Durga, in her various forms, appears as an independent deity in the Epics period of ancient India, that is the centuries around the start of the common era. The historian Ramaprasad Chanda stated in that Durga evolved over time in the Indian subcontinent. A primitive form of Durga, according to Chanda, was the result of " syncretism of a mountain-goddess worshiped by the dwellers of the Himalaya and the Vindhyas ", a deity of the Abhiras conceptualized as a war-goddess.
Durga then transformed into Kali as the personification of the all-destroying time, while aspects of her emerged as the primordial energy Adya Sakti integrated into the samsara cycle of rebirths concept and this idea was built on the foundation of the Vedic religion, mythology and philosophy. Epigraphical evidence indicates that regardless of her origins, Durga is an ancient goddess. The 6th-century CE inscriptions in early Siddhamatrika script, such as at the Nagarjuni hill cave during the Maukhari era, already mention the legend of her victory over Mahishasura buffalo-hybrid demon.
Originally she is Adi Parashakti , present before creation and after destruction of the entire universe. She is the ultimate energy but to defeat the Asura Mahishasura all the gods invoked her and as she was present in the form of shakti in all the gods, so she manifested herself from the three gods Brahma , Vishnu and Shiva and the other gods. She was gifted with different weapons, ornaments, valuable clothes and gold jewelleries with precious stones and a lion as her mount before going for the war.
Some early European accounts refer to a deity known as Deumus, Demus or Deumo. Western Portuguese sailors first came face to face with the murti of Deumus at Calicut on the Malabar Coast and they concluded it to be the deity of Calicut. Deumus is sometimes interpreted as an aspect of Durga in Hindu mythology and sometimes as deva. It is described that the ruler of Calicut Zamorin had a murti of Deumus in his temple inside his royal palace.
Durga has been a warrior goddess, and she is depicted to express her martial skills. Her iconography typically resonates with these attributes, where she rides a lion or a tiger, [1] has between eight and eighteen hands, each holding a weapon to destroy and create. Her icon shows her in action, yet her face is calm and serene. Durga traditionally holds the weapons of various male gods of Hindu mythology, which they give her to fight the evil forces because they feel that she is the shakti energy, power.
Durga herself is viewed as the "Self" within and the divine mother of all creation. Archeological discoveries suggest that these iconographic features of Durga became common throughout India by about the 4th century CE, states David Kinsley — a professor of religious studies specializing on Hindu goddesses. Her icons in major Hindu temples such as in Varanasi include relief artworks that show scenes from the Devi Mahatmya.
Durga appears in Hindu mythology in numerous forms and names, but ultimately all these are different aspects and manifestations of one goddess. She is imagined to be terrifying and destructive when she has to be, but benevolent and nurturing when she needs to be. Her temples, worship and festivals are particularly popular in eastern and northeastern parts of Indian subcontinent during Durga puja, Dashain and Navaratri. As per Markandya Puran, Durga puja can be performed either for 9 days or 4 days last four in sequence. Since it is celebrated during Sharad literally,season of weeds , it is called as Sharadiya Durga Puja or Akal-Bodhan to differentiate it from the one celebrated originally in spring.
The festival is celebrated by communities by making special colorful images of Durga out of clay, [61] recitations of Devi Mahatmya text, [60] prayers and revelry for nine days, after which it is taken out in procession with singing and dancing, then immersed in water. The Durga puja is an occasion of major private and public festivities in the eastern and northeastern states of India. The day of Durga's victory is celebrated as Vijayadashami Bijoya in Bengali , Dashain Nepali or Dussehra in Hindi — these words literally mean "the victory on the Tenth day ".
This festival is an old tradition of Hinduism, though it is unclear how and in which century the festival began. Surviving manuscripts from the 14th century provide guidelines for Durga puja, while historical records suggest royalty and wealthy families were sponsoring major Durga puja public festivities since at least the 16th century. The prominence of Durga puja increased during the British Raj in Bengal. In Nepal , the festival dedicated to Durga is called Dashain sometimes spelled as Dasain , which literally means "the ten". The festival includes animal sacrifice in some communities, as well as the purchase of new clothes and gift giving.
Traditionally, the festival is celebrated over 15 days, the first nine-day are spent by the faithful by remembering Durga and her ideas, the tenth day marks Durga's victory over Mahisura, and the last five days celebrate the victory of good over evil. During the first nine days, nine aspects of Durga known as Navadurga are meditated upon, one by one during the nine-day festival by devout Shakti worshippers. Durga Puja also includes the worship of Shiva , who is Durga's consort, in addition to Lakshmi , Saraswati , Ganesha and Kartikeya , who are considered to be Durga's children.
