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SOME ASPECTS OF WORSHIP IN ANCIENT INDIA

Some Aspects of Shakti Worship in Ancient India

JITENDRA BANERJEA

he beginnings of the worship of the by Marshall as Proto-. The ornamental female principle go back in India, as ring stones of the historic period no doubt Tin many other countries of the ancient represent some variety, but their general world, to a very remote past. Remains of the character shows that ‘they were cult objects cult of the Mother have been comparable with the prehistoric ring stones recognized by many scholars among the of the Indus Valley on the one hand and the various interesting objects unearthed in the cakras and the of the later Shàktas pre-Vedic sites of the Indus Valley. One of on the other.’2 the commonest of such objects is a pottery One such, of a representative nature, figurine of a female, practically nude, with a unearthed by Marshall at Hathial near very short skirt held round the loins by a Taxila, has been described by him in this girdle. It has been said that ‘these pottery manner: ‘It is of polished sandstone, 3¼´´ in images of the goddess whose name is diameter, adorned on the upper surface with unknown were kept almost in every house in concentric bands of cross and cable patterns the ancient Indus cities, probably in a recess and with four nude female figures or on a bracket on the wall.1 alternating with honeysuckle designs The early Indus Valley settlers seem engraved in relief round the central hole.’3 also to have worshipped her in her aniconic These female figures either represent form; many ring stones, some of a very different aspects of the goddess, or are mere suggestive nature, discovered at repetitions of the same theme. The Lady of Mohenjodaro and can be described the ring stone exactly resembles the gold with a great deal of justification as cult leaf female figure dug out of the stupa at objects symbolizing the Mother aspect of the Lauriya Nandangarh by Block and correctly goddess. An earlier suggestion of some identified by Coomaraswamy and others as scholars that these objects were of an the . architectural character; being no other than mere components or sections of a peculiar Seal amulets type of a column, cannot be seriously The juxtaposition of the much earlier considered. They should be studied along undecorated ring stones with the phallic with not only the much decorated types of objects of the Indus region leaves little doubt ring stones of the Maurya period found in about their original character. With the many north Indian sites like Taxila, Kosam, aforesaid iconic and aniconic objects Rajghat, and Patna, but also the phallic associated with the cult of the female objects symbolizing the Father of the principle may be considered a few devices Indus Valley people conveniently described on some seal amulets of the early Indus sites.

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One such device only, on the right side of one cannot fail to recognize the importance the obverse face of an oblong terracotta seal, ascribed to them by the ancient rishis of unearted at Harappa, may be noticed here. It India. , the Divine Mother, , the shows a nude female figure upside-down great Goddess of Dawn, on whose with legs wide apart, and ‘with a plant description and characterization the Vedic issuing from her womb’; her arms are shown seers employed their highest poetic fervour in the same position in which those of the and genius, Sarasvati, primarily deifying a Proto-Shiva on the Mohenjodaro seal amulet river, on the banks of which distinctive traits are depicted. Marshall rightly compared this of Vedic culture were formulated. Prithivi, striking representation of the goddess, with a the great mother earth, Ràtri, the goddess plant issuing from the womb, with the personifying a starlit night, Purandhi, Ilà, device on an early Gupta terracotta sealing and Dhishanà, etc—personifications of such showing a goddess with her legs in much the abstract attributes as abundance and same position, but with a lotus emerging nourishment—all these were the different from her neck instead of from her womb. manifestations of the great divine principle The idea of vegetation emerging from conceived by the old sages in its female some part of the body of the goddess aspect. reminds us of the -màhàtmya concept of the Shàkambhari aspect, in which she is said Divine energy to have nourished her drought-afflicted But it is in the sublime conception of people with vegetation produced from her Vàc, the great goddess of speech, that is to body (Yato’hamakhilam lokam be found one of the greatest and, at the same àtmadehasamudbhavaih; bharishyàmi suràh time, simplest expositions of the idea of the shàkairàvrishteh prànadhàrakaih. divine Energy or Shakti inherent in Shàkambhariti vikhyàtim tadà yàsyàmyaham everything—animals, men, and and in bhuvi).4 The pre-Vedic archaeological data the universe. The Devi-sukta,6 in the eight discussed above throw much light on the verses of which occurs this sublime early stages of the cult long before it was characterization, came to occupy a very fully developed in the Shakti worship of the prominent position in the Shàkta ritual of epic and the Purànic age. subsequent times. A place of honour was It has been usually accepted by scholars also given in it to the Ràtri-sukta.7 All these that Vedic ritualism was characterized by the facts show that the developed Shakti prominence given to male , and worship of later days was not a little , comparatively few in number, indebted to the goddess concepts of the early play very little part in it. Macdonell says that Vedic age, the very idea underlying the word ‘Goddesses occupy a very subordinate Shakti being based on the central theme of position in Vedic belief and worship, and the Devi-sukta. play hardly any part as rulers of the world.’5 It is, however, a well-known fact that But the female deities, though few, are of a there is no mention in the Rig-Veda of such very interesting character. Some of them names of Ambikà, Umà, Durgà, and Kàli, bring out in a striking manner the inner which became singly or collectively the workings of the Vedic seers’ minds. name of the central figure of the Shàkta cult. If an analysis is made of the nature of Such names begin to appear in the later such goddesses as Aditi, Ushas, Sarasvati, Vedic texts. Thus, Ambikà appears as Prithivi, Ràtri, Purandhi, Ilà, Dhishanà, Vàc, ’s sister in the Vàjasaneyi Samhità

