On the 3rd day of Navaratri, someone asked the story behind the name of the Navadurga in my apartment Whatsapp group and I posted a short message. Everyone got interested and asked for the other stories as well, so I gave been posting each day. Compiling all those posts into this blog.
Day 1 story is pretty well known.
Sati's father Daksha is opposed to her wedding with Shiva because he is a dirty fellow always roaming around graveyards, etc.
To spite Shiva he performs a yagna and does not invite him. Sati says she will go because it's her house but Shiva refuses to go with her.
When she reaches, Daksha and his crowd berate her and her husband. At one point Sati jumps into the yagna fire and gives up her life.
Shiva is livid and he creates Veerabhadra out of his anger. Veerabhadra and Shiva's ganas destroy the yagna and Daksha.
Shiva takes Sati's burnt body and starts dancing the rudra tandava. The entire universe is on the verge of destruction.
Vishnu employs Sudarshana chakra on her body and different parts fall on the Earth in different places, forming the Shakti Peethas.
Now Tarakasura becomes all powerful and it is prophesied that he can be killed only by the son of Shiva.
To make this happen, Sati is born as the daughter of Himalaya, the God who is the king of all mountains.
Thus Shailaputri - शैलपुत्री daughter of the mountain. That's the Durga of the first day.
Day 2
Parvati - also translating directly to "daughter of the mountain" - is growing up in Oshadhiprastha, the capital of Himavaan. She roams around in the mountains and comes across Shiva in deep tapasya. She immediately knows that she needs to attain him.
Despite her mother's initial hesitation (she says "Girl, don't" which is "उ मा" thus giving her the name Uma), she keeps going there and trying to get Shiva to notice her.
To expedite the birth of Kumara, the Devas send Kamadeva to use his arrow on Shiva. Shiva opens his 3rd eye and burns Kamadeva. After Rathi pleads with him, Kamadeva is reborn but without form.
Despite this setback, Parvati continues. She joins a guru's ashram and learns all the proper ways of doing penances by becoming a Brahmacharini.
This is her 2nd day form - Brahmacharini. ब्रह्मचारिणी
Day 3
When Parvati gets married and moves into Shiva's place (cave), she finds it very untidy and starts cleaning it and dusting the cobwebs. Tarakasura, wanting to delay the birth of his nemesis, sends Jakutasura - in the form of bats - to keep her home untidy.
By this time Shiva has commenced his tapasya but he reminds Parvati that she is Shakti and Prakruti and she can easily fight the asura.
In the dead of the night, the bats can "see" through sound and she cannot. So she asks the moon for help. Chandra comes and sits on her forehead to give her light 🌙 - चंद्रः
Then she uses a bell to confuse the bats - घण्टा.
Grey wolves come to back her up as her army and together they defeat and kill Jatukasura and his bat army.
Thus चंद्रघण्टा - Chandraghanta - and thus the colour grey.
On Day 4 the Devi is Kushmanda.
Ku-ushma means a bit of heat. Anda is from brahmanda - the cosmic egg which burst and formed the universe.
Mali and Sumali are two Asuras who want to avenge Jatukasura. They perform severe tapas aimed at Lord Shiva. Shiva is very happy with them but has still not appeared in front of them.
At this stage, Mali and Sumali begin to glow with the power of their penance. Their glow is so much that it starts exceeding that of the Sun!
The Sun God becomes so fascinated by it, that he leaves his set path and movews in closer to see them. Despite warnings, he comes so close that Mali and Sumali are reduced to ashes.
Shiva is furious and he kills the Sun God with his trishula. The Solar System is not only plunged to darkness but the planets are imbalanced and go haywire because of the sudden lack of gravity.
Shiva realises what he has done in his anger. He asks Parvati to help, reminding her that she is the lokamata - mother of the universe.
Parvati uses her inner heat (उष्मा) a little of it (कूष्मा) and recreates the cosmic egg (ब्रह्माण्डं); to bring back light and heat to the universe - thus कूष्माण्डा Kushmanda.
Maharishi Kashyapa - the father of the Devas - curses Shiva that he will kill his own son.
Parvati calls Maharishi Kashyapa and Aditi - the mother of the Gods - fills a pot with their blood, and converts this blood into Amrita - Ambrosia. Rishi Kashyapa uses this to revive Surya, restoring the balance in the universe.
For this, Kahsyapa grants a boon to Parvati that she will have a son who is revered as the universal God.
Thus both Shiva's curse and Parvati's boon are combined to form Lord Ganesha.
