The Feminine Divine in Indian religions
Sources
Two primary sources are used in this paper. These are translations, with commentary, of the same Puranic text, the Devi-mahatmya. Like the Bhagavad-Gita, which is part of the larger Purana, the Mahabharata, the Devi-mahatmya, originally books 81-93 of the Markandeya Purana, is also used as a freestanding scripture. The oldest Hindu text on the feminine divine, it is dated somewhere between the 5th and 6th centuries BCE. Coburns calls it the first comprehensive account of the goddess to appear in Sanskrit. Worthams classical translation was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1885. The DM is occupied with an account of the Great Power of Devi, or Durgha, says Wortham, the wife of Siva. Thomas B. Coburns translation is more recent (1988), so his commentary benefits from scholarship and research unavailable to Wortham. Five sources are secondary. However, these contain references to primary material and relevant fieldwork research. Singh (1993) is consulted for the feminine divine tradition in Sikhism, Shaw (2006) for Buddhist expression of the feminine divine, or principle. Bose (2000) surveys the feminine divine across the centuries. This is an edited volume and chapter 7, The Goddess, Women and their Rituals in India by Samjukta Gombrich Gupta was useful for content on how the Vedic tradition systematically excluded women from ritualistic religious duties because they were deemed impure and unclean, which contrasts with the later Tantric tradition that encouraged sexual contact during womens menstruation. With Coburns introduction, this provides most of the historical data used below. Finally, on the continued popularity and significance of the feminine divine tradition in at least one region of India, Samanta (1992) discusses Bengali perceptions of the divine feminine. Veneration of Kali is especially widespread in Bengal.
The origin of the Goddess the Indus Valley
Knowledge of the Indus Valley civilization is entirely from the archeological record, since there are no written accounts. Gupta and Coburn both refer to the lack of written attestation to the role of the goddess. Gupta says that although excavations suggest worship of a female figure, lack of written evidence makes it impossible to know the nature of that religion. People speculated that the Indus Valley civilization might have been matriarchal, that women as well as men or even only women may have performed ritual. Coburn comments, however, that most scholars accept that pre-Vedic religion had a strong feminine component, thus worship of the goddess is of non-Aryan, non-Sanskritic, indigenous origin. This rests on the popular but controversial theory that migrating or invading Aryans who entered India from outside, displaced the Indus Valley residents, bringing an early form of Sanskrit with them and perhaps the Vedas as well. The Indus Valley residents, or Dravidians, were pushed south. Coburn says that the Aryan and non-Aryan cultures were radically different. Possibly, surviving princes of later preserved the non-Aryan traditions, while the Brahman priests (the highest class according to the Vedas) represented the former. By the time that the Puranas were written, though, the non-Aryan tradition was sufficiently strong to impact the Aryan-Sanskrit tradition, thus from the third and fourth century the religion of the Goddess becomes as much a part of the Hindu written record as the religion of God. From the writing down of the Vedas (1,500 to 1,200 BCE) the feminine was almost absent from religion, at least from official, Brahmanical religion. Gupta says that Vedic religion restricted women s ritual participation to certain life-cycle events and more or less treated women as members of the lowest class, the sudras. Menstruation was seen as an impurity, as was birth which inflicted impurity on all associated with it such as the mother and the midwife. Widows, especially if young were widely seen as the cause of sexual temptation. Although sati the burning of widows on their husbands funeral pyres was not actually prescribed by any text, it was commonplace. Allegedly, this was voluntary but more often than not women were compelled. In the Vedas, Indra (God of War) transferred one-third of his son for killing a Brahmin to women, which resulted in womens menstruation. She argues that women were increasingly mistrusted, especially as the caste system grew more rigid. Women role was to be submissive, obedient, docile and decorative. Womens lives were lived through mens. Their lives provided little opportunity for ostentatious spirituality, which was left for men. A woman was thought incapable of achieving moksha (release from samsara, the cycle of existence). Being reborn as a man signified progress. This is reflected in how the female deities are depicted in the Vedas, where they are mainly decorative accessorizes for male gods.
The Puranas the resurfacing of the Feminine Divine
The Puranas are the most popular Hindu scriptures. Between the Vedas which women and shudras were forbidden from reading and the Puranas, the Upanishads were written. These are regarded as an elaboration of the Vedas. According to Coburn, the Puranas, although technically a lesser category of scripture (smriti), are understood to be an adaptation and elaboration of sruti, that is, of the first two types of scripture, the Vedas and the Upanishads. The Upanishads, between the male-centered Vedas and the Puranas in which the feminine divine resurfaced, developed a theology of what Gupta calls inclusive monotheism which had a strong monistic aspect. The Upanishads took the vague Vedic notion of THAT ONE (unnamed, simply THAT which rested within itself) from which existence flows and developed the idea of Brahman as cosmic creative energy. As atman, Brahman (singular and formless) is present in all sentient beings. This monistic, formless idea of Brahman, above attributes, a principle rather than a person, may not have satisfied everyone. Possibly to provide a way of entering a more intimate relationship with Brahman, the next round of elaboration, the Puranas, developed the notion of Isvaras, personal manifestations of Brahmanss qualities. It was then that the shaktas emerged. Shakti (strength) is the feminine divine. The shaktas are partners of the male deities popularized by the Puranas, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, known as the trimurti (the divine three, literally three-images).
