world association for vedic studies · 2018-08-10 · 2018-42 neelam tikkha bettany hughes...

World Association for Vedic Studies

Paper Number 2018-42 from Vedic Traditions for Education and Learning, Pro-ceedings of WAVES 2018, the 13th International Conference of the World Asso-ciation for Vedic Studies, Dallas, Texas, USA, August 2-5, 2018.

Copyright (c) 2018 World Association for Vedic Studies All rights reserved. This material maybe reproduced in its entirety for non-commercial, educational use. It may not be displayed,modified or distributed for any other purpose without the express prior written permission ofthe copyright holder. For permission, contact [email protected]

2018-42

Divine Woman A Reflection Of Culture With Special Reference To Vedic Goddesses

Neelam Tikkha

MMV, RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur, Maharashtra, 440001 India

Women have been deified as goddesses. Women in religion tell about the lives of the real flesh and blood women of their day. From the dawn of time, women have always been at the heart of divine for their ability to procreate and nurse. She has been represented in all splendors for her sexuality and her capacity to procreate. She is worshipped as a goddess and is considered sacred. Drawing on the evidences on cutting edge through literary work and archaeological evidences we notice female gender represented in dangerous sexuality in temple and fort architecture. The present study tells the story of the deification of women and consequently their exploitation. The study also highlights the relationship of women with culture and society. The study relies on the temple and fort architecture and myths that surround them. The female of any species has always formed 50% of the population, but has not occupied 50% of historical importance. Yet, the connection among a women the culture and divinity has been so strong in all societies that the present study unearths new evidences for the character of humanity and a fuller, truer history of women deities with special reference to Vedic Indian goddesses.

Keywords: Abuse of female gender, Architectural representation, Divine women, Women Identity Women and Culture

Introduction

OMEN have been worshipped round the length and breadth of the globe at all times in the history of humanity for her sexuality and fertility though she has been marginalized for

leadership positions. Women have been deified as goddesses. Women in religion tell about the lives of the real flesh and blood women of their day. From the dawn of time, women have always been the heart of divine for their ability to procreate and nurse. She has been represented in all splendors for her sexuality and her capacity to procreate. She is worshipped as a goddess and is considered sacred. Drawing on the evidences on cutting edge through literary work and archaeological evidences we notice female gender represented in dangerous sexuality in temple and fort architecture. The present study tells the story of deification of women, their exploitation and it also highlights the relationship of women with culture and society. The study relies on the temple and fort architecture and myths that surround them. The female gender of the species has always formed 50% of the population, but has never occupied 50% of human history.

Justification of the Study There has not been any study that combines the architectural art and culture to unfold the myth of the language of female gender in the culture of then society.

W

1

2018-42 Neelam Tikkha

Bettany Hughes highlighted how divine women reflect the culture in any society (Hughes). Jha analyses the social media campaign “Abused Women.” The pictures of women are conspicuous and create strong impact on the minds of the viewer. The pictures are typically shot in the popular calendar art and they depict goddess Lakshmi, Durga and Sarasvati in traditional poses with cuts and bruises on their conventionally beautiful faces. She opines India is a country where we worship women as goddesses and yet burn them for dowry and kill girls in the womb. (Jha) Vandana Shiva, an Indian activist, presents an interesting fact about the capturing of womb of Indian women and reducing it to a container (Oakley).

A. Divine Women in Some Parts of the World Women as goddess occupy so prominent position that even in contemporary times her shrines are preserved. UNESCO, in 2005 listed the 75-hectare forest at Osogbo among its valued World Heritage sites, since it has one of Osun’s shrines or temples, and many sculptures and artworks. It is a testament to the cultural magnitude more than its ecological significance. Furthermore, the evidences of women being considered divine can be traced in the oldest religious temple unearthed by the Archaeologist in South East of Turkey which happens to be the oldest religious building of the world, as old as 7000 BC. It is called the Lion Temple by the Archeologist and the most surprising thing was that woman occupied the central space and was commemorated in the sacred temple. She was depicted with accentuated sexuality and fertility. Archaeologists in the year 2016, while digging at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, in the Turkish region of Anatolia, made a stunning find. They found the figurine( or the goddess of fertility), carved out of limestone. The Figurine dates between 6300 and 6000 B.C. These figurine are associated with goddesses of fertility, but, it could also represent an elderly, influential woman in the ancient society. A team of Polish archaeologists also discovered during the same time 8,000-year-old “goddess figurine in the southern part of the Çatalhöyük site. (Pruitt) The Egyptians considered women very important. They believed strongly in the goddess Isis. She was considered the goddess of sea. She was so important that there is an untold story of late antiquity of the goddesses’ journey to the East “from Egypt’s Red Sea ports, across the open ocean for 40 days and 40 nights, to the legendary entrepôt of Musiris, on India’s southwestern or Malabar coast, in what is now modern state of Kerala. This was a great feat of navigation, a technological leap forward comparable to the discovery of the Americas or Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe. (Morgan)”

