On International Women's Day, we excerpt from a chapter on devis in a new book by mythologist and Sunday MiD DAY columnist Devdutt Pattanaik. 7 Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art decodes, for the first time, portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses in a manner that is highly accessible to all
Some devis have infinite patience while others have a very short temper. But while they behead demons and bring various devtas to order, stories of stree shakti are usually a metaphorical lesson about slaying the demon within.
On International Women's Day, we excerpt from a chapter on devis in a new book by mythologist and Sunday MiD DAY columnist Devdutt Pattanaik. 7 Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art decodes, for the first time, portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses in a manner that is highly accessible to all
Kanyakumari, the virgin goddess
The story goes that Kanyakumari wanted to marry Shiva, the mendicant who lives atop the snow-clad mountains in the north. The hour of the wedding was fixed such that Shiva would have to travel from north to south in one night. However, before he could reach, the gods made a rooster crow. Shiva assumed it was daybreak and that he had missed the auspicious hour of marriage. So, he turned back. The goddess, bedecked in bridal finery, waited and waited for the groom who would never come. All the food that had been cooked for the wedding feast went to waste. In rage she kicked the pots and pans and wiped her face of make-up. That is why the sea and sands on the southern tip of India are so multicoloured.
The goddess had a lot of power, power that would have been domesticated by marriage and maternity. Forced to live without a groom, the energy was then invoked by the gods to make the goddess fight and destroy demons. This story draws attention to the raw power that is the goddess. If she is married, this energy is channelised to provide for a home. If, however, she is not married, this energy is channelised for protection...
The goddess is a symbol of the material world, the world that we observe through our senses. We want this world to be like a mother so that it can feed us; we want this world to be like a warrior so that it can defend us. So, the Goddess and her many diminutive doubles, the goddesses of households and villages, are mothers and warriors, loving and fearful...
A village-goddess or
Gram-devi
Only her head is seen. Her body is the village. The villagers live on top of her and they feed on her. They love and fear her. They know that beneath domesticity (orchards, fields, gardens) lurks wildness (forests). If she is unhappy she can show her rage by letting the forest slip into the village. This happens in the form of disease and death. When a woman miscarries, when there is an epidemic or when children suffer from high fever, the whole village looks upon it as the wrath of the goddess.
No village, no field, no orchard can come into being unless we destroy an ecosystem unless we cut the trees of the forest, unless we plough the soil, break down the rocks, channelise the river. These are violent processes, a forceful domestication of the earth. Why do we domesticate? We domesticate because we can, because we are humans, because we have the ability to do so. And we use this ability because we desire a better life where we are not at the mercy of nature for our survival.
Naturally the relationship between man and the other is based on desire. Desire can satisfy need or greed. Either way, nature is exploited. Man exploits nature to feed, clothe and shelter himself. He begs the goddess to allow herself to become domesticated and become a mother. But he knows she is wild and dangerous and can strike him down any time. In Image 5.3 is a village goddess from the south of India. Under her feet grovels a demon. Who is this demon?
One would not like to admit it, but this demon is man who seeks to destroy nature to establish his settlement. Typically, this demon has been externalised he is that part of man that seeks to dominate the forest and make the goddess his mistress. He is the bad son. With him, the goddess becomes the bad, violent goddess. The good son adores the goddess. With him, the goddess turns into the good mother, full of bounty and joy. She becomes the goddess in Image 5.4.
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Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth
This is Lakshmi, the embodiment of earth's wealth and bounty. She is a Goddess, unlike the goddess in Image 5.2 and 5.3, which means she is not localised to one place, but represents a wider metaphysical thought.
Lakshmi embodies wealth and fortune. As Shri, she brings splendour into our lives and makes kings out of men. As Bhu, she is the gentle earth, providing home and shelter to all her children. In this image she sits on a lotus, which represents all the best things that can emerge from the mire of life. She is flanked by white elephants, symbols of affluence and power, reserved only for the best of kings. In the background is a pot, the container of personal wealth, unlike a river or a pond, which is the source of all wealth. The pot is a sacred artefact. It represents the wealth that is contained within the confines of civilisation. It is not free wealth that exists in nature; it is wealth over which man has staked his claim.
