Introduction
Art in India is never removed from life, intimately tied as it is to religion, aesthetics and utility. A walk into a temple or a place of worship becomes an experience at different levels – tactile, olfactory, sensory and visual, spiritual and religious.
The Indian tradition is rich with goddesses. So varied are her manifestations and names that every village and every scripture, every Purāņa and poet created their own unique image of her. While sometimes she is a consort, at other times she is fertility goddess; at times she is a benevolent figure yet at other places she is horrific and malevolent.
Śakti worship was of great antiquity in India. Archaeological remains from pre-historic times and from the proto-historic cities of the Indus civilization that were at the height of sophistication between 2600-1900 BC include large number of crudely fashioned female clay figurines, generally called Mother Goddess. The dominance of such terracotta figurines among the material remains from these cultures and absence of corresponding male figures suggest important role played in ancient times by female divinity. Starting around 1300 BC, a group of nomadic people who called themselves Aryans, or Noble Ones, became dominant in Northern India. Tah Vedas reflected a worldwide view of that was overwhelmingly masculine, particularly in the spiritual sphere. The earlier Mother Goddesses of India lay low, their voices, but the peasants in the numerous villages that dotted the countryside continued to worship them. Testifying to the quite continuance of an ancient tradition is the many terracotta goddess figurines deposited in the waters of an expansive tank belonging to the 1st and 2nd century at Shringaverapura near Allahbad.
Post-vedic literature including the Upanishads, composed from the 4th century BC onwards continued to promote the male dominated worldview, but start from the 1st millennium AD witnessed the goddess of India slowly emerge from their hibernation and make their presence felt in a significant but subdued role as Dayānīs (beneficient wish granters) in the form of Yakshīs. Finely fashioned terracotta plaques that featured a female deity began to be made by skilled artisans, probably for use in the home shrines of wealthy and sophisticated townspeople; simultaneously, terracotta figurines began to be moulded in the round to create some truly remarkable sculptures. Sometime during the 1st-2nd century AD, images of goddesses began to appear in the more lasting medium of stone, and many of these feature as warrior goddess, most often with 6 arms, grappling with a buffalo demon. Also, dating from the 5th-6th century are the first well-preserved Indian stone images of Mother Goddesses who either hold an infant in their arms or accompanied by a toddler; images of these kind measure just under one meter tall, and were exquisitely carved by stone sculptors.
Prakŗti
In the beginning there was no creation. Brahmā-Prajāpati was in distress.
He asked himself: “why are humans not growing in numbers?”
He then heard a voice: “because you have not created the fertility aspect of man”
In front of him appeared Lord Śiva as Ardhanāriśvara. Before Brahmā, he separated into a man and a woman. Brahmā realized his mistake and apologized to Śiva’s śakti. Then he created woman so that man can produce his next generation or vamsa.
The underlying principle of Śaktism is (sexual) dualism, which has been aptly described as “duality in unity”. In this development of the primitive mother worship, the goddess was transformed into personification of female energy (Śakti) and as the eternal productive principle (prakŗti), united with the eternal male principle (puruşa) and became the creator and mother of the Universe.
The universe had always existed in Prakŗti; and according to the chain of Cosmic Evolution, it sometimes appeared and sometimes disappeared but it could be brought to ‘existence’ from non-existence, because without the material, how anything could be formed. For example, if the cream was not already hidden in the milk, how could it be produced?
What is this Prakŗti, which Kapila praised about eight centuries before Christ in Sāmkhya Darśana, the oldest philosophy of India? Prakŗti means ‘Nature’. As Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan has rightly noted, “the Man-Nature relationship was at the core of this vision enunciated repeatedly at all dimensions – biological, physical, psychical, philosophical, metaphysical and spiritual.”^
The principles of Sāmkhya flowed from the principles of Cosmic Evolution. However, in explaining the Prime Movement it becomes inevitable to introduce non-material existence and an imperceptible being like Puruşa, “Spirit”. According to the practical philosophy steam is inherent in water but needs to be heated, an external being. The result of these contradictions was that, in later times, some followers of Kapila began to believe that Puruşa was the Prime Mover, or Īśvara of all. They therefore came to the conclusion that Puruşa was the eternal Father and Prakŗti the Mother. Some believed that Puruşa was in reality the great soul (absolute man) and Prakŗti was Śakti or his consort.*^
It is significant that the Sāmkhya philosophy enunciated for the first time, the principle that energy was never destroyed but was always dissipating, as a result of which the evolutionary cycle never came to an end. Probably that is why the Śakti disappeared from time to time to re-emerge.
The feminine conceptualization of nature occupies a very significant place in Indian religious history. ‘Pr’ is the sound of creation. The prime function of Prakŗti is to create. That is why Prakŗti has been identified with Mother from whom is our sristhi and over the years we have called her the Mother Goddess (Maa), the creator and mother of the Universe (Jagadambā), the female energy (Śakti). Almost all the geographical features of the natural environment are personified as goddesses.