Each male deity and their female partners all manifest attributes and perform specific tasks. Brahma, associated with the beginning of each cycle of existence, is often called the creator, although Hindu thought does not draw a rigid distinction between creator and creation. There is more continuity between Brahman and the cosmos, which emanates from Brahmans being. Vishnus task is to preserve the world, to protect dharma (righteousness) from chaos. In the Vedas, primordial chaos was displaced by the world and must be kept in check. Demons and evil are agents of chaos. Vishnu manifests in physical form, such as a super-hero (Rama, Krishna) to defeat chaos whenever dharma is threatened.
Shiva is associated with the end of each cycle of existence. However, since all three manifest Brahman, they also perform all three functions. Shiva is also the preserver. He sits on a mountain (like the Vedic Rudra) meditating, sustaining the world. The shaktas, or partners all have significant roles. They are literally their spouses strength. Without their female partners, the male deities are incomplete and vice-versa. Brahmas consort, Saraswati, is the patron of learning. Vishnus partner is the patron of wealth, Lakshmi. It is with Shivas wife, though, that the feminine divine emerges as a fully blown teaching. In one of her several forms, Durgha, she is the subject matter of the DM. As Parvarti, she is beautiful and somewhat decorative, perhaps more similar to the Vedic females deities. She is the patron of the arts. However, as Durgha and Kali, she is fierce, ferocious, the destroyer of ignorance, protecting meditating Shiva from evil. In the DM, Durgha destroys demons, this the entire universe is sustained by the bounty of Siva and Sakti, the Great Goddess. She is the energetic principle that sustains creation, without her, nothing can stir or be imbued with life. Durgha is no decorative accessory. She is not longer idealized as merely a wife of the male god but is conceived of as his creator. She is the great goddess, wrote Wortham, by whom even the hearts of the wide are detained, by whom the worlds were made. Shakti, says Coburn, is the bedrock for all the myriad manifestations of divine power. In the DM, she appropriates the powers and attributes of the divine three, indeed Shakti transcends them, becoming greater than the gods.
The goddess, says Gupta, reclaims her supremacy which presumably refers to her resurfacing from the Indus Valley to challenge male-centered Vedic religion. The comely, husband obeying figure of earlier periods is replaced by a powerful autonomous personification combining contrasting traits of benign and terrific, erotic and demure, motherly and virginal, saintly and heroic, ferociously powerful yet calm and silent. As sustainer and preserver, Durgha is peace loving and bestows benevolence, compassion and mercy. She grants boon and good fortune. However, in her ferocious guise, she protects the universe from demons, she is approached by the gods at an hour of cosmic crises, when the demons are intent on disturbing the stability of the world. Now, her features are transfigured into fierce ones. In the DM, when confronting the demons, she creates her most terrible aspect, three-eyed Kali whose complexion is as black as ink. In the closing scenes of the DM, the gods acclaim her as the highest principle of the cosmos, the power of creation, preservation and destruction, the Ground of Being, rolling all the roles of the three male deities into one. The text reads
Thy power and thy might have no equal, The eternal Lord Vishnu cannot celebrate it, nor Brahma, nor Hari .thou art good fortune to the pious thou art the cause of all the worlds thou art the abode of all things, all this world is but a part of thyself, for thou art the supreme nature
Identified with Vac (or Bacm, speech, a Vedic deity) she becomes author of the Vedas
Thou art the revealed word, thou art the source of the beautiful Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, with eloquent, charming, lovely verses
Her nature is to destroy evil yet her beauty can neither be imagined nor equaled by another.