B. Indian Goddesses In the Vedic Period India has a plethora of goddesses since Vedic times. Goddess Usha is sexualized and bares her breast to feed the world like cow feeds her calf. The hymns addressed to Usha in the Vedas are among the most lyrical and lovely hymns. The following lines demonstrate the veracity of the testament: "She, like a dancer, puts her broidered garments on: as a cow yields her udder so she bares her breast, creating light for all the world of life..." " The Gotamas have praised Heaven's radiant Daughter, the leader of the charm of pleasant voices." "Bending her looks on all the world, the Goddess shines, widely spreading with her bright eye westward. Waking to motion every living creature, she understands the voice of each adorer.

2


Ancient of days, again and again born newly, decking her beauty with the self-same raiment, the Goddess wastes away the life of mortals, like a skilled hunter cutting birds in pieces."

" In pride of beauty like a maid thou goest, O Goddess, to the God who longs to win thee, and smiling youthful, as thou shinest brightly, before him thou discoverest thy bosom. Fair as a bride embellished by her mother thou showest forth thy form that all may see it. Blessed art thou O Dawn. Shine yet more widely. No other Dawns have reached what thou attainest." (Jayram.V)

In the Vedic period we find Goddesses multi tasker, powerful and thus elevated to the pedestal of Goddess.

Goddess Sarasvati

Figure 1. Goddess Sarasvati (courtesy Stephen Knapp).

The literal meaning of the name Sarasvati is the one who gives the vital knowledge (Sara) of our own Self (Sva). One who pleases the goddess Sarasvati is bestowed with great learnig, education, intelligence, crafts, arts, and skills. As she is the consort of Brahma, who is considered the source of all knowledge, Sarasvati is knowledge itself. Thus, many students or even scholars may worship her for her blessings. She is, therefore, depicted as white in complexion, and quite beautiful and graceful. She is also called Savitri (daughter of the Sun), Brahmi (wife of Bramha), Sharada (giver of essence), Vagishvari (mistress of speech), Mahavidya (knowledge) (Knapp). Sarasvati the river goddess of the Vedic period was mightier than mountains since, she could cut through them figuratively addressed as slaying them with her power. She casts down. She washes the poison off from her water as she is a doctor and her

3


water has medicinal properties. She provides strength and wealth. She has seven sisters that originate from three-fold sources.

In the hymn addressed to her she is implored to keep flowing gracefully and not to disdain people, so that they are forced to leave the country and settle abroad. “Sarasvati subsequently became a goddess of learning and consort of Brahma. But in the Rigveda, she is a river goddess with seven sisters, who helps the gods, destroys their enemies and provides waters to the five tribes. There is no association with either Brahma or with learning”. (Jayram.V) Goddess Lakshmi

Figure 2 . Goddess Lakshmi (courtesy Stephen Knapp).

Women in the Vedic period were considered shakti or power of men as is represented through goddess Lakshmi who instills power in Lord Vishnu her consort. She is popular for her loveliness and considered goddess of fortune, wealth , power and beauty. Wealth represents higher values and qualities of life which is spiritual wealth.

4


Goddess Durga

Figure 3. Goddess Durga (courtesy Stephen Knapp).

The Goddess has been worshipped for at least 4000 years in India, and even goes further back to the Vedic times. Durga is the Goddess of the universe, and Parvati, the wife of Lord Shiva, is a form of Durga. “She is the power of knowledge, wisdom and memory. She has up to 64 different forms, with different names for each form. Each form represents a different pastime, power, or aspect of the Goddess. Some of the names of these forms of Durga are Amba or Ambika, Bhadra, Bhadrakali, Aryadurga, Vedagarbha, Kshemakshemakari, Naikabahu, Bhagavati, Katyayani, Meenakshi, Rajarajeshvari, Kali, Devi, and others, such as Sati, which means chastity. Thus, these are all different aspects of the same goddess. In her gentle aspects she is worshiped as Kanya, Kamakshi, or Mukamba” (Knapp). Durga is often pictured as a beautiful woman in red cloth. She is poly handed Goddess with four, eight, ten, eighteen or twenty hands and three eyes. Items in her hands can include a conch, disc, trident, bow, arrow, sword, dagger, shield, rosary, wine cup, and bell, all of which represent her various powers. She may also be represented standing on a lotus or riding a lion. “The lion represents power, but also the animal tendency of greed for food and other sensual objects. Her riding on the lion represents that she keeps all such tendencies under complete control” (Knapp). Uma is the maiden name for the consort of Lord Shiva. Uma denotes (prakriti). Shiva is the god of destruction, which has no meaning without objects to destroy. Thus, he is paired with Uma. Parvati is the daughter of Himavan and Mena. Durga is a different aspect of Parvati. She is also known as Lord Vishnu's sister. She was Daksayani in her first incarnation as the daughter of the great sage Daksha and Prasuti. She is also called Haimavati, Girija, Rudrani (connected with Shiva as Rudra), Aparna, Sharvani, Uma, Mridani, and Gauri. (Knapp)

5


Goddess Parvati

Figure 4. Goddess Parvati (courtesy Stephen Knapp).