In South India, especially Andhra Pradesh, Dussera Navaratri is also celebrated and the goddess is dressed each day as a different Devi, all considered equivalent but another aspect of Durga.
Hecate - Wikipedia
In Bangladesh , the four-day-long Sharadiya Durga Puja is the most important religious festival for the Hindus and celebrated across the country with Vijayadashami being a national holiday. This tradition has been continued by Sri Lankan diaspora. According to Hajime Nakamura, over its history, some Buddhist traditions adopted Vedic and Hindu ideas and symbols. For example, the fierce Vajrayana Buddhist meditational deity Yamantaka , also known as Vajrabhairava, developed from the pre-Buddhist god of death, Yama.
The Sacciya mata found in major medieval era Jain temples mirrors Durga, and she has been identified by Jainism scholars to be the same or sharing a more ancient common lineage. However, she is not shown as killing the buffalo demon in the Jain cave, but she is presented as a peaceful deity. Durga is exalted as the divine in Dasam Granth , a sacred text of Sikhism that is traditionally attributed to Guru Gobind Singh.
Archeological site excavations in Indonesia , particularly on the island of Java, have yielded numerous statues of Durga. These have been dated to be from 6th century onwards. In Cambodia , during its era of Hindu kings, Durga was popular and numerous sculptures of her have been found. However, most differ from the Indian representation in one detail.
The Cambodian Durga iconography shows her standing on top of the cut buffalo demon head. Durga statues have been discovered at stone temples and archeological sites in Vietnam , likely related to Champa or Cham dynasty era. Durga is a major goddess in Hinduism, and the inspiration of Durga Puja — a large annual festival particularly in the eastern and northeastern states of India.
Every village, town and city Goddess is her form if not a form of Laxmi. She is worshiped as Kamakshi in Tamil Nadu. He is the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission. Durga as the mother goddess is the inspiration behind the song Vande Mataram , written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, during Indian independence movement , later the official national song of India. Durga is present in Indian Nationalism where Bharat Mata i. Mother India is viewed as a form of Durga. This is completely secular and keeping in line with the ancient ideology of Durga as Mother and protector to Indians.
She is present in pop culture and blockbuster Bollywood movies like Jai Santoshi Maa. Any woman who takes up a cause to fight for goodness and justice is said to have the spirit of Durga in her. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The pagan goddess behind the holiday of ‘Easter’
For other uses of "Durga", see Durga disambiguation. A sketch of Durga as buffalo-demon slayer from a 6th century Aihole Hindu temple; Right: Durga worship with drum beats. Hinduism portal Hindu mythology portal Indian religions portal India portal. Griffith Translator ; for Sanskrit original see: Reclaiming the Tradition of the Mother of the Universe. Is the Goddess a Feminist?: The Politics of South Asian Goddesses. New York University Press. University of California Press.
Diaspora of the Gods: Buddhist Goddesses of India. A Survey with Bibliographical Notes. The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender. Ascetics and kings in a Jain ritual culture.
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Carving Devotion in the Jain Caves at Ellora. A Very Short Introduction. The Collections of the National Museum of Indonesia. Worshiping Siva and Buddha: The Temple Art of East Java. University of Hawaii Press.
Iris (mythology)
In praise of Prambanan: Dutch essays on the Loro Jonggrang temple complex. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press. Vande Mataram, the Biography of a Song. It was probably her role as guardian of entrances that led to Hecate's identification by the mid fifth century with Enodia , a Thessalian goddess. Enodia's very name "In-the-Road" suggests that she watched over entrances, for it expresses both the possibility that she stood on the main road into a city, keeping an eye on all who entered, and in the road in front of private houses, protecting their inhabitants.
This function would appear to have some relationship with the iconographic association of Hecate with keys, and might also relate to her appearance with two torches, which when positioned on either side of a gate or door illuminated the immediate area and allowed visitors to be identified. Hecate's importance to Byzantium was above all as a deity of protection.
When Philip of Macedon was about to attack the city, according to the legend she alerted the townspeople with her ever present torches, and with her pack of dogs, which served as her constant companions. Watchdogs were used extensively by Greeks and Romans. Cult images and altars of Hecate in her triplicate or trimorphic form were placed at three-way crossroads though they also appeared before private homes and in front of city gates.
