Ancient Origins

      The Goddess has been worshipped in India from prehistoric times. Evidence has been found of Goddess worship in the centralized, pre-Vedic civilizations of the fertile Indus river Valley in the form of feminine terra-cotta figurines that were probably meant for fertility worship.  Unfortunately, scholars have not been able to read the (Indic) script of these indigenous peoples; however, it is clear from these figurines, and from images found on stamp seals, that the religion of the ancient Indus civilization honored the Divine Feminine as a central sustaining power of their agrarian-based culture.

       When the Aryans (‘Nobles’), a nomadic, Sanskrit speaking people invaded the valley (ca. 2000 b.c.e.), they brought with them a religion that highlighted conquest and domination. This ‘Vedic’ religion, an oral tradition that was eventually embodied within collections (samhitas) of hymns known as the Vedas (books of ‘Knowledge’),  focused its worship primarily on elemental war gods, such as Indra (the god of storms) and Agni (the god of fire). The Rig Veda does honor several minor elemental goddesses, notably the Earth Goddess, Prithivi, and the Goddess of the Dawn, Ushas. The assimilation of prominent Goddesses into what would become mainstream Hinduism, however, took place long the Aryans arrived, and in two distinct phases: first, within the Puranas (‘Old Stories’), the mythological tradition of classical Hinduism, and secondly within the medieval Tantric traditions. In the Puranas, she would rise as the beneficent consort to the principle male deities of early Hinduism. In the later (medieval) Tantric traditions (800-1200 c.e.), she would be depicted as the Divine Energy of the Universe to be discovered as the highest nature of the Self through the practice of Yoga. 

The Goddess in the Puranic Age

      As the Vedic peoples gradually spread throughout the Indian sub-continent (ca. 1000 b.c.e to 200 c.e.) and became less nomadic, they assimilated  indigenous religious traditions, such as those found in the Indus river valley, into their worldview. Having long worshipped the predominantly male, war-oriented pantheon of gods found in the Vedic scriptures, the Puranic age (ca. 300-1000 c.e.) saw the assimilation of central Goddess personalities into mainstream Hinduism. The Epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata, ca. 600-300 b.c.e.) and Puranas (literally ‘old stories’, or mythologies, ca. 300-1000 c.e.) gave rise to what western scholars would later call ‘Hinduism.’ These foundational scriptures reflect an inter-weaving of Aryan culture and religion with many folkloric and religious elements derived from local traditions, including a growing Puranic focus on the Goddess.

      Long after Vishnu (the ‘Sustainer’) and Shiva (the ‘Destroyer’) had become the two most prominent Hindu deities (with Brahma, the ‘Creator,’ fading to the third most important), the Goddess rose to importance as both the consort and central attribute of these chief male gods (who had been minor deities in the earlier Vedas). Shri (Prosperity) ‘belonged’ to Visnu, and Shakti (Power) was Shiva’s very potency, for example.  But when the Goddess became more prominent and more powerful in the medieval period, earlier myths which featured them were retold in a new light, with the Goddess eventually supplanting the Gods in the later Puranas and Tantras.

Most of the goddesses in the Puranas are married to a god, with the exception of the fierce warrior-protector deities Durga and Kali. Brahma’s wife is Sarasvati, a personification of the sacred river with that name who became known in the Puranas as the Goddess of Creativity, the Arts, Education, and Music.  Vishnu’s devoted wife is Shri or Lakshmi, the goddess of good fortune and happiness .  Much more intimate and personal is the compelling mythology of Radha and Krishna, the romantic lovers who sport amongst the cow-herding folk in the forests and pastures of Vrindavana. Radha, who never becomes Krishna’s wife, longs deeply for him whenever he departs; this longing symbolizes the soul’s longing to know the Divine. Together, Radha and Krishna embody the love that is shared between the Divine (Krishna) and his creation (Radha), reminiscent of the relationship expemplified between Shiva and Shakti.

 Parvati, Shiva’s spouse, is the only one of these three who has a distinct personality in the Puranas. This is because from her very beginnings, Parvati is considered to be co-terminus with Shakti, the divine energy of the Universe. Shiva and Shakti are consorts, but Shakti, meaning ‘energy’ or ‘power,’ is not just a Goddess personified (as Parvati). In this form, she is literally Shiva’s ‘power’ to create and destroy the universe. The two are sometimes depicted in one androgynous form called Ardhanarishvara , the ‘half-man Lord,’ which symbolizes both the inter-dependency of male and female sexual energy while representing the very source of all universal opposites as deriving from the union of energy and consciousness.

Parvati