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Durgaa: The Aadi-Shakti (Article of the Month - April 2011

Goddess Durgaa
Durgaa, the most highly worshipped goddess of Indian masses held in alike reverence in all sectarian lines, even Buddhist and Jain, in her form as Durgaa or in one of her many transforms - the ferocious Taaraa of Buddhists or the nurturing mother Ambikaa of Jains, is the ultimate of divine power capable of eradicating every evil and every wrong, and nurturing and sustaining life in whichever form it exists. Not a mere epiphenomenal expansion of a visual culture that the Indian land is known to have now for millenniums, or a disembodied divine authority sustaining in believing minds, Durgaa is perceived as a dynamic presence with a form, or rather in any form engaged in eradicating the dark and everything adverse to life and sustaining good and righteous.

Jagaddaatree, Mother of the World
The term 'Durgaa' brings to mind a multi-armed lion-riding divinity that on one hand is possessed of rare feminine beauty and imperishable youth, and on the other, carries in her hands various weapons of war and on her face the determination to avenge her devotee's tormenter and punish a wrong-doer, and all combined with a unique quiescence and confidence as if triumph is the foregone conclusion of all her battles against evil. The Pauraanik tradition inclines to venerate Durgaa as just one of the names of Devee, the cosmic Divine Female who created, sustained and destroyed. Despite such preference of the Puraan for the term 'Devee' for defining the overall vision of the cosmic Divine Female even initially Durgaa acquires among Devee's other manifestations a distinction denotative of a class which is not the same as epithets like Jagad-maataa, Jagadambaa, Vishweshwaree, etc. The term Durgaa brings to mind a specific image which these epithets do not, perhaps because they are used with some kind of commonness for Devee's all forms.

Durgaa : Vishnu's Shakti
Devee Mahaatmya : The Glory of Goddess

The Devee Mahaatmya in the Maarkandeya Puraan, a fifth-sixth century text (though with his presence on many occasions alluded to in the Mahaabhaarat the date of sage Maarkandeya seems to be much earlier; maybe, Maarkandeya was the common appellation of the sages in the line, not the name of an individual sage, or in view of his timeless contribution the name of sage Maarkandeya was subsequently added), perceives the aggregate cosmic energy as Mahaa Maayaa : Vishnu's 'Shakti' that the text defines as Devee manifesting in three aspects, viz., Mahaalakshmee, Mahaa Kaalee and Mahaa Saraswatee, having different forms and appearances but a common objective of avenging the wrong-doer. This in the Mahaabhaarat like early texts and sculptures of the early centuries before AD) is the Durgaa's role. Quite significant as it is, the Devee Mahaatmya uses the term 'Durgaa', as it uses the term 'Devee', in its all sections devoted to either of Mahaa Lakshmee, Mahaa Kaalee and Mahaa Saraswatee, which indicates that these are as much the Durgaa's manifestations, as they are the Devee's. The text perceives Devee primarily as the redeemer of 'Durgam' - the most difficult, a situation, act, or objective, and hence, Devee is Durgaa - the redeemer of 'Durgam', in her every aspect.

Durgaa Beejam : Durgaa the 'Seed'
Shree Durgaa Saptashatee

The text is full of expressions that are denotative of the Durgaa's supreme divinity, such as 'Durgam Jayaakhyam', that is, victory is her other name, or 'Durgasi Durgaa Bhava Saagaranau Rasanga', that is, Durgaa is the boat that takes across the cycle of birth and death; the one, that is, Durgaa as victory is the ultimate of all worldly acts, and the other, that is, Durgaa as 'Taarinee' - redeemer from the cycle of birth and death is the ultimate of every spiritual endeavor. In the 'Viniyog' - the fore-verse or the introductory couplet of the second Canto, the Devee Mahaatmya asserts this supremacy of Durgaa metaphysically too. It alludes to Durgaa as 'Durgaa Beejam', that is, Durgaa, the seed. 'Beej' is a widely used term in Sanskrit for defining the 'essential root' from which a form evolves. All major 'Mantra' - mystic syllables, or hymns pregnant with mystic powers, have their 'Beej Mantra', their essential pith out of which the related Mantra's body evolves. Accordingly, the term 'Durgaa Beejam' suggests that the text perceives Durgaa as the basic essence of the Devee's all manifestations. Thus, the Deviee Mahaatmya might be seen as considering Devee and Durgaa as one, and this same reflects in most of the commentaries of the Devee Mahaatmya part of the Maarkandeya Puraan that have often preferred calling this section of the text as 'Durgaa Saptashatee'.