In what appears to be a 7th-century indication of the survival of cult practices of this general sort, Saint Eligius , in his Sermo warns the sick among his recently converted flock in Flanders against putting "devilish charms at springs or trees or crossroads", [86] and, according to Saint Ouen would urge them "No Christian should make or render any devotion to the deities of the trivium, where three roads meet Like Hecate, "[t]he dog is a creature of the threshold, the guardian of doors and portals, and so it is appropriately associated with the frontier between life and death, and with demons and ghosts which move across the frontier.
The yawning gates of Hades were guarded by the monstrous watchdog Cerberus , whose function was to prevent the living from entering the underworld, and the dead from leaving it. Hecate has been characterized as a pre-Olympian chthonic goddess. The first literature mentioning Hecate is the Theogony by Hesiod:.
And she conceived and bore Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honored above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honor also in starry heaven, and is honored exceedingly by the deathless gods. For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he calls upon Hecate.
Great honor comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favorably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her. For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: Whom she will she greatly aids and advances: And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will.
Good is she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock.
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The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less. So, then, albeit her mother's only child, she is honored amongst all the deathless gods. And the son of Cronos made her a nurse of the young who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn. So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her honours. Hesiod emphasizes that Hecate was an only child, the daughter of Perses and Asteria , the sister of Leto the mother of Artemis and Apollo.
Grandmother of the three cousins was Phoebe the ancient Titaness who personified the moon. Hesiod's inclusion and praise of Hecate in the Theogony has been troublesome for scholars, in that he seems to hold her in high regard, while the testimony of other writers, and surviving evidence, suggests that this may have been the exception. One theory is that Hesiod 's original village had a substantial Hecate following and that his inclusion of her in the Theogony was a way of adding to her prestige by spreading word of her among his readers.
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter , Hecate is called the "tender-hearted", a euphemism perhaps intended to emphasize her concern with the disappearance of Persephone , when she assisted Demeter with her search for Persephone following her abduction by Hades, suggesting that Demeter should speak to the god of the sun, Helios.
Subsequently, she became Persephone's companion on her yearly journey to and from the realms of Hades; serving as a psychopomp. Because of this association, Hecate was one of the chief goddesses of the Eleusinian Mysteries, alongside Demeter and Persephone. Variations in interpretations of Hecate's role or roles can be traced in classical Athens. In two fragments of Aeschylus she appears as a great goddess. In Sophocles and Euripides she is characterized as the mistress of witchcraft and the Keres. One surviving group of stories [ clarification needed ] suggests how Hecate might have come to be incorporated into the Greek pantheon without affecting the privileged position of Artemis.
Here, Hecate is a mortal priestess often associated with Iphigeneia. She scorns and insults Artemis, who in retribution eventually brings about the mortal's suicide. Hecate is the primary feminine figure in the Chaldean Oracles 2nd-3rd century CE , [96] where she is associated in fragment with a strophalos usually translated as a spinning top, or wheel, used in magic "Labour thou around the Strophalos of Hecate. In Hellenistic syncretism, Hecate also became closely associated with Isis. Some call me Juno, others Bellona of the Battles, and still others Hecate. Principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis.
In the syncretism during Late Antiquity of Hellenistic and late Babylonian " Chaldean " elements, Hecate was identified with Ereshkigal , the underworld counterpart of Inanna in the Babylonian cosmography. In the Michigan magical papyrus inv. Strmiska claimed that Hecate, conflated with the figure of Diana , appears in late antiquity and in the early medieval period as part of an "emerging legend complex" known as " The Society of Diana " [] associated with gatherings of women, the moon, and witchcraft that eventually became established "in the area of Northern Italy, southern Germany, and the western Balkans.
He adds that such an instrument is called a iunx hence "jinx" , but as for the significance says only that it is ineffable and that the ritual is sacred to Hecate. Shakespeare mentions Hecate both before the end of the 16th century A Midsummer Night's Dream , , and just after, in Macbeth He noted that the cult regularly practiced dog sacrifice and had secretly buried the body of one of its "queens" with seven dogs.