In this connection J.N.Banerjea has observed, that “The worship of the female principle can be traced in the country, as in many other ancient countries of the world, to a very remote past…”
Samkhya divides all things that are there into two radically different kinds – consciousness (cetana) and unconsciousness (jada). The subjects of pure consciousness are Puruşa, and the totality of jada things is called Prakŗti, the causal system. The ultimate constituents of which Prakŗti or all jada things are composed are guņas – substantive entity. The essence of everything in this universe was Prakŗti, which ‘is inherent in everything but has no shape of its own. It has neither beginning nor end.’ The three Guņas are: (i) Sattva –the tendency to act or, which are responsive to the light of puruşa (ii) Rajas – the tendency to act or express themselves in motion, that is the dynamic principle in prakŗti, continuously changing; and (iii) Tamas- the tendency to non-manifestation and non-activity or, which resist the light of puruşa and the force exerted by rajas gunas as it (tamas) is inert. Every phenomenon in Prakŗti is an admixture of all the three kinds of guņas.
These three guņas of Prakŗti – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas of the Devī are manifested in the three important goddesses –Mahāsarasvatī, Mahālakşmī and Mahākālī. These three manifestations are three tattvas of three fundamental principles of Mahādevī. Sattva stands for white colour, Rajas stands for red and Tamas stands for black.
Earth Goddess
The Earth is Mother; I am son of the Earth
[Atharva Veda, 12.1.12b]
The earth is the supreme, loving, life sustaining mother. She is beautiful, fertile, nurturing and generous. She is close to humans as their own skin. That is why it is said ‘mitti se bana insaan, mitti me mil jayega,’ (man is made of soil and be dissolved in soil). As person’s entire existence depends upon her, man is of earth, part of earth. The earth is his home. She is merciful, compassionate mother whose benign heart pours unconditional love to all, irrespective of their station in life.
Nature’s śakti is visible everywhere in the cyclic movement of germination, growth and decay of life. Śakti is the energetic feminine potency of the Earth Mother, the life line of the living earth. This mother aspect, when viewed in the light of human nature can be traced out from the Stone Age. In the case of a woman, pregnancy has been the most emotional stage and the birth of the child, a jubilant moment. In the early stages of human history the phenomenon must have made an awe-inspiring impact on the mind of man. For, in this, he must have understood the “fertility” aspect of a woman and that it was exclusive to her, to give birth to a child. She was seen as representation of fertility equaled with the earth which also produces the needs of man and helps in the production and sustenance of life.
The village communities in the North-West frontiers of India during the hunting and gathering stages in isolation from each other had developed the terracotta art. They had achieved proficiency by about the beginning of 3rd millennium BC. In the later part, a definite stage was reached in the development of the figurines of the Mother Goddess in the art of terracotta. John Marshall testifies emphatically (in Mohenjodaro and Indus Civilization, I, p. 48) that the worship of mother goddess was widespread in the Indus empire and further observes that “in no country in the world has the worship of the Divine Mothers, been from the time immemorial so deep rooted and ubiquitous as in India.”
But all the terracotta figurines cannot be called Mother Goddess. Dr. D.P.Sharma, curator of Indus Valley Gallery of National Museum points out that “only those figurines representing fertility can be called Mother Goddess. They can be distinguished from their full and round breast in place of conical shaped of other figurines, broad and triangular hips, highly ornated and found at religious sites. Sometimes they are represented only in Triangular shape.”
Pre-historic Evidence:
H.D.Sankalia points out that “a small figurine was found in that Belan Valley of the Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh…”
But S.P.Gupta has contested the claim and he does not feel that the figurine is that of a Mother Goddess. Hence the identification of the object discovered from Belan Valley cannot be claimed to be beyond suspicion, of its being that of the Mother Goddess.
Pre-Harappan Sites:
In the above background as well as in the absence of any tangilble evidence, it cannot be claimed with authority that the adoration of the Mother Goddess was in vogue in the Upper Paleolithic, though in the pre-historic cave paintings in the rock shelter of Bhimbetika a few female figurines with the signs of pregnancy have been found depicted, which could represent mother-hood. Still however their representations outnumber the male ones. This may indicate their use for cult purpose, the female energy or mother principle being one of the earliest forms of worship among several ancient races of the world.
The pre-Harappan Mother Goddess figurines found in the Zhob and Kulli cultures have grotesque character, they are the earliest expressions of the religious ideas of the first farmers of the sub-continent.
Harappan Sites:
It curious that Indus finds do not include any positive religious material. All that we have to rely on for reconstructing the religion of the people is the testimony of seals, sealings, figurines etc. a large number of terracotta figurines of nude females have been found from Harappa as well as Mohenjodaro and other Indus valley sites like Baluchistan. Some of them, like the woman kneeling or holding a dish of cakes in her arm are probably mere toys without religious meaning. Others with children in their arms or left side may be assumed to be ex-voto offerings, perhaps with magical significance, for the boon of female fertility.
