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Durga - Narrative Art of an 'Independent' Warrior Goddess
Article of the Month - April 2001


One of the most invoked forms of the Great Goddess is her manifestation as the
youthful, multi-armed deity who successfully battles the mighty buffalo demon
that symbolizes among other things, the elemental powers of brutish ignorance.
In her this incarnation she is referred to as Durga, the 'unattainable'.
The Great Goddess Durga was born from the energies of the male divinities when
the gods lost the long drawn-out battle with the asuras (demons). All the
energies of the gods united and became supernova, throwing out flames in all
directions. Then that unique light, pervading the Three Worlds with its luster,
combined into one, and became a female form.
The Devi projected an overwhelming omnipotence. The awesome three-eyed Goddess
was adorned with the crescent moon. Her multiple arms held auspicious weapons
and emblems, jewels and ornaments, garments and utensils, garlands and rosaries
of beads, all offered by the gods. With her golden body blazing with the
splendor of a thousand suns, seated on her lion or tiger vehicle, Durga is one
of the most spectacular of all personifications of Cosmic Energy. The
tremendous power of the Goddess was poised ready for the grim battle to wipe
out demonic forces, the asuras whose exaggerated ego-sense was destroying the
balance of the universe, and whose sole purpose was to dominate and control. It
was the universal war between knowledge and ignorance, truth and falsehood, the
oppressor and the oppressed.

The world shook and the seas trembled as the Goddess engaged the Great Demon
Mahisasura and his hosts in fierce battle, creating her own female battalions
from her sighs breathed during the fighting.


