Durga
Durga, also known as Mahādevī, and Ādiśakti, is one of the most important deities in Hinduism. She is regarded as the principal aspect of Adi Parashakti, the Ultimate Reality in Shaktism and widely worshipped by the followers of this goddess-centric sect, and has importance in other denominations like Shaivism and Vaishnavism.
She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars, her legends centers around combating evils and demonic forces that threaten peace, dharma and cosmic order, representing the power of good over evil. Durga is seen as a motherly figure and often depicted as a warrior, riding a lion or tiger, with many arms, each carrying a weapon and defeating demons.
Durga is believed to have originated as an ancient goddess worshipped by indigenous mountain-dwellers of the Indian subcontinent, before being established in the main Hindu pantheon by the 4th century CE. The most important texts of Shaktism, Devi Mahatmya and Devi Bhagavata Purana, which revere Devi as the primordial creator of the universe, the Brahman, and identify Durga as the embodiment of creation, preservation, destruction, maya, shakti and prakriti. She is best known as Mahishasura-mardini; for slaying Mahishasura—the buffalo demon. In accounts of her battles with other demons such as Shumbha and Nishumbha, Durga manifests other warrior goddesses, the Matrikas, and Kali, to aid in combat.
In Vaishnava contexts, Durga is revered as Yogamaya and sometimes considered to be sister of Vishnu. Durga is typically portrayed as an independent warrior goddess. However, in different traditions where she is identified with the goddess Parvati, she also acquires domestic attributes and is widely regarded as the consort of Shiva. This identification is especially prominent in the regional traditions of Bengal, where Durga is also considered as the mother of the deities Ganesha, Kartikeya, Lakshmi, and Sarasvati.
Durga has a significant following all over Nepal, India, Bangladesh and many other countries. She is mostly worshipped after spring and autumn harvests, especially during the festivals of Durga Puja, Durga Ashtami, Vijayadashami, Deepavali, and Navaratri. She is one of the five equivalent deities in Panchayatana puja of the Smarta tradition of Hinduism.
Etymology and nomenclature
The word Durga literally means "impassable", "invincible, unassailable". It is related to the word Durg which means "fortress, something difficult to defeat or pass". According to Monier Monier-Williams, Durga is derived from the roots dur and gam. According to Indologist Alain Daniélou, Durga means "beyond defeat".The word Durga and related terms appear in the Vedic literature, such as in the Rigveda hymns 4.28, 5.34, 8.27, 8.47, 8.93 and 10.127, and in sections 10.1 and 12.4 of the Atharvaveda. A deity named Durge appears in section 10.1.7 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka. While the Vedic literature uses the word Durga, the description therein lacks the legendary details about her that is found in later Hindu literature.
The word is also found in ancient post-Vedic Sanskrit texts such as in section 2.451 of the Mahabharata and section 4.27.16 of the Ramayana. These usages are in different contexts. For example, Durg is the name of an Asura who had become invincible to gods, and Durga is the goddess who intervenes and slays him. Durga and its derivatives are found in sections 4.1.99 and 6.3.63 of the Ashtadhyayi by Pāṇini, the ancient Sanskrit grammarian, and in the commentary of Nirukta by Yaska.
Epithets
Durga is commonly known as Mahishasura-mardini for slaying the half-buffalo demon Mahishasura. She is also known as Vindhyavasini. Her other epithets include Mahamoha, Mahasuri, Tamasi.Etymology and other names
There are many epithets for Durga in Shaktism and her nine appellations are : Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayini, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidatri. A list of 108 names of the goddess is recited in order to worship her and is popularly known as the "Ashtottarshat Namavali of Goddess Durga".Other meanings may include: "the one who cannot be accessed easily", "the undefeatable goddess".
Durga is also known as Durgati Nashini, meaning one who eliminates suffering.
Her other names include Chandika, Sharada, Ambika, Vaishnavi etc.
History and texts
Evidence of Durga-like images can probably be traced back to the Indus Valley civilisation. According to Asko Parpola, a cylindrical seal from Kalibangan shows "a Durgā-like goddess of war, who is associated with the tiger".Reverence for Devi, the feminine nature of God, first appears in the 10th Maṇḍala of Rig Veda, one of the scriptures of Hinduism. This hymn is also called the Devi Suktam hymn :
Devi's epithets synonymous with Durga appear in Upanishadic literature, such as Kali in verse 1.2.4 of the Mundaka Upanishad dated to about the 5th century BCE. This single mention describes Kali as "terrible yet swift as thought", very red and smoky coloured manifestation of the divine with a fire-like flickering tongue, before the text begins presenting its thesis that one must seek self-knowledge and the knowledge of the eternal Brahman.
I am the Queen, the gatherer-up of treasures, most thoughtful, first of those who merit worship.
Thus gods have established me in many places with many homes to enter and abide in.
Through me alone all eat the food that feeds them, – each man who sees, breathes, hears the word outspoken.
