‘Mahisasurmardini’: Myth, traditions and Art – Apurva Sinha

“Tvam-Iishvarii Devi Caraa-Carasya “-.Narayani Stuti (of Devi Mahatmyam)
‘O Devi, You are the Goddess of all the Moving and Non-Moving Beings’

Incantation to the Devi, who is the mother of all; she is the power of progeny and well being. I, begin with this verse of Narayani Stuti of Devi Mahatyamaya, each of the syllable in this verse emancipates on the fact that ‘female divinities’ have had a prominent position from the birth of civilization. The antiquity of the mother goddess can be traced back to the Harappan times. Some of the distinct features unearthed were nude female figurines adorned with a wide girdle and remarkable head-dress along with some oblong terracotta seals depicting nude female figure shown upside down with legs wide apart, and ‘with a plant issuing from her womb’. Devi in the Vedic times gained prominence as few female divinities emerged powerful like the Vedic goddess Aditi, whom the hymns eulogize repeatedly as the Great Mother. The Vedic hymns repeatedly praise Aditi as a universal, abstract goddess who represents the boundless expanse of physical creation and everything it contains. Subsequently, in each period, Devi gained a celebrated position in the religious life of people which can be explicitly seen through classical Indian art. She was the impersonal, limitless, and imperishable one. She was the universal mother and protector, nurturing and upholding the world, and guarding the cosmic order. Some of the textual evidence suggests that the goddess Durga was absorbed into the Vedic pantheon after the period of the Samhitas. Absolutely free, her boundless demeanor could grant liberation to those who took refuge in her as mentioned in many puranas and literary texts.


As rightly connoted by Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th century that ‘Divine Mother is the sum total of the energy in the Universe’ which summarises the Sakta philosophy- that the ultimate form of matter is energy and that the ultimate form of energy is consciousness. Sakti when experienced as the dynamic power of becoming (mayasakti), which manifests as mind and matter, is the power through which the infinite changelessness dons unravels veils of time and space and becomes a universe that is none other than the resplendent form of the formless (sunyasyakara), a universe wherein spirit, mind, and matter are ultimately one. Delving deep into the philosophy of Sakta, one explores and experiences the deep mythos infused in artistic renderings of the past.