Goddess Durga Research Articles

Living on the Edge: Attitudes of Rural Communities toward Bengal Tigers (Panthera tigris) in Central India

ABSTRACTTo date, most studies of the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris) are of biological research, techniques, conservation, population modeling, or tiger– human conflicts. Few studies have attempted to understand the rural population that share a region with the tigers, and some of the villages are even displaced in the name of conservation. Hence, we undertook a survey of 10 villages that are located in the buffer zone of the Bor Tiger Reserve (BTR). Most of the villagers interviewed had encountered tigers, most considered them a boon and beneficial to their livelihood, and almost all displayed environmental awareness and stressed the necessity to conserve tigers in order to ensure their own continued survival. Some stressed the religious connotation and significance because the tiger is the animal of transport of the Goddess Durga. A minority expressed a negative attitude that resulted not from damages incurred by the tigers, but from discontent following inept handling of property losses by the authorities, who did not provide compensation in time, or paid only a small part of the original value of the loss. We conclude that in order to ensure the continued goodwill of the local stakeholders, it is important that the state and national governments react in a timely manner and ensure that the farmer is compensated in full. Support of the villagers who cohabit with tigers will ensure the continued survival of the two entities.

Mathematical Modeling of the Spread of an Epidemic Disease-Mumps

Over one-quarter of the Cauvery delta region people are at risk from epidemic diseases and the majority is mumps infections. Molecular evidence suggests spread has been almost exclusively through human-to-human contact. Social factors are clearly important to understand the epidemic and ways in which it might be spreads are analyzed. The present paper focuses on People in the villages of kamalapuram, Punavasal and sithamalli in Tiruvarur district mauled by the mumps outbreak-an outbreak is declared if at least five cases of a disease are found from a place-believe that Goddess Durga has entered the child's body and will only leave if pleased with worship. Children suffering from mumps often develop secondary, potentially lethal infections like measles, pneumonia, diarrhoea and encephalitis. Mumps is vaccine preventable, but a vaccination card-a checklist of vaccines that should be given to a child at different stages of growth-is an unheard-which shows the lack of awareness and seriousness about their children's health. In this paper we offer some data and observations relating to the Mumps epidemic, We propose that greater attention should be paid to rural areas for the disease. A concluding discussion considers what assistance might be necessary if rural communities are to reduce transmission rates.

Calcutta and the Modern Woman: Reading the Films <em>Mahanagar</em> and <em>Kahaani</em>

In the history of Indian cinema, Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar (1963) and Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani (2012) are among the all too few films with strong, resilient, and resourceful women as their protagonists. Ray’s Arati Mazumdar and Ghosh’s Vidya Bagchi are the heroines with the men cast in supporting roles. Each woman finds her own way in the same city: Calcutta/Kolkata (the latter being the Bengali name in use since 2001). That Calcutta/Kolkata itself plays a central role in these woman-centric films is especially apt given that female emancipation became a contested issue there between British colonizers and Indian nationalists. As the capital of West Bengal, Kolkata today is a stronghold for chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the woman who defeated the Communist Party of India after thirty-seven years in power. Moreover, Durga Puja, a celebration of the Mother Goddess Durga, has been the city’s most important religious festival for the last two hundred years. Analyzing women’s negotiations of tradition and modernity, these two films imagine and intervene into the spaces and communities of post-independence Calcutta and neoliberal Kolkata.

Kepercayaan Orang Bali terhadap Leyak sebagai Penyebab Penyakit dan Penanggulangannya

The Balinese believe that Leyak or ghost is an etiology of illness. To become a Leyak or to ngleyak, one must perform black magic or pangleyakan . The method of obtaining the pangleyakan is by studying under a dukun pangleyakan or dukun pangiwa , a special indigenous medical practitioner who masters the pangleyakan . A person can also obtain the pangleyakan from his/her parent. Moreover, he or she can request the pangleyakan to Goddess Durga, the goddess of black magic. When pangleyakan is used by somebody, he/she becomes a Leyak , and will have the ability to take the shape of a certain animal, a ghostly light, a body without a head - the varieties are endless. This can only be performed at night. A Leyak disturbs other people until they are sick or even die. Nevertheless, they believe that they can cope with the Leyak through the use of amulet or by performing the magical religious ritual.

Holy superheroine: a comic book interpretation of the Hindu Devī Māhātmya scripture

AbstractAmar Chitra Katha (Immortal Picture Stories) is India's leading comic book series, featuring hundreds of mythological titles about the Hindu gods. Founder Anant Pai initially eliminated all miracles, believing them to be unscientific interpolations. But while producing Tales of Durga (no. 176, 1978), he declared that the comic must be an “authentic” recreation of the Devī Māhātmya scripture, and that all miracles in the classical Sanskrit text must be faithfully rendered in the comic. This article examines the discourse of authenticity that surrounds the production of Tales of Durga in particular and this comic book series more generally. Through a careful reading of the Devī Māhātmya, content analysis of Tales of Durga, a consideration of the unique characteristics of the comic book medium, and interviews with comic book producers, this study provides insight into modern interpretations of the Devī Māhātmya and evolving Hindu attitudes towards the martial goddess Durga.