Durgaa's Antiquity : Goddess Durgaa as Jaya
As regards her antiquity Durgaa is an entity beyond time. Even the Maarkandeya Puraan that identifies Mahaamaayaa - Devee's proto form, as Vishnu's 'Shakti' contends with specificity that it was her who gave to Vishnu, as also to Brahmaa and Shiv, their forms. This statement has two implications, one that she preceded not only Vishnu but the great Trinity, and the other, that she was Vishnu's 'Shakti' by invocation and by her favor, not by Vishnu's authority. Thus, by whatever name, the Great Goddess preceded all forms, their creator, sustainer and destroyer, the time that spanned them and the space where they evolved. Ironically, sage Maarkandeya sought to subordinate her to Vishnu as his 'Shakti' but overwhelming him, or rather the entire Trinity, the goddess bowed them to her subordination. In the tradition gods, even Trinity, are often seen bowing to her in devotion but Durgaa is never seen bowing to any, divine or demonic, justifying her name 'Jaya'.

Obviously, the scale of time is not Durgza's scale. It is only the date of her earliest appearance in a medium, text, or iconography, by which her antiquity is determined. When in the eleventh Canto of the Devee Mahaatmya Devee declares that in the twenty-eighth eon of Vaivaswat Manvantar she would incarnate and kill the demon Durgam and assume Durgaa as her name, sage Maarkandeya does not suggest the period of Durgaa's emergence as posterior to the period of his text. The concurrent age is Vaivaswat Manvantar but it is only by very complicated astronomical calculations that one can know when exactly its 28th eon passed, perhaps millions of years ago, and hence, it is not known when Devee assumed Durgaa as her name. Thus, mythically the Great Goddess manifested as Durgaa in the twenty-eighth eon of this Manvantar, but it is simply a period beyond human calculation.

Durgaa : The Initial Manifestation of Devee
Mahaabhaarat : 9 Volumes

Thus, Devee had in any medium or tradition her earliest manifestation as Durgaa. It seems that the Devee's form as Durgaa, a goddess of battlefield always in action, as nurturing mother or as avenging warrior engaging in battle one demon or other, has been conceived in stark contrast to the passive non-operating votive image of the Mother Goddess of Indus settlements, and the nature-deities of the Yagya of the Rig Ved, perhaps around the same time when the other two cults were in greater prevalence. Excavations of Indus or Harappan sites reveal no signs of a warrior goddess, and barring a few contentions, such as makes SK Ramachandra Rao who contends in his Durgaa Kosh that Durgaa is one of the goddesses that the Rig Ved enumerates, broadly Durgaa is not considered a goddess from the Rig Vaidik pantheon. Whatever the merit of such claims and counter-claims in regard to Durgaa's position in the Rig Ved, there is absolute unanimity in regard to Durgaa's presence in the Mahaabhaarat, the great epic datable broadly to 6th-5th century BC.

Durgaa in the Mahaabhaarat
Shree Durgaa Praarthanaa: The Complete Prayer: Complete Book of all the Essential Chants and Prayers
It seems that by the period of the Mahaabhaarat not only Durgaa was a popularly invoked deity but also had a body of hymns, and perhaps some shrines and some kind of imagery too, dedicated to her. The Mahaabhaarat lauds Durgaa, by her name as Durgaa, not Devee, as Tribhuvaneshwaree - the goddess that ruled all three worlds.

