Lesson 4: The Hindu Pantheon - Part Two.
This lesson, in part, deals with the important goddesses in the pantheon. It must be noted that the goddesses are few in comparison to the number of gods but almost all the relevant ones have been included. Also in this lesson the minor deities as well as a few other important mythological entities have been dealt with. Comprehensive knowledge is not necessary. The salient features of the characters should be enough to get a student through the test at the end of the lesson. Also at the end is a conclusion to the two pantheon lessons that is very important for the student.
The Triad of Goddesses.
Introduction:
At the apex of the Goddesses in the Hindu Pantheon is a sketchy triad of Goddesses who represent the Mother Figure that protects and preserves. The Mother Goddess is definitely Devi whose daughters the other two Goddesses in the Triad - Sarasvati and Lakshmi - are.
The Triad of Goddesses:
The Triad of Goddesses are - Sarasvati – for learning and the creative arts, Lakshmi – for wealth and beauty and Devi – for feminine shakti or energy, particularly in the manifestation of fertility.
Devi is mainly in the nature of the Mother Goddess and it is singular that the other two of the Triad are portrayed as Her daughters.
Sarasvati:
Sarasvati is the Goddess of all the creative arts especially of poetry and music, learning and science. She, in present times, is intimately associated with books. At Her worship day in January children lay their school text and exercise books at Her feet for propitiation.
Earlier myths recount of Sarasvati being created by Brahma from a part of His body. As such She is regarded as His daughter though He later married Her overcome by Her beauty, much to the annoyance of Shiva who accused Him of incest and struck off His fifth head. That is why we only have four Vedas, which sprouted out of each of Brahma’s four remaining heads.
A later myth, and a more popular one, accounts for Sarasvati as the younger daughter of the union of Shiva and Parvati, sister to Lakshmi, Karttikeya and Ganesha.
Sarasvati is represented as a beautiful woman with white skin, sitting on a swan or a lotus flower and holding a Bina (an Indian musical instrument) in Her hands.
Sarasvati is a haughty and disputatious Goddess and much is made of Her constant rivalry with Her sister Lakshmi, the Goddess of fortune. The two seldom get on well with each other. This accounts for the fact that a learned person is seldom wealthy and vice versa.
However the myths go it is nevertheless an accepted notion that Sarasvati is wedded to Brahma.
Lakshmi:
Lakshmi was one of the fourteen precious things that churning of the ocean delivered and She was claimed by Vishnu as His wife. Another more popular myth accounts for Her as the elder daughter of Shiva and Parvati, sister to Sarasvati, Karttikeya and Ganesha. Nevertheless, in this myth as well, Lakshmi is the wife of Vishnu.
As Vishnu’s constant companion She was born to be His wife every time He descended to earth as an avatar. She was born from the waters, floating on a lotus, when He was born as the Vamana avatar. She was called Padma (lotus) or Kamala. When Vishnu was Parasuram, she was Dharani, the earth. When He was Rama, She was Sita, born of the earth. When He was Krishna, She was present in both stages of His life as Radha, the cow-girl and His unrequited love, and Rukmini, His lawful wife.
Thus, as Vishnu’s constant companion, Lakshmi is regarded as a Goddess of plenty, of fortune and wealth. She is regarded as fickle in this context, as fortunes come and go. Nevertheless, as Vishnu’s wife, She is exemplary in Her faithfulness to Him, especially as Sita, who is regarded as the epitome of a loyal wife in India and an example of feminine comeliness.
Lakshmi is represented as a golden woman, sitting or standing on a lotus, Her symbol. Myths give Her four hands but Her commonly-worshipped idols represent Her with only two so as to make Her more humanlike and endearingly, probably closer for comfort.
In a Hindu household, Lakshmi is constant feature and She is regularly worshipped, especially on Thursdays, which is regarded as Her day and, thus, a very auspicious one. A good Hindu wife is expected to be like Lakshmi, virtuous yet presentable and conserving of the household resources.