The combined force of the demons cannot defeat Durgha. In graphic detail, DM describes her battle and victory
The goddess of unmoved countenance, without any effort, raining upon them showers of weapons, cut their darts and missiles in twain and she was praised by the Suras and the Rishis. And the Queen shot forth her weapons and her missiles
Shakta worship in the Tantric tradition
Despite the attention Tantra attracts by some Western scholars, fascinated by the role of sex, it cannot be described as a dominant tradition. Gupta describes Tantra as heterodox, embodying a critical and controversial attitude toward women, sexuality, their relationships with their bodies and senses, social classes, and traditional notions of purity and impurity. On the other hand, Hinduism embraces so much variety and diversity that the term heterodox may be misleading. Certainly, Tantra challenges Brahmanism and male-centered religion. Gupta says that in Tantra, all women share the with the goddess continuity of being. Regardless of caste, creed, age, status or personal accomplishments all women are regarded as the physical incarnation of divine cosmic energy. Tanttic literature is full of respect for all women as vessels of the goddess, Every woman in this world is my human form, says the Goddess. Women are not considered subordinate to men in Tantra. Upon birth, women assume cosmic energy. Voluminous Tantric literature exalts women as the very form of the universe. Nor is this praise devoid of content since in Tantra a genuine attempt is made to develop a code of ethics and rules of conduct which are entirely in favor of women. True devotees of Shakti many of whom are men honor all women and look upon them with great reverence.
Tantra took a strict stand against wife-beating and sexual abuse of women. Men should honor, not hurt, women. In Tantric circles, women of all ages are addressed as Ma mother, which discourages men from seeing them as sexual objects. Tantra sees womens bodies as a locus of purity, which is radically different from orthodox perceptions. Her menstrual blood and the blood of childbirth do not pollute but bestow energy, represented by the female kundalini. This symbolically mirrors all the elements and astral planes of the outer universe. On the one hand, Brahmanism does value women for their reproductive power. On the other hand, its attitude toward menstruation remained oppressive. This does not apply in Tantra, which considers menstruation a suitable time for performing the ritual of union. Brahmanism sees womens bodies as threatening, so links menstruation with sin, guilt, murder, punishment and fear. Tantra worships the female body as a form of the goddess, as their living incarnations, all women are portions of thee. As wisdom, she dwells in the hearts of all men. Women in certain rituals become the Goddess and bless their male devotees. Most Tantric ritual consists of puja (worship) of the Goddess but the Left-Hand practice a ritual union involving sexual intercourse. The aim is to use the senses and the body as an instrument of liberation, to release latent sexual energies. Such unions involve men and women from all castes, to render asunder the rigid norms of social identity.
Bhakti-marga (the way of devotion) associated with the Puranas lso has a caste-gender equalizing current. Krishna said in the Bhagavad-Gita that whoever worshipped him, women or men, high born or lowborn, would be granted salvation. In village India, it is not unusual for women to lead worship, even to bathe the images of infant Krishna housed in the inner chamber (womb-chamber) or the Temple. The fact that all Temples have womb-chambers suggests that ideas about the feminine divine exist outside Tantra, as does such common terms as Mother India, Mother Ganges. Saraswati and Lakshmi are traditionally depicted in more demure terms, although they are also shaktas. Their festivals are enormously popular. Nature (Prakriti), is feminine. Tantra has the masculine principle (purusha), mate with Prakriti to produce the universe. Both are aspects of what was originally singular - monist, non-gendered Brahman. The way in which male deities in Bhakti tradition are depicted can suggest androgynous roles or even cross-gendered roles. Shiva as nata-raj, lord of the dance, looks distinctly feminine. Krishna, though renowned for his love of women, also quite often appears feminine. In fact, at Book 84 verse 41, the DM says that Parvati became Krishna and dwelt on Mount Himavant. This is meant to challenge ideas of personhood that elevate one gender, male or female, over others. All deities and all people have feminine and masculine qualities, which balance each other. The Puranas associated with each of the divine three depict them self-identifying as the others, as the All-in-All, as the sacred syllable OM. Thus, Vishnu is also Brahma and Shiva. Shiva is also Vishnu and Brahma. Here, the Goddess tradition stands on common ground when Parvati claims that she became Krishna. All manifest one reality, so they are essentially one.
The feminine divine in the Buddhist and Sikh traditions
The fact that ideas about the feminine divine are present in other religions born in India testifies to the power and persistence of this tradition. Buddhism was born within the Hindu thought-world. For some Hindus, it represents another marga. The Vishnu tradition claims Buddha as an Avatar of Vishnu. Buddhism does not have a perfect gender record. Spiritual progress is associated with being male more so than female. The most senior nun was junior to the most junior monk and in Theravada the order of nuns no longer functions. Mahayana Buddhism developed its own Tantric tradition, which has much in common with Hindu Tantra. Over time, however, the feminine divine resurfaced in Buddhism, just as she did in the Puranas. The Buddhas mother, Mayadevi, became an exalted female with supernatural aspects. Gotami, his foster-mother and founder of the female order, provided a nascent concept of female Buddhahood. In Mahayna, which developed the concept of the universal Buddha, goddesses receive substantial attention in literature, practice and iconography. Some Hindu figures were endowed with specific Buddhist virtues. Compassion, central to the Bodhisattva goal (delaying leaving samsara to help others reach enlightenment) was equated with female qualities. Tantric goddesses are regarded as full Buddhas. They evoke different dimensions of enlightenment. Tara is the mother of liberation and in her different forms is linked with healing, compassion, wealth and power. She was the fist female to be crowned with the title of Buddha. Shaw describes Buddhisms engagement with the feminine divine as lively, longstanding and profound if less widely explored. Nature, too, for Buddhists has a decidedly female face and there are goddesses associated with the earth, trees, sacred groves, plant life, rice, fruit, flowers among other natural phenomena.