Post-Harappan Culture:
Very few figurines akin to Mother Goddess have been found in the post-Harappan village settlements of various parts in India between c. 1750-600 BC. Clay figurines may have been reported from several Chalcolithic sites in the Deccan. These figures are totally different from Indus types lacking in ornamentation and having plump physiognomy and stumpy limbs. The southern Tamil Nadu, Kerela, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have-not yielded Mother Goddes figurines belonging to the period earlier than 1st century BC.
Early Historic Sites:
During the early historical period the Indian cultural scene was flooded with various types of gods and goddesses and in due course of time the iconography of the deities was also developed making them not only more appealing to the human or even composite forms. Not many, but few Graeco-Hellenistic styled female figurines have been found from Taxila and Gandhara, and some indigenous-styled from Mathura. Most of the figurines of the Earth Mother were painted over with red slip or wash as of many of the figurines in India today as red is the colour of fertility.
Ring stones and triangular shaped discs with variety of formal relief of decorative and cultic character have been found at many sites. The carvings occupy only one face of the ring and are generally arranged in concentric bands with conventional figure of Mother Goddess, palm trees with varying thickness. Some of them are without figures of the Mother Goddess. There is a central hole in the ring. The small ring stones suggest the adoration of yoni, the female symbol generation was also prevalent, thogh not to such extent as the worship of lińga.
“Earth is known to all civilizations and cultures as the great Mother Goddess. Predating the Vedas are the figures of Mother Earth Goddess in the form of ring stones. The Vedas dedicate many hymns to Pŗthivī,” explains Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan as “the Bhūmisūkta being one of the greatest hymns. She is invoked as born of the waters of the ocean. Surrounded by space, she is the creator, the sustainer.”
Man says “I am the son of the earth, the rains are my father, let him, the Lord of the rain, fill the earth for us. O Earth protects us, purify us. Let people milk her with amity. O Earth, give us sweet words. The snowy mountain heights and thy forests, O Earth, shall be kind to us and we to them.”
Her fertility is symbolized through the image of the brimming vase, the bowl of plenty. Foliage and the lotus emerge from the bowl: the waters below the life giving forces of regeneration and energy of sun blossoms as the vegetation is the sap of life (the rasa). Water, earth, plant, animal, human and the divine come together in images of the goddess Pŗthivī, also identified as Devī. Myths evolved around each and every one of the trees and plants. Aśvattha was central, so also was Bilva, the mango, the Sāl, the coconut and the bamboo. If one of the tree of life, the other was the upturned tree of Upanisadic thought. The Sāl is not only central and vital to the ecological cycle of the forests of Bihar and Bastar providing vast communities with the famous Karma festival, but it is the Sāl tree whom Māyā embraced as Buddha was born.
The tree-woman relationship dominates Indian myth. The most functionally meaningful and inspirer of countless myths and the richest treasure of Indian sculptural motif is the Vŗkşikā, also called by other names- Yakşī, Surasundarī and many others. They stand against trees, embrace them and thus become an aspect of the tree articulating the interpretation of the plant and the human. The tree is dependent upon the woman for its fertility as is woman on the tree.
Even today in villages of Assam and Bengal girls are first married to a tree and then only a human groom is seeked for them so that they never have to live the life of a Sati. On the very topic famous Director Aparna Sen had made a movie called “Sati”.
Water Cosmology and Divine Feminine
The term “Water Cosmology” was first probably employed by Hume, in the Introduction to his Thirteen Principal Upanishads, pp. 10-14, with reference to such passages as Bŗhadaāraņyaka, 5.5, “in the beginning this world was just water,” and 3, 6 I, “all this world is woven, warp and woof , on water,”… *
The concept of Water as a potent power, as energy in liquid form, harks back to the time of Ŗgveda when sages linked the mysterious event of the creation with waters, apparently conceiving even at the early date of life developing from a primordial “soup”. Consider the first verse of the so-called Creation hymn:
There was neither non-existence nor existence then;
There was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond.
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?
Was there water, bottomlessly deep?
In the Purāņic conception of the birth of Brahmā, the creator is abjaja, lotus-born from the lotus that springs from Vişņu’s navel, said to represent the center of energy of the universe, while the lotus is the material aspect of evolution, the petals is consecutive forms (Agni Puraāņa, XLIX). Vişņu, as Śayana-mūrti, here reclines upon the waters; the great name Nārāyaņa is said to mean “moving on the waters”; of Kubera’s (God of Wealth) epithet Naravāhana, nara supposedly referring not to men (as later understood), but to water spirits, Gandharvas.