Day 5
Skandamata - the mother of Kartikeya.
The story of Kumara's birth is a bit NSFW, but over the years it has been already clad in presentable clothes.
So the Devas contrived to get Shiva and Parvati married so that their son can kill Taraka, but these two have shown no signs of the baby coming any time, although they have been at it for ages.
So the Devas form a small committee under Indra and visit Mt. Kailash to ask them. Unfortunately they arrive to disturb the couple at the wrong time.
I am sure that in ancient times when the Skandapurana was written or even when Kalidasa wrote Kumarasambhavam (कुमारसम्भवम्), there was no restriction in expressing yourselves. So the stories are pretty explicit. Meanwhile, it has been more than 500 years since we have lived under the taboos that Europeans brought.
Amar Chitra Katha says, "Six sparks emanate out of Shiva's third eye".
The said "sparks" or the stuff they are euphemism for, are too hot to handle for Vayu and even Agni himself gets burnt.
So Ganga takes the stuff with great difficulty and throws it into the Saravana Lake. There is a Saravana Poigai present near Palani.
On the lake there are six big lotuses into which it falls and forms six babies. The Karthika sisters (Pleaides constellation) have been created for this very purpose and they are waiting in the sky for the birth of these babies. At an instant they are at the babies' side and they start looking after them.
Once the babies have grown a bit, the parents come to see them. They run to Parvati and she embraces them all together. At once they become a single baby with six heads - the baby you see in images of Skandamata. स्कंदमाता
Not sure about the meaning of the word Skanda but I have read somewhere that it could mean born short or born early.
Once Skanda, Kartikeya, Kumara, Saravana, Shanmukha - whatever you want to call him - is ready, he gathers an army under his general Veerabahu.
Shakti herself hands over her Shoola to him as his weapon. He is always depicted with his Shoola - or Vel (வேல்) in Tamil.
Then he goes on to defeat Tarakasura and his brothers.
That's the story of Skandamata.
Day 6
It is Shashti today. This is when it starts.
Since Brahma says that he cannot grant Mahishasura immortality, he asks to be not killed by a man or God. He is arrogant enough to think that a woman cannot possibly defeat him.
His atrocities extend to all the worlds. The Devas are thrown out of Amaravati and there is chaos perpetrated by Mahisha's hordes everywhere.
The Devas go to Vishnu who calls Shiva and Brahma. The combined anger of the Trinity and the Devas together come out as blinding beams of light and form a ball of fire.
Maharishi Katyanana, who has always done tapas to get the mother goddess as his daughter, volunteers to give shape to this light.
The Devi emerges resplendent from the rage of all the Gods, against the evil. Maharishi Katyanana is the first to worship her, although she is his daughter.
She is Katyayani - कात्यायनी
The Trinity and all the Gods worship the Devi. Shiva presents her with his trishula, Vishnu with his Sudarshana Chakra, Indra with his Vajrayuda, Airavata with his bell, Vishwakarma with a sword and shield. Agni, Varuna, Vayu, Prajapati, the Ashwinis, the ocean of milk, Brahma; she is adorned by the weapons and ornaments given by all the Devas.
In all her splendour, she seats herself on the Vindhyas. She is Vindhyavasini. She is Koushiki.
The daityas Shumba and Nishumbha are immediately besotted and they seek her out. She uses the most charming voice to tell them that only he who defeats her in battle can win her hand.
When this reaches Mahishasura, he is angry at her arrogance, but still dismissive. He asks his legions to capture her for him.
Dhoomralochana, with his several akshouhinis of army attacks her. The Devi steps forward and utters a humkara. The simple syllable "hum" reverberates around the world. Dhoomralochana and his army are instantly burnt to cinder, "like dried firewood".
Chanda and Munda come next and after a fierce battle her lion pins them down and she beheads them. She is the destroyer of Chanda and Munda. She is Chamundi.
She takes multiple forms - Durga, Ambika, etc. to defeat Shumba and Nishumbha who come at her insulting her with profanities.
Finally Mahishasura sends his minister Raktabeeja. Ambika steps forward and easily kills him.
Raktabeejasura regenerates in the hundreds s with every drop of his blood falling on the ground.
Suddenly there are a thousand Raktabeejas fighting together.
This is the prelude to tomorrow's story.
Day 7
Today is the day of Kalaratri.
When Chamundi is fighting Raktabeejasura, she realises that when every drop of his blood falls on the ground several Raktabeejas emerge. Suddenly she is fighting hundreds of Raktabeejas and more keep getting formed.
