Shakti
Shakti in Hinduism, is the "Universal Power" that underlies and sustains all existence. Conceived as feminine in essence, Shakti as devi refers to the personified energy or power of a male deity, often personified as the complementary force of the given Hindu god.
In Tantric Shaktism, Shakti is the foremost deity, akin to Brahman. In Puranic Hinduism, Shiva and Shakti are the masculine and feminine principles that are complementary to each other. The female deity is prakriti, the active, dynamic and creative principle. The male deity is purusha, the passive, unchanging and observing principle. The interaction of both principles is what creates the universe.
The term Shakta is used for the description of people associated with Shakti worship. The Shakta pithas are shrines, which are believed to be the sacred seats of Shakti.
Overview
Etymology
According to the Monier-Williams dictionary, the term Shakti is the sanskrit feminine word-meaning "energy, ability, strength, effort, power, might, capability"—thereby implying "capacity for" doing something, or "power over" anything. Shakti is also considered a feminine noun of the linguistic term Sanskrit. Though the term Shakti has broad implications, it mostly denotes "power or energy, which is feminine", and is also a name by which goddesses are referred to.Prologue
Much has been written in an effort to describe, define and delineate the principle of Shakti, which is held as the "most complex" goddess related theological concept. Shakti is primarily identified with the feminine and with the numerous Hindu goddesses, who are seen as "tangible" expressions-visible personifications of the intangible Shakti. Such an ideation for Shakti took place over many centuries. The concept of Shakti also includes the maternal spiritual histories and experiences transmitted generationally from a maternal elder.Metaphysically, Shakti refers to "energetic principle" of the Ultimate reality—which is ideated as "primordial power". Shakti is believed to constitute such important factors as: "cit, ananda, iccha, jnana, and kriya ". In the study of Indian religions and their associated philosophies, one finds terms that combine Shakti with other concepts, giving rise to various expressions, such as; "adya Shakti, cit Shakti or vacya Shakti, vacaka Shakti, and para Shakti "—all of which, by their association with Shakti, indicate that the respective concept is essentially feminine.
Origins and development
s have revealed that practices of Mother goddess worship existed all over the world in ancient times. One of the earliest representation of mother goddess dates back to the Upper paleolithic period in Europe 20,000 years ago.Though goddess worship cults prevailed since antiquity in India, they gained popularity in the post Gupta era, mostly due to their esoteric practices. Apart from the Indian sculptures, the Vedas to the Tantras via the Puranas, constitute the major literary sources that trace the development of the goddess belief system.
Pre-Vedic goddess worship
The origins of Shakti concept are prevedic. Sites related to the worship of the mother goddess or Shakti were found in Paleolithic context at the Son River valley, where a triangular stone known as the Baghor stone, estimated to have been created around 9,000–8,000 BCE was found. The excavation team, which included Kenoyer, considered it highly probable that the stone was associated with Shakti or the female principle. The representation of Shakti in a stone is considered an early example of yantra.Scholars assume that goddess worship prevailed in the Indus Valley Civilisation as many terracotta female figurines with smoke-blacked headgear, suggesting their use in rituals, had been found in almost all the houses of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. Numerous artefacts that appear to portray female deities were also found. This development however is not assumed to be the earliest precursor of goddess worship in India; it has evolved over a long period of time before.
In the Vedic era
The Veda Samhitas are the oldest scriptures that specify the Hindu goddesses. The Rigveda and the Atharvaveda are the main sources of knowledge about various goddesses from the Vedic period. Ushas, the goddess of dawn was the most praised. Though male deities such as Indra and Agni have been more popular in the Vedic era, female deities were represented as personifications of important aspects like Earth, Mother of Gods, Night, and Speech.The Devīsūkta in the Rigveda, addressed to the goddess Vāc, became the progenitor of goddess theology that evolved later. Here, Vāc states: "I bend the bow for Rudra that his arrow may strike and slay the hater of devotion. I rouse and order battle for the people, and I have penetrated Earth and Heaven". This hymn presented the goddess as an all powerful pervasive being, who is both "immanent and transcendent", and is bestower of power to both gods and humans. Prominent characteristics of Vāc were later incorporated into the identity of Saraswati, who was a minor river goddess in the Vedas, but later became the goddess of knowledge and the "Mother of the Vedas".
Most of the goddesses in the Vedic era were presented as wives of the gods. They had no special powers nor an individual name either, rather they took their respective husband's name with feminine suffixes, as with Indrani, the wife of Indra. Though the goddesses had no power, one Rigvedic hymn addressed Indrani as Śacī Poulomī and presented her as the "deification" of Indra's power. The term Śacī meant "the rendering of powerful or mighty help, assistance, aid, especially of the 'deeds of Indra'." This use of the term Śacī is seen as a major step in the later conception of Śakti as the divine power which is separate from a deity and something not inherently present within it.
In later Hindu texts, the idea of Shakti as divine feminine energy became more pronounced as wives of the gods began to personify the powers of their husbands. Despite arriving at this stage, it was only later, after a lot of philosophical speculation and understanding the connecting factor underlying the universe that the idea of Shakti as being the feminine unity pervading all existence was developed.