In Hindu religion a woman was depicted as a multi tasker and capable of granting all wishes. Hence she is depicted poly handed. The Goddess was capable of granting the boon of sexuality and fertility. Hence, she is represented with accentuated sexuality and beauty. Some of the goddesses are delineated as very frightening. These goddesses were considered to control life and death. The goddesses ruled the heavens and earth, and that is why our ancestors thought of woman as divine. Goddess Kali and goddess Durga, of modern-day India, are examples of fierce power that rule heaven and earth and the goddess is still a powerful force for thousands of Hindus. God Shankar tells his wife Parvati about the immense power of Goddess Durga. He says, ‘she is pleased by chanting eight hundred times her name ‘ashtotarshat namka paath’ (Shastri). The devotee can get anything from wealth, health prosperity, and children and can even get freedom from the life and death cycle. We can find a number of ancient temples of goddess Kali in India. One of them is at Chittourgarh fort in Rajasthan.

6


Goddess Gayatri Goddess Gayatri is also considered to be mother of all Vedas. She is also a consort of Lord Brahma. She has been gifted with powers to guide him in creating the universe. She is personification of Gayatri Mantra. It is the mantra which is chanted during all religious rituals. She has four faces and ten arms. She is depicted riding a swan. Four faces depict four different identities of goddess. Goddess Gayatri presides over morning chanting of prayers. She also dominates over Rig-veda and the sacred fires called the Garhapatya. Goddess Savitri presides over the noon chanting of the prayer. She has four faces with twelve eyes, four arms. This depicts that she is capable of keeping eye in all directions and has a 360-degree orientation. She is presented riding a bull. She also presides over the Yajur-veda and the Dakshina fire. Sarasvati takes over the charge of evening performance of the prayer and the Sama-veda. This is indicative of the fact that women were considered quite respectable and ruled over the affairs of house and also man in guiding him in various professional activities.

Figure 5 Goddess Gayatri ( Knapp).

C. Indian Goddesses In The Post Vedic Period

As we move away from Vedic period women were praised for the capacity to procreate and sexual entertainment. Women were exploited and deified. Women identity as explicit in the temple and fort architecture reflected the culture of society then. There have been a number of women who are extraordinary and their legends and lives cast new light on some of the hottest arguments about the role of women in religion and society today. In ancient times women were

7


commemorated and considered sacred and were provided with the main space in the temple sanctum. In modern India some women specially from villages and traditional societies are seen fighting for space in the society and even in the religion. One can notice the entire space being occupied by man. Men and women do not have equal roles today. She is considered second class citizen in India Cultural spaces of women in religion determine the way people think and behave. Every ritual symbolizes culture of humanity. Women have been represented voluptuous, seductive, beautiful— an icon of sex in all Indian temples. Women is also praised for her fertility- example Kamakhya temple where the yoni or the female genitalia is worshipped. This defines her role as that of a procreator. Women in religion tell about the lives of the real flesh and blood women of their day. From the dawn of time, women have always been the heart of divine for their ability to procreate and nurse. Women have been deified as goddesses. She has been represented in all splendors for her sexuality and her capacity to procreate. She is worshipped as a goddess and is considered sacred. Drawing on the evidences on cutting edge through literary work and archaeological evidences we notice female gender represented in dangerous sexuality in temple and fort architecture. The exploitation and deprecation of women is presented in most temple architecture in India. It is believed that Kali Jai temple was constructed in Chilika Lake Orissa, because the lady got drowned when she was about to get married and now her spirit protects everyone. In fact, she must have been exploited and murdered and then to expiate the sin people must have constructed her temple. Similarly, the story behind Chind mata mandir is also quite interesting. There was no water so her family drank her blood and then constructed her temple.

Figure 5. Kali Jai Temple Chilika Lake ©Dr. Neelam Tikkha

8


Figure 5. Chandan Hasini Devi Raigarh ©Dr. Neelam Tikkha

The red colored face of goddess in Figure 5 symbolizes blood. The goddess being depicted with tongue out reflects that she is never satiated even after sucking blood. Women have been exploited by men for recreation and procreation for ages. Once the lust and need of a man is over she is deified and reduced to silence her voice so that she cannot challenge man and his ways. Once her exploitation culminates she is elated to the status of a goddess. Vandana Shiva elaborates on the plight of Indian women. She feels that women’s role is just for fertility and the body has been reduced to a container to hold the babies till birth. Her role of a mother who gives birth has been diminished.