They know it not, yet I reside in the essence of the Universe. Hear, one and all, the truth as I declare it.
I, verily, myself announce and utter the word that gods and men alike shall welcome.
I make the man I love exceedingly mighty, make him nourished, a sage, and one who knows Brahman.
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, I created Earth and Heaven and reside as their Inner Controller.
On the world's summit I bring forth sky the Father: my home is in the waters, in the ocean as Mother.
Thence I pervade all existing creatures, as their Inner Supreme Self, and manifest them with my body.
I created all worlds at my will, without any higher being, and permeate and dwell within them.
The eternal and infinite consciousness is I, it is my greatness dwelling in everything.
– Devi Sukta, Rigveda 10.125.3 – 10.125.8,
Durga, in her various forms, appears as an independent deity in the Epics period of ancient India, that is the centuries around the start of the common era. Both Yudhisthira and Arjuna characters of the Mahabharata invoke hymns to Durga. She appears in Harivamsa in the form of Vishnu's eulogy, and in Pradyumna prayer. Various Puranas from the early to late 1st millennium CE dedicate chapters of inconsistent legends associated with Durga. Of these, the Markandeya Purana and the Devi-Bhagavata Purana are the most significant texts on Durga. The Devi Upanishad and other Shakta Upanishads, mostly dated to have been composed in or after the 9th century, present the philosophical and mystical speculations related to Durga as Devi and other epithets, identifying her to be the same as the Brahman and Atman. The Skanda Purana, Shiva Purana and many others Puranas identifies Durga as the warrior form of the goddess Parvati. The Mahishasura Mardini Stotra by Adi Shankara was written in her praise.
Vishnu-centric Puranas identify Durga as Vishnu's māyā". In Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana, Durga facilitates the birth of Vishnu's avatar Krishna. the Narada Purana, Durga is associated as a form of Lakshmi. In the Garuda Purana and the Vishnu Purana, Lakshmi is considered Prakriti and is identified with three forms — Sri, Bhu and Durga. In Pancharatra texts such as the Lakshmi Tantra, Lakshmi has Durga as one of her forms and acquires the name Durga after killing the demon Durgamasura.
Origins
The historian Ramaprasad Chanda stated in 1916 that Durga evolved over time in the Indian subcontinent. A primitive form of Durga, according to Chanda, was the result of "syncretism of a mountain-goddess worshipped by the dwellers of the Himalaya and the Vindhyas", a deity of the Abhiras conceptualised as a war-goddess. Durga then transformed into Kali as the personification of the all-destroying time, while aspects of her emerged as the primordial energy integrated into the samsara concept and this idea was built on the foundation of the Vedic religion, mythology and philosophy.
Epigraphical evidence indicates that regardless of her origins, Durga is an ancient goddess. The 6th-century CE inscriptions in early Siddhamatrika script, such as at the Nagarjuni hill cave during the Maukhari era, already mention the legend of her victory over Mahishasura.
Durga as a demon-slaying goddess was likely well established by the time the classic Hindu text called Devi Mahatmya was composed, which scholars variously estimate to between 400 and 600 CE. The Devi Mahatmya and other mythologies describe the nature of demonic forces symbolised by Mahishasura as shape-shifting and adapting in nature, form and strategy to create difficulties and achieve their evil ends, while Durga calmly understands and counters the evil in order to achieve her solemn goals.
Legends
The most popular legend associated with the goddess is of her killing of Mahishasura. Mahishasura was a half-buffalo demon who did severe penance in order to please Brahma, the creator. After several years, Brahma, pleased with his devotion, appeared before him. The demon opened his eyes and asked the god for immortality. Brahma refused, stating that all must die one day. Mahishasura then thought for a while and asked a boon that only a woman could be able to kill him. Brahma granted the boon and disappeared. Mahishasura started to torture innocent people. He captured Svarga and was not in any kind of fear, as he thought women to be powerless and weak. The devas were worried and they went to Trimurti. The Trimurti combined their power, and gave a physical form to the sum of their divine energy, Adi Shakti, a warrior woman with many arms. Himavan, the personification of the Himalayas, gifted a lion as her mount. Durga, on her lion, appeared before Mahishasura where the demon took on different forms and attacked the goddess. Each time, Durga would destroy his forms. At last, Durga slew Mahishasura with her trident when he was transforming as a buffalo demon.According to Vaishnava tradition, Durga is among the various epithets and avatars of Yogamaya, the personification of the illusory power of Vishnu. Vishnu offers Durga the task of transferring the seventh child of Devaki into the womb of Rohini, as well as being born on earth as the infant daughter of Yashoda and Nanda, so that she could be swapped with Krishna. When Kamsa attempted to slay her, she manifested her true form of an eighteen-armed goddess, wearing a garland of lemons. The goddess announced that Kamsa's slayer had already been born, before vanishing. Durga is often conceptualised in this role as a sister of Vishnu.