Lakshmi is surrounded by plants that satisfy the hunger of man and pleasure their senses. Coconut and banana trees do not need much looking after, but they provide nutrition to all, making them sacred plants of high economic value and with very high return on investment. The mango leaves in the pot are a reminder of the sweet fruit that makes summer bearable, while the betel leaf beneath the pot is chewed after meals to aid digestion and also to act as an aphrodisiac. Thus, these plants are symbols of prosperity and pleasure. This is what man wants from the world, visualizing the Goddess either in her local form, as in Image 5.3, or in a more global form, as in Image 5.4.
Bhagavati
Image 5.5, in a way, merges the ideas in both 5.3 and 5.4. This is a local goddess from the state of Kerala known as Bhagavati. At first glance, the goddess is fearsome, with fangs and a bloodstained scimitar in her hand. She is the wild goddess who kills demons and drinks their blood. But then, we notice that on her right is a Shiva-linga, symbol of her husband, and on her left is the elephant-headed Ganesha, her son. Thus, she is a form of Parvati, princess of the mountains. She is a local form of Shakti, the goddess of power.
Kamakshi
Image 5.6 shows the Goddess as Kamakshi surrounded by sugarcane. Sugarcane is the symbol of love in India. It is also the symbol of desire and lust, all forms of sensory delight. She also holds a lotus in her hand. These are the weapons of the love-god, Kama. Riding a parrot, Kama holds aloft his fish-banner, raises his sugarcane bow, draws his bowstring of bees and shoots flowers-arrows that stir the senses, excite the heart and fill the mind with dreams and demands that often are at odds with destiny and with rules of good conduct. Kama, the god of desire, is a disruptive force. This is believed to such an extent that Hindus do not worship Kama anymore. But the idea of Kama survives when the Goddess comes to hold his symbols: his sugarcane bow and his flower arrow.
Desire is an important theme in Hinduism. In the Rig Veda, it is said that the world came into existence because desire for creation arose in the heart of the creator. A man's desire is fulfilled by engaging with the world. From the world come wealth, knowledge and power. Man can take all this from the Goddess, but the Goddess also asks him to give some things in return. She may be the object, the observation, but she demands that the subject, the observer, engage with her not with the language of domination, but with the language of love...
Durga
The Goddess in Image 5.7 is Durga, the most popular form of Shakti, whose story is told in the Devi Bhagvatam. She is both power and love. Her face is made up like a bride but she carries in her arms weapons of war. As a bride, she is love; as a warrior, she is power. As a bride, she satisfies desires; as a warrior, she over-powers destiny. With her weapons, she defends us and feeds us, she makes us secure and she nourishes us. Thus, she embodies both power and love the sense of being taken care of. That is why she is called the mother. The same image shows Lakshmi and Saraswati as the daughters of Durga thus, power and love yield wealth and knowledge.
Durga rides a lion, the king of the jungle, the most dominant force in the forest, standing on top of the food chain. In Image 5.8, she rides a tiger. She domesticates the great cats and displays her power. Her name, Durga, means the one who cannot be conquered. Thus, she is the invincible one.
At a metaphorical level, Shakti is not just the physical world that we see around us. Shakti is also our mind. Our mind is, by nature, wild and unfettered, but over time, we domesticate it with values and rules in our desire for a better life. The mind, in sacred literature, is distinguished from the soul because the mind is restless while the soul is restful. The mind can dominate and be affectionate; it seeks domination or affection. The soul witnesses the domination and the affection.
The cosmic demon killed by the cosmic Durga in Image 5.7 is the local demon killed by the local village goddess in Image 5.3. It is the demon who forgets who Durga is, who Shakti is. He is the observer-mind who forgets that she provides for him like a mother and a bride, and seeks to control her as a slave. Some have identified this demon as the ego, which craves power, domination and validation, and is greedy for attention and glory. Others say this demon is the monster of forgetfulness, who makes us forget the true nature of the Goddess.
Excerpted with permission from 7 Secrets from Hindu Calendar Art by Devdutt Pattanaik, published by Westland, Rs 295
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