9


The Womb of women are containers to be captured by the ideologies and practices of those who do not believe that women are able to take care of themselves. The capturing of women’s wombs is the domination of the physicalist and masculinist scientific paradigm, the ultimate logic, not merely of the medicalization of life, but of a Cartesian world-view, in which the behavior of bodies can be explained and controlled independently of minds. (Oakley) .

D. Modern Goddess The exploitation of women reaches its peak in modern times with abused goddesses who suffer domestic violence. “Abused Goddesses” an incredibly powerful campaign on social media in the year 2013 was very popular internationally. The images of goddesses have been recreated in poster style from old hand-painted images of Indian goddesses. It depicts Indian women in the form of traditional goddesses in the popular calendar art style but, with cuts and bruises a reflection of domestic violence. “Abused Goddesses” campaign against domestic violence had gone viral on social media. But goddesses do not get slapped, belted, punched and kicked around into subservience and ‘domestication’. Women do. (Jha) In Mahabharat women were elated to the standards of Goddess so that they could be exploited more by elating them to divine stature. They were to be made to sacrifice if the situation demanded. Incident from Krishna Leela would prove this. Kans maternal uncle of Lord Krishna having heard the future warning that eighth child of Devaki will kill him so he kills all Devaki and Vasudev’s children. When eighth child of Devaki is born. Vasudev decides to exchange with a girl child of his friend and the friend willingly exchanges it because he thinks that a girl is made for sacrifice. She is shown as changing into lightening when Kans kills her. It was raining and lightening, so perhaps the girl child was thrown in the river and coincidentally lightening was seen. If lord Krishna was God then he could have protected himself without the sacrifice of any girl child. The myth proves that women were considered second class citizen and elating them to the level of Goddess was a way of consoling her to forget sacrifices demanded by her.

Conclusion

The role women played had been very important since the dawn of civilization. Recently, Globalization has given a great boost to the status of women. They are competing and at times challenging the man. The place woman occupies in temple is reflective of the culture prevalent in the society and happens to be an indicator of the attitude and the degree of patriarchy existing in the society at a particular point of time. Every literary writer, poet or critic presents it in various shades and colors that would gel with the taste of the society. They do a wonderful presentation of voicing the culture through the voice of their characters. Beginning from Vedas, The Mahabharat, The Raamayan and various religious hymns project the societal attitude and sensibility towards female gender through their literary work. Social media projects the deification scam that “Women are not goddesses, Hindu or otherwise. Domestic violence is a

10


reality that affects human beings. It will not be eradicated by pushing it into the realm of abstraction.

References [1] Hughes, Bettany, Divine Women, BBC. 2012. [2] Jayram.V. "Hinduism - Gods and Goddess in the Vedas." 2018. Hinduwebsite.com. <http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/vedicgods.asp>. [3] Jha, Praneta. Abused or not, Women are not Goddesses. 10 September 2013. 1 March 2018 <https://www.hindustantimes.com/art-and-culture/abused-or-not-women-are-not-goddesses/story-crcegadEhUagpZBtNg3VYP.html>. [4] Knapp, Stephen. Gods and Goddesses of Vedic Culture. 1 March 2018 <http://www.stephen-knapp.com/gods_and_goddesses_of_vedic_culture.htm>. [5] Mcdermott, Alicia. "Another Venus? Rare Neolithic Female Figurine Discovered in Turkey." 16 September 2016. Ancient Origins- Reconstructing the Story of Past. 1 March 2018 <http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/another-venus-rare-neolithic-female-figurine-discovered-turkey-006663>. [6] Morgan, Chris. "The Egyptian Goddess Isis, Found in India." 14 April 2016. Ancient Origins. 28 February 2018 <http://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion-guest-authors/egyptian-goddess-isis-found-india-005708>. [7] Oakley, Ann,1989. The Captured Womb. London: Blackwell, 1989. [8] Pruitt, Sarah. "Archaeologists Uncover 8,000-Year-Old Goddess Figurine in Central Turkey." 19 October 2016. History Stories. 28 February 2018 <http://www.history.com/news/archaeologists-uncover-8000-year-old-goddess-figurine-in-central-turkey>. [9] Sarjant, Robert. "Yoruban Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove." 2015. Philip Carr-Gomm. 28 February 2018 <http://www.philipcarr-gomm.com/wp-content/uploads/Osun-Robert-Sarjant.jpg>. [10] Zeijl, Femke Van. "In Sacred Grove in Nigeria, Worship and Connection." The New York Times 13 December 2016.

11

world association for vedic studies · 2018-08-10 · 2018-42 neelam tikkha bettany hughes...

Documents