Tracking the Goddess: Religion, Community, and Identity in the Durga Puja Ceremonies of Nineteenth-Century Calcutta

Focusing on colonial Calcutta in the later decades of the nineteenth century, this essay explores the evolution of a particular festival, the Durga Puja, to explore the ways in which religion negotiated its place in the ideological determinants of modernity. The essay surveys the evolution of the goddess Durga from premodern times and shows why and how the perception of both the deity (in gender terms) and the festival (in historical terms) had to be recalibrated following the imperatives of new classes and new discursive parameters. While the essay interrogates the development of new particular categories introduced by modernity, such as urban spatiality and the rhetoric of individual rights in colonial Calcutta, it also aligns these developments to answer the general paradigmatic question of the actual relationship between religion/faith and the modern moment.

The Goddess Durga in the Kalika-purana: with special reference to Mahisasuramardini

The goddess Durga, wife of Siva, is one of the most important and impressive goddess of the Hindu pantheon. The goddess is worshipped in her various shapes. Her most popular epithet is Mahisasuramardini, the slayer of Mahisa who is a buffalo demon, and she is represented in pictures as defeating the demon Mahisa. The story of Mahisasuramardini is the most popular and important one regarding Durga. The Devimahatmya is one of the famous scriptures which tell her story. In the Kalika-purana the story of Mahisasuramardini is found in chapters 59 and 60. This study attempts to clarify the particularities of her as defeating the demon Mahisa in the text.

You don't understand, we are at war! Refashioning Durga in the service of Hindu nationalism

This article analyses the meaning of the Hindu goddess Durga as a reference point for activists of two Hindu nationalist women's organisations; namely, the Rashtra Sevika Samiti (National Women Volunteers' Organisation) and Durga Vahini (Durga's Army). It begins by examining Hindu nationalist women's organisations' one-sided representation of Durga and how this has facilitated the appropriation of her imagery to ideologically justify their members' participation in violence. This article then considers the manner in which Durga's example is both reflected and contradicted by these women's activist practice. Finally, this article briefly discusses whether and in what ways the Hindu nationalist appropriation of Durga adds to the empowerment of the movement's female activists. By using Hindu nationalism's portrayal of Durga as a lens through which to understand the activism of its female supporters, this articles aims to increase insights into the motivations, nature and meaning of Hindu nationalist women's choices and actions; in particular, their violent activism.

A Harivamsa Hymn in Yijing's Chinese Translation of the Sutra of Golden Light

The Harivamrna (first to third century), well known as an account of the life of the god Krsna, contains also a few hymns to the goddess Durga. These hymns are extremely interesting in that they are amongst the earliest written sources on Durga and represent one of the early efforts at establishing the identity, significance, and worship of Durga as the great goddess.' One of these hymns appears in Chinese translation in the Buddhist Sutra of Golden

The Goddess Durga in the East-Javanese Period

This article assesses the changing perceptions of the goddess Durga in Java in the tenth to the fifteenth centuries C.E. From an early perception of her as a beneficent goddess, slayer of the demon Mahisa and protector of welfare and fertility, we see later portrayals of her with a frightful countenance and a predilection for graveyards. This change is traced through the mythology to poorly understood Tantric practices that deteriorated into black magic and the coercion of the goddess's power for evil purposes, causing her image in Java to become tarnished and turning her into an evil demon.

"Sandhang-pangan" for the Goddess: Offerings to Sang Hyang Bathari Durga and Nyai Lara Kidul

This article examines the offerings that are regularly presented by the rulers of the court of Surakarta to the Hindu-Javanese goddess Durga and her counterpart, the Queen of the Southern Ocean. It is based on my observations of ritual actions, which are placed in the historical context of Javanese written sources. While the central issue is the remarkable continuity of these cults, the description of the offerings and the manner in which they are presented is intended to help determine the identity of these two spirit queens and explain how they have maintained their relevance for Javanese society.

Durga and the King: Ethnohistorical Aspects of Politico-Ritual Life in a South Orissan Jungle Kingdom

This article discusses royal authority in Hindu India, and explores the relations and mutual dependencies between the domains of religion and politics. The data presented refer to one specific unit of political organization, the 'little kingdom' and, in particular, to the kingdom of Jeypore in south Orissa. Jeypore is further specified as a sub-type of the 'little kingdom', namely as a jungle kingdom', which is characterized by its remote location and a high percentage of tribal inhabitants. Special attention is given to the royal patronage of tribal goddesses and of the Hindu goddess Durga. The article considers how best to approach the vexed issue ofdisentangling 'tribal' and 'Hindu' components of religion, before examining more generally some theories advanced to explain the relationship between politics and religion.

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The Head-offering to the Goddess in Pallava Sculpture

The remarkable group of five rock-cut temples at Māmallapuram or Māvalivaram, to the south of Madras, has often been described. Popular imagination has associated these wonderful shrines with the Pāṇḍvas; thus it has happened that the one which is smallest in size has become known as the rath of Draupadi. Evidently this temple was in reality dedicated to some form of the goddess Durga, whose effigy, standing on the severed head of the Buffalodemon, is found carved upon the outer wall, whereas her vehicle in the form of a well-conceived but unfinished lion-statue may be seen at no great distance.