Though the Mahaabhaarat does not use the term 'Durgam', which is repeatedly used in the Devee Mahaatmya comprising the primary contextual basis for her name as Durgaa, in the Mahaabhaarat too, the Great Goddess is commemorated in situations which are 'Durgam'. The Mahaabhaarat does not confound Durgaa with Devee as the Devee Mahaaatmya seems to sometimes do. The great epic alludes to her in all clarity and with absolute distinction as 'Devim Durgam Tribhuvaneshwaree' - goddess Durga, the ruler of three worlds, and at another place, as 'Parajayaya shatrunaam Durgaa Stotra mudiraye' - commemoration of Durgaa Stotra defeats enemies.

As stipulated between them and Kaurav, the Paandav were required to pass the thirteenth year of their exile in complete concealment without being seen and identified, a really difficult situation. They decide to disguise as cook, tutor, attendant etc and seek jobs as the household servants of king Viraat, the ruler of Matsya Desh. Before they enter the city of Viraat, Yudhishthar along with his brothers commemorate 'Devim Durgam Tribhuvaneshwaree', obviously for the accomplishment of their errand. Again, just when the Great War is in the offing and the forces of Kaurav and Paandav are arrayed in the battlefield, Krishn commands Arjun to commemorate with pure heart 'Durgaa Stotra' - hymns dedicated to Durgaa, for 'Parajayaya shatrunaam', that is, for the defeat of the enemy. Arjun commemorates Durgaa and then she appears in the sky and grants Paandav the boon of victory. In 'Devim Durgam Tribhuvaneshwaree' the Mahaabhaarat uses the term 'Devim' as Durgaa's defining epithet, not like the Devee Mahaatmya where 'Durgaa' is Devee's epithet. Notably, it is Krishn, Vishnu's incarnation, who perceives in Durgaa the ultimate power, obviously even beyond Vishnu, to defeat enemies.

Durgaa in Early Sculptures: The Universal Mother and Ultimate Protector
Goddess Durgaa from South India

Durgaa's priority as the Devee's principal manifestation reflects more powerfully in sculptures of the early centuries of the Common Era. Durgaa, multi-armed, as also normal two-armed, carrying various weapons in her hands and sometime crammed into her coiffure, is with absolute clarity the goddess of battlefield.

Mahishaasur Mardinee
As suggest a good number of her sculptures that have along her icons a buffalo figure, elimination of Mahishaasur, the buffalo-demon, was not only her exploit but the legend seems to have been more popular than others. This Devee form, avenging tormenters and wrong-doers, was essentially the ultimate goddess of battlefield and represented iconically the Mahaabhaarat's Durgaa who ruled all three worlds and defeated enemies in the battlefield.

The Durgaa icons from around the fifth-sixth centuries record a significant departure in the iconography of the goddess. The goddess is seen still carrying in her hands the weapons of annihilation, but is also seen carrying in her left arm a child. Prof Pratapaditya Pal has rightly perceived it as the phase when the avenging Goddess had synthesized into her being also the 'nurturing Mother': The absolute vision of Durgaa, the Universal Mother and the Ultimate Protector.

Durgaa Around Sixth Century : Goddess Mahaalakshmee
This form of Durgaaa seems to have fully concretized when sage Maarkandeya composed his poem Devee Mahaatmya. Perhaps for greater dimensional breadth or for unity between different sectarian groups sage Maarkandeya first alternated Durgaa with Devee, a far more inclusive and somewhat abstract term, and then split her form into her three manifestations: Mahaa Lakshmee, Mahaa Kaalee (the Goddess Who Rules Over Time) Goddess Mahaa Saraswatee.

The Holy Trinity (Brahmaa, Vishnu, Mahesh) all multi-armed, all carrying in their various hands the instruments of destruction, and all conceived with large breasts full of milk and motherly attributes, representing Durgaa's warlike bearing as also her  motherhood. These new forms, viz., Mahaa Lakshmee, Mahaa Kaalee and Mahaa Saraswatee, were more in line with the 'Tri-Moorti' cult.

The Rig Ved talked of Vaak, or Saraswatee, and Shree (another name of Lakshmee), and excavations have revealed signs of a ferocious divinity being worshipped by Indus settlers. However, the Devee Mahaatmya's models of Mahaa Lakshmee, Mahaa Kaalee and Mahaa Saraswatee were different from both. Mahaa Lakshmee and Mahaa Saraswatee seem to have been modeled after Durgaa, and Mahaa Kaalee, is textually too, a transform of the principal goddess of the battlefield, Devee or Durgaa.