She manifests another form of herself. A dark form, dishevelled and unkempt. She represents the dark of the night. She is the goddess Kali. She is Kalaratri - कालरात्रि.
Chamundi asks Kali to help her with Raktabeeja's clones. This is when the dark goddess stretches out her tongue and starts drinking up all the blood as it falls.
Chamundi continues to kill all the Raktabeejas and Kalaratri continues to drink their blood before it falls on the ground. This goes on and on until the entire horde of Raktabeejas are exterminated.
Kali does not stop her frenzy. She continues to destroy everyone and everything that comes in her path. There is no way to stop her until Shiva himself stoops down and lays himself down at her feet. Seeing Shiva below her toes snaps her back to senses and she calms down.
She is the darkest part of the dark night. She is Maharatri. She is the dreamy part of the half-awake night. She is Moharatri.
Kala means black and represents her dark and nocturnal nature. Kala काल also means time and she is the one who eats up time when the universe comes to an end.
She is Kalaratri - कालरात्रि
Day 8
Our mythology and folklore seldom follow a linear timeline. Oftentimes, even at the expense of causality, we go back and forth in our narration.
When Parvati takes up her penance as Brahmacharini she has to perform severe austerities under the burning Sun and her skin turns dark with it.
At the time she takes up the role of Durga and is sequentially killing the demons leading up to Mahishasura, she still retains that nature. It hasn't held her back with anything until now.
However, only someone pristine, white and clean will be able to kill Shumbha and Nishumbha.
Shiva and Brahma consult over this and at Brahma's suggestion, Shiva keeps making fun of her as black and dirty. This irks her and she takes up a penance towards Brahma. Brahma is pleased but expresses his inability to make this happen.
He suggests turning to Ganga. On bathing in the Ganga, the Goddess emerges clean, prestine and with glowing golden skin. She is riding on a white bull, wears white clothes and white ornaments.
She is Mahagauri - महागौरी, the highly white one, the clean one.
Then she finds out that the Devas are praying to her and goes forth and destroys Shumbha and Nishumbha.
Before you jump into allegations of colourism, consider the contrast between the Devi's two forms as Kalaratri and Mahagauri.
Kali is completely irreverent. She doesn't care about regulations, conventions, societal norms or anything else.
Kali has dark and dirty skin. She parties through the night with Shiva. She drinks wine, smokes pot and has wild sex with him. She doesn't wear any clothes, does not care about her dishevelled hair, does not remove bodily hair from anywhere and dances the night away to wild drumming.
But that is the form, wildness and fierceness needed when she needs to deal with unconventional problems like Raktabeeja.
In contrast, Mahagauri has glowing golden skin, wears prestine white clothes, has groomed herself to perfection, wears resplendent ornaments and is overall sedate, sober, demure and compliant.
That is what is needed to deal with drooling idiots like Shumbha and Nishumbha.
She is entitled to both her forms. She can choose whichever she wants and change from one form to another when she wishes. That is her prerogative. That is her power as Shakti.
Day 9
Today the Goddess is the primordial energy, the light that created the universe. There is nothing, no time, no space and no concept of the universe.
Then a bright light spreads and takes the form of a woman. She is the Mahashakti who creates Rudra, Vishnu and Brahma.
She assigns them the task of tapasya. They meditate on her for many thousand years before she considers them worthy of attainment - siddhi.
Siddhi is variously described as enlightenment, paranormal, magical and supernatural powers, etc. on any of the websites I tried to visit. However I feel that "attainment" is the closest English term for it. Open for corrections.
Once she is pleased with their tapasya, she appears before them as Siddhidatri - सिद्धिदात्री.
Siddhidatri has four arms with shankha, chakra, gada and padma in each of them - conch, discus, mace and lotus. She is variously depicted as being seated on a lion or a lotus in our usual iconography.
She gives the power of creation to Brahma, the job of protection of the worlds to Vishnu and its destruction at the appropriate times, to Rudra.
She creates the seven worlds, the nine planets, makes the stars and constellations and creates all plants and animals.
She also creates the Devas and all other celestial beings including Gandharvas, Yakshas, Kinnaras, Kimpurushas, Vasus and others.
She creates two parts - the masculine and the feminine - in everything.
Once she has assigned the responsibilities to the Trinity; she then bestows them with the eight siddhis or powers which they have attained.
