Hinduism 101

Lesson 4: The Hindu Pantheon - Part Two.

The Other Goddesses.

The Other Goddesses:

There are also a number of Female figures in the Hindu Pantheon who are worshipped for the varied influence they have on human existence.

Aditi:

Aditi is the mother of the Vedic Adityas and, on that basis, the Hindus of a later age still continue to regard Her as the Mother of all the Gods, not only of the Adityas. She was twice featured as the mother of two of Vishnu’ avatars – Vamanavatar and Krishnavatar. She was the wife of Kasyapa as the mother of Vamanavatar and Devaki, wife of Basudev, as the mother of Krishnavatar.

Indra, at one time as an Aditya Himself, gifted Her the famous earrings that was begotten by the churning of the oceans with Vasuki, the snake.

Aditi is thus revered as a Mother Goddess who gave birth to all the celestial beings.

Saranyu:

Saranyu is the daughter of Vishwakarma and the twin sister of Trisiras. She is married to Surya, the Sun God. She initially bore Him a pair of twins, Yama and Yami, but later became tired of His brilliance and fled into the forest, leaving behind a replica, Chhaya (shade), who fooled Surya into begetting a child of her. The child was Manu, the law-giver, and a famous personage in his own right.

Ultimately Surya discovered His wife’s deception and dismissed Chhaya and went after Saranyu in the forest. There He found her in the embodiment of a mare and, so, He changed form to a stallion and they mated and begot the Aswins (horsemen), again twin boys, who are also reputed as physicians to the Gods.

Later Surya and Saranyu changed back to human forms and, in compromise to His wife’s difficulty, Surya agreed to let Vishwakarma shear off some of His brilliance. Saranyu then helped her father make the Gods’ weapons out of the glowing pieces sheared off her husband.

Saranyu’s is the first case of a woman getting trauma from being married to a star.

Prithivi:

Prithivi is literally the earth, the Mother Earth, wedded to Dyaus, the Sky Father, bearing and engendering not only all life on the planet but also such gods as Indra and Agni. All the earlier myths treat her in the same way and the common belief among Hindus today favors that early belief. She is always the caring mother though parts of the myths reveal her as a female who is also capricious and often uncaring of those who depend on her. Thus, the earth succors with crops and other produce and also destroys when she is willful and will not yield – as at times of drought and flood.

Yet later myths have her wedded to a king named Prithu who asks her on their bridal day to reveal to him all the treasures she had been hiding. Prithivi refuses and flees from her husband who pursues with bow and arrows to catch her and force her to give up all her hidden treasures for the benefit of all life on earth. Somehow Prithivi escapes from her husband and goes to Brahma for shelter. Brahma refuses to grant her sanctum and tells her to return to her lawfully-wed husband. Prithivi has no other recourse and returns to him. Prithu is vengeful and beats her and forces her to reveal all her treasures to him which he then distributes among all life on earth.

In this myth is the connotation that farmers and others mistreat the earth and force her to yield what they want and she bears all, patient cow that she is.

Prithivi’s myths portray her often as a willful creature but, all that notwithstanding, the common Hindu reveres her and loves her for being the mother of all life on earth.

Other stylized creation myths portray Yama and Yami, the twins born of Saranyu and Surya, as the creators of the human race. Some myths even mention Brahma and Sarasvati as the original creators of the race but Prithivi and Dyaus are the common man’s or woman’s favorite.

Rati:

Rati is the daughter of the sage Daksha and the wife of the Love God Kama. She is the Goddess of sexual pleasure and a constant companion of Kama as He roams about shooting indiscriminately His arrows. Like her husband she is also a frivolous deity and she is often called Mayavati (deceiver).

Her faithfulness, however, to Kama is unstinting and for this reason she is often cited as an example wives should emulate. When Kama was burned to ashes by Shiva’s third eye in the incident of Karttikeya’s birth, when Kama sought to break Shiva’s vow of abstinence by shooting an arrow at Him and making Him feel desire for Parvati, it was Rati who, with the help of Parvati, persuaded Shiva to forgive her husband and allow Him to be reborn as Pradyumna, son of Krishna and Rukmini.

Ultimately, after a long sojourn as human beings living in the kingdom of Dwarka, Krishna’s seat, Kama and Rati were able to return to their divine roots and reign again as the deities of love and passion.