Thus, Devee or her manifestations, Mahaa Lakshmee, Mahaa Kaalee or Mahaa Saraswatee, are Durgaa's forms, and Devee is merely her defining epithet as is Devtaa of the male divinities. The term 'Devtaa' does not denote a specific divinity because of such Devtaa's plurality. Devee's singularity makes the term Devee synonymous to Durgaa. Even in Pauraanik tradition the Devee's Mahaa Lakshmee, Mahaa Kaalee and Mahaa Saraswatee manifestations seem to have failed to long retain at least their Durgaa-like martial role. Mahaa Lakshmee, as Lakshmee and Mahaa Saraswatee, as Saraswatee, shed finally their warlike bearing and join Lord Vishnu's and Brahmaa's households with roles completely different from what they had in their proto Mahaa Lakshmee and Mahaa Saraswatee forms.

Maatrikaa and Mahaavidyaa : Battling Against Demons
On the contrary, Durgaa's form explodes to variously manifest, even in subsidiary forms like Maatrikaa and Mahaavidyaa : all the forms of battlefield.

For Preserving Love Between a Husband and Wife? : Her tender aspect as Paarvatee,
Goddess Kaalee Pendant with Lord Shiv on Reverse and ferocious, as Kaalee, accompany Shiv as his consorts, one completely dedicated, and other, moody, unpredictable and dominating, perhaps as suited Shiv's two major aspects, Lalitaa and Bhairav. Whatever about the early prevalence of the cult of a Kaalee-like ferocious goddess, the earliest known allusions to Paarvatee are from the Puraan, though in a brief span, from around 7th century onwards, there crops up not only a huge body of myths but also her numerous icons mostly representing her as engaged in Panchaagni Tap - performing penance in the midst of five fires.

Durgaa, Her Name Annihilation of Demons Shumbh and Nishumbh
As already discussed, Durgaa, a dynamic and militant goddess, had emerged in theology by at least the  6th-5th century BC. As suggests Parajayaya Shatrunaam Durgaa Stotra Mudiraye, people around the period of the Mahaabhaarat invoked her by reciting her Stotra - commemorative verses. It indicates that Durgaa was by then an established deity and had devoted to her a body of commemorative hymns and perhaps a few other texts, and was invoked for defeating one's enemy. Notably, in the 10th Canto of the Devee Mahaatmya, while confronting the Goddess, Shumbh, the demon chief, cries in fury "Bala valepadduste Twam Maa Durge garv mavaha" - means O ye wicked Durgaa, thy power, thou art proud of, is false. It is well settled that in fury, or any kind of emotion, the mind bursts with words which are its most natural idiom. Obviously, Shumbh uttered Durgaa's name instinctively as if he used it in routine.

As regards her name as Durgaa, the Devee Mahaatmya makes two propositions. It emphasizes more on the Devee's power to redeem her votaries from "Durgam" that she got "Durgaa" as her name : almost an epithet extolling her role. In the 11th chapter of the Devee Mahaatmya Devee herself announces her emergence at a given time when she would kill the demon Durgam and assume Durgaa as her name. Though redeemer of "Durgam" - a difficult situation, or "Durgati" - a great misfortune, which some texts consider the basis for her name as Durgaa, ever continues to be Durgaa's role, annihilation of demon Durgam and hence Durgaa her name is more often the contention of the later texts and theological tradition. The simple allusion to demon Durgam in the Devee Mahaatmya is expanded into a body of fully grown myths. They not only add to the legend a dimensional breadth but also come out with details of Durgam's demonic acts and lineage, some linking him with Ruru's clan, and other with Dhruta's and  Hiranyaaksh's. It is, however, unanimously contended that Durgam sought to destroy the Ved, and that Devee had killed him for such act of him, and this gave her, her Durgaa name. Some texts contend that she was protector of Durg (forts), and hence her Durgaa name.

