Durga

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For other uses of "Durga", see Durga (disambiguation).
"Mahishasuramardini" redirects here. For the radio programme of All India Radio, see Mahisasuramardini (radio programme).
Durga
Goddess of Victory of Good over Evil
Devanagari दुर्गा
Sanskrit Transliteration Durga
Affiliation Devi
Abode Kadamba Vana (Forest of Kadamba Trees)
Mantra

Om Dum Durgayei Namaha

Om Aim Hrim Klim Durga Devi Namaha
Weapon Trishula (trident), Chakram,
Scimitar, Snake,
Conch shell, Mace,
Bow, Talwar (longsword),
Lotus, Thunderbolt
Consort Shiva
Mount Dawon (tiger or lion)

Durga (Hindustani pronunciation: [d̪uːrgaː]; Sanskrit: दुर्गा); meaning "the inaccessible"[1] or "the invincible"; durga)[2] is a popular fierce form of the Hindu Goddess or Devi. She is depicted with multiple (variously, up to eighteen) arms[3], carrying various weapons and riding a ferocious lion or tiger. She is often pictured as battling or slaying demons, particularly Mahishasura, the buffalo demon.

For the Goddess-worshipping Shaktas, Durga is sometimes equated with Mahadevi, the Supreme Goddess. Her triumph as Mahishasura Mardini, Slayer of the buffalo Demon is a central episode of the scripture Devi Mahatmya. Her victory is celebrated annually in the festivals of Navaratri and Durga Puja.

Contents

[edit] History

Devotees in West Bengal diya lamps to celebrate Navarathri and Durga Puja
Goddess Durga Pandal in West Bengal during Durga Puja, a Navarathri Festival.
Mahasura Attacks the Devi Page from an illustrated manuscript of the Devi Mahatmya
Durga Slays Mahishasura, Mahabalipuram sculpture.

The word Shakti means divine energy/force/power, and Durga is the warrior aspect of the Divine Mother/Brahman(Supreme Absolute Godhead).

As a goddess, Durga's feminine power contains the combined energies of all the gods. Each of her weapons was given to her by various gods: Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandalu, Kuber's Ratnahar, etc.

In Jain Texts, she is referred to as Durga or Kushmaandi devi and is the yakshini of 22nd tirthankar of Lord Neminath or Arishtanemi.

According to a narrative in the Devi Mahatmya story of the Markandeya Purana text, Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight an asura (an inhuman force/demon) named Mahishasura. Brahma had given Mahishasura the power not to be defeated by a male. Mahishasura had unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds, and he could not be defeated by any man or god, anywhere. The gods were helpless. Shiva, realizing that no man or god (male) can defeat Mahishasura, made a request to his wife Parvati to take the role of a female goddess warrior in order to slay the demon. Parvati took his request and went to the Ashram of priest disciple named Katyayan to assume the role of a warrior. Meanwhile, the gods went to Brahma for help and, with Brahma, then made their way to Vaikuntha—the place where Vishnu lay on Ananta Naag. They found both Vishnu and Shiva, and Brahma eloquently related the reign of terror Mahishasur had unleashed on the three worlds. To save the worlds, Vishnu, Shiva and all of the gods emitted beams of fierce light from their bodies. The blinding sea of light reached Parvati at the Ashram of the priest Katyayan and Durga emerged from this pool of light. The goddess Durga took the name Katyaayani from the priest. She introduced herself in the language of the Rig-Veda, saying she was the form of the supreme female aspect of Brahman (the male aspect being Shiva) who had created all the gods. Now she had come to fight the demon to save the gods. They did not create her; it was her lila that she emerged from their combined energy. The gods were blessed with her compassion.

To combat the evil Mahishasura, she had appeared in a great blinding light, to combat this demon and end it for all to be in peace. Mahishasura had gravely underestimated her, thinking: "How can a woman kill me, Mahishasur—the one who has defeated the trinity of gods?". However, Durga roared with laughter, which caused an earthquake which made Mahishasur aware of her powers.

And the terrible Mahishasura rampaged against her, changing forms many times. First he was a buffalo demon, and she defeated him with her sword. Then he changed forms and became an elephant that tied up the goddess's lion and began to pull it towards him. The goddess cut off his trunk with her sword. The demon Mahishasur continued his terrorizing, taking the form of a lion, and then the form of a man, but both of them were gracefully slain by Durga.