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(III. 57) and in the Taittiriya Bràhmana composite goddess was no doubt made up of (I. 6. 10. 4-5), and as Rudra’s consort in the such various elements as her Mother, Taittiriya âranyaka (X. 18). There is an Daughter, and Sister aspects, her Vedic invocation to the goddess styled Durgà element, inasmuch as she or her Vairocani in the tenth book of the same particular forms were the objects of worship âranyaka; she is described here also as of the members of such Aryan sage clans as Kàtyàyani and Kanyàkumàri in the Durgà- the Kushikas and the Kàtyas (compare her gàyatri (X. 1 .7). The appellations âryà, , and Kàtyàyani), referes to Umà Haimavati as the personified and the various non-Aryan strands in her Brahmavidyà (III. 25). The Mundaka character. It is specially mentioned in the Upanishad mentions Kàli and Karàli, but âryàstava that she was well worshipped by they are described here as two of the seven the Shavaras, the Barbaras, and the Pulindas tongues of ; the names are Kàli , Karàli, (Shavarairbarbaraishcaiva pulindaishca Manojavà, Sulohità, Sudhumravarnà, supujità), and she is often described in other Sphulingini, and Vishvaruci (I. 2. 4). Their contexts as Aparnà (not even covered with a number is to be noted, for it corresponds to leaf garment, that is, nude), Nagna-Shavari the number of the Divine Mothers—the (the nude Shavara woman), and Parna- Sapta Màtrikà. Shavari (the leaf-clad Shavara woman). It is true that the Durgà- in the Greek parallel Viràtaparvan is not found in all the The name of as a concrete goddess recensions of the Mahàbhàrata and thus is concept occurs for the first time in the regarded as an interpolation, but this fact Shatapatha Bràhmana, such words as siri does not minimize the importance and and rayi, indicating wealth, prosperity, and authenticity of its contents. The original fortune, occurring in earlier literature. The Ràmàyana, on the other hand, is less Shatapatha Bràhmana account of the origin indicative of the prevalence of Shakti of this goddess reminds us of the story worship in India. The incident of the current in about the birth worship of the Devi by Ràma, when he was of Pallas Athene. Such names of the Devi as in some difficulty about Ràvana’s Bhadrakàli, Bhavàni, and Durgi are found in destruction, is to be found in the Bengali late Vedic work like Sànkhyàyana and Ràmàyana by Krittivàsa. In its Hiranyakesh in Grihya-, and in the original (Yuddhakànda, 106), it is the wise Taittiriya âranyaka. The aforesaid data counsel of the sage to propitiate the clearly prove that some features of the cult, Sun-god by ceremonial recitation of the which were in a nascent stage in earlier âdityahridayastava, that helps Ràma to put times, were gradually taking the shape and the demon king of Lankà to death. But the form of a type well familiar in the epic and absence of any clear mention of the worship Purànic age. of the Devi does not in the least suggest that The two famous Durgà- in the the Shakti cult was not well in vogue during Mahàbhàrata (IV. 6 an VI. 23) and the the time when the lesser epic was composed. âryàstava in its supplement (khila) Harivamsha (III. 3) illustrate in a Puranic characterizations characteristic manner the various constituent Some of the early authoritative Purànas, elements underlying the principal cult however, fully compensate for the dearth of picture of the developed Shàkta cult. The reference to the Shakta cult in the

