Shaktism
Shaktism is a major Hindu denomination in which the ultimate reality is considered as Adi Parashakti.
In Shaktism, the divine feminine energy, Shakti, is revered as the supreme power and is personified as the Mahadevi, who manifests in numerous forms, with each form having distinct functions and unique attributes. The most prominently worshiped goddesses include Durga, the fierce protector who vanquishes evil and restores cosmic order; Parvati, the gentle yet powerful mother goddess of fertility, devotion, and spiritual wisdom; and Kali, the primal force of time and transformation. Additionally, Shaktism reveres a broader pantheon, including goddesses like Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, success and arts; Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, divine abundance and prosperity; and Tripura Sundari, the goddess of beauty and grace. Also honoured are the various Gramadevata, local village guardian deities, who protect and bless their communities. Following the decline of Buddhism in India, elements of Hindu and Buddhist goddess worship gradually merged, culminating in the emergence of the Mahavidya, a revered group of ten fierce and esoteric goddesses central to the tantric traditions within Shaktism.
Shaktism encompasses various tantric sub-traditions, including Vidyapitha and Kulamārga. Shaktism emphasises intense love of the deity as more important than simple obedience, thus showing an influence of the Vaishnavaite idea of a passionate relationship between Radha and Krishna as an ideal bhava. Similarly, Shaktism influenced Vaishnavism and Shaivism. The goddess is considered the consort and energy of the gods Vishnu and Shiva; they have their individual shaktis, Vaishnavi for Vishnu and Maheshvari for Shiva, and consorts Lakshmi and Sati/Parvati. An adherent of Shaktism is called a Shakta. In 2020, the World Religion Database estimated that Shaktism is the third-largest Hindu sect, constituting about 305 million Hindus.
The Sruti and Smriti texts of Hinduism form an important scriptural framework in Shaktism. Scriptures such as the Devi Mahatmya, Devi-Bhagavata Purana, Kalika Purana, and Shakta Upanishads like the Devi Upanishad are revered. In Shaktism, the Devi Mahatmya is considered to be as important as the Bhagavad Gita. The Devi is revered in many Hindu temples and worshipped during a number of Hindu festivals. The goddess-focused tradition and its festivals, such as the Durga Puja, are very popular in eastern India.
Origins and history
The earliest archaeological evidence of what appears to be an Upper Paleolithic shrine for Shakti worship were discovered in the terminal Upper Paleolithic site of Baghor I in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh, India. The excavations were conducted under the guidance of archaeologists G. R. Sharma of Allahabad University and J. Desmond Clark of the University of California, with assistance from Jonathan Mark Kenoyer and J. N. Pal. The Baghor formation was dated to between 9000 BC and 8000 BC. The origins of Shakti worship may also be traced to the Indus Valley Civilisation.Among the earliest evidence of reverence for the female aspect of the deity in Hinduism is this passage in chapter 10.125 of the Rig Veda, also called the Devi Suktam hymn:
The Vedic literature reveres various goddesses, but far less frequently than the gods Indra, Agni and Soma. The goddesses often mentioned in the Vedic layers of text include the Ushas, Vāc, Sarasvati, Prithivi, Nirriti, Shraddha. In Kena Upanishad, the goddess Uma is described as another aspect of divine and the knower of ultimate knowledge.
Hymns to goddesses are also in Mahabharata, particularly in the Harivamsa section to the work. Thomas B. Coburn notes that by about the third or fourth century, archaeological and textual evidence suggest the goddess had become as prominent as God. Shakti theology developed in ancient India, reaching its peak in one of the most important texts of Shaktism, the Devi Mahatmya. C. Mackenzie Brown describes the text as both the culmination of centuries of Indian ideas about the divine woman and the foundation for the literary and spiritual focus on female transcendence in the centuries that followed. The Devi Mahatmya is considered in Shaktism to be as important as the Bhagavad Gita. According to Thomas Coburn, the Devi-Mahatmya is not the earliest literary fragment attesting to the devotion to a goddess figure, but "it is surely the earliest in which the object of worship is conceptualized as goddess, with a capital G".
