‘Devi and Her Avatars’ by Alka Pande is a deeper study of the deity

Innumerable households in India begin the day with the utterance: ‘Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu’, a salutation to the Goddess who is manifest everywhere. Yet, a deeper study of Her bounteous plenitude was missing until Alka Pande decided to decode the shlokas and figurations in her recent book ‘Devi and Her Avatars’, which acquaints the reader with 51 forms of the deity.

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Informative and fascinating accounts of well-known aspects such as Devi Mahamaya, Durga, Chandi and Bhadrakali, and the less-known emanations as Aranyani, the spirit of the forest, or Mumba, the divine fisherwoman, are presented with intellectual rigour and also fascinating storytelling that has passed through generations. My review weaves through this spectrum, as some rare descriptions arise from Pande’s scholarship, and a few nuggets of information hold me in surprise.

Let me start with the popularly worshipped figure of Durga Mahishamardini of whom the author has stated that She ‘was created out of the combined energies of the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh’, and that Her body and the implements held in Her 10 arms — ranging from the trishula to the chakra — demonstrate Her absolute supremacy in the Hindu pantheon. The Navaratri invocations to Durga as well as the accounts of her slaying several demons leave a trail of glorious victory where ferocity, power, strength and strategy have been commandeered. In which case, the implicit feminist question is, why are Indian women not coached in these attributes of assertion that overcome evil?

From the pan-India reverence for Durga, one can move to the microhistory of the little-known Devi Momai, meaning ‘the Great Mother’, specially invoked by the Rabari nomads of the Kutch region of Gujarat. In traditional representations of Momai, the sacred textile art known as Mata-ni-Pachedi is an intricate expression of devotion as well as practicality. Momai is the powerful, nurturing protector of the community, hence “the cloth of the goddess” serves as both a spiritual canvas and a portable shrine. Here, the Devi is depicted in stylised forms of being surrounded by worshippers, animals and musicians, as though no differentials exist between various states of being. Votive offerings include clay dromedaries (type of camel), handmade and tactile, indigenous and stamped with cultural identity.

Pande, in her Introduction, writes of her research interest in folk, tribal, sectarian and cultic practices, and these are precious revelations. Vagadevi is the ‘shakti behind speech’, Manasa the goddess of snakes, Hariti the yakshini from Buddhist tales, Shakambhari protects vegetables and herbs, and several other deities dwell on the cusp of local knowledge explained charmingly.

A chapter on Jyestha, Lakshmi’s older sister, who is known for being inauspicious, unkempt and unlucky, comes as a surprise in this book of Devi avatars. Householders drive her away from their premises so that her opposite, Lakshmi the bountiful, may be ushered in. The ritual of banishment of one and welcoming the other is enacted every Diwali. Is this an entwined pair reflecting the fragility of good fortune? In Pande’s listing, there is space for the uncared and the outcast in the worship patterns of the divine. To this lot of surprises, I would add Yellamma, Shitala and Isakki Amman.

The prolific appearance of Devi Shakti in classical as well as folk traditions, in iconography as well as myths and scriptures is tracked impressively by the author. A book of research, solace and cultural insights, ‘Devi and Her Avatars’ contributes significantly to the burgeoning genre of mythological studies.

— The writer is former professor of English, University of Delhi