Manasa:

Manasa is the daughter of the sage Kasyapa and Kadru, the mother of all serpents. She is the sister of the serpent-king Shesha or Ananta, on whom Vishnu sleeps after the end of each epoch. Her worship is most prevalent in Bengal. Manasa is invoked as curer of snake bites and protector against diseases, especially infectious ones, and as bringer of wealth. Since snakes become most evident at the onset of the rainy season Manasa’s worship also peaks at this time.

As a deity of almost pre-Aryan origin, Manasa is closely associated with fertility cults and, also as snakes are seen as symbols of the cycle of life, Manasa is a powerful deity with much capacity for damage and much feared as such. She is also closely associated with cats, especially the one She usually rides.

Manasa is particularly ugly to look at with only one eye operational and is featured in red robes riding a cat, usually a tiger, the most common wild cat in India.

Sitala:

Sitala’s origins are shrouded in time and not much is known of how and when she became popular. Sitala, like Manasa, is a deity quite recently added to the pantheon. She has influence mostly in Bengal and is not at all known in other parts of India. She is taken to be an aspect of Shiva’s Shakti, the feminine energy, and she is also the Goddess of small pox and other infectious diseases like venereal ones. As such she is much revered by prostitutes and other sex workers and her temple is sure to be found in places where these people reside.

Sitala wears red robes and rides an ass as she ambles around the countryside looking for victims. She carries seeds that, when thrown upon a victim, gives him or her diseases. Since, when it was much prevalent, small pox and other such diseases except the venereal ones, become manifest in India just after the winter and at the beginning of summer, Sitala’s worship peaks at this time.

Sitala is also the patron Goddess of childbirth and has great affection for children. So she is also worshipped as a Patron Deity of children.

Sitala is also associated with cats and rides one when she is not on prowl for victims. Her idol prepared for worship usually has her sitting on a tiger.

Ganga:

Ganga is one of major rivers flowing through the northern plains of India. The canny Indians, mostly Hindus, who made their settlements on her banks revered her and ultimately deified her. She is the unique purifier and bathing in her waters washes away all sins. It goes without mentioning that she is regarded as a mother whose waters bring life to millions. There are innumerable myths on her but the one I shall deal with here is the one that concerns her descent to earth.

At first Ganga, eldest daughter of Himavan and Mena, was a holy river that entwined itself three times around the holy city of Brahma on Mount Meru. At that time there was a king named Sagara. He ruled Ayodhya, which was later to become the kingdom of Ramachandra, Vishnu’s seventh avatar. King Sagara had sixty thousand sons. They were all wild and went about tormenting the common people including the sages and rishis. Ultimately it got so that the holy men could neither meditate nor worship in peace. They complained to the Gods. So Vishnu, with His third eye, which every major God has, burned all of Sagara’s sixty thousand sons to ashes for their misdeeds. Sagara died soon after but one of his descendents learned from the sage Kapila that the sixty thousand members of his family could be brought back to life if the sacred river Ganga could be made to descend to Patala (the nether regions) to wash over their ashes. Hereafter all of Sagara’s descendents tried their best to persuade the sacred river to come down from Brahma’s heaven but she was reluctant and declined.

Al last, one descendent Bhagiratha, through severe austerities, propitiated Brahma and persuaded Him to order Ganga to come down. Now the Gods warned that Ganga was very annoyed at Brahma’s command and would fall so heavily to earth that she would do maximum damage. So Bhagiratha again performed austerities and asked for Shiva’s help. Shiva agreed to cushion Ganga’s fall with His matted locks.

In this way Ganga descended via Shiva’s locks onto earth and to Patala through the ocean, which is “sagara” in the Indian languages. Sagara’s sons were saved and attained salvation while the people of earth were gifted with the holy waters of the river they revere most.

Through this myth the origins of the river high up in the mountains and her disappearance into the sea is explained.

Almost all Hindu rites from marriages to death ceremonies to worship of other Gods and Goddesses require the water of the Ganga. If one is not fortunate enough to live on her banks then a nearby river is signified as Ganga and its waters are used but millions of Hindus strive to bathe at least once in a lifetime in her holy waters, especially at propitious times like the Kumbha Mela and Ganga Sagara. These religious ceremonies are dealt with in the lesson on religious places.

It is also a powerful belief that if a Hindu’s body is cremated on the Ganga’s banks and her waters used to wash the dead person’s ashes he or she will gain direct admittance to heaven. So many old people near death leave their home-towns to go and dwell on her banks so that their last rites can be performed on her banks and they can gain entry into Swarga (heaven).