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Ràmàyana. The most representative and stotras also harp on her Mother aspect, and important of the Purànic characterization of she is described as Skandamàtà, Vedamàtà, the cult picture is to be found in the Devi- Mother of Siddhasena, and Mother of the màhàtmya section of the Màrkandeya -collections, though her Daughter Puràna. The various Devi-stutis (Brahmà- and Sister aspects are more prominently stuti, Shakràdi-stuti, and Nàràyani-stuti) in emphasized there. Her Jaganmàtà or it reveal in a striking manner some of the Jagadambà aspect is more outstanding in multifarious strands that contributed to the the Durgà-stutis of the Màrkandeya Puràna. building of the concept of the composite cult The Màtrikà concept, specially canalized goddess. The last few verses in the into that of the Seven Divine Mothers, Nàràyani-stuti chapter, which are put into namely, Brahmàni, Màheshvari, Kaumàri, the mouth of the goddess herself, refer to Vaishnavi, Vàràhi, Indràni, and Càmundà several of her incarnate forms, assumed for (who are also conceived as the individual the welfare of the three worlds (trailokyasya of the gods after whom they are hitàrthàya) and for the destruction of the named, the last one being the Shakti of wicked (the dànavas in this context). The , an aspect of Shiva), is also fairly last couplet ‘Ittham yadà yadà bàdhà old, being met with in texts and inscriptions dànavotthà bhavishyati, tadà tadàvatir- of the Gupta period. yàham karishyàmyarisamkshayam’ There is a reference in the Brihat incidentally reminds us of the famous Samhità to the images of the Màtriganas, exposition of the theory of divine who are to be made with the features and incarnation (Avatàravàda) in the fourth cognizances of the gods after whom they are canto of the Gità. The sublime ideas about named (LVII. 56:—Màtriganah kartavyah the divine power and energy, again, that are svanàmadevànurupakritacihnah), and in the so beautifully expressed in the two great chapter after the next of the same text, hymns of the Rig-Veda, the Devi-sukta and Pratimàpratishthàpana, we are told that it is the Ràtri-sukta, are fully expounded in the only those well-versed in the Tàntric pujà elocutory verses of the Puràna. A careful rites who are fit for the ceremonial comparison of them with the epic Durgà- installation of these images (Màtrinàmapi stotras alluded to above brings to light also mandalakramavido); mandalakrama has one important and interesting fact. The been simply explained by the commentator Purànakàra seems to have almost completely Utpala as pujàkrama, but the very word eschewed any explicit reference to the non- mandala seems to suggest its association Aryan elements in the composite goddess so with the Tàntric cakra. frequently and unblushingly mentioned in This raises an interesting point about the the stotras. antiquity of Tàntricism, most, if not all, of the extant texts which expound it being Mother aspects adjudged as late compositions. The Brihat It will now be necessary to expound Samhità, which is usually dated in the sixth with the help of literary and archaeological century A.D., thus appears to associate the data some of the different aspects of the cult worship of the Mother aspect of the goddess goddess alluded to above. The Mother with Tàntric rituals. We find a still earlier Goddess of the pre-Vedic times and Aditi reference to this association in a stone the Mother Divine in the Rig-Veda have inscription of the first quarter of the fifth already been mentioned. The epic Durgà- century A.D. found in the village of