Then Mahishasur began attacking once more, starting to take the form of a buffalo again. The patient goddess became very angry, and proclaimed to Mahishasur in a colorful tone—"Roar with delight while you still can, O illiterate demon, because when I will kill you, the gods themselves will roar with delight".[this quote needs a citation] When Mahishasur had half emerged into his buffalo form, he was paralyzed by the extreme light emitting from the goddess's body. The goddess then resounded with laughter before cutting Mahishasur's head down with her sword.

Thus Durga slew Mahishasur, thus is the power of the fierce compassion of Durga. Hence, Mata Durga is also known as Mahishasurmardhini—the slayer of Mahishasur. According to one legend, the goddess Durga created an army to fight against the forces of the demon-king Mahishasur, who was terrorizing Heaven and Earth. After ten days of fighting, Durga and her army defeated Mahishasur and killed him. As a reward for their service, Durga bestowed upon her army the knowledge of jewelry-making.

The goddess, as Mahishasuramardini, appears quite early in Indian art. The Archaeological Museum in Matura has several statues on display including a 6-armed Kushana period Mahisasuramardhini that depicts her pressing down the buffalo with her lower hands.[4] A Nagar plaque from the first century BC - first century AD depicts a 4-armed Mahisamardhini accompanied by a lion. But it is in the Gupta period that we see the finest representations of Mahisasuramardhini (2-, 4-, 6-, and at Udayagiri, 12-armed). The spear and trident are her most common weapons. A Mamallapuram relief shows the goddess with 8 arms riding her lion subduing a buffalo-faced demon (as contrasted with a buffalo demon); a variation also seen at Ellora. In later sculptures (post-seventh Century), sculptures show the goddess having decapitated the buffalo demon.

[edit] Worship

Main article: Durga Puja

The four day long (Saptami to Dashami) Durga Puja is the biggest annual festival in Bengal, Assam, Orissa, 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).[5]

A traditional Durga idol at a pandal in Kolkata
Durga Worship Mantra
A 51 second sample of Durga Puja Mantra recited in Sanskrit.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

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 Sraswati, Parvati, Laksmi etc. for the nine days.

In North India, the tenth day, signifying Rama's victory in his battle against the demon Ravana, is celebrated as Dussehra - 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 Karnataka, she is worshiped as Chamundeshwari, the patron goddess of the city during Dussehra

In Gujarat it is celebrated as the last day of Navaratri, during which the Garba dance is performed to celebrate the vigorous 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 is worshipped as Mahishasur Mardini and is patron goddess of land. Bhavani is known as Tulaja, Amba, Renuka, Yamai, Saptshrungi, Jogai in different places of Maharashtra. She is inspirational goddess of Raja shivaji. As per legends, Bhavani revealed to Shivaji and blessed him to form a kingdom.

In Bangladesh also the four-days 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.

[edit] Western references

Some early Western accounts refer a deity known as Deumus, Demus or Deumo. Sailors first came to face with the idol 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) has a murti of Deumus in his temple inside his royal palace. [6][7] 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 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.

[edit] Notable temples in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia

Durga sculpture, British Museum
Durga Hoysala sculpture
Bamakhepa, the tantric saint of Tarapith,Birbhum,West Bengal in the 19th century

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Durga, Gujarati: અમબે ગોરી,Punjabi: ਸ਼ੇਰਾਂ ਵਾਲੀ,(Bengali: দুর্গা )". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/174252/Durga. Retrieved October 7, 2009. 
  2. ^ "Article on Durga About.com Hinduism". http://hinduism.about.com/od/hindugoddesses/a/durga.htm. Retrieved 2 October 2011. 
  3. ^ BBC television documentary Divine Women written and presented by Bettany Hughes, episode 1 When God Was A Girl, broadcast 2012-04-11, shows Durga depicted in statues of her made by her devotees for the annual festival in her honour in Kolkata in 2011, and the statues had ten arms.
  4. ^ R. C. Agrawala, "The Goddess Mahisasuramardini in Early Indian Art", Artibus Asiae, Vol. 21, No. 2 (1958), pp. 123-130
  5. ^ Esposito, John L.; Darrell J. Fasching, Todd Vernon Lewis (2007). Religion & globalization: world religions in historical perspective. Oxford University Press. p. 341. ISBN 0-19-517695-2. ‎
  6. ^ Jörg Breu d. Ä. zugeschrieben, Idol von Calicut, in: Ludovico de Varthema, 'Die Ritterlich und lobwürdig Reisz', Strassburg 1516. (Bild: Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ http://wikimapia.org/811725/NAVA-DURGA-MANDIR

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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