As a "goddess of witchcraft", Hecate has been incorporated in various systems of modern witchcraft , Wicca and Neopaganism , [] in some cases associated with the Wild Hunt of Germanic tradition, [] in others as part of a reconstruction of specifically Greek polytheism, in English also known as " Hellenismos ". Hecate is also the namesake of the hundredth numbered asteroid , which was discovered by American astronomer James Craig Watson on July 11, Its adopted name alludes to it as being the hundredth named asteroid 'hekaton' being the Greek for 'hundred'.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Hecate disambiguation. Ancient Greek goddess of magic and crossroads. Mycenaean gods Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism Julian restoration. Edwards in the American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. Archaic and Classical , p. The Oxford Classical Dictionary Third ed.
Clay lists a number of researchers who have advanced some variant of the association between Hecate's name and will e. Walcot , Neitzel , Derossi The researcher is led to identify "the name and function of Hecate as the one 'by whose will' prayers are accomplished and fulfilled. Beekes , Etymological Dictionary of Greek , Brill, p.
Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book Seven. A Dictionary of the English Language 10th ed. Rules for pronouncing the vowels of Greek and Latin proper names", p. Shakespeare seems to have begun, as he has now confirmed, this pronunciation, by so adapting the word in Macbeth And the play-going world, who form no small portion of what is called the better sort of people, have followed the actors in this world, and the rest of the world have followed them.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Studien zu Wesen u. Berg's argument for a Greek origin rests on three main points: Almost all archaeological and literary evidence for her cult comes from the Greek mainland, and especially from Attica—all of which dates earlier than the 2nd century BCE. The supposed connection between Hecate and attested "Carian theophoric names" is not convincing, and instead suggests an aspect of the process of her Hellenization. He concludes, "Arguments for Hecate's "Anatolian" origin are not in accord with evidence.
Sterckx explicitly recognizes the similarities between these ancient Chinese views of dogs and those current in Greek and Roman antiquity, and goes on to note "Dog sacrifice was also a common practice among the Greeks where the dog figured prominently as a guardian of the underworld. Simoons, Eat Not This Flesh: In the course of this beleaguerment, it is related, on a certain wet and moonless night the enemy attempted a surprise, but were foiled by reason of a bright light which, appearing suddenly in the heavens, startled all the dogs in the town and thus roused the garrison to a sense of their danger.
To commemorate this timely phenomenon, which was attributed to Hecate, they erected a public statue to that goddess [ Hecate had a cult in Byzantium from the time of its founding. Like Byzas in one legend, she had her origins in Thrace. Since Hecate was the guardian of "liminal places", in Byzantium small temples in her honor were placed close to the gates of the city. Hecate's importance to Byzantium was above all as deity of protection.
When Philip of Macedon was about to attack the city, according to the legend she alerted the townspeople with her ever-present torches, and with her pack of dogs, which served as her constant companions. Her mythic qualities thenceforth forever entered the fabric of Byzantine history. A statue known as the 'Lampadephoros' was erected on the hill above the Bosphorous to commemorate Hecate's defensive aid. His works survive only in fragments preserved in Photius and the Suda , a Byzantine lexicon of the 10th century CE.
The tale is also related by Stephanus of Byzantium and Eustathius. Byzantium and the Bosporus. Chapter in the book The Goddess Hekate: Beck, , , vol. Teubner, —94 , vol. Later authors speculated that Triple Hecate was the goddess of the moon with three forms: Oxford University Press, Oxford. Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt. American University in Cairo Press. Creatures in the Mist: A Study in Comparative Mythology , p. Roberts, Michael Wink, Alkaloids: Biochemistry, Ecology, and Medicinal Applications , Springer, , p.
The material seems to have provided background and explanation related to the meaning of these pronouncements, and appear to have been related to the practice of theurgy, pagan magic that later became closely associated with Neoplatonism, see Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony, eds. William Wynn Wescott tr. Such things they call charms, whether it is the matter of a spherical object, or a triangular one, or some other shape.
While spinning them, they call out unintelligible or beast-like sounds, laughing and flailing at the air. It is called the top of Hekate because it is dedicated to her. In her right hand she held the source of the virtues. But it is all nonsense.
Trombley, Hellenic Religion and Christianization, C. The goddess appears as Hecate Ereschigal only in the heading: The Archaeology of a Folk Character. University of California Press, Hecate , but the letters agree to closely, contrary to the laws of change, and the Mid. Ages would surely have had an unaspirated Ecate handed down to them; no Ecate or Hecate appears in the M.
The actual etymology of hag is Germanic and unrelated to the name of Hecate. Oxford University Press, Act 2, Scene 1, Page 2". Sabina Magliocco , Witching Culture: Ancient Greek religion and mythology.