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Gangdhar (Jhalwar, Madhya Bharat). In goddess who bathed in the seas lapping its lines 22-23 of the inscription, mention is coast. This is an undoubted allusion to the made of the erection of ‘the very terrible sacred Kumàrikà-, where the Devi is abode of the (Divine) Mothers, filled full of still worshipped in her virgin aspect. Such Dàkinis, who utter loud and tremendous was the importance attached to this form of shouts in joy, and who stir up the very the cult picture that in some medieval texts oceans with the mighty wind rising from the (compare Ràjashekhara’s Kàvya-mimàmsà, Tàntric rites of their religion’ (Màtrinànca XVII) the sub-continent of India is given the pramudita-ghanàtyartha-nirhràdininàm name of Kumàri-dvipa. It is true there is no tantrobhutaprabala-pavanodvartitàmbho- mention of this important tirtha in the Si-yu- nidhinàm . . . gatamidam dàkinisampra- ki of Hiuen Tsang, but it should be noted kirnàm veshmatyugram nripatisacivo- that the Chinese pilgrim did not visit this kàrayatpunyahetoh). The royal minister, southernmost part of India. who caused this shrine to be made for merit or piety, was well aware of the nature of the Sister aspect rites connected with the creed centring on The Sister aspect of the goddess is to be the Divine Mothers, as the mention of the found as early as in the Rig-Veda. She is Dàkinis and the terrific Tàntric rites prove. once, strangely enough, described as the sister of the âdityas,8 and a passage in the Daughter aspect Atharva-Veda (VI. 4. 1) refers to her The Daughter aspect of the goddess is brothers as well as sons. Mention has also hinted at in some of the hymns of the already been made about the description of Rig-Veda. Aditi is sometimes described as the goddess Ambikà as the sister of Rudra in the daughter of the , and in a later the Vàjasaneyi Samhità and the Taittiriya cosmogonic hymn (X. 72. 4-5) she is said to Bràhmana. But this trait of the Devi again be the daughter as well as the mother of finds prominent place in the Durgà-stotras. . Mention has already been made of She is frequently described there as the her description as Kanyàkumàri in the sister, not of Rudra, but of Vàsudeva Durgà-gàyatri of the Taittiriya âranyaka and Baladeva (Vàsudevasya (X. 1. 7). But this is very frequently alluded bhagini, Gopendrasyànujà, bhagini to in the epic Durgà-stotras. Durgà is born Baladevasya, etc). Some of her names in this to Yashodà, the wife of the cowherd , aspect are Ekànamshà, Bhadrà, and and is a virgin goddess practising Subhadrà. One of the earliest references to and thus sustaining the three the first of these names is to be found in the worlds (Kumàri brahmacàrini, kaumàram Brihat Samhità, where two-, four-, and vratamàsthàya tridivam pàlitam tvayà), and eight-armed images of the goddess are she is the brahmacarya of the virgins. described, and it is specially enjoined that This trait of the Devi finds a curious such images of Ekànamshà should be placed echo in one of the passages of the Periplus between those of Krishna and Baladeva of the Erythrean Sea, a work composed by (Ekànamshà kàryà devi Baladeva- an unknown Greek in the first century A.D. Krishnayormadhye, LVII. 37). There is a reference here to the southern- That the worship of this aspect of the most point of India, named as Comara, goddess was very prevalent in eastern India which was traditionally associated, is proved by some extant images of the early according to the author, with a virgin and late medieval period. An inscribed

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bronze composition of c. tenth century A.D. which grew out of it. The dismembered found at Imadpur (Bihar) and now in the limbs of , Daksha’s daughter and collection of the British Museum, London, beloved consort of Shiva, fell according to shows the goddess Ekànamshà between the epic and Purànic tradition, in different parts figures of Baladeva and Krishna. There is no of India, and different —really doubt that this was a cult object held in Shiva in his many terrific forms—kept guard veneration by her devotees in Bihar. That over them. The cult adaptation of this story she was also worshipped in some parts of was the transformation of these places into Orissa in medieval times is proved by the Shàkta pithas, variously enumerated in discovery of such sculpture compositions. different texts. They usually consisted of Many people may not know that the central shrines containing aniconic—sometimes object of worship in the temple of iconic—emblems of the goddess supposed Vàsudeva, on the bank of the holy tank to be associated with one or other of her Bindusarovara at Bhubaneswar, is none different limbs, with the temples of her other than this composite sculpture group in consort close by. Bhairava or Shiva thus which the principal or the central figure is kept a watchful eye, as it were, over his that of Ekànamshà. A careful scrutiny of the beloved spouse. images collected in the subsidiary shrines The idea underlying this mythology no inside the temple enclosure of Lingaràja at doubt goes back to a remote period, but it is Bhubaneswar will also reveal the existence fully worked out in detail in comparatively of such relief compositions of medieval later texts. The Tirthayàtrà section of the times. The symbolic icons of Jagannàtha, Mahàbhàrata (Vanuparvan) refers to three Balaràma, and Subhadrà in the main Shàkta pithas associated with the and sanctum, again, of the temple is clearly stana of the goddess. Kundas or sacred tanks reminiscent of the Ekànamshà worship; the are also their inevitable adjuncts, and two main subsidiary shrines of Vimalà and mention is made there of two yonikundas— Annapurnà, occupying important positions one situated at Bhimàsthàna beyond in the Jagannàtha temple enclosure at Puri, Pancanada (Punjab), and the other on a hill also emphasize in a way this association of called Udyatparvata probably in the Gaya Shakti worship with worship. region, and one stanakunda, on a peak Subhadrà, in the image group of Balaràma, known as Gaurishikhara, possibly in the Subhadrà, and Jagannàtha, obviously stands Gauhati region.9 for the sister aspect of the goddess. The evidence of the epic passages is partially corroborated by the statement of the Consort of Shiva keenly observant Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen One, if not the most important, aspect of Tsang. He records that there was a great the Devi is that of the concept about her as mountain peak in the heart of ancient the great consort of Shiva. Ambikà is Gandhàra (modern Peshawar district), which conceived in some later Vedic texts, as we possessed ‘a likeness (or image) of have shown, as the spouse of Rudra, the Maheshvara’s spouse Bhimàdevi of dark Vedic counterpart of Shiva. This mythology blue stone. According to local accounts, this is further reoriented in the well-known story was a natural image of the goddess; it was a of Daksha’s sacrifice in the epic literature. I great resort of devotees from all parts of shall lay stress here only on the ‘pitha’ idea India. At the foot of the mountain was a