Devi:
Devi is the embodiment in a single deity of all the diverse elements of Shiva’s Shakti Brigade. She mirrors in Her person all the diverse aspects of Her husband’s personality. For each of these aspects She has a different name – Sati, Parvati, Durga, Kali ). The aspects may be divided roughly into mild and fierce ones. This duality can be traced back to pre-Aryan times and Devi may be said to be the remnant of the Supreme Mother Goddess of the earliest times of human civilization in India. Like Vishnu’s avatars each of these deities were born at a particular time to perform a particular function associated with Shiva in His role of wielder of the female energy (Shakti), represented by the Yoni or female genital organ. The worshippers of Shakti – the Shaktas - hope to achieve the Unmanifest Masculine Power behind the Goddess they worship. This masculine energy is usually that of Shiva, as entirely in the case of the Shakti Goddesses.
Sati is a mild form of Devi and was a daughter of Daksha who married Shiva at Her own insistence against Her father’s advice. Later, getting unwillingly involved in Her disputatious husband’s innumerable controversies, She committed suicide. The grief-stricken Shiva went into a trance and, taking up Her dead body, started to dance the tandava, His dance of destruction. Fearing for the survival of the universe Vishnu cut off Sati’s dead body into fifty-two pieces and stopped Shiva. The fifty-two places in India and other parts of the subcontinent where the pieces of Sati’s body fell are major tantric pilgrimage spots - The Shaktipeeths - regularly visited by Hindus.
Sati is the embodiment of feminine devotion to masculine supremacy and She is regarded, like Sita of the Ramayana, as an epitome of wifely faithfulness.
Sati was reborn as Parvati, the daughter of Himavan, lord of the Himalayas, and Mena. She is also called Menakshi, after Her mother. She also represents a milder aspect of Shiva’s character and She achieved Her position of wife through great austerities. In the process She acquired a golden skin and so is also called Uma (light or beauty). She is the mother of Shiva’s four children – Karttikeya, Lakshmi, Ganesha and Sarasvati.
There are two fierce avatars of Devi – Durga and Kali.
Durga is a beautiful golden woman with ten arms riding a lion. She was created from flames issuing out of the mouths of the major Gods including Shiva to kill the buffalo demon Mahisha. Each of Her ten hands were armed with one of the special weapons of the Gods – Vishnu’s discus, Shiva’s trident, Varuna’s conch shell, Agni’s flaming dart, Vayu’s bow, Surya’s quiver and arrows, Yama’s iron rod, Indra’s thunderbolt, Kubera’s club, a garland of snakes from Shesha and a lion or tiger from the Himalayas. She is particularly revered in Bengal and is regarded there not only as a slayer of demons but also as a fertility Goddess.
Kali is an even more fearsome aspect of Shiva than Durga. She was created to kill Chunda and Munda, two asuras, and their army of demons. She has black skin, a hideous tusked face and a third eye. She has four arms, two of them bearing a weapon and a blood-dripping detruncated head of an asura and the other two raised to bless. She is naked except for Her ornaments of cut-off body parts of asuras, especially a waist mantle of cut-off hands which signifies karma. Kali is in Shiva’s time aspect and She destroys all Karma (deeds) that are not good. Only the absolutely good prevails against the ravages of time.
Shiva had to lie down in Her path as She was driven out of control by bloodlust in the process of extirpating asuras and started killing innocent beings after all the asuras were decimated. When She stepped onto Her husband’s supine body realization came to Her and, in shame, She stuck out Her tongue and ceased Her massacre of the innocents. This is the most popular form, with Her tongue stuck out, that She is in worshipped by Hindus.
Kali required constant blood sacrifices, including humans in the near past, but today Hindus realize the significance of universal coexistence and instead of sacrificing animals substitute them with gourds.
All of Shiva’s female manifestations are linked with fertility, the primary form of feminine beneficence. Except for Sati, who died too early to bear children and Kali who is too fierce and is barren, all the many forms of Devi – Parvati, Uma, Gauri, Jagadgauri, Menakshi, Durga – are fruitful mothers bearing Shiva the same four children – Karttikeya, Ganesha, Lakshmi and Sarasvati. As fruitful mothers they all depict Shiva's positive male power - His light aspect.