Life on earth emerges from the eternal waters that hold the potency of fire. The myths of waters take innumerable other forms relating to the ocean (Sāgara), the rivers and the nymphs of the skies. Indian literature is replete with their names – Sarasvatī, Gańgā, Yamunā, Urvaśī or Menakā. Indian folk lore sanctifies these. All these deities are members of the vast water cosmology so vital and central to Indian thought.
The nature of the Water Cosmology is, however, sufficiently revealed in what has been given. The ideology may be summed up as follows: from the primeval waters arose the plants, from the plants all other beings, in particular the gods, man and cattle. There is nothing in this tendency contradictory to the use of the human form, which in the case of the feminine powers of fertility and abundance can be traced far back into prehistoric times. But from water, we must move to the first vegetative and acquatic life principle. The lotus and the snake in botanical and zoological terms are born of the waters. These powers, particularly Śrī, who is closely connected with the waters, stand in close relation to the Water Cosmology, and at the same time are represented in the aspect of women.
Śrī Lakşmī
Lakşmī’s initial role as a goddess of wealth associated with lotus was soon elevated by the Mahabhārata epic (c. 400 BC – AD 400) in which she was transformed into the consort of Vişņu. Lakşmī may indeed be the most invoked among those deities who are dayanis. The lotus is a comparatively late entrant into Indian myth, but once it finds its place, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist art, thought and myth consider it indispensable. In all these cases whether as seat (āsana) or emblem or epithet, it denotes fecundity, abundance, well-being. Logically, lotus becomes goddess and is personified as Śrī and Lakşmī. She is praised as lotus-born (padmasambhavā), standing on a lotus (padmasthitā), lotus-coloured (padmavarņā), lotus-eyed (padmākşī) etc.
The term “Water Cosmology” was first probably employed by Hume, in the Introduction to his Thirteen Principal Upanishads, pp. 10-14, with reference to such passages as Bŗhadaāraņyaka, 5.5, “in the beginning this world was just water,” and 3, 6 I, “all this world is woven, warp and woof , on water,”… *
The concept of Water as a potent power, as energy in liquid form, harks back to the time of Ŗgveda when sages linked the mysterious event of the creation with waters, apparently conceiving even at the early date of life developing from a primordial “soup”. Consider the first verse of the so-called Creation hymn:
There was neither non-existence nor existence then;
There was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond.
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?
Was there water, bottomlessly deep?
In the Purāņic conception of the birth of Brahmā, the creator is abjaja, lotus-born from the lotus that springs from Vişņu’s navel, said to represent the center of energy of the universe, while the lotus is the material aspect of evolution, the petals is consecutive forms (Agni Puraāņa, XLIX). Vişņu, as Śayana-mūrti, here reclines upon the waters; the great name Nārāyaņa is said to mean “moving on the waters”; of Kubera’s (God of Wealth) epithet Naravāhana, nara supposedly referring not to men (as later understood), but to water spirits, Gandharvas.
Life on earth emerges from the eternal waters that hold the potency of fire. The myths of waters take innumerable other forms relating to the ocean (Sāgara), the rivers and the nymphs of the skies. Indian literature is replete with their names – Sarasvatī, Gańgā, Yamunā, Urvaśī or Menakā. Indian folk lore sanctifies these. All these deities are members of the vast water cosmology so vital and central to Indian thought.
The nature of the Water Cosmology is, however, sufficiently revealed in what has been given. The ideology may be summed up as follows: from the primeval waters arose the plants, from the plants all other beings, in particular the gods, man and cattle. There is nothing in this tendency contradictory to the use of the human form, which in the case of the feminine powers of fertility and abundance can be traced far back into prehistoric times. But from water, we must move to the first vegetative and acquatic life principle. The lotus and the snake in botanical and zoological terms are born of the waters. These powers, particularly Śrī, who is closely connected with the waters, stand in close relation to the Water Cosmology, and at the same time are represented in the aspect of women.
Śrī Lakşmī
Lakşmī’s initial role as a goddess of wealth associated with lotus was soon elevated by the Mahabhārata epic (c. 400 BC – AD 400) in which she was transformed into the consort of Vişņu. Lakşmī may indeed be the most invoked among those deities who are dayanis. The lotus is a comparatively late entrant into Indian myth, but once it finds its place, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist art, thought and myth consider it indispensable. In all these cases whether as seat (āsana) or emblem or epithet, it denotes fecundity, abundance, well-being. Logically, lotus becomes goddess and is personified as Śrī and Lakşmī. She is praised as lotus-born (padmasambhavā), standing on a lotus (padmasthitā), lotus-coloured (padmavarņā), lotus-eyed (padmākşī) etc.