Late Vedic-Upanishad era
The Upanishads did not feature goddesses notably. However, the ideas devised during this era became significant in later conceptions of Shakti.The theory of Shakti advocated in Shakta Upanishads was predicated on the upanishadic idea of Brahman, a gender-neutral Absolute, considered God, whose nature is all-encompassing. The all-pervasive nature of Brahman gave rise to the belief that both human and divine, are in essence similar. This led to the concept of a connecting factor between the absolute and human — called Atman. At this time, unsurprisingly there was no emphasis on the divine feminine, as Brahman is considered neither male or female. The early Upanishads postulated a transcendental absolute — it cannot be depicted or understood, but be known only through Jñāna. The later Upanishads however presented the idea of Saguna Brahman, thus giving it an accessible form. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad portrayed Brahman as "manifest Lord or Īśvara", thereby enabling a "theistic relationship" between a deity and devotee.
During the classical period
The complete identification of the goddess with Shakti was not fully realised until the classical period of Hinduism. This period saw the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, including the Bhagavad Gita. The epics were largely complemented by Puranas, a body of literature built upon the ideas of Upanishads, but primarily made up of myth and legend which proclaim the supremacy of a particular deity and equate their nirguna form with Brahman. Most of the Puranas were dedicated to male deities, particularly Vishnu and Shiva, however the later Shakta puranas were allotted to the goddess. Shakti worship that receded in the Vedic period became prominent from the classical period onward during which she was personified as Devi—a goddess.Most of the Puranas presented the goddesses as consorts of the gods. The Kurma Purana portrays the goddess Śrī or Lakshmi as a being lower to her husband, the god Vishnu, who "takes possession" of her when she appears at the churning of milk. Nevertheless, the Kurma Purana likewise describes Lakshmi as the impetus of Vishnu, who calls her "that great Śakti of my form". An inseparable bond between the goddess and her consort was formed when she was projected as an embodiment of three important principles — "śakti, prakṛti and māyā ", thus founding a relationship between "female divinity and creative power". In the puranic era, though the goddess was considered the source behind manifest creation, she was, nonetheless, a personification of her consort's energy and was referred to as prakṛti, who is still subordinated to her consort's will. While there was an individual goddess named śakti, the term referred to a quality held by both male and female deities. An apparent identity between feminine divinity and cosmic energy was not yet vouched.
Development of metaphysical Shakti
The perception of divine feminine was radically altered by two texts: the earlier Devi Mahatmya and the later Devi Bhagavata Purana. The Devi Mahatmya, initially part of the Markandeya Purana, is the most prominent goddess-centric text to clarify the concept of an all-encompassing goddess or the Mahadevi. Allegorically, through the mythical warring deeds of the goddess, it was asserted, rather by a deduction than by plain words that she's the "ultimate reality". When the asuras endangered the existence of the devas, the gods created an all-powerful goddess from their combined anger by channelling their essential powers, which took the form of a feminine being who gets assented as the Mahadevi, the supreme goddess fully independent of the gods and considered the embodiment of śakti with additional powers of her own. Here when she finishes her work, she doesn't return to her source, the gods, but instead vanishes.The Devi Mahatmya bolstered the concept of the Mahadevi or the great goddess with numerous epithets. Besides the term Devi, the most general name of the goddess is Chandi or Caṇḍikā, meaning "violent and impetuous one"; this was the first instance of the use of this term in a Sanskrit text and was probably conceived for this distinct incarnation, represented in an aggressive and often unorthodox mode, with an affinity for drink and approval of blood offerings.
The idea of independence and not confirming to widely held notions of goddesses has been an intriguing trait in the character of Devi in the Devi Mahatmya. The goddess here, primarily identified as Durga, is not dependent on a male consort and she successfully handles male roles herself. In battles, she fights without a male ally, and when needed aide, creates female peers from herself like Kali. Also, the ideation of the goddess as a personification of Shakti varies, instead of providing power to a male consort like other puranic era goddesses, here she takes powers from the gods–who all "surrender their potency to her" at the time of her manifestation.
The Devi Mahatmya elucidates the goddess so meticulously that it clarifies the changeableness of her character and makes it clear that she cannot be classified readily as she is the embodiment of all facets of energy—being concurrently "creative, preservative and destructive". The goddess is described as "eternal, having as her
form the world. By her is all pervaded". The text explains the all-pervasive Mahadevi as being both devi and asuri, for she represents positive as well as negative aspects of power and energy. Here, the ultimate reality was completely equated with Devi, who is presented as the power enabling the trimurti—Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma—to engage in the "preservation, dissolution and creation" of the universe respectively. Devi appears at the emergence of cosmic crisis, accordingly her role is assumed to be identical to that of Vishnu, who in his various avatars vows to manifest himself at times of crisis. Similarly, Devi, also vows to manifest whenever her help is needed. Scholars note that Devi Mahatmya exemplifies the notion of 'Brahminical synthesis' as postulated by Thomas J. Hopkins. Thomas B. Coburn explains that in the Devi Mahatmya, the pre-Aryan goddesses were all gradually incorporated into the Aryan/Brahminical fold under the title Devi. The inclusion of the pre-Aryan goddesses like Kali, Neeli, Sooli, Periyachi, Nagamma, etc., into the canon of Aryan/Brahminical goddesses made possible the emergence of a complex Hindu goddess or Devi, who embodies contradictory characteristics. Thus she is held as being the primal matter or prakriti as well as the transcendent spirit or Brahman; the consort of the Vedic gods as well as the divine mother from the pre-Aryan civilizations.