The Great Goddess first annihilated the army of the titan. Then she roped his
own mighty buffalo-form with a noose. The demon escaped, however, emerging from
the buffalo body in the form of a lion. Immediately, the Goddess beheaded the
lion, whereupon Mahisa, by virtue of his Maya-energy of self-transformation,
escaped again, now in the form of a hero with a sword. Ruthlessly the Goddess
riddled this new embodiment with a shower of arrows. But then the demon stood
before her as an elephant, and with his trunk reached out and seized her. He
dragged her towards him, but she severed the trunk with the stroke of a sword.
The demon returned, now, to his favorite shape-that of the giant buffalo
shaking the universe with the stamping of its hoofs. But the Goddess scornfully
laughed, and again roared with a loud voice of laughter at all his tricks and
devices. Pausing a moment, in full wrath, she lifted to her lips, serenely, a
bowl filled with the inebriating, invigorating, liquor of the divine-life
force, and while she sipped the matchless drink, her eyes turned red.
The buffalo-demon, uprooting mountains with his horns, was flinging them
against her, shouting defiantly at her the while, but with her arrows she was
shattering them to dust. She called out to the shouting monster: "Shout on! Go
on shouting one moment more, you fool, while I sip my fill of this delicious
brew. The gods soon will be crying out for joy, and you shall lie murdered at
my feet. Even while she spoke, the Goddess leapt into the air, and from above
came down on the demon's neck. She dashed him to the earth and sent the trident
through his neck. The adversary attempted once again to abandon the
buffalo-body, issuing from its mouth in the shape of a hero with a sword; but
he had only half emerged when he was caught. He was half inside the buffalo and
half outside, when the Goddess, with a swift and terrific stroke, beheaded him,
and he died. The chief demon Mahisasura was thus dead, and the gods praised the
Goddess, joyfully worshipping her with flowers, incense and fragrant paste:
Thou Ambika [a name of Durga] dost overspread the universe with thy power.
The power of all divine beings is drawn into Thy from.
Thou art Great Mother, worshipped by all divine beings and Sages.
We bow ourselves in devotion to Thee.
Bless us with all that is good for us. We bow before Thee, O Devi,
Thou who art the good fortune of the virtuous,
Ill-fortune in the house of the evil,
Intelligence in the minds of the learned,
Faiths in the hearts of the good,
The modesty of the high born. - Devi Mahatmya The world was at peace again. The
skies cleared, the rivers kept their courses, there was sweet singing and
dancing. The winds blew softly, the sun shone brilliantly, the sacred fires
burned steadily. Strange sounds that had arisen in the various quarters died
away. The departing Durga offered the gods a boon. She promised that as
'Sakambhari' she would nourish the world in time of need with the vegetation
grown from her own body, and that in her 'terrible' form she would deliver her
worshippers from their enemies, and bless them. Then she vanished from the very
spot on which the gods were gazing. Thus the reveries of Mahisa are
exterminated. Into this wondrous male fantasy intrudes the Mother Goddess. She
lures and entices him and, because she represents the power of the unconscious
and the pull downward and backward into the protective womb, the demon
unwittingly plunges into her dangerous orbit. In a throwback to reciprocal
animal mating postures, they dance in mutual desire and dread. Mahisa is forced
into sacred, single combat with the fascinating but enigmatic, dangerous
creature. On the battle stage the disguise of each is penetrated; then the
demon and the Goddess are reduced to their true nature; in the last analysis
they are alike. Finally, like the ancient bull-kings who were themselves royal
sacrifices, fecundators of the earth, bearers of vicarious guilt, hero is
transformed into victim and, having lost his position in heaven, now Mahisa
loses his very life. He is decapitated by the Mother Goddess, and on earth,
paradise is restored, but only temporarily, for the demon inevitably returns to
earth for the eternal cyclical repetition of the entire life process. The myth
is saturated with the potential for violence inherent in the male-female
oppositions. As the story unfolds, the relationship between Mahisa and the
goddess is manifested at many levels: psychologically both demon and goddess
become what the other is, both behave like ferocious animals and one never
knows what will happen in the next instant, as the constant alternations, which
range from the bestial to the divine, are the only reality. Thus each of the
antagonists can be symbolically interpreted as now the monster/dragon, now with
feminine or with masculine attributes. Each can represent justice and power or
evil and danger; and each contributes to the orgiastic disorder necessary for
recreation. The myth thus transcends the male-female alternative, signifying
psychic totality. The condition of the contemporary urban dweller who howls in
fear in the dark as he confronts the bad animal of his nightmare differs little
from the fright syndrome of the jungle dweller, forced into struggle with a live
animal. Until the dreamer awakes, he is in the same situation as his prehistoric
ancestors were. Pervading the deepest levels of the psyche, ready to spring at
random, the residual animal, source of human energies, seeks recognition. The
unfocused, floating primordial imagery, rooted in the biological heritage, is
stabilized in culture. Externalized projections, first structured into dance,
cultish animal rites, orgiastic fertility ceremonies and much later into
literature, art, myth and ritual, provide the camouflage of human
respectability and channel the anxiety into an acceptable form. Left to itself
without organization, animal nature will surely erupt. When left unrecognized
and unattended, under stressful conditions, animal impulses break through in
random fashion, and blind fury re-emerges in full force. As repository for the
archaic residue, Mahisamardini, the Goddess who slays the buffalo, is a
therapeutic symbol. Durga's name literally means "Beyond Reach". This is an
echo of the woman warrior's fierce, virginal autonomy. In fact many of the
figures associated with her are officially virgin. This is not meant in the
limiting sense understood by the patriarchal order, but rather in Esther
Harding's sense: she is "one-in-herself", or as Nor Hall puts it,
"Belonging-to-no-man". As Harding further observed of 'The Virgin Goddess':
'Her divine power does not depend on her relation to a husband-god, and thus
her actions are not dependent on the need to conciliate such a one or to accord
with his qualities and attitudes. For she bears her identity through her own
right.' The disappearance of Durga from the battlefield after the victory over
aggression expressed one of the deepest truths of the episode, for the feminine
action in the cosmic drama is without retentive, ego-seeking ambition. Durga
is linked also with some of the oldest known prayers for humankind's
protection. In the Ramayana, Rama went to Lanka to rescue his abducted wife,
Sita, from the grip of Ravana, the Emperor of Lanka. Before starting for his
battle, Rama aspired for the blessings of Goddess Durga . He came to know that
the Goddess would be pleased if offered one hundred blue lotuses. But after
traversing the whole world, he could gather only ninety-nine. Rama finally
decided to offer one of his own eyes, which resembled blue lotuses. Durga,
being pleased with the devotion of Rama, appeared before him, stopped him from
committing this act and blessed him. In the fierce battle that followed, Rama
was able to annihilate Ravana, thus again triumphed good over evil. To this
day, this day is celebrated as Vijaydashmi (Day of Victory), and Goddess Durga
worshipped all over India. Indeed the Mother Goddess, it is believed, controls
the fate of all. But even though she makes her appearance when the male deities
conglomerate their respective energies, she is, in fact, not 'created' by them.
All her incarnations are the result of her will to be in the world for the
benefit of mankind; she chooses when and how to effect her lilas (play of the
Goddess in the world). In this situation her sudden arrival spells doom for
Mahisa, but only after a protracted interaction during which the confrontations
between animal/demon and Goddess, male and female, son and mother, lover and
beloved, equal combatants, victim and sacrificer, hero and deliverer, are given
due attention as an exploratory venture into the dynamics of the laws of
opposites. Their combat is, in the final analysis, an enactment of a
many-aspected reality, reflecting a mode of thought which perceives seeming
opposites as mere stages in a graduated spectrum of reality which has a minimum
of definite boundaries.
We hope you have enjoyed
reading the article. Any comments or feedback that you
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feedback to feedback (AT) exoticindia (DOT) com.
This article by Nitin Kumar
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ARTICLE REVIEWS
Thanks for posting the article to my group, Lady of the Bay! Your lesson was
greatly appreciated!- Jennifer B.
Review this article
It was an interesting article in content. Reading other mythological books
certian content seems different and may or may not be true.However the feed
back will become very interesting if you invite readers' experiences in
believing in one of the godesses and thencomparing with the articles'
contents.I for one have believed in Saraswati all my life and is my Ishta Devi.
I have had great bliss from the godess and she has bestowed many boons and near
miracle experiences. Becoause of her my life has been very peaceful, happy and
full. I would llike to hear other experiences.Needless to say whomsoever one
believes it appears that God is one, choose whatever name and form- S.Shah
Review this article
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