Origin of Durgaa As Devee : Aadi Shakti
In regard to the origin of Durgaa or Devee there prevail two traditions, one that venerates her as Aadi Shakti - primordial cosmic energy, suggestive of her presence when the Creation had yet to take effect and ever before and after, and the other, suggestive of her creation out of gods' divine attributes for accomplishing an objective.

Mahaa Shakti
As has the Pauraanik tradition which culminates in the Devee Bhaagvat, millions of years after the Great Deluge, and all forms, except the all-encompassing ocean and abyssal darkness, perished, floating on a banyan leaf on the surface of the ocean of milk there emerged Vishnu as child known in the tradition as Baal Mukund. Bewildered he looked around and his mind questioned, "Who am I?", and "Who created me and what for?" When wrestling with a volley of questions from within, Vishnu heard an ethereal voice that announced : "Sarvam khalvidamevaham, Naanyaadasti sanaatanam", means, "All that is, I am, there is nothing eternal but me". Soon after, Vishnu had in his vision the form of a lustrous youthful four-armed female divinity carrying a conch, disc, club and lotus, and clad in divine costume and ornaments, and with 21 celestial powers in attendance. Vishnu instantly realized that she was the Aadi Shakti, Devee, and paid her His homage. She revealed to Vishnu His identity and role. According to this tradition, Durgaa, the Aadi Shakti's initial manifestation, preceded time  and all forms, and had manifestations, not birth or origin.

Devee-Created Out of Gods' Attributes
The other tradition, and more akin to public mind, relates to her emergence for killing Mahishaasur, a buffalo demon by name and appearance. He was born to the demon king Rambh of his buffalo-wife. Rambha was a Shiv devotee. The childless Rambha, by long rigorous penance, pleased Shiv who granted him the boon that he would be born to him as his son. On her way-back Rambhaa was fascinated by a she-buffalo's beauty. He married her and then Mahishaasur was born to them. As this tradition has it, Mahish was the part of Shiv. By his great penance Mahish won from Brahmaa the boon of invincibility against all male. With this boon he grew highly ambitious and arrogant, as also atrocious and cruel. He grabbed the entire earth and also invaded heaven and defeated Indra and all other gods forcing them to flee. Gods approached Brahmaa and knew from him about Mahish's boon of invincibility against all males and that, if ever, only a female could kill him. Gods, theirs' being a male world, felt helpless.

On Brahmaa's advice they went to Shiv, and finally to Vishnu and after due deliberations Vishnu suggested them that with their aggregate divine luster they should create a female power to kill Mahishaasur. Vishnu had hardly finished when from Brahmaa's body burst a rare luster, red as ruby, which was both hot and cold; from Shiv's body there exploded a burst of white bright rays, as brilliant as diamond; similar brilliance burst from Vishnu's body, blue as blue sapphire; from the bodies of Indra, Varuna, Kuber, Yam, Agni and other gods also burst similar luster, which all combined and soon transformed into an eighteen-armed youthful woman possessed of astonishing beauty, rare feminine grace and divinity such as had never enshrined a female form. A form for battlefield, she also represented the absolute womanhood on earth. Her face was formed by the powers of Shiv's hair, by Yam's all eighteen arms, by Vishnu's breasts, eye-brows, ears, nose, teeth, fingernails, waist, thighs and ankles, buttocks, toe-nails, feet, eyes, respectively by the powers of Moon, Twilight, Vaayu, Kuber, Prajaapati, Vasu, Indra, Varun, Earth, Brahmaa, Sun, Agni.

The Creation Of Devee
On Vishnu's instance, gods gifted to her their ornaments and clothes as also weapons and other attributes. Ksheer Saagar (the ocean of milk) presented to the goddess the imperishable clothes and precious jewels; Shesh Naag a necklace inlaid with celestial gems glistening like crores of Suns; Varun a garland of lotuses that never faded, and a noose, and Himvaan his lion for her mount. Vishnu replicated a disc from his own and offered it to the goddess. Alike, Shiv replicated and gave her his trident; Varun his conch; Agni his 'Shakti'; Vaayu his bow and quiver full of arrows; Indra thunderbolt and bell; Yam his 'Dand'; Brahmaa his 'Kamandal'; Kaal (Death) his sword and shield; Vishwakarmaa his battle-axe and other divine powers, their respective attributes : mace, armor, gold-pot full of honey etc. Finally, gods extolled the goddess by various epithets and hymns and prayed with folded hands to kill arrogant Mahishaasur, their tormenter and restore to them Indra Lok and their power.

