Flowers, Feeding Skulls: Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516791-0. Pp. 214.
- ^ Esposito, John L. (2007). Religion & globalization: world religions in historical perspective. Oxford University Press. p. 341. ISBN 0-19-517695-2.
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suggested) (help) - ^ Jörg Breu d. Ä. zugeschrieben, Idol von Calicut, in: Ludovico de Varthema, 'Die Ritterlich und lobwürdig Reisz', Strassburg 1516. (Bild: Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich
- ^ A briefe collection and compendious extract of straunge and memorable thinges, gathered out of the Cosmographye of Sebastian Munster, wherein is made a plaine description of diuers and straunge lawes, rites, maners and properties of sondrye nations, and a short report of straunge histories of diuers men, and of the nature and properties of certaine fovvles, fishes, beastes, monsters, and sondry countryes and places, published in London in 1574 by Tomas Marshe
- ^ http://www.durgadevitemplevengoor.com/contact_us.php
- ^ http://wikimapia.org/811725/NAVA-DURGA-MANDIR
- ^ "Stone sculpture of Durga Mahishasuramardini". British Museum. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
Further reading
- Amazzone, Laura (2010). Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power. University Press of America, Lanham. ISBN 0761853146.
- Bandyopadhyay, Pranab (1993). Mother Goddess Durga. United Writers, Calcutta. ISBN 81-85328-13-7.
- Kinsley, David (1986). Hindu Goddesses: Vision of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Traditions. Motilal Banarsidass Publ., Delhi. ISBN 81-208-0379-5.
- Sen Ramprasad (1720–1781). Grace and Mercy in Her Wild Hair: Selected Poems to the Mother Goddess. Hohm Press. ISBN 0-934252-94-7.