The ashta siddhis are Anima अनिमा making oneself infinitesimally small, Mahima महिमा making oneself infinitely large, Garima गरिमा making oneself infinitely heavy, Laghima लघिमा making oneself completely weightless, Prapti प्राप्ति being present everywhere - omniprescence, Prakambya प्रकम्य getting whatever one desires, Ishitva ईशित्व having control over all beings and things, and Vashitva वशित्व ability to keep all beings under one's spell or attraction.
Apart from the eight Siddhis, she also bestows nine wealths on them. I am not elaborating on the nidhis because I am not sure what they are meant for etc., especially because they are padma, mahapadma, kachchapa, shankha, makara... lotus, great lotus, tortoise, conch, ... needs more reasearch.
Tulsidas calls Lord Hanuman as:
अष्ट सिद्धि नव निधि के दाता
ashta siddhi nava nidhi ke data
But the OG अष्ट सिद्धि नव निधि की दात्री is the Devi Mahashakti. She is सिद्धिदात्री - Siddhidatri.
I know we haven't completed the victory of good over evil yet. Mahishasura is still alive. This is the story of Vijaya Dashami. I will pen it down tomorrow.
Happy Mahanavami.
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Vijayadashami
It is the Dusshera day. It is the day after the nine days of Navaratri.
Vijaya Dashami, the victorious 10th phase of the moon.
Mahishasura has seen the downfall of all his hordes of demons. He thought a mere woman, a beautiful one at that, can be subjugated easily and made his own. He was wrong and how!
Enraged beyond words, he comes to the battlefield himself, in his buffalo form. He is half-man and half-buffalo, but is also capable of changing shape to any animal form.
Durga, the demure, soft and beautiful woman whom he has been told about, is now towering above the world! She has taken many forms and is now a brutal set of ferocious warriors!
Taken aback, he cannot stop himself and rushes at the Devi and her various forms. He is a strong and skillful battler himself and cannot be just blown away. The ensuing battle is fierce, it goes on for many days.
He changes his form and rushes at her as many different animals. She is more than equal to the task.
At last, he takes his buffalo form again and charges at her. Her figure grows colossal. She steps forward and uses her trident 🔱, Shiva's trishul, on the beast's neck.
She is Mahishasuramardini - महिषासुरमर्दिनी .
The monster who tortured all the worlds for many eons is vanquished.
All the Devas and the Trinity come forward and worship her, as calm returns to the face of the Mother. The Good has, once more, overcome the Evil.
What is this Good and Evil though? Is it just a story? If not, does it depict events that keep happening in real life? Yes, but if we try to map this story to the outside world, each of us comes up with a different version.
The real clash is on the inside. Mahishasura represents the ego. The stubborn, the inflexible, the intractable, the adamant.
The power of ego destroys all harmony. Indra and the Devas represent the Indrias - the senses. The Devas, the world and its people and everything else represent all that is good within a person. Righteousness, compassion, universal love, selflessness; these attributes are subjugated by the powerful ego.
Ego brings with it all its cronies - lust, greed, rage, laziness and pride.
To subjugate the masculine ego and stubbornness - the masculine does not mean only males, everyone has both the masculine and the feminine within them - the feminine self-consciousness, will power and determination are needed. In reality there is a thin line between stubbornness and determination, but that discernment is necessary.
Conscience starts off by looking like a soft easy thing - the Devi says ever so softly that only someone who has defeated her in war can have her hand.
Lust and greed - Shumbha-Nishumbha and Chanda-Munda - think that it will be easy to subjugate her and make her a slave to their master - the ego.
However, when they come near, conscience grows in stature and shows her real form.
She conquers the vices one by one. Some of them are easy to conquer. Some of them like Raktabeeja regenerate and keep multiplying, like an addiction or lust that refuses to go away. To counter these she has to become fierce and unorthodox, like Kali. But will-power is willing to do anything to destroy desire.
Finally ego comes forward. It takes various forms to attack consciousness - makes several excuses to keep the status quo - but she is up to it all; in the end prevailing over the stubborn buffalo of the ego.
The senses and the good attributes are now free from the ego and desires. They can tread the righteous path again.
The struggle is within. Mahishasura is within. The Devi is within.
Kabir says:
जैसे तिल में तेल है, ज्यों चकमक में आग
तेरा सायीं तुझमें है, जाग सके तो जाग।
Like there is oil in the sesame seed
Like there is fire in the flint stone
Your God is within you,
If you can wake up, do!
If you reached all the way here, thank you for bearing with my rant-like and lecturing tone today. This is not just my interpretation though, I have read this line of thought expressed by many others and I have merely rehashed the ideas in my own words.
Thank you.