Durgaa: Mahishaasur-Mardinee
The Goddess delightfully accepted the prayer. With a thunderous roar that rocked the earth from one end to other she proceeded to battlefield. Hearing the roar and taking it as some kind of threat Mahish with his army and all demon warriors rushed in the direction the roar came from. He saw a female form with thousands of arms covering the entire cosmos. A baffled Mahish commanded his generals to kill the woman. Chikshur, Chamar, Udagra, Mahaahanu, Asilom, Baashkal, Parivarit, Bidala, Uddhata, Ugrasya, Ugraveerya, Durdhar, Durmukh and many more, each with a large contingents comprising millions of demon-soldiers, attacked the goddess from different directions and in courses but the Devee destroyed all their weapons and killed them.

Goddess Durgaa Slaying the Demon Mahishasur
When Mahish saw his warriors' plight, the enraged demon took to buffalo's form and whirling like a devastating cyclone he began tossing the earth and oceans like shuttles with his tail. With his horns he moved mountains, and with his feet, foot-nails and muzzle cleft the earth and skies. When the goddess was about to cut his head, the demon transformed into an elephant. Alike, when the goddess' mount lion caught the elephant's trunk and was about to kill him, he retuned to his buffalo form. This time Devee caught hold of him and when he was about to return to his human form, with barely the head coming out of the buffalo's torso, she decapitated it. The Devee Mahaatmya perceives this form of Devee as Mahaa Lakshmee.

The Devee Bhaagvat, another equally venerated text on Devee, has a slightly varying versions of the myth: something on the line of Shumbh myth, where hearing of the exceptional beauty of the Devee Shumbh sends his messenger to her to persuade her to become his wife, and when he fails, his army chief Dhoomralochan to bring her by force. In the Devee Bhaagvat version, hearing of her rare beauty, Mahish sends his Prime Minister to her and bring her to him without doing her any harm. Mahish's Prime Minister does as commanded but Devee tells him, to his utter surprise, that she had come to kill Mahish to redeem gods of his atrocities. She also tells him to advise his master to leave Indra Lok and return to nether world, which alone could save his life. Details of war are almost identical in the two texts.

Devi Durgaa's Other Exploits

Shesh-shaayee Vishnu, Madhu Kaitabh and Aadi Shakti
A dynamic and militant goddess, Durgaa's modus operandi was quite diversified. Often she killed demons by her own hands but sometimes she got it done by powers she created from within her, and sometimes, by assisting other gods, Vishnu in particular. Once when Vishnu was in long sleep, his ears yielded some wax from which two demons, Madhu and Kaitabh, were born. The notorious demons wanted to kill Brahmaa and destroy Ved. Devee, as Nidraa Devee, not only woke Vishnu but when He was unable to kill them even after 10,000 years of battle, she deluded the two demons to grant to Vishnu the boon by which he could kill them.

Hayagreev - Avataar of Lord Vishnu
Hayagreev, a demon with horse-head, had become invincible as under a boon by Devee herself, that he could be killed by none other than Hayagreev himself. First, under a curse by her, in her form as Lakshmee, Vishnu's head drops, and then on her advice a horse-head is planted on his torso transforming him into another Hayagreev - horse-headed, and thus enabling him to kill Hayagreev, the demon.

Goddess Chaamundaa of Nepaal : Making the Bindu Mudraa
Identically to Mahish's legend the texts have the legend of annihilation of Shumbh and Nishumbh who too under a boon could not be killed by a male - born or unborn. As in the other myth, after her creation by gods' collective powers, Durgaa, glistening like a thousand suns, occupies a hill-top. Hearing of her rare beauty the demon chief Shumbh sends to her his messenger and, when he fails to persuade her for becoming his master's consort, two mighty demons, Chand and Mund, to drag her to him. Seeing her seated on the hill-top Chand and Mund, with a huge army of demons, rushed towards her. Their arrogance enraged the goddess and in fury her face and entire body turned black and a ferocious form was born. This ferocious form of the goddess severed the two demons' heads and brought them to Durgaa. In later tradition, this ferocious form of Durgaa is venerated and extensively represented in sculptures from ninth-tenth century onwards as Chaamundaa, the destroyer of Chand and Mund Daitya.

