The Portrait of the Goddess in the Devī-māhātmya

Abstract

The Devi-mahatmya (DM) is the most famous of all Hindu texts celebrating the divine feminine. Written sometime around the sixth century AD in Sanskrit it tells of the Goddess's various mythological exploits. To this day it is used in the worship of the Goddess and is greatly revered by her devotees. This article seeks to analyze the DM by (1) delimiting various goddess traditions that are incorporated into the text by the author and by (2) focusing on those aspects of the DM's portrait of the Goddess that seem essential and distinctive in relationship to other Hindu deities. The following goddess traditions are discernable in the DM: (1) a mountain-dwelling goddess, Siva's consort; (2) a goddess of wealth and abundance, Laksmi, Visnu's consort; (3) a warrior goddess, Durgd; (4) a bloodthirsty goddess, Kdli; and (5) a group of goddesses collectively known as the Mothers, matrkas. All of these strands are well known to the author of the DM and each strand is incorporated into his portrait in specific ways. In discussing the essential and distinctive nature of the DM's image of the Goddess, however, it is argued that she is no mere copy or combination of other goddesses. Functionally she is primarily a female version of Visnu. Her most important role is to protect the world from demons and she does so from time to time by assuming various forms. The author of the DM, that is, has clearly modeled the Goddess in important ways on certain male gods of the Hindu pantheon. The Goddess's character, or personality, however, is distinctive and centers around her most popular epithets: Ambika and Candikd. The former name emphasizes her motherly qualities and the later emphasizes her fierce qualities. The Goddess as the fierce mother expresses a coincidence of opposites. This aspect of her character, it is argued, expresses the ambiguities inherent in human existence itself. The Goddess expresses both the Hindu emphasis upon the warm, nurturing nature of existence (the world of dharma and the abundance of prakrti) and the emphasis on the ephemeral, limited, painful aspects of the phenomenal world.