As the clear blue skies, rolling white clouds and the heady scent of sheuliusher in the autumnal festival of Durga puja, the Goddess Mother descends from her heavenly home of Kailash in all her beauty and power. As Mahisasuramardini she destroys Evil. She is warrior-goddess, universal mother and a daughter on her annual visit to her pat- ernal home with her children. Her many myths are revealed in ancient texts like the Lalithasa- hasranama, the Devi Mahatmyam and the Chandi Mangal.

The origin of this unseasonal worship of Durga (akaal bod- hon) lies in Krittivasa Ojha’s medieval Ramayana panchali where Rama worships the goddess with 108 blue lotuses to defeat his arch enemy Ravana. Among her many manifestations, as Parvati/Uma, she is the daughter of Giriraj Himalaya and mother Menaka who eagerly awaits her divine daughter’s arrival.
In Kazi Nazrul Islam’s song, Menaka cries out:‘Barsha gelo, Ashin elo/Uma elo koyi’. And like all mothers laments her return to her marital home.

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The Agomoni and Bijoya songs reflect the emotions of this journey. They also reflect the povert stricken plight of Menaka’s beautiful daughter married to the ash-smeared mendicant Shiva, a dweller of the burning ghats unwilling to till the lands gifted to him.
In Bengal’s medieval folk epic, the Chandi Mangal we find serio-comic descriptions of a humanized version of the goddess in a rural poverty-stricken household where she struggles with depleted provisions to assuage the pangs of hunger of her children, Shiva’s gargantuan appetite and his demands for seasonal delicacies.

And in some of the local folk songs, Chandi complains to her husband Shiva that she does not have even a pair of shell bangles, to adorn her bare arms: ‘Chandi bole shuno gosain jotiya bhangera, Tomar shonge aow korile nagibe jhagra. Chaar cheler maow hoilam tor dyaber ghore, Daya kori chaarkhani shankha nai pindhaish more. (Ashutosh Bhattarcharya, p.153)
Here there is no trace of the plenitude of the goddess as Annapurna.

In Parvati’s next incarnation as Sati, the daughter of King Daksha, she terrifies her husband Shiva with her ten ferocious and blood-thirsty Mahavidya images of Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala when he refuses permission to attend her father’s yagna where she later immolates herself in grief when her husband is insulted. Shiva’s overwhelm- ing sorrow at her death paralyzes the cosmic cycles. Vishnu cuts up her body into fifty one parts with his chakra and scatters them over fifty one sites where sacred shakti sthals mark each dismembered fragment.

The sixth century Devi Mahatmyam which is recited during the Durga puja tells us that she was created from the divine power that was emitted by the anger of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara to defeat the invincible demons: Atulam tatra tat tejah sarvadevasari-rajam

Tadabhun nari vyaptalokatrayam tvisa (DM, ch 2: vs 13) Conquering evil, she removes the suffering of her votaries: Daridra dukkha bhaya harini’ (DM, ch 4.vs17) We celebrate her as the benevolent goddess mother: ‘Sarva mangala mangalye shive sa- rvartha sadhike….’. (DM, 11: 1) The Devi Mahatmyam celebrates her many manifestations.

Nine such images of the goddess known as the Navadurgas are worshipped during the nine nights of the Navaratri celebrations. The Navadurgas are Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidhatri. These Nava- durgas are represented by the navapattrikas which are banana, colacassia, turmeric, jayanti, wood apple, pomegranate, ashoka, arum, paddy used during Durga puja.

As destroyer of Evil, she fights a relentless battle against the demon chieftains, Sumbha and Nisumbha, Chanda and Munda, captivating them with her beauty and felling them with her power. Hence she is worshipped as Chamunda. Armed with the collective armoury of the male gods she is accompanied by their shaktis Bhairavi, Vaishnavi, Kaumari, Brahmani, Aindri into battle.