22 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture September 2017 SOME ASPECTS OF SHAKTI WORSHIP IN ANCIENT INDIA temple of Maheshvaravada in which the ash- peculiar form in various parts of India, smearing Tirthikas performed much specially in the extreme north and north- worship’.10 Bhimàdeviparvata and the site of west. The early association of Tàntricism Maheshvaradeva’s temple below have been with the Mother aspect of the Devi has identified by Foucher with the hill known as already been commented upon. Certain Mt. Karamar and the modern village of observations of the Chinese pilgrim also Shewa at its foot, in the Peshwar district. show how it became the special trait of this The existence of a very sacred shrine of all- form of worship of the goddess in that India fame with ‘the natural image’ of the remote part of India. Hiuen Tsang says, ‘The goddess (probably an aniconic stone people of Uddiyàna (Swat valley, north of emblem) and the temple of Shiva near by Gandhàra) were fond of learning but not as a distinctly alludes to the developed concept study, and they made the acquisition of of the Shàkta pithas. magical formulae (really Tàntric ritualism) The Mahàmàyuri, a Sanskrit Buddhist their occupation’.12 The Hevajra text composed in the early centuries of the (c. eighth century A.D.) enumerates the Christian era, also seems to refer to the following four holy regions as pithas:— shrine of Bhimà when it lays down that (1) Jàlandhara, (2) Odiyàna (Uddiyàna— ‘Shivabhadra was the titulary of Udyàna), (3) Purnagiri, and (4) Kàmarupa.13 Bhishana’.11 Bhishanà (the feminine form of It is not the intention of the present Bhishana) is a synonym of Bhimà, and we speaker to give a complete picture of Shakti have copious instances in Sanskrit literature worship, including its fully developed of designating one and the same locality by phases of later times. Some of its early its various synonyms (compare the various aspects, specially from the historical and names of Hastinàpura, Nàgasàhvaya, evolutional point of view, have only been Gajasàhvaya). The cumulative evidence of touched upon here. The topic is a vast one, the aforesaid data proves the early and it cannot be satisfactorily dealt with in prevalence of Shiva-Shakti worship in this such a short speech.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1 Mackay, Early Indus Civilization, 2nd 8 Rig-Veda, Vol. VII, pp. 10-15. Edition, p. 54. 9 D. C. Sircar, Shàkta-pithas, JRASB, Letters, 2 Banerjea, Development of Hindu Vol. XIV, pp. 8-9. Iconography, p. 188. 10 Watters, On Yuan Chwang, Vol. I, pp. 221-22. 3 A.S.I.A.R., 1927-28, p. 66. 11 For detailed discussion about Bhimà- 4 Màrkandeya Puràna, Devi-màhàtmya, XCI, Bhishanà, compare the present writer’s pp. 48-49. article in Indian Historical Quarterly, 5 , p. 124. Vol. XIV (1938), pp. 751-53). 6 Rig-Veda, Vol. X, p. 125. 12 Watters, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 225. 7 Ibid., p. 127. 13 Sircar, op. cit., p. 12. * Dr Jitendra Nath Banerjea was Carmichael Professor and Head of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture at Calcutta University. He was an authority on various branches of Indian archaeology, and author of Development of . This article is based on an illustrated talk given at the Institute in July 1953.

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