Mythology:
Wealth and power corrupted the demon-kings whom earlier Śrī Devī had blessed. Now, pleasure and comfort has weakened the god-king. Neither held on to dharma for long. Neither deserved her grace. So, the goddess dissolved herself in the ocean of milk. Instantly a gloom descended upon the world: reverberated with song and dance. Weapons lost their power, gems their sparkle, men their vigor. Cows did not give milk, fields became barren, and trees bore neither flower nor fruit. The cosmos became a desolate place, bereft of joy and laughter.
The goddess’s disappearance caused panic in three worlds. The gods and demons alike wanted to bring her back. Vişņu suggested by churning the ocean of milk, they can bring her back. With Mandara, king of mountains, as the spindle and Akupara, king of turtles, as the base, the devas and the asuras created the cosmic churn. Using Vasuki, the king of serpents, as the churning rope, they began churning the ocean of milk.
The churn twisted and turned, the ocean frothed and fumed, waves roared and spewed foam in every direction. Pleased by their efforts, the goddess finally emerged as Lakşmī, the desirable one, in all her splendor. Seated on a dew-drenched lotus (the symbol of life), dressed in red silk, red being the color of fertility, the sap of life. Bedecked in gold, she was the very embodiment of affluence, abundance and auspiciousness.
As she raised, rasa, life giving sap, began flowing in every direction. The earth palpated with life. Joy filled the air. Sacred elephants that hold up the sky came from the eight quarters of the universe raised their trunks and consecrated her with life-sustaining water.
With Lakşmī came a cow called Kamadhenu with enough milk to feed the world for all eternity, a wish-fulfilling gem called Chintamani and a tree called Kalpataru that bore evry flower and fruit desirable. Also came Kama, the delightful god of pleasure. With Kama came Priti and Rati, goddess of love and longing, and Vasanta, lord of spring. From her being emerged her seven daughters, the sacred river-goddess Ganga, Yamunā, Sindhu, Narmada, Godavari, Krishna and Kaveri who nourished the earth and supported life.
Along with Lakşmī came the six-tusked, white-skinned elephant Airavata and the seven-headed flying horse Ucchaishrava. The gods claimed the elephant and the demons, the horse. The goddess also brought forth a throne, a crown, a footstool, a parasol, a fly-whisk, a cushion, a fan, a bow and a conch – the symbols of kingship. Lakşmī sought someone who would not succumb to the allure of power, pleasure and prosperity. She chose Visņu. Vişnu placed Śreevasta, the symbol of Lakşmī on his chest.
Sarasvatī
Sarasvatī, goddess of learning and music, emerged in two forms as early as Ŗgveda of c.1300 BC. She was Vāc, both speech itself and the goddess of speech, and she was the goddess of now non-existent Sarasvatī River in the Punjab. Soon after she became known by the double name of Sarasvatī-Vāc. Hindus considered her to be the consort of Brahmā, the creator, whose swan vehicle she acquired. She is the river of consciousness that enlivens the creation. She is the dawn-goddess, whose rays dispels the darkness of ignorance. Without her, there is only chaos and confusion. To realize her one must go beyond the pleasure of the senses and rejoice in the serenity of the spirit.
Mythology:
In the beginning, there was chaos: everything existed in a formless fluid state.
“How do I bring order to this disorder?” wondered Brahmā, the creator.
“With knowledge,” said Devi. Heralded by a peacock, sacred books in one hand and a flute in the other, dressed in white, she emerged from Brahmā’s mouth riding a swan as the goddess Sarasvatī.
Said the goddess, “knowledge helps man to find possibilities where once he saw problem.”
By her grace Brahmā acquired the power to sense, thought and comprehension and communicate. He began to looking upon chaos with eyes of wisdom and saw the wonderful potential therein. Brahmā thus became the creator of the world with Sarasvatī as his wisdom and later consort.
The goddess so conceived to have many forms in different age gropus. When she is one year old she is known as Sandhyā, when two years old she is Sarasvatī, of nine years as Durgā, of ten years as Gourī, of thirteen years as Mahālakşmī.
Sarasvatī wore neither jewel on her body nor paint herself with bright colours. Her white sari reflected her essential purity, her rejection of all that is materialistic. The four Vedas, books of universal knowledge were her offspring. Her mount, the swan, came to personify pure knowledge and her herald, the peacock, became symbol of art.
Śiva, the destroyer once opened his third eye. Out came a terrible fire that threatened to burn the three worlds. There was panic everywhere. Only Sarasvatī remained calm. “Śiva’s fire burns only that which is impure and corrupt,” she said (Apasmara – the dwarf of ignorance or Avidyā).
She took the form of a river and with her pure waters picked up the dreaded fire. From that day, Sarasvatī came to be seen as the fountain-head of knowledge, Sharada, who leads man from darkness to light, from ignorance to enlightenment, from material decadence to spiritual upliftment.