Durgaa Killing Demon Raktbeej
Hearing of the fate of Chand and Mund the enraged Shumbh sends his army general Dhoomralochan to catch hold of her and produce her before him, and when he too was killed, his minister Raktbeej to punish the woman and present her to him. Raktbeej had a boon by which each drop of his blood, no sooner than it fell on the earth, transformed into a new Raktbeej demon. From within her Durgaa summoned Kaalee who with her all-encompassing tongue covered the entire earth and swallowed every drop of the demon's blood before it fell on the earth.

An Episode from Devee Mahaatmya (Maatrikaa Fighting against Demons)
She also swallowed hordes of demons that such blood-drops had produced. Consequently Raktabeej was killed. Likewise, Nishumbh, Shumbh's brother, and later Shumbh himself were killed by Durgaa in her one form or other. In her battle against Shumbh and his hordes the goddess sought assistance of Sapt Maatrikaa - seven mothers, namely Brahmaanee, Maheshwaree, Karttikeyee or Kaumaaree, Vaishnavee, Varaahee, Narasinhee, and Indraanee. Though identified as the powers of male gods, Brahmaa, Shiv, Karttikeya Vishnu, Vishnu in his Boar and Narsinh incarnations, and Indra, they were Devee's own manifestations.

Iconic Representations of Durgaa
In Durga's icons, votive or aesthetic, her eighteen-armed lion-riding form, killing the buffalo demon Mahish, known in the tradition as Mahishaasur Mardinee, prevails over her all other forms. Even her aesthetic beauty is best represented in her Mahishaasur Mardinee form for it combines sublime beauty with sublime force, and of course, the strangeness of anatomy with absolute physical balance. This form of Durgaa is, hence, as much the theme of aesthetic art as of sanctum images. Her brilliantly clad and ornamented form is conceived with youthful vigor, golden-hued, rare beauty and divine quiescence on the face. Her images are modeled with pot-like large breasts, as filled with milk, representing her as the feeding mother as also her absolute womanhood.

As the Devee Mahaatmya has it, when in battlefield, Durgaa creates thousands of hands, or as many as would enable her to destroy the enemy. Hence, her figures are conceived as multi-armed, their number varying usually from four to eighteen, that is, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, sixteen or eighteen. The attributes she carries in her hands are variously listed in different texts. The Maarkandeya Puraan itself has variations. Against her 18-armed Mahishaasur Mardinee form carrying rosary, axe, mace, arrow, thunderbolt, lotus, bow, chain, noose, rod, 'Shakti', sword, shield, conch, bell, honey-pot, spear and disc, as visualized in the Devee Mahaatmya part, she has been conceived elsewhere in the Maarkandeya Puraan merely with ten arms carrying in them sword, disc, mace, arrow, bow, rod, spear, 'Bhushundi' head and conch, and at another place, just with four arms carrying in them conch, disc, sword and trident.

Durgaa is sometimes seen carrying serpent, dagger, goad among others besides a crescent on her coiffure and a third eye on her forehead: her Shaivite attributes. In India's most parts her sanctum images are either operative as when killing demon Mahish or static, as seated on her lion, though in both cases she is represented as carrying her essential weapons as would a goddess of battlefield. In South, she is usually lotus-seated and is worshipped by various other names. In folk traditions of Bengal, Orissa, Bihar - Mithila region in special, Uttar Pradesh and tribal belts of Madhya Pradesh and Chhatteesgarh Durgaa is the most popularly worshipped deity. Her cow-dung images, symbolic of fertility and purity, those in colors or in ceramic medium, might be seen adorning the walls of any dwelling, a mud-house or a sophisticated mansion.

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