Singh (1993) explores the also less widely researched topic of the female divine in Sikhism, The male principle has tended to dominate within Sikh studies. The feminine principle has been overlooked.Even though all ten gurus were men, women were full members of the Sikh community. No constraints were placed around womens bodies or menstruation and there were no ideas about women finding it more difficult than men to achieve intimacy with the divine. Images such as that of the scripture as bride were used. The military nature of the community after the time of Guru Hargobind led to neglect of feminine images. However, these images are present in scripture, where the Ultimate is best approached and apprehended through the feminine experience. The feminine embodies what the Reality uniquely is. It is Mother, the Infinite Matrix joti, or light, the spirit informing all the She within us all she is kudarati, creation herself the saguna form of the totally nirguna. The word (bani) that the Gurus received was feminine, so since icons and images form no part of sikh sacred space, it is through bani alone wherever and whenever seen, heard or recited, that makes their space and time sacred.
The Feminine Divine in Contemporary India
Veneration of the feminine divine in contemporary continues to flourish. Samantas 1992 article looks at Kali worship in Bengal. Kali is considered to be the patron goddess of Calcutta. During the anti-British self-rule movement, weapons were dedicated to Kali and songs sung in her honor. She writes, Kali is a pervasive presence in the daily lives of Bengali Hindus in present day Calcutta. Her role as protector and also as guide is closely linked with auspiciousness. She is thus addressed as the Mother who embodies auspiciousness. Her framed print or picture is found in most homes, on the dashboards of cars, buses and taxis. She is the ideal mother, worshipped predominantly within an idiom of bhakti. A large body of Bengali devotional literature praises Kali. It was a cult of thieves and murders, called thugees by the British, who worshipped Kali that gave the goddess a negative press. Combined with Tantra, this resulted in some very distorted ideas. Ramprasad Sen (1720-81) was especially prolific as a writer of songs in praise of Kali, whose work remains popular.
Conclusion
If the more male-centered Vedic material came into India from outside, then the less female friendly tradition represented by the Brahmanism (a great-tradition) was not indigenous. The older, native tradition was centered on the mother goddess, although lack of written records mean that people can only speculate about the nature of that religion. However, if Coburns argument is correct, this tradition survived until it resurfaced and found written expression in the Puranas. The idea that Brahman, at the level of attributes, has masculine and feminine qualities was then projected back into Vedantic thought. Whether the Vedic tradition entered India from outside or represented a more male centered indigenous tradition, it could not completely wipe out the feminine current. That current re-surfaced in the Puranas and in the devotional traditions, including Tantra, that were inspired by the Puranas. This current emerged or re-emerged in both daughter traditions, Buddhism and Sikhism. Despite male-centered aspects of both traditions, the feminine divine could not be displaced. Men as well as women are attracted to the worship of female deities. The male-dominated tradition gives women a limited role, subordinating women to men. The feminine tradition has actually given women a greater ritual role than men, although it stresses equality. The role of the feminine divine in India rightly attracts scholarly interest, connecting with an ancient human spiritual inclination that equates life with Mother, who gives us birth and nurtures us. In India, this appears to have pre-dated written, textual religion, reaching back to pre-history, as suggested by the archeological record of the Indus Valley civilization.
There may be parallels with other ancient civilizations and with the role of women before more patriarchal societies developed. India currently has a woman president. It had a woman Prime Minister, who played on her gender and role as daughter of the nations founder to connect with ideas of feminine power. Bangladesh, although 85 Muslim and about 14 Hindu, has an eclectic culture where Hindu and Muslim ideas merge. The election of two women prime ministers on four occasions (both have won elections) could be due to the feminine-friendly cultural current that continues to flow though Bangladeshi society, even though the majority of people are theoretically Muslim. Bangladeshi Islam is often characterized as Hinduized Islam. No one would argue that the feminine divine tradition in India has ever succeeded in displacing male centered religion. However, it has enjoyed a vitality and popularity, especially at non-elite levels, that shows no sign of diminishing. Hindu women do not need to reinterpret or reinvent their religion from a feminist perspective, unlike the followers of some religions. They can draw on an ancient aspect of Indian religion to challenge religious attitudes that dishonor and disrespect women, subordinating them to men.
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