Aum bhur bhuvah svahah
Tat savitur varenyum
Bhargo devasya dheemahee
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat
May the pesplendent divine who is the life breath of the universe, who pervade the
three worlds, who removes miseries, brings joy, dispels darkness and ignores, propel
my intelligence in the right direction.
Sarasvatī is, essentially river-goddess but taken in high esteem by Vedic seers. She is both celebrated as a river and a deity. In the Ŗgveda, Sarasvatī does not appear to be anything more than a river goddess but, in the Brāhmanas she is identified with goddess of speech, vāc and consequently in the post-Vedic mythology she became the goddess of eloquence and wisdom and subsequently, became the wife of Brahmā.
In my opinion, the ŗşis understood the uniqueness of man – the power of speech. Also the Vedas were passed orally and required good speech (pronunciation) for shruti and good memory through wisdom for smriti. That is the reason which elevated Sarasvatī to the place of independent goddess as well as consort of the Creator, who with her wisdom removed all the chaos to carry on with creation.
Gańgā
Jawaharlal Nehru had called her a symbol of India’s age-long culture and civilization, ever-changing, ever flowing and yet ever the same Gańgā. The late Indira Gandhi did not consider it strange that the “Gańgā should have such an extraordinary hold on th imagination of the peoples of India…”
Mythology:
There are several versions of this myth. In one popular version from Vaisnava sources, the descent of the heavenly waters to the earth takes place from the ‘foot of Visņu’. The holy river had its origin in the heavens when Vişņu, in his vamana, dwarf-cum-giant incarnation measured three steps. His third step pierced the heavenly vault and caused the waters to flow. Throught the opening in the shell of the universe, the Gańgā flowed into Indra’s heaven, and settled around the immobile pole-star, Dhruva Tāra. In this form Gańgā is known as Vişnupadi. She meandered through the sky to the moon as the Milky Way, Ākāsh Gańgā and suggests the idea of a heavenly river.
The next episode of the myth describes the descent of Gańgā on earth. The story consists of long episodes which I shall not recount here. The heavenly Gańgā descended to the earth for salvic purpose, namely to animate and purify the 60,000 son’s of Sagara, who were reduced to ashes by glance of sage Kapila.
The Gańgā was brought down to the earth by Bhagiratha who performed fierce austerities on the Himalayan slopes and won the favour of the Goddess. She agreed to descend but warned Bhagiratha that the earth would split under the torrential currents of her fall. Gańgā asked him to placate Śiva. Śiva agreed to catch its gushing waters in his matted locks before releasing the waters. The mighty river wound her way through Śiva’s ascetic locks and found her course on the mountains and plains of India.
Dr. Madhu Khanna has compared the myth to the reality: the ecological implications of the myth can be decoded and its meaning lay bare. Water’s natural flow is rooted in a cyclic pattern. It continuously renews itself. Water circulates from land, sea to clouds by coming in link with solar heat. It returns to the land, river and lakes and underground streams below the soil and intermingles in the deep oceans…the course of Ganges as depicted in the myth is in consonance with ‘logic’ of the water cycle in nature.
Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan* also observes: the ecological message of the myth is as clear as the physical reality of the course of the Gańgā; with its origin in the Himalayas whether the mythically Kailāsa or actually Gomukha or Gańgotrī, the Vasundharā falls into the rich Deodar foreste through which it meanders, the several streams into which it breaks before reaching Haidvāra (literally the entrance of Hara Śiva).
Yamunā
Mythology:
Yamunā is the daughter of Seyna from the sum. On account of her shyness and trembling fear in meeting her husband, the sun cursed Sayna that a fickle river would be born of her. In other Purāņas she is the sister of Yama, the god of death. The harivamśa illustrates that Haladhara Baladeva brought Yamunā to his city through his plough. The Kūrma Purāņa alludes the sacredness of the river particularly in confluence of Gańgā and Yamunā at Prayāga.
As regards the blackish colour of the water Yamunā the Vāmana Purāņa writes that Mahādeva after destroying Dakşayajña was aimlessly wandering in the forests brooding over the loss of his beloved Satī. At this time Kandarpa hurled his weapon, thus maddening Śiva who in fury, anger and pangs of separation fell in the river Kālindī and consequently the water Yamunā turned blackish.
Though she was elevated to the status of divinity in the epic and purāņic ages she finds mention in the Aitareya Brāhmaņa, Śatpatha Brāhmaņa, Lāţyāyana, Ŗgvedasamhitā etc. point to the river and performed their yajñas. The Kūrma Purāņa highlights the sacredness of Yamunā particularly at its confluence (Prayāga).
The sculptures of Yamunā found so far indicate that she is similar to Gańga in iconographic features except that she has tortoise (kachchapa) as her vehicle. We do not know exactly when both the deities were amalgamated with each other and found together in sculptural representation. The personified images of Gańga and Yamunā they flank the doorways of temples. They appeared together profusely for the first time in the doorways of the temples during the age of the Guptas.