Theology
Shaktas regard Shakti as the supreme, ultimate, eternal reality of all existence—the same as the Brahman concept in wider Hinduism. She is simultaneously considered as the source, embodiment, and energy of the cosmos, and that into which everything ultimately dissolves. The Devi Upanishad verse 2 states: "I am essentially Brahman". According to V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, a professor of Indian history, in Shaktist theology, "Brahman is static Shakti and Shakti is dynamic Brahman." The Devi-Bhagavata Purana states:Shaktism does not reject the masculine, but rejects the dualisms such as masculine-feminine, male-female, soul-body, transcendent-immanent dualism, affirming nature as divine. According to C. MacKenzie Brown, cultural concepts of the masculine and feminine among practitioners of Shaktism are aspects of the divine, transcendent reality. This concept is represented in Hindu iconography by Ardhanari, the half-Shakti, half-Shiva deity.
June McDaniel notes that many Shakta texts reflect a syncretism of the Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta schools, called Shaktadavaitavada.
Swami Vivekananda explained that the true Shakti-worshipper sees "God is the omnipresent force in the universe and sees in women the manifestation of that Force." Sri Ramakrishna believed that all Hindu goddesses are manifestations of the same mother goddess. The 18th-century Shakta bhakti poems and songs were composed by two Bengal court poets, Bharatchandra Ray and Ramprasad Sen, and the Tamil collection Abhirami Anthadhi was composed by Abhirami Bhattar.
Scriptures
The scriptures of Shaktism include the Shakta Upanishads, as well as Shakti-oriented Upa Puranic literature, such as the Devi Purana, the Kalika Purana, and the Lalita sahasranama. The Tripura Upanishad is historically the most complete introduction to Shakta Tantrism, distilling into its 16 verses almost every important topic in Shakta Tantra tradition. Along with the Tripura Upanishad, the Tripuratapini Upanishad has attracted scholarly bhasya in the second half of the 2nd millennium, such as the work of Bhaskararaya and Ramanand. These texts might link the Shakti Tantra tradition to the Vedas, but this link has been contested by scholars. Scriptures such as the Devi Mahatmya, Devi-Bhagavata Purana, Kalika Purana, and Shakta Upanishads, like the Devi Upanishad are also revered.Devi Gita
The seventh book of the Srimad Devi-Bhagavatam presents the theology of Shaktism. This book is called Devi Gita. The goddess explains she is the Brahman that created the world, asserting the Advaita premise that spiritual liberation occurs when one fully comprehends the identity of one's soul and the Brahman. This knowledge, asserts the goddess, comes from detaching self from the world and meditating on one's own soul.The Devi Gita, like the Bhagavad Gita, is a condensed philosophical treatise. It presents the divine female as a powerful and compassionate creator, pervader, and protector of the universe. She is presented in the opening chapter of the Devi Gita as the benign and beautiful world-mother, called Bhuvaneshvari. Thereafter, the text presents its theological and philosophical teachings.
The Devi Gita describes the Devi as "universal, cosmic energy" resident within each individual. It thus weaves in the terminology of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy. The text is suffused with Advaita Vedanta ideas, wherein nonduality is emphasised, all dualities are declared as incorrect, and interconnected oneness of all living beings' souls with Brahman is held as the liberating knowledge. However, adds Tracy Pintchman, a professor of religious studies and Hinduism, Devi Gita incorporates Tantric ideas, giving the Devi a form and motherly character rather than the gender-neutral concept of Adi Shankara's Advaita Vedanta.
List of 8 Shakta Upanishads
Principal deities
Shaktism is a goddess-centric tradition of Hinduism in which many goddesses are regarded as various aspects, manifestations, or personifications of the supreme goddess, Shakti. Shaktas worship the Devi in many forms, but all are considered as expressions of the one supreme goddess. The primary form of Devi worshiped by a Shakta is the ishta-devi, that is a personally selected Devi. The selection of this deity can depend on many factors such as family tradition, regional practice, guru lineage, and personal resonance.Some forms of the goddess are widely known in the Hindu world. By the mid 1st-millennium CE, deities such as Parvati, Durga, Kali, Yogamaya, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Gayatri, Radha, and Sita were already prominent within Shaktism. In eastern India, after the decline of Buddhism in India, various Hindu and Buddhist goddesses were combined to form the Mahavidya, a pantheon of ten goddesses.
Among tantric Shaktas, rare forms of Devi include the Mahavidyas, particularly Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Tara, Bhairavi, Chhinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi, and Kamala.
Other major goddess groups include the Sapta-Matrika, described as the energies of different major gods who assist the supreme Devi in her battles with deamons, and the 64 Yoginis. The eight forms of the goddess Lakshmi and the nine forms of goddess Durga are mainly worshipped during the Navaratri festival. Numerous local goddesses are also worshipped across villages in India.