She alternates her divinely beautiful image with that of the terrible and the ferocious. Kali of fearsome visage dark as the inky night, armed with a sword and a noose emerges from the fair brow of Ambika as it darkens in anger during this battle says the poet: ‘Kopena casya vadanam masivarnambhuttada Bhrukuti kutilatasya lalataphalakadruttam
Kali karala vadana vinastantasipasini ( VII: 5- 6, DM: 98)
The iconic image of the god- dess dark and naked, garlanded with

skulls, her blood stained tongue lolling, emerges to deal with the demon’s Raktabeeja form. The Kalika Purana tells us that while battling Chanda and Munda, the god- dess that emerges from Ambika’s brow is Bhadra-kali, with red eyes, skin black as moonless nights, fangs sharp as ivory pillars, tongue lolling over crimson mouth, huge breasts and loose belly, armed with axe, noose and trident, wildly drink- ing raw wine.
The goddess we worship on the dark night of the new moon is the ferocious, blood thirsty version feasting unchecked on demon blood and flesh till she steps on the prostrated figure of her husband.

This is a paradoxical image combining the uncontrolled lust for blood of the destroyer with that of the chastened, repentant wife. There is also a similar para- dox in her iconic delineation, girded and garlanded with human heads and limbs which she cuts down relentlessly with her menacing scythe, while one hand is raised in the abhayamudra and varadaana, indicating both chastisement and benediction.

This is the image of the Universal Mother to whom poets like Ramprasad and saints like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa addressed their fervent cries. Sadhak Ramprasad sang of the bloodstained dark body as a beautiful scarlet kingsuk flower floating on the dark waters of the Kalindi/Yamuna or of her dark face as a blue lotus.

Sri Ramakrishna explained her black colour by saying that just as the waters of the ocean appear dark from afar but without colour when seen at close quarters, so also Kali appears dark when her mystery is viewed with awe from a distance without understanding.
As a dark, complex, mysterious and alluring figure, Kali breaks conventional stereotypes of feminine beauty and sexuality, combining the beautiful with the fearful.

Such parallel images as those of Bhairavi, Karali, Kapalini, Chinnamasta are replete with nudity, flowing blood and wine, decapitated heads and powerful weaponry.
These images are associat- ed with a form of ritualism and worship in the cult of Tantrism which, particularly in its Vamacara sect (Left-handed Tantrism), is considered by many to be violently antithetical to traditional Vedic norms.

The five Ms of Vamacara Tantra Sadhana are the offerings of Madya (wine), Matsya (fish),
Mamsa (meat) and Mudra (parched grains) as well as Maithuna, the act of sex between the worshipper and a woman whom he chooses regardless of her caste.

For the Tantric considers the body to be the microcosm of the universe. Whatever is in the universe is in the body itself and thus it is the starting point of his sadhana.
There are other forms of worship which lie outside the rigid orthodoxy of the Brahmini- cal too. For the goddess in her many images lends herself to the many modes of faith that the votary, regardless of gender and caste, may offer.

In the popular domain, there are several manifestations of Chandi revered, feared and appeased among the rural women in various parts of Bengal. These are Natai Chandi, Ghor Chandi, Udon Chandi, Shubho Chandi or Mangal Chandi.

For the Mangal Chandi puja the goddess is carried on a throne and eight women circumam- bulate with it around a sacred pipal tree in the gachbera ceremony. Natai Chandi is wor- shipped for the recovery of lost treasures or missing relatives, Rana Chandi for victory in war, Olai Chandi for protection against cholera.

She is also worshipped by rural women in times of distress with Ashtamangala rituals, eight betel leaves, eight stalks of durba grass, eight lotuses and eight days of chanting of the vrata kathas and the panchali, which tell of the material and spiritual benefits of performing the mangal-gauri vrata.

The chanting of the panchalis by the village women and the pala-gaans by the balladeers find their graphic portrayal in the pata-chitras by the rural folk artists using vegetable dyes and animal tail fur for the painting and the brushes. This colourful panorama of goddess images, the inclusive and egalitarian modes of her worship serve as a valuable lesson in today’s intolerant world.

SAUMITRA CHAKRAVARTI
The writer, an academic and poet, has been Guest Faculty for Post-Graduate programmes in English Literature of various colleges and was Head of the department and Vice Principal of V.V.S. Col