Meaning
Philosophical: “As śakti, prakŗti and māyā, the Devī is portrayed as an overwhelming presence that overflows itself, spilling forth into the creation, suffusing the world with vitality, energy and power. When the Devī is identified with these philosophical ideas, then a positive point is being made: the Devī creates the world, she is the world, and she is not understood so much as binding cratures to finite existence as being the very source and vitality of creatures. She is the source of creatures – their mother-and as such her awesome, vital power is revered.”
The idea of Brahman is another central idea with which the Devī is associated. In the Upanişads, and throughout the Hindu tradition, Brahman is described in two ways: as nirguņa (having no quality or beyond all qualities) and saguņa (having qualities). As nirguņa, which is usually affirmed to be the superior way of thinking about Brahman, ultimate reality transcends all qualities, categories and limitations. As nirguņa, Brahman transcends all attempts to circumscribe it. It is beyond all name and form (nāma-rūpa). As the ground of all things, as the fundamental principle of existence, however, Brahman is also spoken of as having qualities, indeed, as manifesting itself in a multiplicity of deities, universe and beings. As saguņa Brahman reveals itself especially as the various deities of the Hindu pantheon. The main philosophical point asserted in the idea of saguņa Brahman is underlying all the different gods is unifying essence, namely, Brahman. Each individual deity is understood to be partial manifestation of Brahman, which ultimately is beyond all specifying attributes, functions and qualities.
The idea of Brahman serves well the attempts in many texts devoted to the Devī to affirm her supreme position in Hindu pantheon. The idea of Brahman makes two central philosophical points congenial to the theology of Mahādevī: (1) she is ultimate reality itself, and (2) she is the source of all divine manifestations, male and female (but especially female). As saguņa Brahman, the Devī is portrayed as a great cosmic queen enthroned in highest heaven, with a multitude of deities as agents through which she governs the infinite universes.
She is not just an icon to be worshipped; an art object to be curated in a museum, a symbol to be decoded, a metaphor to be pried open, an ancient goddess that is an anthropological curiosity, a goddess whose marriage is a sociological analysis. Perhaps she is all of this but she is much more than the sum of those disciplines. She is chit, our very being, she śakti or the energy that animates us and the world around us; her presence is a doorway to anada or bliss; she is the very embodiment of isaundarya or beauty; not just sensuous but spiritual, a spandana or throb of knowledge through which we seek our own self.
The Kashmir Śaivism, which is strongly advaitic or non-dualistic in nature postulates an unique epistemology or system of knowledge from which emerges a world-view that has underpinned Indian aesthetics for the last millennium. The chitanada (or joyous self-awareness) for the Kashmir Śaivite leads the individual from ‘aham’, “I am” to the initial realization ‘aham idam’, “I am myself”, and then to the ultimate realization ‘aham evam vishvarupam’ “I am the entire world.” In the word ‘aham’, ‘a’ stands for Śiva (puruşa), ‘h’ stand for Pārvatī (prakŗti) and ‘m’ is the bindu or the anusvara. In chanting ‘aham’ one is not only asserting the togetherness of the two elements – puruşa and prakŗti but equally realizing that it is Pārvatī, prakŗti who herself brings the chant to a point of stillness through the bindu.
Practical: The famous astro-physicist Stephen Hawking argues that the universe is created from the gravitational attraction between the (active) matter and the (inactive) non-matter. The non-matter is a residue of the matter, which created distance because of repulsion due to their natural characteristic. As and when the condition changed and they by chance came closer the gravitational force attracted them towards each other and from there Big Bang took place, creating the Universe.
I take the liberty to assume that the presence of the matter and the non-matter together is well represented in the story of Ardhanariśvara; then the separation follows eventually leading to the gravitational attraction of the two opposite nature, as propounded by the Samkhya philosophy of (sexual) duality of conscious (puruşa) and unconscious (prakŗti) elements.
The essence of everything in this universe was Prakŗti, which ‘is inherent in everything but has no shape of its own. It has neither beginning nor end.’ It is the Nature and, exists even without any name or forms (nama-rūpā) as steam exists in water, fire exist in spark. It needs an external inactive force (puruşa) – fire to boil water to create steam and; air to blow spark to produce fire.
According to this practical philosophy, the body was like a plant which germinated from, the seed, grew spread and then withered away; yet, something remained. The seed disappeared from view but produced another plant. The seeds germinated due to the rains but what grew depended on the seed alone; that is, only paddy grew from paddy, not wheat. For a man, a seed was like his karma (action or doing) and Īśvara or God was like the rain, which was the cause of the growth of the plant. A logical inference from this principle was that the Samsār (a chain of appearances) had neither a beginning nor an end.
Disclaimer: This was part of my MA Museology assignment on Art History of India and in no way expert opinion. Please cross check with books by scholars of the field. New research has come up since then.
Philosophical: “As śakti, prakŗti and māyā, the Devī is portrayed as an overwhelming presence that overflows itself, spilling forth into the creation, suffusing the world with vitality, energy and power. When the Devī is identified with these philosophical ideas, then a positive point is being made: the Devī creates the world, she is the world, and she is not understood so much as binding cratures to finite existence as being the very source and vitality of creatures. She is the source of creatures – their mother-and as such her awesome, vital power is revered.”
The idea of Brahman is another central idea with which the Devī is associated. In the Upanişads, and throughout the Hindu tradition, Brahman is described in two ways: as nirguņa (having no quality or beyond all qualities) and saguņa (having qualities). As nirguņa, which is usually affirmed to be the superior way of thinking about Brahman, ultimate reality transcends all qualities, categories and limitations. As nirguņa, Brahman transcends all attempts to circumscribe it. It is beyond all name and form (nāma-rūpa). As the ground of all things, as the fundamental principle of existence, however, Brahman is also spoken of as having qualities, indeed, as manifesting itself in a multiplicity of deities, universe and beings. As saguņa Brahman reveals itself especially as the various deities of the Hindu pantheon. The main philosophical point asserted in the idea of saguņa Brahman is underlying all the different gods is unifying essence, namely, Brahman. Each individual deity is understood to be partial manifestation of Brahman, which ultimately is beyond all specifying attributes, functions and qualities.
The idea of Brahman serves well the attempts in many texts devoted to the Devī to affirm her supreme position in Hindu pantheon. The idea of Brahman makes two central philosophical points congenial to the theology of Mahādevī: (1) she is ultimate reality itself, and (2) she is the source of all divine manifestations, male and female (but especially female). As saguņa Brahman, the Devī is portrayed as a great cosmic queen enthroned in highest heaven, with a multitude of deities as agents through which she governs the infinite universes.
She is not just an icon to be worshipped; an art object to be curated in a museum, a symbol to be decoded, a metaphor to be pried open, an ancient goddess that is an anthropological curiosity, a goddess whose marriage is a sociological analysis. Perhaps she is all of this but she is much more than the sum of those disciplines. She is chit, our very being, she śakti or the energy that animates us and the world around us; her presence is a doorway to anada or bliss; she is the very embodiment of isaundarya or beauty; not just sensuous but spiritual, a spandana or throb of knowledge through which we seek our own self.
The Kashmir Śaivism, which is strongly advaitic or non-dualistic in nature postulates an unique epistemology or system of knowledge from which emerges a world-view that has underpinned Indian aesthetics for the last millennium. The chitanada (or joyous self-awareness) for the Kashmir Śaivite leads the individual from ‘aham’, “I am” to the initial realization ‘aham idam’, “I am myself”, and then to the ultimate realization ‘aham evam vishvarupam’ “I am the entire world.” In the word ‘aham’, ‘a’ stands for Śiva (puruşa), ‘h’ stand for Pārvatī (prakŗti) and ‘m’ is the bindu or the anusvara. In chanting ‘aham’ one is not only asserting the togetherness of the two elements – puruşa and prakŗti but equally realizing that it is Pārvatī, prakŗti who herself brings the chant to a point of stillness through the bindu.
Practical: The famous astro-physicist Stephen Hawking argues that the universe is created from the gravitational attraction between the (active) matter and the (inactive) non-matter. The non-matter is a residue of the matter, which created distance because of repulsion due to their natural characteristic. As and when the condition changed and they by chance came closer the gravitational force attracted them towards each other and from there Big Bang took place, creating the Universe.
I take the liberty to assume that the presence of the matter and the non-matter together is well represented in the story of Ardhanariśvara; then the separation follows eventually leading to the gravitational attraction of the two opposite nature, as propounded by the Samkhya philosophy of (sexual) duality of conscious (puruşa) and unconscious (prakŗti) elements.
The essence of everything in this universe was Prakŗti, which ‘is inherent in everything but has no shape of its own. It has neither beginning nor end.’ It is the Nature and, exists even without any name or forms (nama-rūpā) as steam exists in water, fire exist in spark. It needs an external inactive force (puruşa) – fire to boil water to create steam and; air to blow spark to produce fire.
According to this practical philosophy, the body was like a plant which germinated from, the seed, grew spread and then withered away; yet, something remained. The seed disappeared from view but produced another plant. The seeds germinated due to the rains but what grew depended on the seed alone; that is, only paddy grew from paddy, not wheat. For a man, a seed was like his karma (action or doing) and Īśvara or God was like the rain, which was the cause of the growth of the plant. A logical inference from this principle was that the Samsār (a chain of appearances) had neither a beginning nor an end.
Disclaimer: This was part of my MA Museology assignment on Art History of India and in no way expert opinion. Please cross check with books by scholars of the field. New research has come up since then.
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